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Topping E30 DAC Review
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slartibart
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I tried and they insisted I returned it even after I said they would end up with an opened unit. Never mind they sent me a Hermes QR code. I'll wait until the new one arrives before I send the other one back. It will be interesting to see if the new one has the same audible noise when coming out of standby when fed with a piCorePlayer via USB. I think it will.
NgtFlyer
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It sounds like that's an older stock unit that needs the firmware update. When my unit, running current firmware wakes up, it is dead silent regardless of source. (TOSlink from one machine, USB from another)
slartibart
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Well the serial number is starting 2009. What do you have connected to your USB input? Mine is a piCorePlayer. Different players may act differently. I tried two different piCorePlayers and they both have the noise, but a Squeezebox Touch does not. I would use the Touch but if the sample rate changes the DAC does not play the new sample rate unless I reselect the USB input
Could someone please share experience or thoughts on adding topping PA3 to E30. Will it help in over all sound signature. Currently using E30+ sony stereo amp to run the Elacs B6. I am thinking to have the toppings together and move the Sony amp separately to another room.
Jose Hidalgo
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Hi 
Just wanted to report that I've successfully received my two E30s and my two L30s, and I'm in the process of installing them, which may take a while for (good) reasons that I'll develop in a different thread with pictures.
Installing the latest Topping driver (4.86) was as easy as downloading it and clicking on it.
So far I have tested all the equipment, and everything seems to work : both stacks seem to be operational.
The issue I've just encountered is with ASIO4ALL : none of the E30 DACs appear as WDM devices on ASIO4ALL control panel, so there's nothing I can do for the moment. The only WDM device that appears is the default sound output (motherboard audio out).
Looking online, people suggest disabling the MS GS Wavetable Synth, so I followed these instructions. Unfortunately there isn't any device with that name in my device manager, even among hidden devices.
Could somebody help ? (if it's too complicated I may create a separate topic)
The computer is a laptop running Windows 8.1 x64.
Just wanted to report that I've successfully received my two E30s and my two L30s, and I'm in the process of installing them, which may take a while for (good) reasons that I'll develop in a different thread with pictures. Installing the latest Topping driver (4.86) was as easy as downloading it and clicking on it.
So far I have tested all the equipment, and everything seems to work : both stacks seem to be operational.
The issue I've just encountered is with ASIO4ALL : none of the E30 DACs appear as WDM devices on ASIO4ALL control panel, so there's nothing I can do for the moment. The only WDM device that appears is the default sound output (motherboard audio out).
Looking online, people suggest disabling the MS GS Wavetable Synth, so I followed these instructions. Unfortunately there isn't any device with that name in my device manager, even among hidden devices.
Could somebody help ? (if it's too complicated I may create a separate topic)
The computer is a laptop running Windows 8.1 x64.
Hi
Installing the latest Topping driver (4.86) was as easy as downloading it and clicking on it.
So far I have tested all the equipment, and everything seems to work : both stacks seem to be operational.
The issue I've just encountered is with ASIO4ALL : none of the E30 DACs appear as WDM devices on ASIO4ALL control panel, so there's nothing I can do for the moment. The only WDM device that appears is the default sound output (motherboard audio out).
Looking online, people suggest disabling the MS GS Wavetable Synth, so I followed these instructions. Unfortunately there isn't any device with that name in my device manager, even among hidden devices.
Could somebody help ? (if it's too complicated I may create a separate topic)
The computer is a laptop running Windows 8.1 x64.
I just got my E30. It's great. Wasted a bit of time trying to get Raspbian to recognize it in ALSA; turns out it defaults to pre-amp mode.
Oh, and a pro-tip: if you feel like listening in stereo, make sure both RCA leads are attached properly. Makes everything sound at least twice as good!
I’m not that versed in the Windows wold, but isn’t ASIO4ALL for all things that don’t have a native ASIO driver? If topping provides this, you don’t need ASIO4ALL?
Hi
Installing the latest Topping driver (4.86) was as easy as downloading it and clicking on it.
