Topping D900 DAC Review

[Matias]

Maybe that is the reason the apparently new DAC was returned to begin with... I think the obvious was tried already, now it is up to support to handle the replacement or fix.

 

[zdykstra]

Maybe that is the reason the apparently new DAC was returned to begin with... I think the obvious was tried already, now it is up to support to handle the replacement or fix.

Yup! I've been in contact with them - they forwarded all of my testing data/results over to the engineering team. If they don't get back to me in the next week or so, I'll initiate a return to make sure I land inside my 30 day return window. I would prefer if they replaced the unit outright. I'm not interested in shipping the unit to/from mainland China when I've had it in my possession for two days.

 

[zdykstra]

Welp, while trying to get a cellphone video of the DAC glitching on audio, I discovered a pretty tight correlation between the glitches appearing at the start of a track, or shortly after I've done a forward/reverse seek in the song. Poking through MPD/ALSA docs, I uncovered the period_time and buffer_time settings. I left the buffer at 500ms, but changed the period from 125ms down to 25ms. That seems to have entirely fixed the audio glitches on 24bit depth tracks. The D900 is just very very twitchy compared to every other DAC I have at my disposal.

audio_output {
type            "alsa"
name            "Topping D900"
device          "hw:0,0"
mixer_type      "none"
auto_channels   "no"
auto_resample   "no"
auto_format     "no"
buffer_time     "500000"
period_time     "25000"
}

I've been waffling the entire weekend about actually keeping this device, though. The remote is fantastic; it has a solid milled aluminum case and it reliably controls the D900 - I can point it basically anywhere in the room in any direction and it "just works". The incredibly high output voltage is nice; I can leave my Buckeye 1ET6525SA on the lowest gain setting and still have more than enough power for my speakers. The relay-based volume control is also nice, with very satisfying clicks from the relays as you increase or decrease the volume.

The part that really scares me is that there are a lot of very bespoke circuits in this, with what I imagine are some fairly fiddly parts. This is outside of their normal products, which they seem to have really gotten down to a real science. All of their recent COTS parts high-end DACs seem to be very reliable, with nobody really talking about failures in them. Topping's after-sales support, along with the need to ship this item too/from China in the event of a problem, paints a bleak picture in the event that there is a hardware failure down the road. At this point I'm trying to weigh perceived reliability against the overall cost.

I like unique things, and the D900 feels relatively unique in this space at this price point. I'm curious where other people are on the reliability question.

 

[FredericV]

I've been waffling the entire weekend about actually keeping this device, though. The remote is fantastic; it has a solid milled aluminum case and it reliably controls the D900 - I can point it basically anywhere in the room in any direction and it "just works". The incredibly high output voltage is nice; I can leave my Buckeye 1ET6525SA on the lowest gain setting and still have more than enough power for my speakers. The relay-based volume control is also nice, with very satisfying clicks from the relays as you increase or decrease the volume.

I was initially annoyed by the D900, but decided to keep it anyway, after changing the environment around it.

The part that really scares me is that there are a lot of very bespoke circuits in this, with what I imagine are some fairly fiddly parts. This is outside of their normal products, which they seem to have really gotten down to a real science. All of their recent COTS parts high-end DACs seem to be very reliable, with nobody really talking about failures in them. Topping's after-sales support, along with the need to ship this item too/from China in the event of a problem, paints a bleak picture in the event that there is a hardware failure down the road. At this point I'm trying to weigh perceived reliability against the overall cost.

I like unique things, and the D900 feels relatively unique in this space at this price point. I'm curious where other people are on the reliability question.

For me the reasons to keep it:

1. very high SINAD
2. analog relay volume control which works
3. the fact that internal PCM to DSD conversion just works, with their own DAC design. No messing with filter settings.
4. much lower THD than ladder / NOS DAC's but with a similar time domain performance

I do combine this with the flagship mono's from apollonaudio

Purifi 1ET9040BA Eigentakt Premium Monoblock Amplifier PET1200 M

Elevate your audio experience with the Purifi 1ET9040BA amplifier, featuring Weiss OP2-BP Op Amps and a custom-designed power supply for impeccable sound clarity.

apollonaudio.com

they drive a pair of Amphion Krypton3X in an acoustically controlled room.