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Topping D90SE Review (Balanced DAC)

iLoveCats

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My wifi router was about 2ft from the extractor and giving periodic static pops. Almost like a record player. It was difficult to diagnose but I relocated the router to the other side of the house and all is well.
 

auronthas

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That's weird, my mesh wifi router is at bottom rack, and my D90/HDMI extractor at top tier around 3-feet, no interference so far.

I will try to change to D90 i²s normal phase and see if it works too
 

Rottmannash

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The D10 is good no doubt, but it objectively does rank below both the DX7 Pro+ and D90SE. (Whether that’s significant is another story).

I suppose the D90SE being $200 less but only 0.2 dB SINAD less at a level > 123 dB is it’s main strength over the DX7 Pro+?
the DX7 Pro+ is $699 on Apos and the D90SE is $799.
 

Angaria

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Every time I plug into the d90SE, windows volume switches to 100%, which is an accident waiting to happen. Is there a way to control the default volume? (Using jRiver, if that matters) Thanks!
 

zhgutov

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I have probably spent a third of my life in studios, about half of that in all-digital environments and have never encountered I²S outside a development lab. Which, of course, makes it ideal for selling to audiophile suckers.

AES (with external lock to a master clock source) is the de facto standard.
Can you explain why it is good to use external clock to drive the digital-to-analogue conversion?

I can understand why you want to use master clock through the whole system.
Actually, I use exactly that approach getting the clock from Lake People ADC RS04 for RME Digiface USB.
But in the case of the subsequent DA conversion I cannot find any arguments for not using nearly perfect internal clock of D90SE.
The whole system remains in sync due to internal resampling (which you have anyway in the case of delta-sigma DAC) of D90SE.
 

zhgutov

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Every time I plug into the d90SE, windows volume switches to 100%, which is an accident waiting to happen. Is there a way to control the default volume? (Using jRiver, if that matters) Thanks!
I suppose, it is a good thing that windows volume switches to 100% :)
At least you can avoid some potentially inaccurate signal processing.

Just to illustrate what I am talking about:

thd.png


White graph is RME Digiface USB, which is professional gear.
And it works that way when you decrease the volume.

You can set the volume in pre mode of D90SE.
 

Pluto

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Can you explain why it is good to use external clock to drive the digital-to-analogue conversion?
To do so is, in most domestic cases, entirely pointless if the use of asynchronous USB is possible. This is the gold standard of domestic digital playback via a DAC.

Normally, the best approach for a DAC designer is to make the clock source as electrically and physically close ("tightly coupled"), to the DAC core, as possible.

All in all, I can think of no justification for an external clock in a normally configured domestic playback scenario.

On the other hand, I can think of several cases in which an external clock source will be a sub-optimal solution.
 

HIFIBOY

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For those of you who have heard it, is d90se suitable for listening to music? What I mean is musicality. I don't want to use it to check whether the recording is good or bad, just to make my ears comfortable and happy!
 

Veri

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I don't want to use it to check whether the recording is good or bad, just to make my ears comfortable and happy!
o_O

Get D70 or D70 Velvet if you believe in the akm/velvet magic.
 

staticV3

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For those of you who have heard it, is d90se suitable for listening to music? What I mean is musicality. I don't want to use it to check whether the recording is good or bad, just to make my ears comfortable and happy!
It's the recording that should make your ears comfortable and happy, not the DAC you're playing it on.

A well measuring DAC will reproduce the recording faithfully, neither adding nor substracting from it. It does not sacrifice sound quality for the sake of better measurements.
 

Killingbeans

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For those of you who have heard it, is d90se suitable for listening to music? What I mean is musicality. I don't want to use it to check whether the recording is good or bad, just to make my ears comfortable and happy!

A DAC is not a musical instrument, IMO. If you want gear that adds to the source material, go for speakers/headphones with wacky house curves, or play around a bit with EQ and/or digital plugins. A well designed DAC is nothing but a tool with a simple job. People who tell you that all DACs have different "personalities" are either fooling themselves or are trying to fool you. At best you get extremely subtle differences that are unnoticeable unless you have a "tell" to focus on. Musicality is not even on the table. It never was.

For ear comfort, go here: https://www.brainwavzaudio.com/pages/brainwavz-earpad-guide
 

rlwings

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Kind of a random question but has anybody successfully got the i2s input to work on the D90SE using SMSL's newer DDC - " PO100 PRO"? ... Or maybe have you had success with the older DDC - Douk Audio U2 Pro? - May I ask what settings worked for you? - Can't seem to get my new SMSL to pass a PCM 2 channel signal through the Topping's i2s port... Thank you! :)
 

Nooborghini

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Could someone explain to me why one would go with this product over Gustard X26 Pro?
Will it really make a difference on a "high-end" headphone like the Susvara or should I just stick with my FiiO M15 as my DAC?
I'm just trying to understand how scientifically validate why people are saying they prefer the Gustard X26 Pro over the D90LE as it sounds better.
 

Trell

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Could someone explain to me why one would go with this product over Gustard X26 Pro?
Will it really make a difference on a "high-end" headphone like the Susvara or should I just stick with my FiiO M15 as my DAC?
I'm just trying to understand how scientifically validate why people are saying they prefer the Gustard X26 Pro over the D90LE as it sounds better.

The Gustard is about 60% more expensive so I guess that is one reason to chose the D90SE. Any claims that the Gustard sounds any different then D90SE is just BS, assuming same filters where chosen.
 

Nooborghini

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The Gustard is about 60% more expensive so I guess that is one reason to chose the D90SE. Any claims that the Gustard sounds any different then D90SE is just BS, assuming same filters where chosen.
Right now I have an X26 Pro (Black) and a D90LE (Silver) at the same price.
I have an A90D in silver so I was trying to figure out if I should even consider the X26 Pro if I can't hear the difference between the two.
Based on my readings/searchings, one can't be different than the other in an audible sense correct?
From what I understand and speculate, the people saying X sounds better than Y is due to an imbalance of dB when flipping between X and Y where our ears perceive an acoustic property change. For example, If I want to feel a specific slam on a note or "clearer" I'd raise my volume knob a bit.
I understand that EQ is doing the same thing but that would be processed through the entire track rather than when I volume DJ, it is only for those increments of dB.

EDIT:
I'd ideally like to stick with the same colour theme, ergo the X26 Pro vs D90 situation.
This stemmed from people raving about R2R dacs and the May/Spring vs other DAC's.

I know R2R can sound different (I assume with my limited knowledge) is due to the slight distortion it may bring to the table?
In theory, the Holo May, the cleanest R2R DAC should sound similar to the D90LE (Or whatever is the best measuring DAC out there) right? or am I misunderstanding?
 
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