Topping D90 Balanced USB DAC Review

[Yviena]

Does anyone know if Topping D90 has intersample clipping at 0dBFS, or does it have headroom?

 

[ElNino]

Does anyone know if Topping D90 has intersample clipping at 0dBFS, or does it have headroom?

There's nothing in the AK4499 datasheet about this, i.e., there is no mode that can be set to add a specific amount of headroom, but the block diagram shows that the digital filter is applied after the DATT, so if you have a DAC that offers volume control in the digital domain, you can add as much headroom as you wish. Also, none of the digital filters it offers are particularly aggressive, so the level of intersample clipping is likely to be modest.

 

[Nicolaas]

This afternoon I received the D90 and I have some questions. My usb isolator does not work with the D90. When usb is connected via my (cheap) usb isolator the pitch/speed goes sky high and the sound is very distorted. The usb isolator worked perfectly fine for years upto and including 24b 96k between my Sony Vaio laptop and my older Musical Fidelity V90 dac...
So I removed the isolator.
Now when I am playing 16b 44.1k flac files (USB to RCA) the D90 shows a PCM sample rate of 48 kHz.
Then when playing 24b 96k flac files the D90 also shows a PCM sample rate of 48 kHz.
My OS is Linux Mint xfce 19 with Audacious as flac player. When playing high res, Audacious says the output is 96k with 3254 kbps bitspeed, see photos. Shouldn't the D90 play the flac files with their original sample speed? Audacious does recognize the D90 so no problem there.
I will now do some testing with android and usb audio player pro...

 

[JohnYang1997]

This afternoon I received the D90 and I have some questions. My usb isolator does not work with the D90. When usb is connected via my (cheap) usb isolator the pitch/speed goes sky high and the sound is very distorted. The usb isolator worked perfectly fine for years upto and including 24b 96k between my Sony Vaio laptop and my older Musical Fidelity V90 dac...
So I removed the isolator.
Now when I am playing 16b 44.1k flac files (USB to RCA) the D90 shows a PCM sample rate of 48 kHz.
Then when playing 24b 96k flac files the D90 also shows a PCM sample rate of 48 kHz.
My OS is Linux Mint xfce 19 with Audacious as flac player. When playing high res, Audacious says the output is 96k with 3254 kbps bitspeed, see photos. Shouldn't the D90 play the flac files with their original sample speed? Audacious does recognize the D90 so no problem there.
I will now do some testing with android and usb audio player pro...

System src? Would you try Jackaudio or something?

 

[AndyLu]

This afternoon I received the D90 and I have some questions. My usb isolator does not work with the D90. When usb is connected via my (cheap) usb isolator the pitch/speed goes sky high and the sound is very distorted. The usb isolator worked perfectly fine for years upto and including 24b 96k between my Sony Vaio laptop and my older Musical Fidelity V90 dac...
So I removed the isolator.
Now when I am playing 16b 44.1k flac files (USB to RCA) the D90 shows a PCM sample rate of 48 kHz.
Then when playing 24b 96k flac files the D90 also shows a PCM sample rate of 48 kHz.
My OS is Linux Mint xfce 19 with Audacious as flac player. When playing high res, Audacious says the output is 96k with 3254 kbps bitspeed, see photos. Shouldn't the D90 play the flac files with their original sample speed? Audacious does recognize the D90 so no problem there.
I will now do some testing with android and usb audio player pro...

If you play files through the D90 (without resampling or upsampling of course) it should play (and display) the original sample rates. Mine does exactly that.

I do not have experience with the Linux Mint distro.

• I have connected my Topping D90 to Android TV (via Nvidia Shield). There it is playing fine (The Nvidia shield upsamples everything to 24/192 and the D90 shows that).
• Also I have connected the D90 to a PC with Windows 10. Players used: Audirvana, Foobar 2000, JRiver, VLC media player, Windows media player. Everything plays in the correct sample rates and also shows on the D90 in the correct sample rate. I tried this in Windows with WASAPI and ASIO (with the ASIO driver downloaded from the Topping site).
• Also I installed Elementary OS (a Mac like Linux distro) on a mini Intel PC I have lying around. The D90 also had no problems playing from that system (with the default audio player in Elementary OS).
• On the same mini pc I booted Volumio and Daphile (both Linux based booteable high-end music players). Also no problems there with the D90.

I would advice you to try the Topping on some other systems with other operating systems than Linux Mint to see if you have the same problems.

 

[Nicolaas]

This afternoon I received the D90 and I have some questions. My usb isolator does not work with the D90. When usb is connected via my (cheap) usb isolator the pitch/speed goes sky high and the sound is very distorted. The usb isolator worked perfectly fine for years upto and including 24b 96k between my Sony Vaio laptop and my older Musical Fidelity V90 dac...
So I removed the isolator.
Now when I am playing 16b 44.1k flac files (USB to RCA) the D90 shows a PCM sample rate of 48 kHz.
Then when playing 24b 96k flac files the D90 also shows a PCM sample rate of 48 kHz.
My OS is Linux Mint xfce 19 with Audacious as flac player. When playing high res, Audacious says the output is 96k with 3254 kbps bitspeed, see photos. Shouldn't the D90 play the flac files with their original sample speed? Audacious does recognize the D90 so no problem there.
I will now do some testing with android and usb audio player pro...