So far I have tested all the equipment, and everything seems to work : both stacks seem to be operational.
The issue I've just encountered is with ASIO4ALL : none of the E30 DACs appear as WDM devices on ASIO4ALL control panel, so there's nothing I can do for the moment. The only WDM device that appears is the default sound output (motherboard audio out).
Looking online, people suggest disabling the MS GS Wavetable Synth, so I followed these instructions. Unfortunately there isn't any device with that name in my device manager, even among hidden devices.
Could somebody help ? (if it's too complicated I may create a separate topic)
The computer is a laptop running Windows 8.1 x64.
I have to agree with @voodooless here. If you have installed the latest Topping asio driver (as you have mentioned) every serious Win music player (Foobar, Audirvana, HQPlayer, JRiver etc. etc.) will recognize the Topping as an ASIO device and will play via ASIO from the Topping without ASIO4All. ASIO4All is as far as I know a 'dummy' replacement for missing asio drivers.
My suggestion is: Uninstall ASIO4All and don't worry, be happy
Jose Hidalgo
Addicted to Fun and Learning
OK, I'll have to re-explain this because it was said earlier in this topic : I need ASIO4ALL in order to achieve this.
Both DACs are connected at the same time, and audio needs to be distributed accordingly.
Basically ASIO4ALL receives a 4-channel audio, and then distributes it : 2 channels for DAC 1 and 2 channels for DAC 2.
So uninstalling ASIO4ALL is not an option (I could replace it with a different driver if required, but I'm not sure it would work better).
Like I said before, my DACs work well individually without ASIO4ALL, with foobar2000 output either in default mode or in ASIO mode. No worries on that side. But I need to be able to see them in ASIO4ALL in order to continue with my config. Thanks in advance.
Both DACs are connected at the same time, and audio needs to be distributed accordingly.
Basically ASIO4ALL receives a 4-channel audio, and then distributes it : 2 channels for DAC 1 and 2 channels for DAC 2.
So uninstalling ASIO4ALL is not an option (I could replace it with a different driver if required, but I'm not sure it would work better).
Like I said before, my DACs work well individually without ASIO4ALL, with foobar2000 output either in default mode or in ASIO mode. No worries on that side. But I need to be able to see them in ASIO4ALL in order to continue with my config. Thanks in advance.
Why is there a requirement for Asio4All? It’s not quite clear from the picture.
Another issue is that the E30’s are the clock sources, so they will request samples from the pc for playback. Since you now have two clock sources you will eventually run into issues.
Is this where where Asio4All will come in?
Another issue is that the E30’s are the clock sources, so they will request samples from the pc for playback. Since you now have two clock sources you will eventually run into issues.
Is this where where Asio4All will come in?
Asio4All is an Asio driver. The Topping driver you have installed is also an Asio driver. They are basically both the same thing. So you want to connect to different Asio drivers via an Asio driver? I am not sure if that is possible or if that even makes sense.
In my opinion it seems more likely that you can do this without Asio drivers, but instead via WASAPI. I have not tried this, but it seems to me that you can connect both E30's to a different USB port and than give both a different name in the Windows Sound settings. After that Foobar will recognize both DACs separately by the different names you have given your E30's and you can play both through WASAPI in Foobar. You need to install the WASAPI plugin in Foorbar for this to work, because Foobar will not recognize WASAPI on its own.
As I said, I did not try this myself, but that gives you a better chance than your plan with ASIO drivers (which does not make sense to me).
Edit:
Oeps! Now I see that you want to play both at the same time (I need to take a reading course
)! Well than my suggestion above does not work either, because my above solution only works for switching between one at the time.Sorry if I add more confusion here, but I still don't think Asio4All is the way to go.
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Jose Hidalgo
Addicted to Fun and Learning
We talked about clocks already in another topic. Audio shift should be about 2 samples per second, it's reset after each pause/stop, and I never play more than a few songs in a row. For a regular 4-min song the shift at the end would only be 480 samples. Audio shift can be a problem in a recording studio, but not for my use hopefully.
