Topping E30 DAC Review

[Deleted member 9286]

What are obsolete for certain are D10 and D30!

The D10 still has a role to play as a great little USB to SPDIF converter.

 

[Ron Texas]

Proof that DAC's are a mature product and you don't have to spend a lot to get a good one.

 

[majingotan]

It does seem so. My only remark here is the lousy AKM digital filter. Whyyy do they make it so slow.
Oh well.

Maybe you discovered their "Velvet sound" secret sauce . To be honest, I wouldn't be able to hear the differences at those frequencies.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Maybe you discovered their "Velvet sound" secret sauce . To be honest, I wouldn't be able to hear the differences at those frequencies.

When I read the datasheet it seems that the digital filters are shared to each two sample rates. Meaning 44.1khz and 48khz use the same "slow" filter which is ok for 48khz but not 44.1khz. On the other hand, no I don't think there's big enough differences between digital filters in one of my previous experiment here in this forum where I blind tested trying to prove the difference of digital filters. I did hear a bit difference but that's tiny.

 

[sejarzo]

That website looks very sketchy. Likely to be a scam. Beware.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...adphone-amp-reviewed.9446/page-30#post-270481

But but but but they call him "Famous Amir Majidimehr" so it must be legit!!!!

 

[JohnYang1997]

Source?

I see the opposite: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...t-of-smsl-sanskrit-10th-ak4493-edition.10830/

Objective speaking, E30 has lower distortion harmonics, similar DNR/SNR, similar noise, much better multitone performance but for a bit more expensive price. The m300 mkii is better in noise but the multitone really falls short, which is not even as good as the Sanskrit.
From other perspectives, E30 is going to be a better pair with the incoming L30 headamp. If you have the sp200 you might go with the M400 which isn't out yet. But that's a higher price bracket altogether. I like well rounded performer not good in single test but good in all of them. The distortion of sp200's XLR output is really great of -130db up to 10V with 16ohm but its noise performance can be a deal breaker for some. Also once you turn the potentiometer from 0db/maximum the distortion is highly increased due to the relatively poor voltage coefficient of the carbon taper.

 

[VeerK]

Great low cost option for entry level DACs, good job Topping. Hey @JohnYang1997, let Topping know there is some interest in an E10 interface, with USB in and SPDIF/I2S/AES out

 

[JohnYang1997]

Great low cost option for entry level DACs, good job Topping. Hey @JohnYang1997, let Topping know there is some interest in an E10 interface, with USB in and SPDIF/I2S/AES out

The update version of D10, D10s is coming out with SPDIF and COAX out. But not so much with the I^2S and the AES out. The physical dimension of AES XLR is not able to fit in those small boxes. While there's some interests, I don't see it coming in the future. But I may be wrong. We'll see.

 

[Deleted member 9286]

The update version of D10, D10s is coming out with SPDIF and COAX out. But not so much with the I^2S and the AES out. The physical dimension of AES XLR is not able to fit in those small boxes. While there's some interests, I don't see it coming in the future. But I may be wrong. We'll see.

Interesting thanks. So will the D10s still be usb powered and do USB to SPDIF conversion? And if so, will it support DSD over DoP? That was the only limitation of the D10 in my opinion.

 

[VeerK]

The update version of D10, D10s is coming out with SPDIF and COAX out. But not so much with the I^2S and the AES out. The physical dimension of AES XLR is not able to fit in those small boxes. While there's some interests, I don't see it coming in the future. But I may be wrong. We'll see.

Thanks for the info on the D10s, is there any improvement in the USB to SDIF/Coax output? D10 is on sale right now on Drop, but I can wait for 10s.

 

[wwenze]

Sorry, I was looking at the measurements of the first version.
Here E30 wins on linearity and multitone, while Sanskrit 10th MKII wins on THD+N vs frequency, with the rest of the measurements being more or less even. I don't think there's a clear winner.

Distortion is in E30's favor, noise isn't. That's why in linearity and multitone the E30 will come up on top.

 

[Piotr]

Objective speaking, E30 has lower distortion harmonics, similar DNR/SNR, similar noise, much better multitone performance but for a bit more expensive price. The m300 mkii is better in noise but the multitone really falls short, which is not even as good as the Sanskrit.
From other perspectives, E30 is going to be a better pair with the incoming L30 headamp. If you have the sp200 you might go with the M400 which isn't out yet. But that's a higher price bracket altogether. I like well rounded performer not good in single test but good in all of them. The distortion of sp200's XLR output is really great of -130db up to 10V with 16ohm but its noise performance can be a deal breaker for some. Also once you turn the potentiometer from 0db/maximum the distortion is highly increased due to the relatively poor voltage coefficient of the carbon taper.

I wonder why you suggest to combine m400 and sp200 while the first will have built-in amp. If you buy a combo it's usually to avoid buying a dedicated amp.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

View attachment 54930
Not knocking nor trying to educate or anything. This is what we got for dashboard. The small peaks around 1khz shouldn't be there. I would like to know what caused it.
PS: I didn't design this this time.

But it's not 115 db. So it's a hard pass! /s

 

[staticV3]

@JohnYang1997
while looking up the Sanskrit, I found this Aliexpress listing which mentions 768KHz support: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000785916611.html
and this one which mentions the AK4497: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000785137648.html
I assume that both are typos?

 

[JohnYang1997]

But it's not 115 db. So it's a hard pass! /s

 

[confucius_zero]

these will sell like hot cakes!

 

[JohnYang1997]

@JohnYang1997
while looking up the Sanskrit, I found this Aliexpress listing which mentions 768KHz support: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000785916611.html
and this one which mentions the AK4497: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000785137648.html
I assume that both are typos?

I don't know about the sample rate. It doesn't seem to be any wrong. But the dac chip is definitely 4493 not 4497.

 

[staticV3]

I don't know about the sample rate. It doesn't seem to be any wrong. But the dac chip is definitely 4493 not 4497.

It's the only one out of 7 that says 768. All the others say 384. It looks to me like a mistake in the marketing material that most shops corrected before they put it online.

 

[JohnYang1997]

It's the only one out of 7 that says 768. All the others say 384. It looks to me like a mistake in the marketing material that most shops corrected before they put it online.

It's probably the only one who says 768khz is correct. You may contact SMSL for this. I believe it's 768khz.
And well, who should care about that when there's no 768khz recordings to be found.

 

[staticV3]

It's probably the only one who says 768khz is correct. You may contact SMSL for this. I believe it's 768khz.
And well, who should care about that when there's no 768khz recordings to be found.

yeah of course. It's all just marketing at this point.