Topping D50 III Balanced DAC with EQ Review

[Boris]

Just hooked mine up to the Atom 2 using Senn HD650s. I might not need to ever buy anything else. (famous last words)

Not sure why but it took 6 weeks for this to get shipped from China to Oregon. Maybe they walked my package across the Bering Strait

Listening recommendation (Apple Music with HiRes enabled in options):

 

[Stereodude]

What does the 7th menu setting in the D50 III do? The manual calls it a Bandwidth setting. the Menu calls it "DPLL BW"

 

[CedarX]

What does the 7th menu setting in the D50 III do? The manual calls it a Bandwidth setting. the Menu calls it "DPLL BW"

I assume it’s the Digital Phase Locked Loop setting: lower setting = longer loop (better jitter?) but longer latency. Or it’s the other way around…

 

[Palladium]

I assume it’s the Digital Phase Locked Loop setting: lower setting = longer loop (better jitter?) but longer latency. Or it’s the other way around…

Pretty sure it only applies to the coax and optical SPDIF too.

 

[staticV3]

What does the 7th menu setting in the D50 III do? The manual calls it a Bandwidth setting. the Menu calls it "DPLL BW"

Lower number = less jitter at the output, but higher chance of stutter when using Coax or Toslink.

 

[smrex13]

I can't get mine to update the firmware. I thought it had worked, as the screen finally stopped displaying "DFU" and appeared to be on the main menu. I powered it down, and it read "See you." Then I powered it back up, and it just says "Firmware Fail." By holding the power button, I can get back to the "DFU" screen, but I have tried to reinstall the firmware repeatedly. My computer says installation was successful, but nothing happens with the unit. Just "Firmware Fail" and "DFU." Nothing works. Ready to send it back.

 

[herr.jemine]

the d50 III is significantly larger than the D50s

 

[Paffi]

the d50 III is significantly larger than the D50s

View attachment 374834

Oh, I would have thought the DAC would fit perfectly with the LPS. What a pitty

 

[Budatone]

Sorry if I'm being a bit dense here but can I plug one of these straight into my Kali LP-6 active monitors and control the volume on the DAC? So I would go from my laptop USB, into the DAC, into the speakers, with no other equipment necessary?

 

[staticV3]

Sorry if I'm being a bit dense here but can I plug one of these straight into my Kali LP-6 active monitors and control the volume on the DAC?

Yes.

It's a good idea to have two volume controls, one as failsafe, but it is not required.

You can do just PC->DAC->Speakers.

 

[Budatone]

Yes.

It's a good idea to have two volume controls, one as failsafe, but it is not required.

You can do just PC->DAC->Speakers.

Thank you!

 

[Rja4000]

And if an intermediate level control is required, this should do the trick.
Passive attenuator. <50€

Behringer | Product | MONITOR1

www.behringer.com

 

[rinderkappajoe]

Hey there, probably a common question but will an external power supply make an audible difference or is USB power from the computer just fine in this case?

 

[pdodo2003]

I am also interested in this topic . Very curios of the answers .
Currently i have an Aiyima T8 Dac/Preamp , very good , very nice sounding , but the rca power is subpar - only 1.8-1.9 V , i really have to crank it up to 90 on the volume to get some sound from my Floorstanders Canton speakers . The power amp is Emotiva BasX A300 and the Aiyima is connected to PC and then feed directly the Emotiva . I also have a Denon Avr X3500H and when i connect the power amp to denon rca output, the volume is really strong at 50 % . So the Aiyima is weak on the output, but i really like the sound from it .
Wondering if buying T D30 III would make a huge difference , the aiyima is my first Dac/Preamp .
Also in this confi PC - Dac - Power amp do you need a preamp - these exclusive models of preamps only are very expensive , but dont know if the DAC also has a volume control do you really need aseparate preamp ?

Thank you and i hope i didnt bother with this .

 

[harryrupam]

Topping gear user here. I have Topping E70 > Topping A30 Pro > Sennheiser HD800s/ Beyerdynamic DT 880 / Sennheiser HD449

So far they are excellent. I bought A30 Pro way back when they launched and they are serving me just fine. They are excellent.

I have a question though.


1. I use Equalizer APO or Sonarworks for EQ in my desktop. Is there any difference between that and inbuilt EQs like D50 Gen 3 in terms of signal quality, SINAD etc?


2. Or, even if there is a difference, is that even audible?


Objectively how different are they?

 

[staticV3]

1. I use Equalizer APO or Sonarworks for EQ in my desktop. Is there any difference between that and inbuilt EQs like D50 Gen 3 in terms of signal quality, SINAD etc?

Hi @harryrupam! Welcome to ASR.

Equalizer APO has flawless signal quality from what I can tell. The D50 III OTOH has not been tested yet, AFAIK.

I would not expect a meaningful difference, much less an audible one.

 

[Rednaxela]

The EQ was briefly tested here.

 

[DeDovla]

Equalizer APO has flawless signal quality from what I can tell. The D50 III OTOH has not been tested yet, AFAIK.

I would not expect a meaningful difference, much less an audible one.

Is there anyimpact on latency with Equalizer APO? As D50 III is applied to the device itself I guess it would probably be better latency-wise but how much the difference is perceptible is probably questionable.

The biggest advantage of the D50 III PEQ is that it is applied in Exclusive mode as well (I presume, I don't own the device), EqualizerAPO can only be applied for regular use (as far as I'm aware - correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[staticV3]

Is there anyimpact on latency with Equalizer APO?

Yes. EQApo will tell you the impact:


You can reduce the FFT size to further cut down on latency.

 

[herr.jemine]

Is there anyimpact on latency with Equalizer APO? As D50 III is applied to the device itself I guess it would probably be better latency-wise but how much the difference is perceptible is probably questionable.

The biggest advantage of the D50 III PEQ is that it is applied in Exclusive mode as well (I presume, I don't own the device), EqualizerAPO can only be applied for regular use (as far as I'm aware - correct me if I'm wrong).

Unfortunately I have problems with the exclusive mode + PEQ (Windows 11) - if I activate it in Tidal Desktop App - the sound processing in the D50III crashes and there is no sound coming out of the box until I reboot - this could possibly be a driver bug at the moment - I suspect that Topping Tube (PEQ software) itself uses the exclusive mode for the D50III to use the EQ