Topping E30 DAC Review

[facboy]

Excuse me,
Please tell me the first 4 digits of the E30 serial number you received.
The serial number can be found on the white sticker on the right side.
feg 1911 ******

It works on mine too, mine is 1911.

 

[Morpheus85]

Does anyone have problems with the E30 and MAC computers? A user from a German forum has problems with the volume that he is too quiet.

 

[Veri]

Does anyone have problems with the E30 and MAC computers? A user from a German forum has problems with the volume that he is too quiet.

Weird cause it has bog standard ~2V output. Odd issue...

 

[Toku]

It works on mine too, mine is 1911.

Thank you very much.
The E30 I bought is also 1911, the same production lot as yours.

 

[AndyLu]

Does anyone have problems with the E30 and MAC computers? A user from a German forum has problems with the volume that he is too quiet.

If only one user has problems with the volume on his/her MAC I would not worry about it. Connecting a dac to a computer has a long chain of variables and uncertainties like:

- What are the settings on the user's computer?
- What software is the user using for playing music?
- What are the settings on the music playing software?
- Are the USB connections/drivers on the computer functioning well?
- Wat other programs/services are running on said computer which can interfere?
- Etc.
- Etc.
- Etc.

My first thought certainly would not be the DAC. If the DAC connects fine to other equipment (besides the MAC) an functions well, I certainly would not point my finger to the DAC.

 

[Toku]

Your E30 serial number and my E30 serial number are the same, but there seems to be a big difference in the symptoms.
It's similar to the trouble I had with the DX3 Pro headphone amplifier before.

 

[Koeitje]

Gamer PC's are not noisy when idle, because they generally use better motherboards with more voltage regulators and also use better cleaner power supply's. Only when the GPU starts to get hit with a heavy load you might see noise.

edit: wait I misquoted somebody...

 

[PZN]

Just tested it. There's absolutely no pop sound to be heard when using headphones from switching sampling frequency.
How to test it?
Set digital volume on PC or e30 to -50 or lower. Make sure there's still sound playing so you know the output is not turned off.
Then test replay, change sampling rate etc
If you don don't hear the pop anymore it means it's not the pop sound we all were referred to.

The pop you heard is the transient caused by cutting of audio signal. The edges in time domain has a lot of energy and high frequency content so you can hear it. It's an issue since like forever. The solution is simply fade in and fade out. It's in foobar, Spotify or majority of players. In ASIO mode foobar can't process the fade in fade out. Hence the pop.

Sorry, I'm not used to writing in English.

In My E30, pop noise occurs when the sampling rate switches to another music. pop noise did not occur between the same sampling rate music.

In addition to that problem, 3 seconds after stopping the music, the screen switches from db to sampling rate for about 1 second and pop noise occurs.

Do you have plans to solve this problem with firmware later?

 

[JohnYang1997]

Sorry, I'm not used to writing in English.

In My E30, pop noise occurs when the sampling rate switches to another music. pop noise did not occur between the same sampling rate music.

I contacted Topping on this issue and got the following answer.


View attachment 59962

In addition to that problem, 3 seconds after stopping the music, the screen switches from db to sampling rate for about 1 second and pop noise occurs.

In another community in my country, one person who complained about the same problem as me said he installed 1.04 firmware of the DX3 pro v1 on his E30 and pop noise disappeared.

Do you have plans to solve this problem with firmware later?

One thing you need to make sure.
Are you using headphones? If you are using headphones with a headphone amplifier attenuating volume. You shouldn't be able to hear any pop. The pop sound should only be audible when directly connect to power amp.
If you are sure that there's pop when using headphones I can only suggest returning that unit and get another one. This is a behavior we never experienced and expected.

I just tried again. There's absolutely no pop when headphone amplifier is at max volume with digital attenuation in foobar at -50dB.

It's not that we don't want to fix it. It's nothing there to fix. If you have issue with your particular unit. Return it and get a new one.

