Topping D90SE Measurements (DAC)

[VintageFlanker]

Yes, but why it have worse crosstalk than other dacs?

Not sure what are you talking about. D90SE? It is not "worse" at all. You should have a better look at the scale:

Is small box is not enough to properly separate right and left channels from each other to allow better crosstalk?

I do not see how it is related. There is not any chance that you may hear any difference between -105 and -120dB crosstalk, anyway.

 

[Arnas]

Not sure what are you talking about. D90SE? It is not "worse" at all. You should have a better look at the scale:View attachment 196302

I do not see how it is related. There is not any chance that you may hear any difference between -105 and -120dB crosstalk, anyway.

Im not talking about that Matrix dac...

 

[mccririck]

Arnas, the breadth of the soundstage is not a quality of the DAC but of your room and speakers.

Arnas, the breadth of the soundstage is not a quality of the DAC but of your room and speakers.

Not when you're comparing components using the same room and speakers! Doh!

 

[nagster]

A couple of comments. For people using these dacs as preamps, like me, it is always nice to see the Dynamic range vs vol graph. Is it possible to get it with your setup?

Such graphs are time consuming, so I measured 0dB / -30dB / -60dB in PRE mode.

 

[nagster]

I noticed 1 main complaint about it on many subjective reviews.
Narrow soundstage... Amir said its crosstalk is enough, but why does competing sabre dacs like Gustard X26 Pro and Stuff from Matrix guys said to sound wider and measurements also show significantly better crosstalk...
Topping a90 same story, all complaints mainly about it sounding narrow.
Is small box is not enough to properly separate right and left channels from each other to allow better crosstalk?
Both Matrix and Gustard top tier models have bigger boxes.

Attach files

 

[VintageFlanker]

Such graphs are time consuming, so I measured 0dB / -30dB / -60dB in PRE mode.View attachment 196819

Many thanks. Behaves exactly as expected:

it is pretty common that SNR/DR are usually both lowered by the same amount of dB than the digital attenuation itself

 

[Zorlac]

Pretty sure Amir said mode 7 was the best filter. Can you show a graph with 7 vs 5?

 

[VintageFlanker]

Pretty sure Amir said mode 7 was the best filter.

He did not measure frequency response, but filtering of white noise.

Can you show a graph with 7 vs 5?

 

[staticV3]

Pretty sure Amir said mode 7 was the best filter. Can you show a graph with 7 vs 5?

Topping D90SE Review (Balanced DAC)

Hi all, hi @amirm, what is the best filter to use, considering both frequency response and THD+N performance?

audiosciencereview.com

 

[Zorlac]

Awesome, thank you. I guess I will try 5 now.

 

[Zorlac]

Topping D90SE Review (Balanced DAC)

Hi all, hi @amirm, what is the best filter to use, considering both frequency response and THD+N performance?

audiosciencereview.com

Okay now I’m more confused lol…almost sounds like none of the filters really matter.

 

[staticV3]

correct.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Awesome, thank you. I guess I will try 5 now.

We are talking about 0.2dB variation at 15Khz. It would be very unlikely that you hear anything different, TBH.

almost sounds like none of the filters really matter.

Kind of. I would just say to "avoid" Mode 1 since this ringing at high frequencies is weird.

 

[amirm]

Very nice work. Promoted to home page.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Very nice work. Promoted to home page.

My sincere thanks again, @amirm

 

[LTig]

It absolutely is. To quote E1DA:
SNR=DR@MONO: 127+/-1db(A) grade-B, STEREO mode has 3db worse SNR/DR.

Wow. It seems to me that the combination of the D90SE and the E1Da makes for a better measurement instrument than the RME ADI-2 PRO fs, at least regarding THD. Impressive.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

This is cool ... can anyone do this at home? What are you using for measuring performance?

 

[VintageFlanker]

This is cool ... can anyone do this at home?

With a lot of patience, yes...

What are you using for measuring performance?

You should at least read the review first!

 

[pma]

@VintageFlanker , your E1 DA Cosmos results look excellent! Have you found any issues, like SW instability etc.? I am seriously considering to purchase it.

 

[IVX]

VintageFlanker, hey it seems you deserve to get a preproduction E1DA Cosmos APU free sample(the other two samples go to Archimago, and StaticV3 as usual), as a beta tester, if you never mind.
Analog Processing Unit contains Low Noise Amplifier 140nVrms(A) i.e. about 6x times less vs APx555b. You can measure SNR or DR(140db++) of any DAC on the market. Just by the way the LNA section contains 48V phantom power and may work with a condenser mic preamp(Neumann, AKG, Rode etc) as well. Another half of APU is the notch filter 1/10kHz that may see distortions-harmonics as low as -150db and less. Its residual THD+N@1kHz <-130db i.e. at least 2x times lower than APx555b. I think you could be one of the first people who'll measure ES9038Pro based DAC properly. Actually, APx555b isn't able to measure even a cheap CS43131 SNR/DR and will show 123db(A) instead of Cirrus promised -130db(A), APU shows -130.5db(A)