-
WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
Topping D90 Balanced USB DAC Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
I am surprised that some say they can't hear the difference with or without MQA.... with the D90/A90 stack and HD800 headphones you can clearly hear the difference by simply switching the MQA on/off in the TIDAL settings... its very obvious when you A/B any of the tracks...
- Joined
- May 22, 2020
- Messages
- 673
- Likes
- 925
I honestly don’t understand why there’s so much fuss about it. I understand MQA is not perfect and a lossy format, but nothing else is perfect. DSD maybe? HD streaming services all sound different to me and yet they all claim to be streaming CD quality (there must be some loss somewhere for it to sound different). In general, I find my ripped CDs tend to sound better overall and MQA (through Tidal) a little better than ripped CDs. I also like ripped CDs upsampled to DSD through Roon. That can be as good as or better than MQA in my opinion.
Last edited:
I never said I didn’t hear a difference, only that it was not worth it to me. I much prefer Qobuz than Tidal, and I can’t really trust what Tidal does with their “master files”. With Qobuz, I know what I’m getting. Anyway, to each his own.
I pretty much agree with everything you wrote here... I do like the Tidal Playlist though....
I'm a big fan of the DSD upsample too... remember when Onkyo HD player first came out with it....
My stack is now complete. All I need is a better open back headphone (already have the Philips 2XHR pictured and a Sennheiser HD600) to go with it.
- Joined
- May 22, 2020
- Messages
- 673
- Likes
- 925
I really like the HiFiMan Sundara, best headphones I’ve had so far. I think it will be a significant improvement over your HD600 (I had a pair for more than 15 years).
Last edited:
UCrazyKid
Active Member
Nomenclature: There are two uses of "32-bit" within the spec of the D90 DAC.
1. Audio file format 32-bit max size file packet
2. Internal processor (DAC) architecture is 32-bit (max bit length for calculation) (example, most PC's and Laptop processors are 64-bit architecture)
the use of 32-bits is really only for mixing music in the digital realm. It allows editing to occur and throw out bits with out loosing SQ. When you down mix you are just then throwing out zeros. the use of 32-bit within a device is really about computing efficiency (within the DAC chip) and the use of the pre-amp function and digital volume control (volume attenuated by throwing away zeros). There will be no sound quality difference with the update to accepting 32-bit encoded sound files.
The MQA protocol requires input of 24-bit packaged files to allow for unpacking. This is why the D90 MQA does NOT allow digital volume control to occur within the computer OS or s/w (greyed out). The computer used digital volume control and the removal of bits. This would not be compatible with the D90 MQA. However, the MQA was released with a maximum input limited to 24-bit (dictated by MQA protocol as it is recognized immediately as a signal enters the DAC). To meet the published spec for the D90 of accepting 32-bit/768 files, the MQA libraries needed to be updated to include 32-bit.
Last edited:
I just got the Sundaras a month ago, and I would agree they are exceptional. I tried a bunch of different headphones, including the HD660S, HD800S, Focal Clear, and some others. And while I found each to be good in one area, I found the Sundaras to be exceptional as an all around headphone. Not as great in some areas as some I listed, but overall better, especially if you listen to diverse music. And really, for $350, cannot be beat. Of course everyone has their own preferences, but for me these are a real steal.
Driver installed?
On macOS Catalina? It also showed this on my D90 MQA.
Alright. I remember you. So regular D90 right? I just tested it says:
Supported DSD rates: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256
Hmm. You're on Catalina too? Latest Audirvana? It never detected it with my D90 MQA or with the regular D90. Do I need a different USB cable?
Not on Catalina so no idea. Maybe others on Catalina can help?
This has nothing to do with the D90. "Audirvana cannot play DSD file" is a widely discussed topic on the application's support forum. Users with various DACs reported the same issue. I guess ever since v3.5 Audirvana no longer supports native DSD playback. macOS changed, Audirvana gets less system-level access. Did you know Audirvana used to have a "Direct Mode" that is supposed to be the best sounding option? No longer available on Catalina. Users who still crave playing DSD file just choose "DSD over PCM 1.0" or "DSD over PCM 1.1" as the "Native DSD streaming method". If you look closely at John's screenshot, that is what he selects, too.
Last edited:
I was able to find a pair of Ananda for $700 on their webshop, so I'll wait (not very) patiently for those to arrive.
On Windows you can only use DSD512 when you're using the ASIO driver. I don't know a thing about Macs, but maybe it depends on a certain drivers as well.
I figured it out - I had to enable DoP in settings as you said, but I can only do that before the app plays any songs, because even when a song is stopped, the options are greyed out. So I had to do it first thing on startup.
Where was the "Direct Mode" option? It still bypasses Core Audio, as it seems to be sending bitperfect to my DAC, otherwise the sampling rate wouldn't change song to song as necessary. It also hogs the audio output and shows Integer mode - see image below. How can you tell it doesn't have "Direct Mode" anymore, functionality wise?
Similar threads
- Poll
