The D90se vs. Ares2 starts today! First impressions are the Denifrips isn't as detailed as the Topping. Going to let it warm up for awhile and see if anything changes.
Well that certainly looks at first blush like one heck of an “apples vs oranges” challenge, right? Except that I think that the battle lines between R2R and delta sigma DACs are becoming increasingly blurred, in the era of full-eight channel ES9038pro implementations that obviate the ESS “hump” and score truly unprecedented numbers on SINAD, linearity and multi tone. So my question is, why spend more than what you did with the Topping?
I keep hearing folks speak in hushed tones about RME, Ares or Schiit DACs, while turning up their noses at offerings such as the D90se or the Gustard x18–and although I consider all three of the former manufacturers to be uncompromising in the quality of their builds, it’s hard to argue with the measurements of the Topping or the Gustard—and their builds are certainly nothing to grumble about either.
When I first got my Topping D90se, I did my own listening challenge with a Schiit Yggdrasil, primarily based on my disbelief at the time that a DAC as “cheap” as the Topping could measure up with the rest of my system—which cost a great deal more. And with full honesty, I could hardly hear a difference—certainly nothing to justify the outlandish cost of the Schiit in any imaginable way.
I know some folks gush about R2R DACs for their impeccable “sound signatures” and “grandeur”, but I think that’s a bunch of nonsense—as I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t think DACs need to provide such things in today’s market of discrete components, and I don’t ask them to. I get my grandeur, tonality and warmth from my tube amp and my headphones—and what I want from my DAC is detail retrieval, minimal distortion and a high SNR. And nobody is gonna tell me that any DAC is going to do that better than the Topping, at a fraction of the cost.
So why do some folks seem to get so mesmerized by the elite DACs of old that they feel such FOMO if they don’t hand over their wallets to the manufacturers still making them? Isn’t what they are doing its own form of snake oil?
Honestly I think quite a few purists seem to disdain Topping and Gustard for including MQA decoding capability—as if that little XMOS chip brought down the quality of its surrounding components somehow. Or maybe there’s something mysteriously old-school or more sophisticated about all those resistors and the outlandish cost involved with packing them into a chassis, I don’t know.
Even Gustard is continuing to command praise for eschewing op amps and doubling up their ESS chips and transformers in their x26 pro—but given that their newer x18 scores better and sounds arguably indistinguishable, why do those engineering choices continue to justify higher prices?
Maybe someone else can explain to me why RME, Ares and Schiit maintain such a foothold on the upper echelons of DAC respectability, to the extent that hard-working folks will pass on a great sounding, reasonably-priced DAC like the Topping D90se in favor of mortgaging their houses on a Denafrips or an ADI-2. Is it just because the prestige DACs are more esoterically suitable to being illuminated with a key light on a pedestal to display for their guests? Or do they truly offer something more?