I meant technicality, not features.
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Topping D900 DAC Review
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The elder Delta-Sigma DACs (most consumer chips in the market) are 1bit DACs. The most modern and better chip DACs use more than one bit so a 1bit DAC is generally no advantage. Maybe in linearity but especially the D900 is not so strong in this discipline.
The special thing here is that Topping did not use a Chip DAC but built its own. By concept it's not too complicated. The upsampling can - and probably is - done in a FPGA. This is simple number crunching, some cut-off filters and an N-stage integrator for noise shaping. All can be realized in the digital domain as for example HQ-Player also does.
At the end you have a high frequency 1bit digital pulse train that can be treated with a simple lowpass filter to create the analog output. This is conceptually the same as a DSD stream coming from the SACD.
As the shaped noise gets visible above 50kHz I guess the output will be something comparable to DSD-128 or higher als in DSD-64 the noise starts getting in at a lower frequency. Depends a bit what integration filters they use for Delta-Sigma.
nope. still transparent with a lot of power to give. performance wise is even better than this, and not just SINAD, for example https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-d90-iii-sabre-dac-review.51493/
some people just want custom DAC and not IC based
Not sure what technicality you mean (that is objective/relevant here at ASR).
he meant if they have drawbacks on other things, not just SINAD, which I linked the review to D90III to show that it even has superior performance. do not matter as they are both inaudible and SOTA, but performance wise there is no reason to spend this much money on this DAC
Well, either way I think you and I are saying the same thing: all the evidence necessary is in the reviews for the other DACs that perform better.
Nothing of this caliber has an audible issue with, say jitter, noise floor, or linearity. Now I didn’t specifically check, but if any of the DACs outperforming in terms of SINAD use a Cirrus Logic chip, then there’s the whole DRE fiasco, but chances are, the vast majority of these cream-of-the-crop DACs use ESS or AKM.
Pros:
1. there is a cheap off the shelf delta-sigma chip available
2. it simplifies the design and production of the discrete DAC, even if Topping clearly aced it.
3. some audiophiles like the idea, reminds them the DSD marketing
Cons:
It's mathematically impossible to have a non distorted digital signal on 1 bit because it can not be dithered
babadono
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So the SMSL SU-10 is 1.5 dB deeper in the mud. I CANNOT hear this.
I neither made any statement nor implied anything about any of these differences actually being audible. The question was asked, so I provided the answer.
babadono
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Yes I get it and my reply was not directed necessarily to you. Sorry no offense intended.
misterdog
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Unless you were considering a Chord Dave DAC at £ 10,000.
Sokel
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By a stretch, and by Topping rules, is not just a DAC.
It's a DAC plus their pre90, kind off, in a nicer package.
Probably the best of their two worlds in one package.
The funny thing about it is that a combination of their lower cost devices can get there as well.
I mentioned before: DX7 Pro+, DX9, and DX9 Discrete all provide equally transparent DAC integrated with a remote relay-controlled resistor ladder volume attenuator, very much the same functionality and quality of functionality as the D900 for quite a lot less money in a single box. They even all include a quite performant headphone amplifier, too.
No way this will sound as good as that Chord. Money sings don’t you know
and what is that chip?
SINAD isn’t “everything”, but it’s most of it with DACs. You won’t hear any sort of difference between any of those stellar options on that graph—it’s all a fun academic exercise for us at this point (for a few years now).
With digital audio, measurements literally do tell you the whole story—the fact that it’s digital afforded us optimal tools to assess how well its doing its job! With amps, headphones, speakers and other devices in the analog realm, there’s a slew of other factors and confounds that render measurements less complete (but they still tell you a lot). Most of the grief we get on this site is from some folks who just can’t wrap their heads around the difference between digital and analog audio—whoever started using analog descriptors to describe streams of ones and zeroes did us a tremendous disservice, by giving greedy manufacturers all sorts of sneaky ideas…
The only difference among the Topping options is features, and a glitch here or there. My d90se measures better than this behemoth, but has the pesky drop out issue on the coax input for some peripherals. Some support MQA, some don’t. Some are pure DACs, some have integrated amps. Nothing audible between the ESS9038 and the newer 9039, no practical advantage between the XU216 and 316 XMOS. The only thing tempting me to upgrade is the integrated PEQ they introduced in the d50, at a third of the price!
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