Topping D90SE Review (Balanced DAC)

[Killingbeans]

The user manual says 100 ohms on both:

Are you thinking about driving headphones directly with the line level outputs?

 

[georgehifi]

Thanks for those specs. I believe output and input impedances should be stated in all reviews, they are being left out more and more now, even by many manufacturers.

Are you thinking about driving headphones directly with the line level outputs?

No, but thinking of driving 2kohm 2 x inputs of a (no input buffer) Hypex NC500 mono poweramps as well as the 2kohm inputs of 2 x sub woofer amps.
Which means the output of the D-90se will see a load of 1kohm for each channel, which it should handle and (stay relitivley flat} without any frequency dependant attenuation of it's output,

Cheers George

 

[kchap]

Thanks for those specs. I believe output and input impedances should be stated in all reviews, they are being left out more and more now, even by many manufacturers.


No, but thinking of driving 2kohm 2 x inputs of a (no input buffer) Hypex NC500 mono poweramps as well as the 2kohm inputs of 2 x sub woofer amps.
Which means the output of the D-90se will see a load of 1kohm for each channel, which it should handle and (stay relitivley flat} without any frequency dependant attenuation of it's output,

Cheers George

Hypex recommend a max source impedance of 50Ω. That would reduce to 25Ω for 2 amps.

 

[kchap]

I forgot, the Hypex Datasheet.

 

[georgehifi]

Hypex recommend a max source impedance of 50Ω. That would reduce to 25Ω for 2 amps.

It's really all about what the D-90se output stage can handle "load wise" before "starting to wheeze".
In the NC500 case without input buffer, it's 1.8kohm load parallel to that the subwoofer input load of 2kohm you have a load that the D-90se will see as .9kohm.

Cheers George

 

[kchap]

It can probably drive a 900Ω load but I'm not sure.

 

[georgehifi]

It can probably drive a 900Ω load but I'm not sure.

Depends on what output opamp they used and it's short circuit current ability, and if any heat sinking.

Cheers George

 

[xaon60]

Something is going on with the Topping driver. I mentioned earlier that the sound was more to the left than to the right, and especially that there was a really flat sound on certain tracks. I uninstalled the driver earlier to switch to Windows’ native ASIO (the DAC is recognized as D90SE in the sound manager after rebooting). The left-right balance has returned to normal, with normal spatialization as well! What’s happening with the driver? Compression? (For your information, I was selecting the Topping Audio DAC output in Roon until now).

 

[mackman]

I'm replacing the D90SE in my headphone rig with a D50 III for the hardware PEQ. I was wondering what I should do with the D90SE. My living room has a miniDSP SHD feeding a Benchmark AHB2 powering a pair of KEF R3 non-metas and splitting off a channel for the subwoofer. Anything have thoughts on whether it would be worth sticking the D90SE between the SHD and AHB2?

 

[staticV3]

I'm replacing the D90SE in my headphone rig with a D50 III because I for hardware PEQ. I was wondering what I should do with the D90SE. My living room has a miniDSP SHD feeding a Benchmark AHB2 powering a pair of KEF R3 non-metas and splitting off a channel for the subwoofer. Anything have thoughts on whether it would be worth sticking the D90SE between the SHD and AHB2?

The SHD is transparent, so not worth adding the D90se.

By doing that, you may also introduce delay and phase shift/drift between Sub and Mains.

 

[mackman]

The SHD is transparent, so not worth adding the D90se.

By doing that, you may also introduce delay and phase shift/drift between Sub and Mains.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking and why I hadn't bought an extra DAC for it before. I'm not too worried about the delay though, I had had to adjust all the timing because the speakers aren't symmetric to the listening position and the sub has a bit of a delay for its own DSP.

 

[amper42]

I'm replacing the D90SE in my headphone rig with a D50 III for the hardware PEQ. I was wondering what I should do with the D90SE. My living room has a miniDSP SHD feeding a Benchmark AHB2 powering a pair of KEF R3 non-metas and splitting off a channel for the subwoofer. Anything have thoughts on whether it would be worth sticking the D90SE between the SHD and AHB2?

Sell it. Recoup what you can.

 

[damieneo]

So my 2 year old D90SE started experiencing drop outs from all of it's inputs. Playback will have intermittent stop start of the signal. Have tried factory settings reset, driver reinstall and even firmware flash, no luck. My earlier DX7 Pro is still functionung great and no issue. Is there any suggestions?

 

[Roland68]

So my 2 year old D90SE started experiencing drop outs from all of it's inputs. Playback will have intermittent stop start of the signal. Have tried factory settings reset, driver reinstall and even firmware flash, no luck. My earlier DX7 Pro is still functionung great and no issue. Is there any suggestions?

Really on all inputs?
USB, coax, optical and AES?
Does it also happen with Bluetooth?

 

[hwest]

Really on all inputs?
USB, coax, optical and AES?
Does it also happen with Bluetooth?

Yes the highly touted DS90 Topping has its share of issues not sure what causes this but it's all over the web same issue with Audio dropping out. It's low distortion of course and great sounding 2 channel but a little quirky sometimes.

 

[damieneo]

Really on all inputs?
USB, coax, optical and AES?
Does it also happen with Bluetooth?

Yes, all inputs. The audio will play for a while and then cuts off at random intervals. Switching different ports on different computers or laptop yielded the same results. Bummer, since the D90SE and A90 stack were not in use that often compared to the DX7 Pro. At first I was considering buying the newer D90 III Sabre or Discrete but considering the hefty price to pay, would be a problem if they started developing problems after their 1 year warranty expires. Would have expected a bit more longetivity.