Topping D90 Balanced USB DAC Review

[dpippel]

What about stacking a D90/A90? Would it be better to put the A90 on top as it should in theory generate more heat, or doesn't matter? What's the consensus on stacking this duo?

I've been test driving the A90 for two days now. The case doesn't even get warm.

 

[burma]

I've been test driving the A90 for two days now. The case doesn't even get warm.

Hmm. Mine does.

 

[dpippel]

Hmm. Mine does.

Mine is at ambient temp. Perhaps because I'm only pushing a Focal Clear at low gain?

 

[ReaderZ]

Mine is at ambient temp. Perhaps because I'm only pushing a Focal Clear at low gain?

Hmmm, mine gets warm by just turn it on. It's under my DX7 Pro though.

 

[burma]

Hmmm, mine gets warm by just turn it on. It's under my DX7 Pro though.

I think I'm going to swap them out, and put the A90 on top of the D90. Looks strange that way, but better for cooling.

 

[burma]

@burma depending on where you purchased your D90, try reaching out to Apos Audio (US distributor of Topping) and see if they currently have any returned D90’s in stock. You could pick up one and compare it to the MQA before making your decision and sending one or the other back, or both back. You have 30 days with them.

So I got a regular D90 today and comparing it with the D90 MQA. Will test some MQA music later to see how they fare.

The one difference I did notice, was an operational one. The D90 lets me control the volume from my OS, while the D90 MQA has it locked down at max, and I can only control it from the A90 or from whatever app I'm using (Tidal, Qobuz, iTunes with Bitperfect, etc.). Withe the basic D90 (firmware 1.06), I can control volume from the OS via my keyboard, so it's not locked down.

Both are in DAC mode.

So it looks like the D90's DAC (firmware 1.06) supports internal volume control, while the D90 MQA's DAC (firmware 1.24), doesn't. I wonder why the difference. @JohnYang1997, is this by design?

Wouldn't putting it in DAC mode disable any type of volume control?

 

[JohnYang1997]

So I got a regular D90 today and comparing it with the D90 MQA. Will test some MQA music later to see how they fare.

The one difference I did notice, was an operational one. The D90 lets me control the volume from my OS, while the D90 MQA has it locked down at max, and I can only control it from the A90 or from whatever app I'm using (Tidal, Qobuz, iTunes with Bitperfect, etc.). Withe the basic D90 (firmware 1.06), I can control volume from the OS via my keyboard, so it's not locked down.

Both are in DAC mode.

So it looks like the D90's DAC (firmware 1.06) supports internal volume control, while the D90 MQA's DAC (firmware 1.24), doesn't. I wonder why the difference. @JohnYang1997, is this by design?

I'll eventually get back to you tomorrow. It looks like you are on Mac os?
I have heard of the volume control thing before. I'm a little surprised it's still not enabled. Or you can control volume due to MQA related stuff. Not very sure.

One thing is that you can just change the volume in preamp mode. It's the same or a better way than using the OS volume control. Is the remote not easy to use? Or is this just simply a question on something you observed rather than an issue you are facing.

 

[burma]

I'll eventually get back to you tomorrow. It looks like you are on Mac os?
I have heard of the volume control thing before. I'm a little surprised it's still not enabled. Or you can control volume due to MQA related stuff. Not very sure.

One thing is that you can just change the volume in preamp mode. It's the same or a better way than using the OS volume control. Is the remote not easy to use? Or is this just simply a question on something you observed rather than an issue you are facing.

Yes, macOS Catalina 10.15.5. I'm not having any issues, just wondering why the difference, and which way should it be? I thought putting the D90/D90 MQA in "DAC mode" locks it down, so was surprised to see the D90 allowing OS/app volume control, whereas not so on the D90 MQA.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Yes, macOS Catalina 10.15.5. I'm not having any issues, just wondering why the difference, and which way should it be? I thought putting the D90/D90 MQA in "DAC mode" locks it down, so was surprised to see the D90 allowing OS/app volume control, whereas not so on the D90 MQA.