What I need basically is a unique virtual interface (so foobar can select it and output audio to it) that receives a 4-channel audio, and then splits it : 2 channels for DAC 1 and 2 channels for DAC 2. ASIO4ALL can do that. But maybe I'm off-topic here. I should ask the question on foobar2000 forum.
Would you suggest to uninstall Topping driver for ASIO4ALL to be able to see the devices ? Maybe that's where the problem comes from.
What I need basically is a unique virtual interface (so foobar can select it and output audio to it) that receives a 4-channel audio, and then splits it : 2 channels for DAC 1 and 2 channels for DAC 2. ASIO4ALL can do that. But maybe I'm off-topic here. I should ask the question on foobar2000 forum.
Would you suggest to uninstall Topping driver for ASIO4ALL to be able to see the devices ? Maybe that's where the problem comes from.
What is described there should not require Asio4All as far as I understand (see #3).
That might get Asio4All to work. However how are you going to give each output it’s own EQ? Foo bar will see only a single device, so any EQ specific to the output device needs to be done in the Asio4All layer.
Jose Hidalgo
Addicted to Fun and Learning
The #3 you're referring to doesn't say that A4A is not required. It says that foobar's ASIO component is required for foobar to be able to see ASIO devices or drivers like A4A. If I recall correctly, before installing foobar's ASIO component I couldn't see A4A among foobar outputs. Once installed I could see A4A.
As for EQ, look at my schematic : everything is already done within foobar. I will gladly detail another time because I don't want to go off-topic. Just assume that foobar outputs an already EQed audio that just needs to be split between two devices.
Neither the opposite
As for EQ, look at my schematic : everything is already done within foobar. I will gladly detail another time because I don't want to go off-topic. Just assume that foobar outputs an already EQed audio that just needs to be split between two devices.
Your picture shows two EQ’s, not one. So I assume you want to EQ your two DAC’s differently. Foobar can only output to one (virtual) device, meaning you can also only apply one EQ. Or will the virtual device have 4 channels?
checkout https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/digital/pc-software/foobar-2000-for-dummies/ section 3.3.1
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Jose Hidalgo
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I have opened a topic on foobar forums, so I'll stop posting here about this to remain on topic, unless somebody has a solution of course.
Yes @voodooless , I'm EQing both DACs differently, and nonono, I can indeed apply more than one EQ within foobar.
How ? Well, using a little trick :
Yes @voodooless , I'm EQing both DACs differently, and nonono, I can indeed apply more than one EQ within foobar.
How ? Well, using a little trick :
- With Audacity, for a given samplerate (e.g. 44.1 KHz), I create a 4-channel basic pulse (a one-sample pulse per channel)
The pulse is as follows for each channel : 2047 null samples, followed by a single pulse sample, followed by 2048 null samples. See attached file. - With Audacity and a VST PEQ (Audacity supports VSTs), I EQ channels 1 & 2, then I EQ channels 3 & 4 differently.
- I save the 4-channel impulse response (the EQed 4-channel audio) as wav 32-bit float
- With foobar, I losslessly duplicate the stereo audio using its DSP manager (Convert Stereo to 4 Channels).
- With foobar, I feed foobar's Convolution DSP (Convolver) with the 4-channel impulse response.
So the DSP chain is : stereo audio --> Convert stereo to 4 channels --> Convolver with 4-channel impulse response
Which of course generates a 4-channel output with different EQs for ch1-2 and ch3-4. Neat, right ?
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So it does 4 channel output. That solves one issue.
But sure knock yourself out I don’t use Foobar, nor Windows, so won’t post to that forum. Still don’t think you need Asio4All though
Also: check our rephase if you want to create FIR EQ’s.
But sure knock yourself out
I don’t use Foobar, nor Windows, so won’t post to that forum. Still don’t think you need Asio4All though Also: check our rephase if you want to create FIR EQ’s.
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flvtch
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Nice one, thanks! However, i went hell for leather and got the A50S/D50S stack on Singles day. Loving them with my Spiral Ear CIEMs and z7m2s
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