Topping D90 Balanced USB DAC Review

[Neddy]

I found it interesting to compare this to the (older measurement standards, v.1 Okto) OktoDAC results...seems like they are still very very close, with (perhaps?) a slight edge to the Okto?
Price wise, the Okto is a steal per channel, but the wait is killing me!
Sure hope Pavel sends you a new one to measure soon!

 

[ShiZo]

Cant wait to see the newest rme reviewed. The d90 might have a couple points on sinad, but rme usually absolutely aces the other measurement tests as well, not that any of this would be audible.

 

[LuckyLuke575]

View attachment 43534

Wow, it's measure smaller than it looks in the photos (which is a good thing, unless you need a device to be the size of a sleeping pillow before you think it's good e.g. PS Audio )

The heavy weight is important though, as I find the cables can move the smaller DACs around, and would esp be the case with XLR cables.

 

[ShiZo]

I hate creative software. I used to have the soundblaster zxr back before I found out about objectively good audio equipment.

 

[LuckyLuke575]

I saw a video from a guy who workes for Creative saying people come up to him all the time furious that the Soundblaster Live Value they bought in 1999 doesn't have proper Window 10 support. Like come on bro its time to move on .

That's a total joke. In technology terms even 8 years is a lot, never mind 20. I have an iPad 2 that works perfectly, but most of the apps don't support the old iOS but I can't complain; it gave me plenty of service since 2011.

 

[LuckyLuke575]

Gre

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping D90 Balanced USB DAC with Bluetooth. It was kindly sent to me by the company. The D90 costs US $699 with free shipping from Amazon. The D90 is one a few DACs using the latest DAC chip from AKM (AK4499).

NOTE: Given some recent comments that manufactures may be sending us "golden samples," Topping has offered that I also purchase a retail DAC to compare to this one at their expense. Actually they have offered that I re-buy everything they have ever sent me at retail at their expense! Personally, I have no concern about Topping's ethics in this manner so I don't want to wast time and expense doing so. If you feel otherwise, comment in the thread and I will decide what to do based on that.

The D90 comes in a premium packaging that despite its rather small size, is very heavy:

View attachment 43472​

I am guessing that it is milled from solid chunk of aluminum, much like very high-end audio products. While this doesn't do anything for sound, it does make the unit sit there solidly and not be tugged by cables.

I controlled the D90 with one of my existing Topping remote controls (one comes with it as well). I had not noticed this before so may be a new feature but you can independently control whether the output shows up on RCA, XLR or both. Speaking of that, here is the back panel:

View attachment 43473​

It is all the features you expect for a premium DAC in this era including the increasingly standard Bluetooth input.

Power supply is of course included inside the unit which I appreciated. Less clutter on the desk.

For my testing, I focused on XLR outputs only. It sharply reduces the chances of ground loop which can occur more often due to connection to a PC and long chain that creates.

DAC Audio Measurements
As usual, we start with our 1 kHz tone dashboard:
View attachment 43474

Not that it matters audibly but clock accuracy is excellent showing a precise 1 kHz frequency. Output is 4 volts which is what we like to see form XLR output.

The star of the show of course is astonishingly small distortion. It showcases the performances of the AK4499 DAC chip which until now, would lose ever so slightly to offerings from ESS on distortion front. With SINAD of 120.5, the D90 barely misses taking the top spot in our SINAD graph:

View attachment 43475

With best case dynamic range of hearing being 116 dB, you are assured that the D90 is provably transparent. What you hear, is what your source has in it. Not distortion and noise from the DAC.

Using 32-tone test track to resemble "music," intermodulation distortion shows incredibly low unwanted distortions:

View attachment 43477

Someone had asked how my Audio Precision rates in this test. Here it is:

View attachment 43476

Note however that when I test analog products (e.g. amplifiers and headphone amps), I don't use the built-in DAC in Audio Precision. The companion analog generator actually has less distortion than above.

Anyway, the D90 loses a hair to AP in lower frequencies but bests it in higher frequencies. Either way, the D90 is instrument grade digital to analog convert and can be used to test analog audio gear.

