I reused some of the names from previous review so they may not be right.@amirm are the filter names/colors correct? According to the ES9039PRO datasheet, "Minimum Phase" and "Linear Apodizing" should not be as slow as the graphs here show. Also, "Slow Minimum" and "Min Phase Slow" sound like they should be the same filter, but clearly are shown not to be the same, and "Slow Minimum" has a surprisingly fast roll-off for a "slow" filter
Thank you.Topping usually places the certifications on the below panel.
Does look like a better remote using Bluetooth though? As reported by @KenA #8 aboveNot sure why someone would buy this DAC while the D70 pro Sabre offers exact same performance, bigger display, Aurora UI and a lower price tag...
Actually D70 Pro Sabre offers slighly better multitone.Not sure why someone would buy this DAC while the D70 pro Sabre offers exact same performance, bigger display, Aurora UI and a lower price tag...
Just buy a $900 AVR. Apparently nobody can hear the difference.When do they finally release a DAC with HDMI input? That would solve my problems.
I agree with the overall message but I believe what they need to work on is features. RME support is great, and given all the functionality of their products, that is useful. I don't think customer support would make a big difference for a DAC like this however. Plug in the cables, chose a filter and that's that.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.
yeah who would buy this over a RME is beyond me. You save a few hundred $, and you get a few more dB in SINAD, but you loose track record of reliability and support which would be critical in this price range.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.
wowThis 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.
View attachment 342759
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:
View attachment 342760
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:
View attachment 342773
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.
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Fully agree. This is in fact one of the DACs that make me think are we hitting a bump in the golden age of cheap audio electronics.yeah who would buy this over a RME is beyond me. You save a few hundred $, and you get a few more dB in SINAD, but you loose track record of reliability and support which would be critical in this price range.
Yes features too.I agree with the overall message but I believe what they need to work on is features. RME support is great, and given all the functionality of their products, that is useful. I don't think customer support would make a big difference for a DAC like this however. Plug in the cables, chose a filter and that's that.
Let's don't forget that their internal market is 1.5 billion people.yeah who would buy this over a RME is beyond me. You save a few hundred $, and you get a few more dB in SINAD, but you loose track record of reliability and support which would be critical in this price range.
That's not the case. HDMI connector has dedicated pins for audio.The other problem is that when HDMI carries audio in the conventional sense (not I2S) the audio is embedded in a video signal.