The "DAC mode" only locks the volume control on the DAC. In the OS, the volume control is independent. The allowing volume control in OS has something to do with the XMOS firmware.

 

[burma]

The "DAC mode" only locks the volume control on the DAC. In the OS, the volume control is independent. The allowing volume control in OS has something to do with the XMOS firmware.

I see. OK, so the desired or "correct" behavior would be to allow OS volume control then? Like on the regular D90?

 

[JohnYang1997]

I see. OK, so the desired or "correct" behavior would be to allow OS volume control then? Like on the regular D90?

I'm not sure on the MQA version. Allowing OS to do volume control is certainly the expected behavior on regular D90.

 

[burma]

I'm not sure on the MQA version. Allowing OS to do volume control is certainly the expected behavior on regular D90.

I see. I was asking in general as to what is desired behavior. Sounds like the MQA’s firmware hasn’t enabled that or there’s some issue.

What threw me off was that I’m still trying to understand what exactly “DAC Mode” buys me, outside of me accidentally touching the volume buttons by accident. And so I thought if that’s the goal, then the desired behavior would also be to NOT allow volume control from the OS when a device is in “DAC Mode”. Does that make sense?

 

[burma]

I'm not sure on the MQA version. Allowing OS to do volume control is certainly the expected behavior on regular D90.

So I emailed support, and this is what they had to say. It's "designed" that way, which sorry is not a good or complete answer. Why would they design the two units differently for volume control, and is this the same behavior on Windows? Their short answer leaves me having more questions....

 

[JohnYang1997]

So I emailed support, and this is what they had to say. It's "designed" that way, which sorry is not a good or complete answer. Why would they design the two units differently for volume control, and is this the same behavior on Windows? Their short answer leaves me having more questions....

View attachment 73111

There would be issues for 768khz playback with system volume control enabled and the volume is attenuated. This is xu216 and MQA related issue. So this is the best current solution.

 

[burma]

There would be issues for 768khz playback with system volume control enabled and the volume is attenuated. This is xu216 and MQA related issue. So this is the best current solution.

I see. Thanks for elaborating. I wish they would have given more details. So the desired behavior is on the regular D90 with the xu208. The xu216 is more powerful, and some reviewers praised that, although I believe it's that way for the MQA unfold, not anything else. I also ready it's "problematic", but nobody had any details. I suppose this is one of them - thanks again for your answers here. Very helpful.

 

[UCrazyKid]

Much of the differences in the D90 MQA seem to be dictated by the spec of the MQA protocol. There must be something incompatible with the reduction of bits that occurs under digital volume control (within the OS). It was the same with the 24-bit limitation on inputs from USB prior to the latest f/w update. The MQA libraries dictated that.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Hello, lovely people.
If you are current Mac user with MQA version of D90, would you please try out this package for me? I would love to hear any feedback on how the upgrade works.
It would be better to know your current Mac version. If you know better, is there any changes made from 10.12 to 10.15? Thanks in advance.

 

[UCrazyKid]

Hello, lovely people.
If you are current Mac user with MQA version of D90, would you please try out this package for me? I would love to hear any feedback on how the upgrade works.
It would be better to know your current Mac version. If you know better, is there any changes made from 10.12 to 10.15? Thanks in advance.

@JohnYang1997
I cannot open it with Catalina 10.15.5 on a MacBook Air early 2015. Error attached.

I had the same problem, same machine, when I d/l the installer a week ago. So I used a different Mac to install. It had older operating system Mojave.

 

[eurokage]

Hello, lovely people.
If you are current Mac user with MQA version of D90, would you please try out this package for me? I would love to hear any feedback on how the upgrade works.
It would be better to know your current Mac version. If you know better, is there any changes made from 10.12 to 10.15? Thanks in advance.

Worked for me on OS X 10.14.6 Mojave, but I needed to disable GateKeeper to run the update app.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Worked for me on OS X 10.14.6 Mojave, but I needed to disable GateKeeper to run the update app.

Thanks.