Topping e50+p50 power supply

[Cici]

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Please post in English.

hello all, i have a topping e50 used only as a dac. I've read everywhere that using it with the topping p50 power supply improves performance. Do you think that's true? the fact that you recommend the same topping, always attentive to the measures, gives me some perplexity. Are there scientific foundations that justify such an improvement? Thank you

 

[kchap]

I doubt if there will be any worthwhile improvement. The E50 has been reviewed by ASR, E50 Review and the noise and distortion figures using a standard 5V PSU are excellent.

 

[Dunring]

Just get the Samsung ETA0U60JBE charger and for $2 each they test as good as the Apple charger. I've used them for years for clean power on gaming systems with noisy USB ports. The E30 and the E50 I currently use sound great. Fakes abound with the Apple chargers on the secondary market, not an issue with the Samsungs.

 

[Cici]

Prendi il caricabatterie Samsung ETA0U60JBE e per $ 2 ciascuno testano bene il caricabatterie Apple. Li ho usati per anni per un'alimentazione pulita su sistemi di gioco con porte USB rumorose. L'E30 e l'E50 che uso attualmente suonano alla grande. I falsi abbondano con i caricabatterie Apple sul mercato secondario, non un problema con i Samsung.

Thanks

 

[MLaranjeiras]

Translated to English by moderator:
Please post in English.

hello all, i have a topping e50 used only as a dac. I've read everywhere that using it with the topping p50 power supply improves performance. Do you think that's true? the fact that you recommend the same topping, always attentive to the measures, gives me some perplexity. Are there scientific foundations that justify such an improvement? Thank you

I have a four years journey with Topping DACs. Allow me to share on the link. Of course I do not have all at the same time to make a fair comparison, but, bottom line, my opinion is on this presentation. A like a lot the E50 and I am not confortable at all to give a leap to the US$ 900.00 D90SE, por exemple.

 

[Dunring]

I recently ordered five Topping E50's and one of the boxes has a P50 by mistake. Also just got in sixty 5V 700mA ETA0U60JBE Samsung chargers to run them on a wattmeter and keep the good ones aside for DACs. There was a few duds, but most could do 600+ma and a dozen that could hit 700-900ma. Anyway, we did some blind tests with both and there's no chance I could tell the difference. The E50 needs 500ma, so if you're using a charger I would test it to make sure it can hit that number after seeing half a dozen in the batch that couldn't. It sure looks nice, and feels very heavy and well made, but no audible difference as much as I'd like to keep it for the cool factor. We also have a DX3Pro+ downstairs and zero way to tell either. Just happen to get this one by accident, so I had to check it out as long as it's here. With a Simgot EA500 and A30Pro, and downstairs the HD6xx on the DX3 Pro+ we would have heard something (volume matched with an app). If I see a reviewer glowing about how magical it makes things sound, least now I know not to trust them...

 

[Berwhale]

It's also worth mentioning that the P50 delivers limited power and provides less power to an A50s HP Amp than the stock PSU. Unfortunately the 'I must have the whole stack' part of my brain forced me to buy one and add it to my D50s/A50s

 

[MLaranjeiras]

As a novice in this field a following the recomendations, I ordered around 2020 the stack Topping D50S Dac and the P50 Power supply, together with a 20cm Curious Evolved Regen USB cable. After some tests, I realized that a could not hear reasons to keep the P50. Sold the stack, the Curious and went to the Topping E30. Now I have an E50 without apetite for further leaps. USB cable now is a NEO by Oyaide d+ USB 2.0 Cable, Class S 1.0m Length (very hard to make curves). It all ok by now

 

[RickyDing]

I did an A/B test with E30 connecting to cell phone USB plug vs rechargeable battery pack. Huge difference! Connecting to battery pack gave a wider sound stage, larger instrument separation, more 3D imaging. I think battery pack is the way to get unpolluted clean power for DACs.