Probably something with Linux Mint/Audacious. When playing 96 k flac files from my Android tablet with USB Audio player Pro, the D90 indeed shows the sample rate of 96k as expected...And 44.1 k files are shown on the D90 as 44.1 k PCM as expected. So I will check my Audacious config.

96k 24b flac Sound with USB audio player Pro (from an 6 year old Acer tablet) is beautiful, detailed and very dynamic! Now listening to Keith Jarrett/After the fall Chicken Skin music,

 

[AndyLu]

Probably something with Linux Mint/Audacious. When playing 96 k flac files from my Android tablet with USB Audio player Pro, the D90 indeed shows the sample rate of 96k as expected...And 44.1 k files are shown on the D90 as 44.1 k PCM as expected. So I will check my Audacious config.

96k 24b flac Sound with USB audio player Pro (from an 6 year old Acer tablet) is beautiful, detailed and very dynamic! Now listening to Keith Jarrett/After the fall Chicken Skin music,

Good to hear it works

 

[Nicolaas]

Problem solved. Within Audacious I am using ALSA. In the ALSA settings the D90 shows up with different descriptions.
So when I choose the description: "D90, USB Audio Default Audio Device" then I have this weird behaviour and different sample rates of my flac files are shown on the D90 display as 48 kHz PCM.

However when I choose the description: "D90, USB Audio Hardware device with all software conversions" then everything is OK and the sample frequency of my flac files is exactly shown as is on the D90 DAC. Now listening Ayo/Royal in 24b 96k. Beautiful...

Tonight I"ll do some listening on my addictive MicroSeiki electrostatic headphone. Some years ago I put new 6 micron mylar membranes in it and these phones from the 70ties are still doing great
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions!

 

[Viper Necklampy]

Is it too much too ask at least a 24bit/96khz upsampling 'mode' even in optical in nowadays dac? Look at Ta-zh1es, it can upsample up to 384khz/32bit and dsd remastering, like it or not, is a very useful thing when you output on old Systems without hi-res audio, i don't see any dac have it at a fair price..

 

[AndyLu]

Is it too much too ask at least a 24bit/96khz upsampling 'mode' even in optical in nowadays dac? Look at Ta-zh1es, it can upsample up to 384khz/32bit and dsd remastering, like it or not, is a very useful thing when you output on old Systems without hi-res audio, i don't see any dac have it at a fair price..

Use an app like Audirvana, JRiver, Foobar or Roon ( there are more). Those programs have plenty of upsample capabilities. Most computers/laptops have much more horsepower than a chip in a dac device to upsample anyway.

 

[Viper Necklampy]

Use an app like Audirvana, JRiver, Foobar or Roon ( there are more). Those programs have plenty of upsample capabilities. Most computers/laptops have much more horsepower than a chip in a dac device to upsample anyway.

Problem is i never use PC to listen, i use optical on devices like Ps3 etc :/

 

[Veri]

like it or not, is a very useful thing when you output on old Systems without hi-res audio, i don't see any dac have it at a fair price..

That's because it is a bullshit feature. All delta sigma DACs already oversample, sometimes up to 256x (which is already above 11MHz!). The little upsampling you do before it can only influence the slowness/steepness of your digital filter. Or whether it's done in linear phase, minimum phase or an intermediate of these.

You mention the Ta-zh1es. Does it even mention what kind of 384khz sampling it does, what the parameters are? To me this feature reads like something totally worthless :/ at most it is an ASRC which could improve jitter. That's it.

 

[mocenigo]

Problem is i never use PC to listen, i use optical on devices like Ps3 etc :/

Just to understand, not to criticise, what's the reason? Habit? With a raspberry pi, a cheap external USB CD/bluray player – and possibly your ps3 to rip the SACDs – you can rip any optical media, and with a good backup strategy the data will outlive you. All for a cost that is less than that of a good transport. And on the raspberry pi you can have something like moOde to browse your library. But, yeah, browsing a physical disc collection is a ritual as well.

 

[Nicolaas]

I have been listening to the D90 for many hours now and it is a great DAC. I also like the Bluetooth option with Aptx codec.I use this from my Samsung tablet with USB Audioplayer Pro. The Aptx codec can be enabled in developer options of the tablet (and my Android phone).

 

[AndyLu]

Problem is i never use PC to listen, i use optical on devices like Ps3 etc :/

Time to change your habits.

 

[Viper Necklampy]

Time to change your habits.

No way I use Ps3 for Ps1/Ps2/Ps3 games and very little music CD and Ps4 Pro
Juss' to play, It's my true passion by when i was 2 years, i just like headphones and great sounds, only in recent years i'm 'listening' to music, before didn't liked much

 

[AndyLu]

No way I use Ps3 for Ps1/Ps2/Ps3 games and very little music CD and Ps4 Pro
Juss' to play, It's my true passion by when i was 2 years, i just like headphones and great sounds, only in recent years i'm 'listening' to music, before didn't liked much

In that case simply accept your one to one 'bit perfect' reproduction and move on if you are ready to.

 

[Milesian]

Just curious, are there any authorized dealers shipping the D90 currently? Or is production and distribution shut down for the interim?

 

[Cut-Throat]

Just curious, are there any authorized dealers shipping the D90 currently? Or is production and distribution shut down for the interim?

Looks like this one does. https://apos.audio/products/topping-d90-dac?variant=31524822351946

 

[Angstrom]

APOS is where I picked up my, it is coming from Hong Kong