Topping D90SE Review (Balanced DAC)

[Dgob]

I just checked eBay and it’s awash with HAECOAX, a couple dozen units from the US—which I would guess would be considerably less of a pain in the ass to navigate than Japan? B&H also carries them. And since it requires a 5V 2 amp power supply, does it matter what the wall voltage is? I’m pretty sure 5 volts is 5 volts is 5 volts as far as the Kanex cares about—as long as you buy a universal, variable voltage 5V DC converter with the correct polarity and correct tip to fit the unit’s power jack, I think the voltage conversion occurs in the wall wart (the wall wart is the step down transformer)…

UPDATE: I’m using a regular old iFi iPower 5 volt power supply to power my HAECOAX and that unit accepts both 110 and 220. As I said all you need is a universal 5V 2 amp minimum power supply and it’ll work on either side of the pond.

I found this, but it does look different from the one cited. Is this a possibility?

PP5: KANEX PRO HAECOAX KanexPro Audio De-Embedder 3D Support | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for PP5: KANEX PRO HAECOAX KanexPro Audio De-Embedder 3D Support at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[linger63]

I found this, but it does look different from the one cited. Is this a possibility?

PP5: KANEX PRO HAECOAX KanexPro Audio De-Embedder 3D Support | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for PP5: KANEX PRO HAECOAX KanexPro Audio De-Embedder 3D Support at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

That's the exact one I have .
Note.........I am in Australia and we have 230v

 

[Dgob]

That's the exact one I have .
Note.........I am in Australia and we have 230v

Thanks, I've just put my order in, and it should be here by the end of the month (a huge improvement on November!). Thanks for all the kind help and here's to hoping that it does the trick. Either way, coming in under £100, it is a better option than buying a new TV set.

I was just wondering though: My TV only appears to have HDMI IN connections (2 x eARC/ARC and 1 x normal HDMI IN). Not sure how the connection between that and the HAECOAX and TV will work - with box and TV only having HDMI IN connections. I'm sure I'm missing something here, but any clarification would be welcome.

 

[Dgob]

Your TV doesn't have TosLink (optical) out ?

Sorry

I can only say that it's very early in the morning here!!

Thanks again

 

[Rja4000]

Sorry

I can only say that it's very early in the morning here!!

Thanks again

If the Topping doesn't work with the TV TosLink output, then it has a serious problem.

Maybe you just need to switch the TosLink output format to Stereo instead of 5.1.
Isn't that available in your TV settings ?

 

[Dgob]

Amazon comes up with the notification that they do NOT ship to the UK. Thanks for the heads-up and I will check again though.

Ooops!! I just realised that you suggested eBay. I will check immediately. Thanks again.

Actually, there is no Toslink IN on the HAECOAX? My confusion and earlier question (partly) came from your earlier suggestion:

"HDMI cable out of an HDMI ARC port on your TV into Kanex Pro, optical or coax out of your Kanex Pro to your Topping. On most TVs the ARC port is two-way. You can get the HAECOAX from Amazon and return if it doesn’t work…"

So the Toslink OUT on my TV won't come into it then? And the HDMI IN ARC connection will provide the needed OUT?

Sorry if I'm missing something - and, if so, see my earlier reference to time.

 

[Dgob]

I just realised that I am addressing two responders here, but the question still applies!! However, I have since reviewed eARC/ARC connections and appreciate that it DOES also act as an OUT. So many, many thanks again.

 

[Dgob]

If the Topping doesn't work with the TV TosLink output, then it has awseriois problem.

Maybe you just need to switch the TosLink output format to Stereo instead of 5.1.
Isn't that available in your TV settings ?

I am already using it as stereo (2 channel), but thanks for the suggestion.

 

[srkbear]

I just realised that I am addressing two responders here, but the question still applies!! However, I have since reviewed eARC/ARC connections and appreciate that it DOES also act as an OUT. So many, many thanks again.

That’s what I mentioned in one of my prior posts—to use ARC. It should act as a bidirectional port, but I mentioned Amazon only because of its return policy in case it doesn’t work.

If the TV won’t work, if you have a blu ray player with an audio out it should definitely work for that! Good luck!

 

[srkbear]

I am already using it as stereo (2 channel), but thanks for the suggestion.

As I also said before, make sure you have multichannel on on the HAECOAX to get the full dynamic range, even if your source is stereo.

 

[Dgob]

That’s what I mentioned in one of my prior posts—to use ARC. It should act as a bidirectional port, but I mentioned Amazon only because of its return policy in case it doesn’t work.

If the TV won’t work, if you have a blu ray player with an audio out it should definitely work for that! Good luck!

Yes, I finally realised.

I also have a Marantz UD7007 and so might take advantage of the blu ray option. However, my fingers are tightly crossed for the main focus of my TV fix.

 

[Rover]

On the new 2022 release year Topping D90LE has no dropout problems on LG TVs.Apparently they fixed the SE problems.

 

[srkbear]

On the new 2022 release year Topping D90LE has no dropout problems on LG TVs.Apparently they fixed the SE problems.

They used a different input receiver! There are other units such as the DX7 pro that use the CS8416 and have the same dropout issues. These only occur with certain brands of TVs and Blu ray players with that receiver—I suspect Topping wised up with the LE after all the complaints about the D90se’s dropouts.

