TOPPING D90 III Sabre DAC Review

[Spocko]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the TOPPING D90 III Sabre balanced stereo DAC. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $899.
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As you can see, the design is what we have know about most of the Topping products. I do wish at this price that we had a high resolution display that showed VU meters and such. Usability would be better that way although the included remote is easy to use. Back panel is as you would expect:
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Nice to see Topping continuing to provide trigger support for automatic turn on of the downstream amplifiers and such.

TOPPING D90 III Sabre Measurements
The DAC has two output setting modes. One that provides max of 5 volts nominal and one that is 4 volts. For fairness I tested using the latter. DAC was allowed to warm up which improved its performance by about 1 dB.

As usual, we start with our dashboard:
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This is the best performance we have seen from Topping and is in a virtual tie with the previous king of DAC SINAD measurements:
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RCA performance is still superb and fully transparent:
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Dynamic range is exceptional as you would imagine as it is setting the SINAD:
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Multitone shows the exceptionally low distortion:
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As does 50 Hz response for compatibility with other sites using it:
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Jitter could be a hair better given the performance elsewhere:
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IMD performance is excellent:
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Linearity is perfect:
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We have the typical filters but I would stay with default (F3):
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The filter selection impacts wideband THD+N measurements so I stayed with the default:
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Story is told....

Conclusions
Topping aimed to capture the top spot in the rankings and it got there, besting every other DAC it has produced, albeit with very small margin. If the cost is not a concern and you are buying a new DAC, might as well opt for D90 III.

I am happy to recommend the TOPPING D90 III Sabre.

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

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

What's crazy is that 3 years ago I though this was a DEAL, but now am I the only one who's thinking it's too expensive?

 

[Spocko]

I would rather have a tone control.

You mean get the RME?

 

[dzerig]

I've been looking forward to this test for a while, and read it with some anticipation.

They've succeeded in their very focussed mission to make the cleanest and quietest DAC that it's possible to make. Succeeded where so many others have failed.

But the audience is hard to please.

Yeah, but what kind of golden eared audiophile claims to hear the difference between 123 sinads and 115 sinads? You can get the latter for $129.

 

[RichB]

I gave the D90 III five stars because they finally added triggers.
A Roon interface gives you both streaming and PEQ...

- Rich

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

A Roon interface gives you both streaming and PEQ...

And monthly payments...

And you cannot use Roon with your tv.
So being able to do EQ in device (being dac or other) is really neat feature.

 

[roog]

Technically perfect.

At this price range I would start looking into eg RME with tons of features, good HP amp, excellent customer support and quality.

If Topping wants to play in that league they have to work on the latter two.

Edit. Or even latter 5 ie everything but SINAD ;-)

I agree there are a bundle of DACs that measure within an inch of each other such that it makes no difference except for the feature set. and that’s where my money went, I have the RME for the features and support. but I might be swayed by something with room correction built in!

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

I’m voting for the yawning panther

 

[Rhamnetin]

I agree there are a bundle of DACs that measure within an inch of each other such that it makes no difference except for the feature set. and that’s where my money went, I have the RME for the features and support. but I might be swayed by something with room correction built in!

The miniDSP SHD checks those boxes for a similar price compared to RME.

 

[Redwine]

Sinad 136,8 versus 136,6 etc., I wonder if focus and ressources could be used better here!

 

[dib]

Thanks for the review @amirm
There is a separate thread in which the op said that these III devices (D90 and D50) would be upgraded to have EQ capability. Any additional information on that?

"D50 III has PEQ, and D90 III seems to be updated in the future."

Thread 'TOPPING D90 III、TOPPING D50 III' https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-d90-iii、topping-d50-iii.50539/

This feature + D70 Pro interface might be a better reason to upgrade my DAC, not a 0.3dB SINAD improvement over their last record…

 

[welwynnick]

Yeah, but what kind of golden eared audiophile claims to hear the difference between 123 sinads and 115 sinads? You can get the latter for $129.

The same sort of mature wealthy male over-achiever who doesn't know how to spend all his money so buys the latest Porsche 99x GT3 that can lap the Nurburgring one second faster than his old car, but who will never take it anywhere near a circuit.

 

[Rhamnetin]

The same sort of mature wealthy male over-achiever who doesn't know how to spend all his money so buys the latest Porsche 99x GT3 that can lap the Nurburgring one second faster than his old car, but who will never take it anywhere near a circuit.

Although usually that sort don't care about SINAD or know what it is, and instead they buy expensive, cool looking, well marketed DACs for their looks+price+reputation since typically they have decades without any evolution.

 

[Bleib]

I think most of us would buy Topping DX9 if we had unlimited money rather than say Topping E30.
Add a mixture of YOLO and FOMO and it would be an easy sale. Sometimes the higher priced products also come with better support, documentation, warranty etc..it would be easy to say "why not?"

 

[MBO]

I'm about to the point that RME is going to go on my list of companies to never buy from. To many people saying get it.

I have had many RME devices for 20 years, I would not recommend them for home hi-fi.

 

[Svensson]

Topping if you read this, can you build a DAC with PEQ and / or a DSP device using your expertise?

 

[MikeO]

The same sort of mature wealthy male over-achiever who doesn't know how to spend all his money so buys the latest Porsche 99x GT3 that can lap the Nurburgring one second faster than his old car, but who will never take it anywhere near a circuit.

Don't knock Porsche drivers here. It has nothing to do with how to spend one's money. Put yourself behind the wheel and you'll wonder why you're only focused on talking DACs.

 

[Purité Audio]

I have had many RME devices for 20 years, I would not recommend them for home hi-fi.

Why not?
Keith

 

[Liya]

Come on Topping, at least change the design. I know you manufacturers all want to be like daddy Apple but it's not that easy.

Change name, please.

 

[AudioSceptic]

Why not?
Keith

Yes, why not? (I don't own one but would if I wanted to spend that sort of money.)

 

[DLS79]

Yes, why not? (I don't own one but would if I wanted to spend that sort of money.)

I'd assume because for that kind of money you could build a small form factor computer and put PEQ software on it and have it feed a cheap audibly transparent dac.

with the proper compontents the pc will give you more possible inputs, and outputs.