Steuerbert
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Topping E30 DAC Review
- Thread starter amirm
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That’s not what the dashboard shows... those two spikes below 1kHz are power-supply spuriae (noise).
I’m talking about the noise floor, not any of the the spikes.
Sgt. Ear Ache
Major Contributor
This is of course the profound beauty of assembling a system that you know is producing measurably clean, neutral (as in not "colorized") sound - once you have that, you know that EQ is the only thing you really need. Once the mind is freed from the notion that you keep buying different components in search of "your sound" you can get down to just enjoying some music and saving some money...it's quite liberating!
Hi guys, I read a lot these past days about DAC/Amp and I plan to buy an e30 and pair it with an l30 to amplify the headphones. I use Tidal application for the songs (hifi/mqa) and I have the hd600 as headphone that I plug in my TV. My question is: will I hear a substantial difference between the e30+l30 and my TV? I can’t hear a difference with the hd600 when I compare my TV to my iPad. Will it be the same with the DAC/Amp? To have a good volume, I have to put the TV/iPad volume at roughly 70%. I read it was because of the 300 ohm impedance of the hd600. That’s why I plan to buy the DAC/Amp thinking that maybe it will give a more clearer and dynamic song thanks to the better Dac and the power of the amp. But I can’t find a clear answer to this question
Your question is not very clear. There are no separate pre-amp sides or DAC outputs.
There are 2 rca outputs only. You connect those to active speakers or to an amplifier.
In the menu of the e30 you can set 2 modes:
- pre-amp mode. In this mode the volume control works and the e30 also functions as a pre-amp.
- The second mode is dac-mode. In this mode the volume control does not work and the internal pre-amp is bypassed. In DAC mode you have to control your volume on the amp or active speakers the e30 is connected to.
Hope this helps.
nar53
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Hi AndyLu
I thought that would be the case but wasn't too sure. I currently use the Schiit Modi3/Magni3 to drive my headphones but I'm wanting something which will give me remote volume control & wondered if the E30 could replace my Modi 3. I did buy the SMSL M500 last week but that's failed & I feel disinclined to buy another copy & was hoping that the E30 would give me a good value option.
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Yes, it will. Does what you want.
nar53
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OK, thanks for that. I reckon I'll pull the trigger on the E30 & if I'm happy with it I'll get the L30 to replace my Magni.
What TV? I can't imagine why the E30/L30 stack would not be considerably better than the built-in setup in the TV. I also have the HD600s and they're a tough headset to drive. At 70% volume, would you consider that loud on your TV? That seems a bit high and no one knows what kind of distortion levels you're reaching at those levels on a tv. TV and Ipad is not much of comparison, Not sure how well the Ipad can even drive the HD600s.
I Think you will enjoy the stack, does your tv have optical out?
Yes, it’s a panasonic oled tv from 2018. At 70% it’s not extremely loud, it’s just how I like it. I use the optical for the sennheiser hdr 185 wireless headphone but I think I will use an optical splitter to use both. Or is it better to directly connect the e30 to the mini-pc with the usb? Tidal is running on the mini-pc. Or maybe use an RCA to the tv jack? I don’t know which one is better
Thalis
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Perhaps you can have Toslink from the TV to the E30 and USB from the mini PC to the E30. E30 RCA to the L30 and you're all sorted. Use the E30's remote to switch between inputs.
Nothing is bypassed, DAC mode just sets the volume control fixed to max.
If I do that I lose the hdr 185 connected with toslink to the tv unless I take an optical splitter. That’s what I plan to do because sometimes going wireless is really useful.
Sorry, my bad.
If you get the E30 you have multiple options and that's a good thing. You can run straight USB from the mini-pc and bypass the tv altogether and play music straight from PC to E30 DAC to L30 and you can keep your wireless system hooked to the toslink out of the tv. You can also either run the Toslink or USB to the E30 and split the analog RCA and send a pair to the HDR185 and 2nd Pair to the L30 amp, I believe the HDR 185 has Analog in. In that scenario, you'll be using the E30 as a DAC instead of the builtin DAC of the HDR185s.
The only drawback of this is you're bypassing the TV itself and all playback is through your mini-pc. If that's how it is right now, then it doesnt matter but if you use TV's built in apps, or the TV itself (Cable) and you want output from that, then you can run the TOSLINK from the TV into the E30, split it at the RCA like the 2nd option I gave you or simply switch the input source if you don't need both outputs at once (running the hdr185 and HD600 at same time).
I'm assuming your setup right now is mini-pc to TV via HDMI, and then TOSLINK out to HDR185 and plugging your HD600 straight into tv's 3.5mm?
If you hook up the E30 via USB to mini-PC, it would be a 2nd sound device. you'll have multiple output sources on your Mini-pc and you can route say music to play via E30, and videos to play via HDMI to tv or whatever, you just select the sound outputs in sound settings in windows.
The point is you can't go wrong with a E30/L30 combo, you have so many options on how you can hook it up.
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Thank you man, I think it is the best scenario: both the hd600 and the hdr185 will take advantage of the e30 like this and at the same time. Then, whenever I need to go wireless I will just have to turn on the hdr185.
You assumed right, this is exactly how I am connected right now
This is what I did at first with the hd600: I connected it in the mini-pc directly but I found it a hassle to have to use the wireless keyboard to change the output source to TV in win10 everytime I needed to use the hdr185 with the mini-pc. It is better when they both run at the same time, then I just need to turn on the hdr185 when needed.
Finally, I ordered the e30/l30 combo at shenzhenaudio and they are due to arrive next week if there is no pbm. I will try to give a feedback once I have connected everything and tested some songs. Thanks again for your help!
Yesterday I made a setup with the E30 that would be interesting for MQA enthusiasts. I have an Android Box connected to the E30 by USB. In the Android Box I have installed Neutron Music Player and I use it as an Upnp renderer. As a source I use mConnect app connected to Tidal in my smartphone, and streaming the audio to the neutron renderer. To make it simpler:
Tidal > mConnect > Neutron > E30
For my surprise, Neutron is doing full MQA unfolding and sending full bitrate 192kHz PCM audio to the E30. I don´t want to discuss if MQA is good or not, but that seems to be an easy a cheap way to fully reproduce MQA without having a certified equipment.
PS.: sorry, I was testing with a 192kHz FLAC labeled as MQA. I didn´t know Tidal had high resolution files. Please disregard my post.
Tidal > mConnect > Neutron > E30
For my surprise, Neutron is doing full MQA unfolding and sending full bitrate 192kHz PCM audio to the E30. I don´t want to discuss if MQA is good or not, but that seems to be an easy a cheap way to fully reproduce MQA without having a certified equipment.
PS.: sorry, I was testing with a 192kHz FLAC labeled as MQA. I didn´t know Tidal had high resolution files. Please disregard my post.
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