Testing intermodulation again but this time against level we get:
View attachment 43478

We see the improvement in both noise (sloping down part of the graph) and distortion (right side where the graph starts to climb up).

Linearity (precision of level) is nailed as well:

View attachment 43479

Dynamic range shows the noise level:

View attachment 43480

Had this been a couple of dBs better, it would have improved the SINAD to take the first place. As it is though, it is exceptional. You can play at 120 dB SPL (live concert levels) and yet have no audible noise from the DAC!

I ran jitter with USB as usual but also added S/PDIF since there has been some concern about its performance:
View attachment 43481

There are some spikes, especially with S/PDIF so it not as perfect as the rest of the performance from measurement point of view. Audibly though, it is more than perfect with spikes way below threshold of hearing. Note that these are with full amplitude 12 kHz tone. You don't have such thing in music. Jitter is proportional to level of the signal so if you lower the 12 kHz tone, they would go down in level proportionally. So no matter which way we look at it, this is not an audible concern. But a slight visual discomfort.

THD+N versus frequency shows good performance but not as good as I expected:
View attachment 43482

This test uses 90 kHz bandwidth to capture harmonics of 20 kHz (the dashboard uses 22.4 kHz bandwidth). So the question is, are we seeing distortion products or other ultrasonic junk? For that, let's fun a spectrum analysis at 500 Hz where there is a hump above:

View attachment 43483

Harmonic products are below 130 dB so that is definitely not a problem. Instead we see a pretty tall spike near the sample rate of the source. That is caused by aliasing due to reconstruction filter not having enough attenuation. Speaking of that, here are the responses for the filter:

View attachment 43484

I was disappointed to not see a very sharp filter. I wonder if there is a firmware bug that is causing two of the settings to be the same? Or AKM doesn't provide it. Back to our previous issue, we see that the two sharpest filters only attenuate 95 dB or so. This means that aliasing components will exist below that level and that is what we saw in the THD+N vs frequency. Fortunately we don't hear 44 kHz and higher and levels are too small to cause issues for speakers/amplifiers. So not an audible issue.

Thermal Stability
D90 performance did not change over the 10 minute test so I got bored and stopped it:
View attachment 43485

Conclusions
The Topping D90 produces lowest noise and distortion than 220 DACs tested so far. It shows that AKM is ready for business to compete with ESS on top of the performance charts. It has excellent build quality and comes from a manufacturer that believes in verification of design with measurement. Its measured performance is nearly flawless. To get rid of last few niggles, would cost you a few hundred dollars more. You decide.

I live for such discoveries where a company cares about giving us the maximum performance they possibly can. And at a cost point that is thousands of dollars if not tens of thousands of dollars than high-end DACs.

For me, I am happy to strongly recommend the Topping D90 DAC.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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Great to finally see the real McCoy review. Great to see the levels reached by Topping here.

Given the performance and range of inputs and outputs, you can basically buy this and stop reading about DAC measurements and find a new way to waste your free time

 

[daftcombo]

Mute button ?

That's a bit extreme.

 

[RichB]

It is too bad there is no trigger out.
I am using an ARX RS1 trigger (passive not powered) to select the alternate DAC to the Oppo 205 into the Benchmark LA4:

https://www.markertek.com/product/a...tereo-xlr-balanced-remote-controlled-switcher

- Rich

 

[Snafu]

Does it have a rotary volume control on the remote?

Surprisingly, no. But it changes volume ~10dB/sec. Unless You use mute.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Surprisingly, no.

Why surprisingly? Most remotes only have buttons.
I shall perhaps never change mine simply because of the rotary volume control on the remote. I am interested if any other makers do it, but it costs a fair bit more (which I would be glad to pay) so there is nothing about this item's performance which make it worth buying for me.

 

[Feyire]

I was disappointed to not see a very sharp filter. I wonder if there is a firmware bug that is causing two of the settings to be the same? Or AKM doesn't provide it. Back to our previous issue, we see that the two sharpest filters only attenuate 95 dB or so. This means that aliasing components will exist below that level and that is what we saw in the THD+N vs frequency.