Nevertheless, there are some advantages to using the de-embedder, particularly with SACDs—Sony‘s DRM requirements stipulate that all SACD signals be down-sampled to 48khz/16 bit, to prevent folks from pirating super high resolution masters through conventional digital outputs. So if you run S/PDIF signals out of SACD-capable players you will be subject to those restrictions.

With the de-embedder, the digital signal is not adulterated per the DRM restrictions and you can get a higher sampling rate to your DAC! So if you ever are running a signal to your TV from a blu ray player that has a separate audio HDMI output, it is advantageous to send the video signal separately to your TV, and run the audio signal out of the HDMI audio out on the player to your DAC via the Kanex Pro…

 

[Gggggas]

Hello folks ,

I have a question regarding the D90SE MQA playback, I have everything setup on the computer regarding drivers, ASIO as well as on Foobar2000.
My problem is that whenever I'm playing a MQA file the sample rate stays at 44.1 or 48 depending on the file and I don't get a MQA indication on the screen of the DAC.

I'd highly appreciate your help

 

[Dgob]

Hello folks ,

I have a question regarding the D90SE MQA playback, I have everything setup on the computer regarding drivers, ASIO as well as on Foobar2000.
My problem is that whenever I'm playing a MQA file the sample rate stays at 44.1 or 48 depending on the file and I don't get a MQA indication on the screen of the DAC.

I'd highly appreciate your help

I had the same problem until I upgraded my Tidal account to Hifi Plus. Then accurate resolution rates started to show/play, along with the MQA logo.

Not sure if this will help: https://www.techradar.com/features/tidal-hifi-vs-tidal-hifi-plus

 

[srkbear]

Hello folks ,

I have a question regarding the D90SE MQA playback, I have everything setup on the computer regarding drivers, ASIO as well as on Foobar2000.
My problem is that whenever I'm playing a MQA file the sample rate stays at 44.1 or 48 depending on the file and I don't get a MQA indication on the screen of the DAC.

I'd highly appreciate your help

Can you describe your setup in a little more detail please? My first guess is that in the desktop Tidal app you don’t have Exclusive mode enabled—it is required to access higher sampling rates.

 

[Gggggas]

Can you describe your setup in a little more detail please? My first guess is that in the desktop Tidal app you don’t have Exclusive mode enabled—it is required to access higher sampling rates.

Sure , first of all I am not a Tidal subscriber I just happen to have songs in their Master quality from Tidal. For example I have this lovely track played on UAPP on my phone and it's working fine with Bit perfect mode set to On.

When I listen to it on Foobar2000 via the Topping D90SE the sample rate stays at 48 and I'm wondering what I have to do in order to take advantage of MQA. There's also no indication on the screen of the DAC that it's reproducing a MQA file.

 

[KeithPhantom]

Can you describe your setup in a little more detail please? My first guess is that in the desktop Tidal app you don’t have Exclusive mode enabled—it is required to access higher sampling rates.

I'll check when I get my D90SE today.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

Sure , first of all I am not a Tidal subscriber I just happen to have songs in their Master quality from Tidal. For example I have this lovely track played on UAPP on my phone and it's working fine with Bit perfect mode set to On.

When I listen to it on Foobar2000 via the Topping D90SE the sample rate stays at 48 and I'm wondering what I have to do in order to take advantage of MQA. There's also no indication on the screen of the DAC that it's reproducing a MQA file.

Foobar won't decode MQA properly, without a ton of configuration and even then it's not a guarantee you will have the proper unfolding of the master file. Consider a Roon, Audirvana or Amarra trial, assuming you are using Windows to get full MQA desktop playback.

Or just find a high quality 24/192 version of the song. Leave the Tidal masters for mobile through UAPP. MQA is not really worth all the trouble anymore.

Music is supposed to be relaxing,not fumbling over settings, and looking for the right color led output.

 

[srkbear]

Foobar won't decode MQA properly, without a ton of configuration and even then it's not a guarantee you will have the proper unfolding of the master file. Consider a Roon, Audirvana or Amarra trial, assuming you are using Windows to get full MQA desktop playback.

Or just find a high quality 24/192 version of the song. Leave the Tidal masters for mobile through UAPP. MQA is not really worth all the trouble anymore.

Music is supposed to be relaxing,not fumbling over settings, and looking for the right color led output.

I fully agree on the Roon suggestion, considerably more than messing with Foobar. Roon has brought me extraordinary returns, for both Tidal and Qobuz.

I can’t disagree on principle about your view of MQA, a format with which I have a litany of issues technologically and ethically. My only reservation about abandoning it myself is that unfortunately Tidal has acquired many of the best quality masters for its catalogue, in my experience superior to Qobuz’s in a number of cases. So I still subscribe to both services, and pick and choose which master I elect to make primary in my library based on quality.

I also continue to amass a library of digital FLAC and DSF files from sites such as HighResAudio (one of Audirvana’s proprietary assets), ProStudioMasters and HDTracks—which I pursue for my absolute favorite albums. This offers me the option of utilizing JRiver software to bake DSP adjustments into the file, obviating the need for me to apply them in Roon.

My library is definitely a mishmash, but thus far this has been the best method I have found to achieve the sound quality I’m looking for. I long for a day when studio archivists develop some principles around providing “definitive” masters of optimal quality that would obviate the need for subscribing to multiple streaming services, but since they profit from each one they grant rights to, I’m not holding my breath.