Topping D90 Balanced USB DAC Review

[Schönramer]

D90 only accepts MQA over USB. An "easier" set-up would be Gustard X16 with coax connection to something like a Bluesound. Read the Gustard X16 thread for some user experiences doing just that.

Thanks for the fast response! I will closely read through this thread! Do you have a recommendation besides Bluesound?

 

[Veri]

Thanks for the fast response! I will closely read through this thread! Do you have a recommendation besides Bluesound?

Personally no, since I don't listen to MQA authenticated things, nor do I use a streamer. I just sit at my PC with a USB DAC so can't share any personal experiences regarding the things you need sorry

 

[Goodfellas27]

Any word on a possible Topping D100? It would be perfect if it has a built-in streamer.

 

[Goodfellas27]

I am unable to find the D90MQA. That ship sailed with AKM plant fire.

 

[trl]

Shenzenaudio has it, you can contact them if still in stock.

 

[Oukkidoukki]

No, sold out

 

[Oukkidoukki]

D90 is now rare collector item like ferrari gto......can u imagine if price would go up......it wont happen though....schenzen is pushing bigger and better in staggering speed.s.......there will be huge waste mountain of dacs somewhere cause we always want the best and last months king is nothing.....rendered to zero

 

[snakearmpit]

I bought one at audiophonics.fr last week, looks like they still have it in stock.

 

[Oukkidoukki]

Wow, quite cool........I must say all the dacs in the world right now I love d90....even though i have only heard it thru youtube and we just bought x16. Thru youtube i like it more than smsl m400, adi 2 or x16..........i know u laugh thru youtube but if u listen tens of videos you can make some assumptions......some say it sound matte, maybe booring......but matte and booring is good.......listen genelec, its matte and booring.......but actually matte and booring is accurate.....no sibling hights ....no overblown bass.....just perfect.....i might be wrong though

 

[Oukkidoukki]

I bought one at audiophonics.fr last week, looks like they still have it in stock.

They seem to have non mqa version......mqa sounds even better!

 

[Goodfellas27]

I'd wait I guess. MQA version are all sold out

 

[Oukkidoukki]

Yeah

 

[curiouspeter]

I did consider getting the D90. But if I were to pay more than $800 I want something that is Roon Ready.

 

[Tokyo_John]

I picked one up of these last week, and got it hooked in to my small living room system yesterday (MacBook Pro -> USB -> R+X -> Integrated Amp -> Speaker). I've mostly been streaming Tidal from the app and playing a variety of music styles, but also watched a movie (Sonic the Hedgehog) with my kids. It is a superb DAC so far, I'm very happy with the purchase. But it is still new and I will let it sink in over time.

I've played with the various filters, and there is a noticeable difference depending on the track. I like having these options, I'll have to play with them to see which suit my ears best over time.

There are some practical quirks that I encountered...
(1) Straight out of the box and plugged in with no intervention by myself, everything was coming in at 44.1kHz and the sound quality was meh (the highs in particular seemed harsh). So I set the Audio MIDI Setup.app on my MacBook Pro to force less sophisticated apps to talk to "D90 MQA" at 768kHz/32-bit...the D90 instantly showed this change on the front panel, and everything sounded excellent thereafter (highs become smooth and manicured).
(2) Google Chrome refuses to talk to the D90 when playing content that includes audio, such as Youtube and Netflix. This problem did not occur on any other browsers, it seems to be specifically a Google Chrome bug. When I searched around the net, I found that I was not the only one who had this issue, and it may also be occurring with other Topping DACs (not just the D90). I'm happy to use other browsers, so not a really big deal for me.

 

[liuj2001]

I did consider getting the D90. But if I were to pay more than $800 I want something that is Roon Ready.

Adding a Raspberry PI Roon Bridge only costs around $80.

 

[curiouspeter]

Adding a Raspberry PI Roon Bridge only costs around $80.

I have that.

But a two-way volume control would be useful. Ideally, if I changed the volume on the DAC it should be reflected on the Roon Remote. And vice versa.

A Roon-controlled analog volume control would be even better.

With a Roon Bridge, I use fixed volume and I have to adjust either headroom on Roon or the volume control on my amp.

 

[alexis]

Hi, I bought a Samsung Galaxy S7 tablet and use the bluetooth to connect to D90. The volume control from the tablet doesn't work with D90. D90 will play at the loudest setting. I can turn it off from the tablet. Is this an issue with D90 bluetooth?

 

[liuj2001]

I have that.

But a two-way volume control would be useful. Ideally, if I changed the volume on the DAC it should be reflected on the Roon Remote. And vice versa.

A Roon-controlled analog volume control would be even better.

With a Roon Bridge, I use fixed volume and I have to adjust either headroom on Roon or the volume control on my amp.

Not sure if I missed something, but I connect my Raspberry Pi Roon Bridge to my DAC/Amp, and can easily change the volume from my iPhone Roon Remote app. I use device volume instead of fixed volume though, and I can fix my DAC at certain level, and change the output volume from my phone.

 

[curiouspeter]

Not sure if I missed something, but I connect my Raspberry Pi Roon Bridge to my DAC/Amp, and can easily change the volume from my iPhone Roon Remote app. I use device volume instead of fixed volume though, and I can fix my DAC at certain level, and change the output volume from my phone.

But I want to do it from both the phone and the DAC itself. I frequently "lose" my phone so I want to be able to walk up to the DAC and change the volume quickly.

Are you sure your DAC is processing Roon Device Volume from the DAC or analog side and not the XMOS side? I would rather use DSP volume, but that breaks DSD.

 

[liuj2001]

But I want to do it from both the phone and the DAC itself. I frequently "lose" my phone so I want to be able to walk up to the DAC and change the volume quickly.

Are you sure your DAC is processing Roon Device Volume from the DAC or analog side and not the XMOS side? I would rather use DSP volume, but that breaks DSD.

Yes, I can adjust volume from BOTH of my phone and the DAC. I don't have DSDs (except some samples), but play lots of MQAs. Volume adjustment from my phone doesn't break the hardware MQA decoding on DAC. Hope it helps.