Topping D70 Pro Sabre DAC Review

[Arnaud_JN08SP]

Otherwise, I will add the Neve amp prices behind the DAC.

 

[Talisman]

Why? All the DAC's I've owned so far have done preamp duty without a glitch. Digital attenuation is as good as any passive SOTA preamp these days. I admit that an analog preamp (SOTA only) does not have the 's/n-ratio' non issue that digital attenuation has. Unless your living room is a mastering studio, you would need not golden, but triple-Platinum ears to hear that there's no extra analog box between your DAC and your power amp.

if you think the problem is the audio quality you are wrong.
the reason why I would not do it is that I would never entrust to a dac, especially one of dubious reliability, the management of a power amplifier that could in the best of cases destroy the amplifier and speakers and in the worst my hearing or that of my wife and children

 

[guyboisvert]

if you think the problem is the audio quality you are wrong.
the reason why I would not do it is that I would never entrust to a dac, especially one of dubious reliability, the management of a power amplifier that could in the best of cases destroy the amplifier and speakers and in the worst my hearing or that of my wife and children

Show us your reliability stats evidence for this DAC...

 

[guyboisvert]

So yes, I need quality apprehensions, it's for monitoring listening.
View attachment 460079

"Quality apprehension" with those speakers? Any minimally decent DAC will have much much lower distortion level than these (and the room).

 

[Talisman]

Show us your reliability stats evidence for this DAC...

I don't have to prove anything and I don't want to convince anyone. Everyone can do what they want. Do you want to run a 200 watt power amp with a Topping brand dac? Go ahead, it's not my problem.
Of course if someone asks for advice I will advise against such a risky practice every day.

 

[Arnaud_JN08SP]

"Quality apprehension" with those speakers? Any minimally decent DAC will have much much lower distortion level than these (and the room).

The problem is not the DAC, the question is about the analog preamp output. All DACs are ok but often the problem is the analog preamplifier output.

 

[Bob101]

I don't have to prove anything and I don't want to convince anyone. Everyone can do what they want. Do you want to run a 200 watt power amp with a Topping brand dac? Go ahead, it's not my problem.
Of course if someone asks for advice I will advise against such a risky practice every day.

I do it every day And if you make statements like you do, some evidence would be 'nice' to say the least. And: you obviously don't own a D70. Once set up it's impossible to blow up your speakers or amp. Unless you reaalllly want to.

 

[Sokel]

I do it every day

I hope you're not the next week's "my digital VC went bananas" . I really do.
Cause there no a week passing without someone reporting such an incident.
Mind you that a few are reporting such, as it diminishes resale value of the whole chain to nothing once you report it.

And no, it's no DAC or brand specific (although half-baked reported S/W is a great tell) , it can happen at any digital VC with something as simple as a BSOD and its sometimes glorious 0dB "brrrr" (reminds a faulty amp passing through its 50/60Hz mains at full voltage) .

Wanna take the bet? It's your gear. But the ones who follow such incidents must warn the rest of us.
That's the value of an honest forum.

 

[BeeKay]

Cause there no a week passing without someone reporting such an incident.

Really? And I mean - really?
And for those case reported it is the DAC at fault or the software / driver upstream?

 

[Sokel]

Really? And I mean - really?
And for those case reported it is the DAC at fault or the software / driver upstream?

The usual?
First of all user-error, it does not takes much to click at the end of the VC if software-controlled or set-up a wrong value/filter/gain at any device controlling levels.

Then comes half-baked firmware, either at power on but as lately reported changing sources, etc.
Conflicts too, specially driver ones resulting in BSOD or crashes. Ticks and pops prior are tells.

And so on...

 

[guyboisvert]

I don't have to prove anything and I don't want to convince anyone. Everyone can do what they want. Do you want to run a 200 watt power amp with a Topping brand dac? Go ahead, it's not my problem.
Of course if someone asks for advice I will advise against such a risky practice every day.

You're implying Topping is unreliable. So if you have any proof of that, go ahead. With no proof, that's just plain bashing and you're wasting everybody's time. I do sound reinforcement and we drive high wattage sound systems with DBX Driverack (digital) control units, would you say it's "dangerous" ? Is it a "risky practice" ?