 

[Gradius]

Mean Well GST25A05 is more than enough and much cheaper than a P50:

GST25A-MEAN WELL Switching Power Supply Manufacturer

MEAN WELL is one of the world's few standard power supply mainly professional manufacturers, covering 0.5 to 25,600W products are widely used in industrial control, medical and other fields, in line with international safety certification, short delivery of spot inventory.

www.meanwell.com

 

[MLaranjeiras]

I recently ordered five Topping E50's and one of the boxes has a P50 by mistake. Also just got in sixty 5V 700mA ETA0U60JBE Samsung chargers to run them on a wattmeter and keep the good ones aside for DACs. There was a few duds, but most could do 600+ma and a dozen that could hit 700-900ma. Anyway, we did some blind tests with both and there's no chance I could tell the difference. The E50 needs 500ma, so if you're using a charger I would test it to make sure it can hit that number after seeing half a dozen in the batch that couldn't. It sure looks nice, and feels very heavy and well made, but no audible difference as much as I'd like to keep it for the cool factor. We also have a DX3Pro+ downstairs and zero way to tell either. Just happen to get this one by accident, so I had to check it out as long as it's here. With a Simgot EA500 and A30Pro, and downstairs the HD6xx on the DX3 Pro+ we would have heard something (volume matched with an app). If I see a reviewer glowing about how magical it makes things sound, least now I know not to trust them...

View attachment 308356

In the end of the day, once being both E50 and D90 III having perfect measurements, what might count d’be a blind test between them to realize or not that paying four times more we’d listen any relevant gain.

 

[mike7877]

Translated to English by moderator:
Please post in English.

hello all, i have a topping e50 used only as a dac. I've read everywhere that using it with the topping p50 power supply improves performance. Do you think that's true? the fact that you recommend the same topping, always attentive to the measures, gives me some perplexity. Are there scientific foundations that justify such an improvement? Thank you

I have the E50, and I've powered it with my bench linear regulator. It's very fast and very quiet! I didn't listen to it though (I was measuring how many mA it requires during playback, and, with USB, for 16/44.1 it's about 372-376mA, and for 24/192 it's about 388-392!) It doesn't matter that I didn't listen though - as long as you don't have an extremely dirty 5V supply (ie. one that's full of noise from switching transistors, probably because it's old and capacitors are dried out, so unable to filter properly), the E50 will not benefit from an external linear supply. Why not? Inside of the E50, the 5 volt you give it gets bucked and boosted (lowered and raised) by switching voltage converters (transistors) which switch on and off extremely fast, hundreds of thousands of times per second. Each time the transistor switches on, there is a brief peak which overshoots the target voltage. This is absorbed by the filter capacitor. The amount of overshoot is related to the size of the transistor, the amount of current, and the filter capacitor. Since similar sized transistors are used in both the E50 and USB power supplies, similar sized capacitors are used. The filters inside the E50 will not see the noise from the standard USB power supply as much different than its own noise, so will eliminate it just as much as it eliminates its own noise. This is why it doesn't matter!
(the overshoot, if too high, is what can come through the op-amps and affect the sound with whining sounds and such. also can cause undesired operation of digital parts if severe enough)

I had some problem with my E50 when I powered it from the same device I was using to feed it audio over USB. What I had to do was plug its power USB cable into the USB charge port on the side of my chair, and I was good to go - no noise! So I would recommend not powering the E50 from the same device you're sending it audio from. Another PC would even be fine (except in unusual circumstances)

The E50 sounds good for its price! I paid $200CAD while it was on sale... Very happy with it. It sounds better than my G5 (which also uses the ES9068AS), and MUCH better than the E30 II which I also have (uses AKM AK4493S).

The headphone amplifier I use with it is the L30 II, which, unlike the E30 II, is ah-MAZING! I also have the L70, and the E30 II has 97% the sound of the L70, and is not quite as loud, but unless you have 600 ohm headphones which are also very inefficient and you're also hard of hearing....

Yeah, just remember to not power the E50 by the same PC/whatever, that you're sending sound from!