@amirm, did you check with Topping to see if this is an actual issue or intended behaviour? It certainly looks like Mode 1 and Mode 3 filters are identical, but the same could be said for Mode 2 and Mode 4 filters as well. Out of curiosity, could you run the FFT up to 100kHz wide?

@WolfX-700, could you perform the same FFT for the filters on the D90 to see if you observe the same behaviour? Perhaps you can also run the same test on the Gustard-DACA22 for comparison?

For reference, AKM4499 filters:

• Short Delay Sharp Roll-off, GD=6.0/fs
• Short Delay Slow Roll-off, GD=5.0/fs
• Sharp Roll-off
• Slow Roll-off
• Super Slow Roll-off
• Low Dispersion Short Delay Filter

 

[WolfX-700]

@amirm, did you check with Topping to see if this is an actual issue or intended behaviour? It certainly looks like Mode 1 and Mode 3 filters are identical, but the same could be said for Mode 2 and Mode 4 filters as well. Out of curiosity, could you run the FFT up to 100kHz wide?

@WolfX-700, could you perform the same FFT for the filters on the D90 to see if you observe the same behaviour? Perhaps you can also run the same test on the Gustard-DACA22 for comparison?

For reference, AKM4499 filters:

• Short Delay Sharp Roll-off, GD=6.0/fs
• Short Delay Slow Roll-off, GD=5.0/fs
• Sharp Roll-off
• Slow Roll-off
• Super Slow Roll-off
• Low Dispersion Short Delay Filter

After the D90 that my friend bought completely independently this week is delivered, I will measure it. But unfortunately the A22 has been returned. I'll try if I can borrow one elsewhere.

 

[VeerK]

After the D90 that my friend bought completely independently this week is delivered, I will measure it. But unfortunately the A22 has been returned. I'll try if I can borrow one elsewhere.

It looks like Amir’s unit has better linearity than the unit you originally tested, I’m looking forward to your test of your friends unit.

 

[WolfX-700]

It looks like Amir’s unit has better linearity than the unit you originally tested, I’m looking forward to your test of your friends unit.

As far as I know the linearity filter used by Amir is different from mine

So it cannot be compared directly.

Of course, I would be very happy if my friend ’s unit made better linearity measurements.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

If you're looking for a top performing stand alone DAC with all the inputs and outputs,this looks like the one to have.

 

[restorer-john]

Pity it doesn't have a "proper" volume control.
Personally I would never buy an item with up/down buttons for level control however good the performance.

My Dad is 86yo and has probably 50-60+ amplifiers and receivers in his main listening room. All restored vintage and only one (A Pioneer C-90s reference preamplifier) which has remote control of volume. He doesn't like that unit because the buttons and legends are too small both on the unit and the remote. As he is getting less agile, I recently gave him remote control of all the main power feeds in the room, so he can shut off the various banks of gear without having to get to the multiple power points. He loves that.

So, I built him this yesterday for Christmas, to sit in the tape loop of any of his amplifiers and give him proper remote control of volume:

Old school instrument case, IP-67 weatherproof buttons, transmission/receive confirmation LEDs both on remote and receiver. Passive attenuator (motorized ALPs), power-on motorized automatic reset of volume to minimum, then advances to a low, nominal value, and of course it can be bypassed by just flicking the tape monitor switch to off.

Let me know if you want one for next Christmas, Frank.

 

[Milt]

I find some of the posts regarding this unit interesting.
Up until now, most all of the discussions have been based on build quality and thorough measurements.
To me, this is a sure sign that ASR is gaining wider attention with the subsequent results.

Speaking for myself only, I don't GAS what particular perceived personal deficiency prevents someone's endorsement of any product.
Or the piercingly, insightful prognostication of what will happen in the future.

 

[ZgSTar]

Amazing review as usual! Thanks! If someone wanted to use the i2s input on this DAC , which transport could be used? And would it really be better than proper USB (As in Allo Usbridge Sig)?

 

[carlosmante]

Now a site known for its subjective reviews is using ASR as reference. .https://audiobacon.net/2019/12/24/topping-d50s-dac-review/

 

[amirm]

No, it won't be any better than USB. And you can use any IIS if you wanted. In my past testing there is little difference between them.