 

[Talisman]

You're implying Topping is unreliable. So if you have any proof of that, go ahead. With no proof, that's just plain bashing and you're wasting everybody's time. I do sound reinforcement and we drive high wattage sound systems with DBX Driverack (digital) control units, would you say it's "dangerous" ? Is it a "risky practice" ?

the site is full of testimonials of dacs that suddenly go to 0bd.
Am I insinuating that topping products are unreliable?
no I'm not "insinuating", I've been saying it openly in several posts before this one.
Try to check the huge amount of unreliability reports of the brand on this same site.
So I repeat and I agree. I would not use a digital control to drive a power amplifier unless it was a professional instrument, and I would even less use a topping dac for this purpose.

 

[unpluggged]

So if you have any proof of that

LOL.

 

[Mike123]

the reason why I would not do it is that I would never entrust to a dac, especially one of dubious reliability, the management of a power amplifier that could in the best of cases destroy the amplifier and speakers

If you have a remote control - it can also press a button and suddenly make it very loud. If you have a motorized volume control - it can suddenly freeze and increase the volume to the maximum. The only thing that can protect you from such problems is an old mechanical volume control without any automation. And even then, you should not have a cat or small children who will suddenly twist your handle Alas, modern devices can suddenly make it loud. But do they do this regularly and often? No. I have never heard of such a thing. The only case when this happened was when an object fell on the remote control and pressed the button.

 

[Bob101]

I hope you're not the next week's "my digital VC went bananas" . I really do.
Cause there no a week passing without someone reporting such an incident.
Mind you that a few are reporting such, as it diminishes resale value of the whole chain to nothing once you report it.

And no, it's no DAC or brand specific (although half-baked reported S/W is a great tell) , it can happen at any digital VC with something as simple as a BSOD and its sometimes glorious 0dB "brrrr" (reminds a faulty amp passing through its 50/60Hz mains at full voltage) .

Wanna take the bet? It's your gear. But the ones who follow such incidents must warn the rest of us.
That's the value of an honest forum.

Produce the reports.

 

[Bob101]

The usual?
First of all user-error, it does not takes much to click at the end of the VC if software-controlled or set-up a wrong value/filter/gain at any device controlling levels.

Then comes half-baked firmware, either at power on but as lately reported changing sources, etc.
Conflicts too, specially driver ones resulting in BSOD or crashes. Ticks and pops prior are tells.

And so on...

Any D70 pro dacs EVER reported behaving like that? Another non-owner mingling in. It's getting hot in here

 

[Sokel]

Produce the reports.

I have thought about bookmarking them every time, but what's the point?
Don't want to prove anything and they are scattered at many threads.

Anyone is free to follow its own route, be it analog pres, attenuators to the loudest desired, or a DAC straight to a power amp.
No one can guarantee failure, that and decent gain-staging are only about user's sane practice.

 

[Bob101]

I have thought about bookmarking them every time, but what's the point?
Don't want to prove anything and they are scattered at many threads.

Anyone is free to follow its own route, be it analog pres, attenuators to the loudest desired, or a DAC straight to a power amp.
No one can guarantee failure, that and decent gain-staging are only about user's sane practice.

Show me one recent report of a D70pro or comparable DAC behaving like that. One. Just one.

 

[Sokel]

Show me one recent report of a D70pro or comparable DAC behaving like that. One. Just one.

I said it's not DAC or brand specific.

Will a quick Wiim do?

Tell me your best preamp

So what your repuirement for a preamplifier is multi inputs and outputs, and a remote control to control the volume conveniently? No other features do you need? Such as tone controls, dsp and Room correction? It is used for my office system. EQ for tone controls. No DSP. No room correction...

www.audiosciencereview.com

We also seen mniDSP, etc.
Any digital VC who defaults to 0dB can do it.

 

[Talisman]

Show me one recent report of a D70pro or comparable DAC behaving like that. One. Just one.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...opping-e70-randomly-went-to-max-volume.42422/