Thank you! But this graph seems to be showing XLR connection, would this hold true using RCA's at 2.6v? (The 5v equivelant to the XLR higher setting)5V has slightly superior performance as can be seen here..
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Topping D90SE Review (Balanced DAC)
- Thread starter amirm
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Ok this might seem like a dumb question but then again you never know in this hobby: Which preamp do you think would provide better performance, using the D90SE's built in preamp, or using the built in preamp in my Marantz Model 30 integrated which has it's own power supply and is rated pretty good. ($3,500 unit in Canada).
The reason I ask is because would love to use the D90SE's volume control, but not if I would lose performance compared to using the Marantz's preamp.
Thanks!
The reason I ask is because would love to use the D90SE's volume control, but not if I would lose performance compared to using the Marantz's preamp.
Thanks!
Veri
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Sure!
I can't tell the difference, and many others say the same thing. Apparently #7 measures the best.
Katji
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Look at this way...whenever there is load-shedding [I think "ohh shiT"]
and I switch off the wall outlet, for the wi-fi router, and I get up and switch off the wall outlet for the speakers [which contain amplifiers and DAC]...and when I come back from the kitchen, I get the router's battery/power bank..............because when the power comes on again, 2 hours later, there is usually a spike, the voltage might spike to 250V...it takes a few minutes to stabilise. And when I go out, I switch it all off, in case there is a power disruption while I'm out.(We know this in South Africa, because the power supply is fxxked up, since they corrupted and looted the ESKOM and did not do maintenance, and when they did, a few years ago, they damaged one power station........and it has been discussed a lot, many times, on the AV forum...and people have measured...and many people have had hi-fi equipment damaged by it, especially AVR...) Oh and when it is at night, I look outside to see if it is only the building, or all buildings in the block. Because I don't know the schedule...and maybe later I see tv news and they say ESKOM has said there is a problem and they will be doing load-shedding.
So, don't worry about the mode when it is switched on, the important thing is that it does switch on and it is ok.
[ Sorry if I missed the point / misunderstood. ]
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I'd also try the XLR outputs since they have a higher voltage output than RCAs. I personally prefer XLRs for their common mode-noise immunity.
Thanks, but I don't have XLR inputs on my amp. Just RCA. So I was trying to figure out if 4v or 5v setting produced same quality measurements through RCA outputs.
AnalogSteph
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#7 is a lil' tight at 44.1, #6 would seem the better choice if you insist on a "correct" filter. I would rather avoid the slow rolloff #2 and #4 filters. My faves would probably be the "classic" fast rolloff filters #5 or #3, they may let a bit of aliasing through up to ~24 kHz but are pretty much bombproof beyond that (and the aliased 20-22 kHz range usually contains little in terms of signal anyway).
The Model 30 supposedly has a 2-stage volume (well, most anything with a PGA has these days), is rated 107 dB(A) at 2 Vrms in / rated power out, and does not feature a power amp direct in so you cannot bypass its preamp stage.
To be honest, the D90SE seems way overdressed for this amp. You have no balanced inputs, dynamic range needs are rather modest by modern standards, and you'd only need volume control in the DAC if your sources do not provide any way of reducing digital levels of your playback material a bit (maybe 2-3 dB below full-scale). Maybe look into a D50s or something?
Usually unbalanced out is half of balanced out (might lose a few dB of dynamic range but not usually too much). I doubt the NAD would accept input levels that high anyway.
I'm using this DAC (D90SE) with Roon and Tidal and I am having a hard time finding the proper MQA settings.
In Roon, if I set "MQA capabilities" to "Decoder and renderer" and set "Enable MQA core decoder" to "No", it is my understanding that the DAC is then supposed to handle all 3 MQA unfolds (so Roon is just passing everything through as is to the DAC) but according to the DAC's display 44.1/16 MQA isn't being unfolded to 88.2 (the MQA indicator is on but the sample rate shows 44.1). Higher sample rate MQA, such as 96kHz, shows as 96 on the DAC's display (and the MQA indicator is on as well).
In order to get 44.1/16 MQA to show 88.2 on the DAC's display I have to set "MQA capabilities" to "No MQA support" and "Enable MQA core decoder" to "Yes" but then Roon is handling the first unfold and the DAC (no MQA indicator) isn't handling any MQA unfolds?
In Roon, if I set "MQA capabilities" to "Decoder and renderer" and set "Enable MQA core decoder" to "No", it is my understanding that the DAC is then supposed to handle all 3 MQA unfolds (so Roon is just passing everything through as is to the DAC) but according to the DAC's display 44.1/16 MQA isn't being unfolded to 88.2 (the MQA indicator is on but the sample rate shows 44.1). Higher sample rate MQA, such as 96kHz, shows as 96 on the DAC's display (and the MQA indicator is on as well).
In order to get 44.1/16 MQA to show 88.2 on the DAC's display I have to set "MQA capabilities" to "No MQA support" and "Enable MQA core decoder" to "Yes" but then Roon is handling the first unfold and the DAC (no MQA indicator) isn't handling any MQA unfolds?
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The E1DA 9038S dongle comes very very close, and it has a very good headphone amp! - It's $100 USD!The D90SE is clearly an equipment white paper on DAC design fundamentals that should be taken apart and studied by all ChiFi newcomers who can then reduce these principles to its most basic components to offer us the $100 dongle version of this
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MrEWhite
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It does the unfold internally, and due to that, doesn't mentioned to unfold to 88.2, but the proper sample rate.
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Thank you for this! ... So how would you help someone to decide which filter is best? I don't really have a grasp on what the different filters mean. Besides I can't really hear any differences anyway... But I want to choose the best one just for piece of mind. Thanks for any input.
3Thank you for this! ... So how would you help someone to decide which filter is best? I don't really have a grasp on what the different filters mean. Besides I can't really hear any differences anyway... But I want to choose the best one just for piece of mind. Thanks for any input.
Thank you for this! ... So how would you help someone to decide which filter is best? I don't really have a grasp on what the different filters mean. Besides I can't really hear any differences anyway... But I want to choose the best one just for piece of mind. Thanks for any input.
There's no such thing as "best one" if you can't hear any differences between the filters, is there? Don't obsess over these settings as they cause you to listen to the hardware, instead of enjoying the music. Remember, you already have the best measuring (if not sounding) DAC on the market. Why further stress about stuff you CANNOT hear?
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-mola-tambaqui-measurements.10693/post-306420
@JohnYang1997 any chance you could generate such graphs for the D90SE for comparison? Thanks in advance.
Maybe. The thing is the noise performance is not easily interpreted here. Mola mola has superior noise performance than Dave. D90se from our own measurements indicates its distortion is between Mola Mola and Dave and noise performance is on par or slightly better than Mola Mola.
I wouldn't be able to produce a graph that's comparable except at full scale/0dB point as I don't know the test conditions.
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I also assume it is full scale 0 dB on all DACs, independent of output voltage. So D90SE running at its best 5V would be interesting to see if you would like to try we would appreciate it.
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