 

[PZN]

One thing you need to make sure.
Are you using headphones? If you are using headphones with a headphone amplifier attenuating volume. You shouldn't be able to hear any pop. The pop sound should only be audible when directly connect to power amp.
If you are sure that there's pop when using headphones I can only suggest returning that unit and get another one. This is a behavior we never experienced and expected.

I just tried again. There's absolutely no pop when headphone amplifier is at max volume with digital attenuation in foobar at -50dB.

It's not that we don't want to fix it. It's nothing there to fix. If you have issue with your particular unit. Return it and get a new one.

I connected to jds atom headphone amp. E30 is in -20db pre-amplifier mode.

In addition to the sampling rate problem, the screen is switched and pop noise occurs after 3 seconds of stopping the music. What is this problem?

https://imgur.com/a/354zuSk

The recording began shortly after the music stopped.

There are cases where pop noise has disappeared due to installation of 1.04 firmware of DX3 pro, is this problem impossible to solve with firmware?

 

[JohnYang1997]

I connected to jds atom headphone amp. E30 is in -20db pre-amplifier mode.

In addition to the sampling rate problem, what is the problem with switching the screen after 3 seconds of music stop?

https://imgur.com/a/354zuSk

The recording began shortly after the music stopped.

There are cases where pop noise has disappeared due to installation of 1.04 firmware of DX3 pro, is this problem impossible to solve with firmware?

This doesn't happen with any unit I have tried. Maybe try a different computer, different usb port, different software (I assume you use ASIO right?)..

There shouldn't be pop noise in the first place with headphones. So no problem means no solving problem. It may well just be a faulty unit...

 

[Morpheus85]

I have the same problem. As soon as I stop the music there is a pop. Just like in the video above.

 

[PZN]

This doesn't happen with any unit I have tried. Maybe try a different computer, different usb port, different software (I assume you use ASIO right?)..

There shouldn't be pop noise in the first place with headphones. So no problem means no solving problem. It may well just be a faulty unit...

This problem also occurred when I closed the YouTube window that was playing. (Not foobar asio) It also happened when I used a different USB port.

I am going to send a inquiry to Topping about this problem and exchange it for a new product.

 

[facboy]

Mine does the same as in the video too. A few seconds after stopping playback it shows the sample rate and there is a small pop through the speakers (or headphones, though my headphone is connected directly to the RCA).

EDIT: it almost seems like the driver resets the DAC when there is no sound playing. mine briefly showed 'Err' one time before showing the sampling rate again.

 

[Veri]

Those having the problem and use USB, it's likely it'll be fixed using optical or coaxical cable instead of using USB cable.

Either that or returning for one that doesn't pop...

 

[Koeitje]

I haven't tested USB yet so I can't comment on that, but I have a problem with the stand-by function that I think can be fixed with a firmware update. Maybe @JohnYang1997 can forward it to the right people.

Basically I have it on the auto standby mode. When I turn on my tv it will come out of standby and show the sampling rate (always 48khz for my tv) but I wont produce sound. If I turn the E30 off and on again it is fixed again. Seems like I cannot lock on the optical signal after coming out of standby. Anyone else has this issue?

 

[Morpheus85]

I just uninstalled the topping driver to use the Windows standard driver.
Now the popping after no sound is played has disappeared or only occurs very rarely.

 

[PZN]

After deleting the driver, the sampling rate was immediately displayed and the pop noise disappeared when the music was stopped. but the pop noise that occurs when I stop music and play it again remained the same.

Some 24bit/96kHz musics I listen to didn't play properly in wasapi(event) mode when I deleted the driver.

 

[vrobec]

Hello all!

I can't decide which combo to get for better sound quality. Please help choosing the right combo. I have an linear power supply for the Topping E30.

1. Raspberry Pi3 + Hifiberry Digi+ Pro + Topping E30

or

2. Raspberry Pi4 + Topping E30

 

[somebodyelse]

They're probably not going to sound any different - the E30 appears to have well engineered inputs so should be pretty much indifferent to the source. The toslink input measures a little worse on jitter than the usb, but it's still below audibility. The 4 is better all round, except perhaps the slightly increased power usage.