Topping D50III cutting out on optical SPDIF

[unpluggged]

My guess is poor testing due to haste to the next week's new DAC.
My next guess is that given the number of the devices they have to support fixes are not immediate and they depend on a beta-tester client pool of shorts.
And no,price does not justify that,ANY price.

I understand your reasoning regarding Topping and similar brands, but @Pareto Pragmatic put it in a way that one may interpret that these problems are inevitable with any manufacturer's product. That's why I asked for clarification.

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

Why is that?

Because it happens all the time with all sorts of products. Not only inexpensive ones, but more often with inexpensive ones. More often when products are turned over frequently, since company attention tends to be on the new and not on fixing the old. Complex systems, particularly complex software systems built on legacy systems, go wrong in unexpected ways.

I could go on, but let's just say "because of modern capitalism" and leave it there.

but @Pareto Pragmatic put it in a way that one may interpret that these problems are inevitable with any manufacturer's product.

I would say it is inevitable for any manufacturer, not for any given product. For example, google this: mcintosh firmware update brick mr88.

 

[dcolak]

I got a non-response from Topping. I don't think they will do anything to fix the dac.

 

[HapaxLegomenon]

Hi dcolak,

Thank you for reporting on the issues with the D50III. I was originally going to buy it but your experiences have convinced me not to.

Do you have any suggestions for which DAC might be good to buy instead at around the same price? I care about fully balanced circuitry and Bluetooth, but I don't care about EQ. Pops/clicks are a hard no for me.

Thanks!

 

[johny_2000]

My guess is poor testing due to haste to the next week's new DAC.
My next guess is that given the number of the devices they have to support fixes are not immediate and they depend on a beta-tester client pool of shorts.
And no,price does not justify that,ANY price.

I think they don't have specialists in Optical/SPDIF protocols. These are old audio standards that are supported by professionals in these segments. For example, audio studios, CD/SACD players and some TV manufacturers. I would say they try their best, but they can't find the grail of these dead digital protocols.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

These are old audio standards that are supported by professionals in these segments

S/PDIF predates USB by several years. However it's still useful in any circumstance where there isn't a USB host.

 

[Berwhale]

This reminds me of the issue with my Topping D50s (which also affects the D50) where the DAC is muted after 2.4 seconds if the left channel is not driven.

Topping D50s Fault - Right Channel Broken Above 6Khz

I found some time to play with REW today with a view to trying the moving mic measurement technique. However, when I started doing to some test sweeps, I noticed that right channel on my Topping D50s appears to be broken. Here's what I see in REW (Blue is right speaker driven by right...

www.audiosciencereview.com

This is only likely to affect those of us who attempt separate left and right channel sweeps in REW. It was pretty annoying at the time and, as far as i'm aware, was never fixed.

 

[johny_2000]

S/PDIF predates USB by several years. However it's still useful in any circumstance where there isn't a USB host.

S/PDIF was first developed in 1983. The first release of the USB Audio class 1.0 specification was in 1998. Yes, that's a 15 year difference, quite a lot!

 

[MC_RME]

Domestic optical S/PDIF is only standardized to 96kHz sample rate. I've not had issues with 192, but it's absolutely not guaranteed to work.

IEC 60958-3-2006 added proper channel status for 192 kHz in 'Domestic S/PDIF' in 2006, but 192 kHz was used before that already successfully. There is no obligation to support higher sample rates, though.

 

[Rja4000]

This has nothing to do with optical cables.

I did some debugging and found out WHEN it's cutting the sound.

If you feed it 24 bit depth it does not constantly cut/turn off sound.

If you feed it 16 bit depth it cuts sound on QUIET PASSAGES of a song. Sound on, sound off, sound on, sound off, until song gets to a LOUDER part, that's when it stops cutting the sound.

Unbelievable.

I have a hard time reproducing what you describe

Mine seems to work just fine.

I still have an output signal when feeding the D50 III with a 16 bits signal at -90.31dBFS through SPDIF optical
This level means only the lowest signficant bit is toggled.
You may hardly go below that in 16 bits !

Here is a snapshot at 6dB higher (more readable, it looks more like a sine wave)
The RME DigiCheck proves that the source signal (from RME SPDIF output) is 16 bits 44.1kHz.

I monitored the signal for a few minutes and it never dropped out.

Setup is
RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE SPDIF Output > D50 III > RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE Analog inputs
To force 16 bits output, I use REW Java mode for the output, where I may set 44.1kHz 16 bits in the Sound card properties
The RTA is done by Virtins Multi Instrument, where the RME is set to ASIO 32 bits.

 

[VientoB]

To add,a big majority of optical cables are a joke,either straight out of the box or after couple of plug/unplug and the same for the receiving side.
It only takes a magnifying look at those connectors after some use (both male and female) to then treat them with extreme caution.

Edit:for quality ones one should look at the Benchmark ones or the similar ones.

$46 for an optical cable: https://benchmarkmedia.com/products...geWRKqSDm2RVCqpHPBvhM16jgjg58Ni1xcS3ZuuPCbxUc

 

[Rja4000]

$46 for an optical cable: https://benchmarkmedia.com/products...geWRKqSDm2RVCqpHPBvhM16jgjg58Ni1xcS3ZuuPCbxUc

And a 5€ cable.
That's the one I use.

MUSIC STORE MTO 1.0 TT-1 Optical cable cable, Toslink, 1m favorabl...

The Music Store MTO 1.0 TT-1 is a 1m optical cable. A fibre optic cable with highend polymeric monomode fibre for S/PDIF and Adat connections and Toslink/Toslink plug system. This cable offers constant light fibre with exact cut on the ends, therefore making it very light sensitive, and allowing...

www.musicstore.com

 

[Sokel]

$46 for an optical cable: https://benchmarkmedia.com/products...geWRKqSDm2RVCqpHPBvhM16jgjg58Ni1xcS3ZuuPCbxUc

I said "or similar" if anyone want lower of higher price ones.
The caveat of something like this cable is that the device has to also have quality connectors or else instead of the endless new cables (cause of the connectors going bad) will end up needing new device

 

[Rja4000]

Firmware updates mention fix for that same problem, unfortunately it is not fixed.

Where ? For which version ?
I don't see any mention of that in last firmware version changelog (v1.37).

I try to figure out if your issue could be related to a specific version.

Mine is 1.21, which indeed does, as described, fix an issue related to Toslink, as I documented in comments below my review:
V1.21 (2024-03-26):
- Fix audio cutting out with Coax and Toslink input