 

[mike7877]

I have a four years journey with Topping DACs. Allow me to share on the link. Of course I do not have all at the same time to make a fair comparison, but, bottom line, my opinion is on this presentation. A like a lot the E50 and I am not confortable at all to give a leap to the US$ 900.00 D90SE, por exemple.

The guy who made that video uses a Pioneer receiver as his amplifier... sure, it's an "elite", but we all know how "good" multi-channel stereo receivers are as music amplifiers (that is, not good... not good at all...)
I'm sure it's fine for movies, but yeah, for serious listening (aka comparing the E30 to E50) it's going to be tough if not impossible... I don't know why that guy is trying anything better than the 4458 that's included with his receiver (has all the room correction stuff too... if he has that enabled he's putting the L30 through an ADC and then the stereo's DAC again - you never know with people if you can't ask them questions!

 

[mike7877]

I recently ordered five Topping E50's and one of the boxes has a P50 by mistake. Also just got in sixty 5V 700mA ETA0U60JBE Samsung chargers to run them on a wattmeter and keep the good ones aside for DACs. There was a few duds, but most could do 600+ma and a dozen that could hit 700-900ma. Anyway, we did some blind tests with both and there's no chance I could tell the difference. The E50 needs 500ma, so if you're using a charger I would test it to make sure it can hit that number after seeing half a dozen in the batch that couldn't. It sure looks nice, and feels very heavy and well made, but no audible difference as much as I'd like to keep it for the cool factor. We also have a DX3Pro+ downstairs and zero way to tell either. Just happen to get this one by accident, so I had to check it out as long as it's here. With a Simgot EA500 and A30Pro, and downstairs the HD6xx on the DX3 Pro+ we would have heard something (volume matched with an app). If I see a reviewer glowing about how magical it makes things sound, least now I know not to trust them...

I didn't see your post! I hooked my E50 up to my linear bench supply earlier tonight (coincidentally lol) and it takes ~375 to play back 16/44.1, and ~390 for 24/192!

Does Topping sell the P50 specifically to power the E50?... if so, that's kind of shady IMO

 

[Berwhale]

Does Topping sell the P50 specifically to power the E50?... if so, that's kind of shady IMO

The P50 is designed to match the D50/D50s and A50s and it limits the power available from the A50s when compared to the supplied AC adapter. I use a P50 with a D50s/A50s because it makes the cabling neater, the stack looks cool and I can't be bothered to sell the P50

 

[mike7877]

The P50 is designed to match the D50/D50s and A50s and it limits the power available from the A50s when compared to the supplied AC adapter. I use a P50 with a D50s/A50s because it makes the cabling neater, the stack looks cool and I can't be bothered to sell the P50

Ah, I've looked at its specs - it's got 5V and 15V outputs, roughly 5V 1.6A, 15V 0.9A (when all are loaded simultaneously). It's possible that the DACs you mentioned are different than the E50 in ways that allow them to benefit from a non-switching regulated supply - maybe they use a linear regulator on the 5V for the op amp or transistors for the I to V stage on the DAC's output - possibly another one (or two) to power a rail (or two) of the DAC (or an analog section in the DAC) lol (haha). And maybe other rails, too. Topping usually doesn't do obviously stupid things, and designing the P50 for the E50 would count! Glad they didn't

 

[DantonIzzo]

It's also worth mentioning that the P50 delivers limited power and provides less power to an A50s HP Amp than the stock PSU. Unfortunately the 'I must have the whole stack' part of my brain forced me to buy one and add it to my D50s/A50s

Does it matter that it provides less power? I’m actually just got it and I want to power the D50/A50III stack and the wiim mini, which will reduce the amp to .8 (as opposed to 1). Does it make a difference?

 

[Berwhale]

Does it matter that it provides less power? I’m actually just got it and I want to power the D50/A50III stack and the wiim mini, which will reduce the amp to .8 (as opposed to 1). Does it make a difference?

That would depend on if your headphones need all the power. Also, I would not power the Wiim mini from the P50. The P50 got very hot when powered a ChromeCast audio from it (in addition to my D50s & A50s).