Topping D70 Pro Sabre DAC Review

[Jimster480]

I must say, it looks really attractive, but function wise, probably no audible difference from a $300 DAC? Does the lcd display worth the extra $$?

I mean no functional difference either from a DX5/EX5.

 

[MBO]

ES9039Pro has phenomenal sound quality compared to previous models. In any case, D70pro is worth the money. I don't know of any device that costs significantly more and would even come close in terms of sound.

 

[Lotus78]

Is it too much to ask to put the topping DAC/ preamp/ headphone amp/ speaker amp in one box with Dirac and Wi-Fi streaming?

 

[staticV3]

Is it possible to choose output between XLR/RCA ?

Page 7 in the manual:

 

[staticV3]

Is it too much to ask to put the topping DAC/ preamp/ headphone amp/ speaker amp in one box with Dirac and Wi-Fi streaming?

At the moment, yes.

 

[MadMaxx]

RME ADI-2 FS Version 2 DAC and Headphone Amp Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the updated version 2 of the RME ADI-2 FS DAC and headphone amplifier. It was kindly sent to me by the company. The cost us US $1,149. The ADI-2 looks very nice in black with a bright, super responsive display (doesn't come out as well in the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

this one???

i would agree with you

may as well bite the bullet and go all out... the DSP is worth it alone

I wish the RME was available without the headphone amp. That's the only reason I never bought one. I'm a speakers guy. I worked in talk radio for about 5 years. Having cans clamped on my head 6-8 hours/day drove me f****** nuts.

 

[TonyJZX]

i often would say many products get into 'scope creep'... you put in stuff that more people like and everything starts to go nuts... your bom costs go up, your support costs go up, your rma goes up...

eg. if you put in a dual headphone stages w/ balanced 4.4 and 6.35 then you get a situation where some units fail on one port and needs an rma

if you eliminated it all together then there's no risk, no cost

this is from someone who has been in this situation before... Is the customer asking for this?

Like the man above I dont want headphones... I too worked in a situation where I had headphones on for hours on end and I would actually have a few models of ANC headphones at my desk and i would swap re-pair when they got uncomfortable

so to me adding on DSP and wifi and all this kind of turns it into something its not and something this company has few competancies with

I notice in another thread people are asking FOsi Audio to do the same thing... they are not about to turn into MiniDSP and neither is Topping!

but at the same time as you ask $700 for a product people begin to ask "why arent you adding this when other companies already offer this?"

if you follow everyone here you end up with effectively a full blown digital streaming preamp

 

[delta76]

When I try to compare it to the EX5 I bought after the ASR test

Shenzhenaudio Topping EX5 Review (DAC and Headphone Amplifier)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping EX5 produced exclusively for Shenzhenaudio. The EX5 is slated to cost US $349.99 which it is released. The sample I have is from production run but is awaiting the manual for formal shipments. It was sent to me by Shenzhenaudio. The...

www.audiosciencereview.com

from a purely utilitarian point of view, the buyer is getting:

• marginally (probably inaudibly) better performance
• a fancier display
• no headphone amp (means another expense, if needed)
• for double the price

So, as good as this one is, I rate it as "great", but I would still buy the EX5 for half the price, if I hadn't already.

The law of diminishing returns. Dac is a solved problem and any decent dac would be in realm of inaudibility. For more money you get more features, look and feel, and in some cases, longevity. Perf will only increase marginally

 

[respice finem]

The law of diminishing returns. Dac is a solved problem and any decent dac would be in realm of inaudibility. For more money you get more features, look and feel, and in some cases, longevity. Perf will only increase marginally

In the cited case, it was even more features for half the money. For longevity, we will see - but I'm optimistic, since it runs very cool.

 

[Rottmannash]

Does E70 have this?

The D90SE does.

 

[Rottmannash]

I think its a relevant question why they have bluetooth but not DNLA, AirPlay , wifi and TIDAL/Qubos compability.
Every home cinema receiver from 300 dollars have those . I see the same pattern in every chinese made dac.

Bluetooth is ofcourse convenient but has nothing to do with high SINAD numbers and a very good sound. Lossy codecs and transmission are not necessary at 2023. Bluetooth is an evil thing when cascade coupled with spotify mp3 codec.
-1 (+) -1 = - 3

Dont get me wrong, but for me its totally unnecessary with bluetooth on a highend device . This seems to be a very good dac but it feels like Topping are not taking its customers seriosly with such a low-fi transmission as bluetooth.
Its like offering bike tires on a Porsche.

