Topping D50 III Balanced DAC with EQ Review

[DeDovla]

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 haven't tried it with the new 5-68 driver yet

That is a bit concerning, to me it seems like a firmware issue... I doubt the xmos driver will fix it - but try the driver first anyways.

Yes. EQApo will tell you the impact:
View attachment 376598

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

Sweet, thanks! Would be nice if someone could somehow compare the impact of D50 III's PEQ (through Topping Tune) as well, might be interesting for some people.

 

[Bleib]

New firmware out. Might have to use 1.28 first before updating to 1.3, make sure to read it through properly

D50 III version V1.30 firmware update - TOPPING AUDIO

www.toppingaudio.com

Edit: DFU mode also needed

 

[CedarX]

New firmware out. Might have to use 1.28 first before updating to 1.3, make sure to read it through properly

D50 III version V1.30 firmware update - TOPPING AUDIO

www.toppingaudio.com

With (usual?) confusing directions:

So… I may have to upgrade to V1.30 before “updating” to 1.28… and then…??? Upgrade back to V1.30?

 

[doalt]

With (usual?) confusing directions:
View attachment 377114
So… I may have to upgrade to V1.30 before “updating” to 1.28… and then…??? Upgrade back to V1.30?

Translated the Chines version for your reference:

Special note: For D50III product users whose serial numbers begin with 2310, 2403, or 2405 and whose current firmware version is V1.28 or earlier, please be sure to upgrade to V1.28 before upgrading to V1.30 firmware. Directly upgrading to V1.30 may cause UAC1.0 to fail to start.​

 

[CedarX]

Translated the Chines version for your reference:

Special note: For D50III product users whose serial numbers begin with 2310, 2403, or 2405 and whose current firmware version is V1.28 or earlier, please be sure to upgrade to V1.28 before upgrading to V1.30 firmware. Directly upgrading to V1.30 may cause UAC1.0 to fail to start.​

Thanks. I think I got what they were saying, but this is the kind of details Topping must get right if they want to lift any doubt about their technical excellence.

 

[herr.jemine]

the question is where can I find this firmware V1.28? the last firmware version I knew of before 1.30 was version 1.21

 

[staticV3]

the question is where can I find this firmware V1.28? the last firmware version I knew of before 1.30 was version 1.21

The download on Topping's website contains both 1.28 and 1.30:

D50 III version V1.30 firmware update - TOPPING AUDIO

www.toppingaudio.com

Also, I think this is a typo:


and should say "it is crucial to upgrade to V1.28 before updating to V1.30"

@TOPPING-Service @JohnYang1997
Could someone confirm? A typo like this in your important note for firmware updates would be really unfortunate..

 

[Bleib]

the question is where can I find this firmware V1.28? the last firmware version I knew of before 1.30 was version 1.21

static already responded but don't forget DFU mode. Remove power, hold in the power button and then insert power into the device.

 

[herr.jemine]

I hadn't looked in the archive and thought it only contained V1.30, I didn't know that 1.28 was also included - thanks
upgrade went through, I flashed 1.28 and then 1.30

 

[Budatone]

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

Behringer | Product | MONITOR1

www.behringer.com

Do passive attenuators introduce any distortion?

 

[Rja4000]

Do passive attenuators introduce any distortion?

Unless you send them way too much voltage, they shouldn't.
They may give frequency response issues if impedances are not matching, but that's mainly a no issue for a modern DAC.

EDIT:
a quick SINAD measurement of D50 III - both balanced outputs summed to Behringer Monitor 1 at minimum attenuation
Higest harmonic is at -132dB

 

[Budatone]

Unless you send them way too much voltage, they shouldn't.
They may give frequency response issues if impedances are not matching, but that's mainly a no issue for a modern DAC.

EDIT:
a quick SINAD measurement of D50 III - both balanced outputs summed to Behringer Monitor 1 at minimum attenuation
Higest harmonic is at -132dB

View attachment 377465

Amazing, that's really useful - thank you!

 

[herr.jemine]

with FW V1.30 and the latest driver the exclusive mode now works fine with PEQ

 

[jdarint]

@Robert Weide I didn't want to read through 20 more pages of posts to see if someone already replied, but in case they didn't... I emailed Topping not long after purchasing this little doozy, asked them about the PEQ iOS App version. Topping said it's in the works but no eta for release.

After using it the last 2 months I do love it, it's the first time I've been able to get decent sample rates from Apple through my amp. Those who say that cannot hear the difference between Airplay2 (256kb) and hi res streaming are either hard of hearing, or don't have the transparency in their speakers to hear it.

That said, does anyone else get the click/popping sound between songs if the sample rate changes? It also randomly 'clicks/pops' when I hit pause and no music is playing??

I'm using the P50 Power supply to power the dac

 

[morillon]

Amazing, that's really useful - thank you!

be careful to check the level differences between the tracks according to the quality solutions adopted... ;-)

 

[morillon]

be careful to check the level differences between the tracks according to the quality solutions adopted... ;-)

(this behringer ?)

 

[trungdtmc]

It seems that Topping used the same I/V circuit diagram as the ESS datasheet, but I'm curious about the many sot23-6 components here.

 

[DantonIzzo]

static already responded but don't forget DFU mode. Remove power, hold in the power button and then insert power into the device.

Unlike the older model, you don’t have to do that. You can simply enter DFU by holding power button. You will have to unplug everything after to exist the dfu mode.

 

[DantonIzzo]

the question is where can I find this firmware V1.28? the last firmware version I knew of before 1.30 was version 1.21

Both are in the firmware package.

 

[DantonIzzo]

This is probably a dumb question that has been asked before, but the sampling rate out of usb input (both when I use my pc and iPad), is fixed and doesn’t change with source unlike optical input. Does anyone know how to fix this?