TOPPING D90 III Sabre DAC Review

[AudioSceptic]

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/

This is all well and good, but is there really any reason to buy this when you can get *almost* the same, already transparent, performance for less than ½ the price with, say, a Topping E70 <https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-e70-stereo-dac-review.39188/>? (There many others now in the same bracket.)

 

[AudioSceptic]

Impressive, again.

I so much want one of these to come out with EQ. And excellent reliability.

Thanks for you work Amir.

Just get an RME.

 

[AudioSceptic]

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.

Not just that but also an excellent HP amp, PEQ, and proper display. (I've just seen one advertised for £876 and I'm so tempted!)

 

[Rja4000]

Nice to see Topping continuing to provide trigger support for automatic turn on of the downstream amplifiers and such.

This was missing on the D90SE/LE

 

[AudioSceptic]

I have always used my 2.0 stereo setup for audio playback of the TV since I hate the sound from TV speakers. I know I could use the Toslink connection from the TV to the DAC, but this would require me and my family using an additional remote control just for controlling the volume of the TV. HDMI ARC with CEC function would be very practical in that context. Thus, right now I have the variable line-out of the TV directly connected to my integrated Marantz amp. I guess the sound quality of the TV line-out will not be as good as as with HDMI via a good DAC.

Similar here. We use a One For All programmable remote, which can replace several others. Reasonable price too. <https://www.oneforall.com/en-gb/universal-remotes#/>

 

[Repdetect]

SMSL DO 100 - $200

So $700 more for insignificant, i.e. inaudible specs.

I think not.

 

[Hart]

It seems like the DAC game has mostly sorted itself out. I wish the AVR/AVP purveyors were as competitive. Center channel speakers probably need to go back to the drawing board.

 

[Repdetect]

This is all well and good, but is there really any reason to buy this when you can get *almost* the same, already transparent, performance for less than ½ the price with, say, a Topping E70 <https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-e70-stereo-dac-review.39188/>? (There many others now in the same bracket.)

How about $200 for an SMSL DO 100?

 

[EdW]

What is it this balance control? Sorry I missed that feature

sorry for slow reply

pretty poor documentation from Topping

https://dl.topping.audio/um/d90iii_sabre.pdf

look at p9 section 14

 

[levimax]

It looks like Topping has increased SINAD about as high as they can.... they now appear to have shifted their focus to increasing their prices.

 

[delta76]

It looks like Topping has increased SINAD about as high as they can.... they now appear to have shifted their focus to increasing their prices.

I believe 123dB is the limit of APx555 that Amir owns, their own measurements - assumedly with newer version of AP shows 128dB, so they do make improvements (but only marginally and it does not really matter at this point). they are trying to compete in the "higher" end market and need something to show for it. Whether that justifies a new DACs, and a higher price tag, is up to debate of course.

 

[Vive la dissonance!]

I rated this only "Fine." State-of-the-art performance, sure, but inaudibly better only, than numerous choices with more features or cheaper prices.

 

[Jarrett]

Maybe Amir should stop recommending DACs now by performance alone

 

[AudioSceptic]

How about $200 for an SMSL DO 100?

Yes! I see it's even got BlueTooth, if that matters. I chose the E70 at random because I couldn't be bothered to check all the prices.

 

[trl]

Purely out of interest, does anyone know whether Topping have stuck with a linear PS for the D90 III, or have they gone over to an SMPS, like many of their other DACs?

Mani.

I guess they use the same SMPS followed by Linear regulators, like in previous D90, otherwise they couldn't have fit the entire PSU inside such a small case.

 

[Stokdoof]

For That money I expect a Topping designed DAC chip not the EES reference design in a boring box.

Sorry stil in blue Monday mode..

 

[Leeken]

Nothing worthy of note to distinguish it from previous 90s imo,once your past audibility I want functions and more inputs etc,this seems to give me no advantage over most of their cheaper options.

 

[MAB]

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.

Customer support on these is as much for warranty returns as it is to help with features.
Actually, usually getting help with features is a matter of me reading the manual, which I actually enjoy with the RME.
So it's down to after-sales as most important for my use.

 

[Billy Budapest]

I think for most people looking at high performance models from Topping, the D70Pro will be more attractive—almost identical measured performance, much better feature set and aesthetics, lower price.

 

[DLS79]

Just get an RME.

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.