Every streaming ( except Spotify ) service are now offering lossless or high resolution material to the customers and I really dont like the memory of the dark ages when mp3 ruled.

flac>LDAC=indistinguishable from bit perfect flac.

 

[Rottmannash]

Looks like it's giving D90se a run for it's money.

@amirm did you happen to measure crosstalk?

Don't say that (looks furtively at his D90SE).

 

[Jimster480]

ES9039Pro has phenomenal sound quality compared to previous models. In any case, D70pro is worth the money. I don't know of any device that costs significantly more and would even come close in terms of sound.

I really don't see how that would be possible. No such measurements suggest that anything would be different from previous DAC's. After all they are all capable of the same multi-tone and Linearity performance.

 

[piaseczek]

I really don't see how that would be possible. No such measurements suggest that anything would be different from previous DAC's. After all they are all capable of the same multi-tone and Linearity performance.

For now it doesn't look that es9039pro is a better DAC, it looks like low-power version of es9038pro. From available measurements it can be noticed that digital filtering is improved compared to es9038pro.

Maybe new modulator in es9039pro somehow makes "sound" better? Time will tell.

 

[Jimster480]

For now it doesn't look that es9039pro is a better DAC, it looks like low-power version of es9038pro. From available measurements it can be noticed that digital filtering is improved compared to es9038pro.

Maybe new modulator in es9039pro somehow makes "sound" better? Time will tell.

I doubt this is the case because I have never seen anything to suggest that one DAC which measures just like another DAC sounds better or worse than another DAC in any music.
There used to be some differences to DAC signatures more than a decade ago in some portable audio products and such but I haven't seen any evidence of actual DAC signatures in the past 5 years.... I have tested AK vs CS vs ESS vs TI on the same day with a switcher box and I can't tell any differences in how the music sounds outside of if I deliberately mismatch the filters (provided such an option is available) then sometimes during certain songs one can be slightly different than another just based on the filter roll off if the song has some high frequency tones.

 

[Deleted member 17267]

these functions on the display are interesting but I would have appreciated the possibility of channel balancing more. Is it that hard to implement in a dac?

 

[staticV3]

these functions on the display are interesting but I would have appreciated the possibility of channel balancing more. Is it that hard to implement in a dac?

RTFM

 

[Tangband]

flac>LDAC=indistinguishable from bit perfect flac.

Not true :

Is LDAC lossy or bit-perfect for 44.1kHz/16bit (Red Book CD) files?

Looking over my collection, I have quite a few 16/44 FLAC files that are over 990Kbps. 3 Doors Down "The Better Life": Duck and Run: 1050Kbps Better Life: 1032Kbps Down Poison: 1015Kbps Smack: 1067Kbps So I Need You: 1000Kbps That's 5 on just one album. Out of curiosity I tried to 7Zip...

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… and the effect of combining lossy spotify mp3 with this lossy LDAC transmission gonna be -1 (+) -1 = -3.

This is the main reason I dont like lossy transmission or lossy sources. Combined they are terrible . And there is no need for it 2023.

Maybe the sound quality will be good enough for muzak or when exercising?

 

[Rottmannash]

Not true :

Is LDAC lossy or bit-perfect for 44.1kHz/16bit (Red Book CD) files?

Looking over my collection, I have quite a few 16/44 FLAC files that are over 990Kbps. 3 Doors Down "The Better Life": Duck and Run: 1050Kbps Better Life: 1032Kbps Down Poison: 1015Kbps Smack: 1067Kbps So I Need You: 1000Kbps That's 5 on just one album. Out of curiosity I tried to 7Zip...

www.audiosciencereview.com

… and the effect of combining lossy spotify mp3 with this lossy LDAC transmission gonna be -1 (+) -1 = -3.

This is the main reason I dont like lossy transmission or lossy sources. Combined they are terrible . And there is no need for it 2023.

Maybe the sound quality will be good enough for muzak or when exercising?

Perhaps you didn't read my post. Playing flac files (I don't play any inferior files, ever) via LDAC to HP yields output identical to bitperfect from flac to me. YMMV.

 

[Tangband]

Perhaps you didn't read my post. Playing flac files (I don't play any inferior files, ever) via LDAC to HP yields output identical to bitperfect from flac to me. YMMV.

If its good enough , then its fine for you.