Topping E50 Review (Balanced DAC)

[zepplock]

measurement cannot standing every thing

what does that even mean?

 

[Debqtz]

Nordost Blue Heaven Cables

lol?

Whats that mean?

 

[Walter]

It means that cables costing 1/20 the price would have sounded exactly the same.

 

[Eggs Ackley]

I think either Tidal or my new E50 is lying to me.

 

[Toku]

E50 is honest. Never lie.

 

[Eggs Ackley]

Is it even possible for MQA to handle DXD?

 

[Toku]

The display shows MQA (352.8kHz), so you're definitely playing an MQA file.

 

[Eggs Ackley]

Ok. The source is a classical recording on the 2L label which uses DXD for all their masters. I'm just surprised that Tidal MQA is actually capable of delivering that.

 

[Debqtz]

It means that cables costing 1/20 the price would have sounded exactly the same.

I got to demo with different cables and these ones sounded the best by a good bit. They were only 200$ as well

 

[AnalogSteph]

I got to demo with different cables and these ones sounded the best by a good bit. They were only 200$ as well

Either some of the test candidates were plain broken in some way or you have just been fooled, which actually is super easy. Even at "only" $200, that's still about 95% of profit for dealer and manufacturer, maybe more.

 

[adam2434]

Fawzay and Rottmannash,​

Thanks for your replies a couple pages back.

I have an Emotiva DC-1 DAC/Pre feeding the Kali LP-8 monitors via XLR cables currently. The Topping DACs probably measure a bit better, but not sure my 50 year old ears would notice a significant improvement over the Emotiva. The Emotiva DC-1 has served me well the past few years in multiple systems. It has plenty of oomph as a preamp and has very low self-noise. I'll probably just keep using it with the Kali monitors, rather than buying a new DAC/Pre for this tertiary system.

 

[JaccoW]

Not much to add except thanks to Amir and everybody who commented. Received mine in red today and for now they will be connected to a pair of PreSonus Eris 3.5 powered speakers. Feels like a decent upgrade over the almost ancient Asus Xonar U3 DAC.

While I did try to get my hands on a Schitt Modius or Soncoz SGD1 these were unavailable in Europe at the time and I didn't want to risk huge import duties by ordering the Schiit. I'm not complaining though because this Topping looks great and I like the added functionality of the remote control.

To my ears this has a slightly wider sound and more clarity in the highs compared to the Asus. But then again, that one was $40 back in 2011.
I just really like the orange, almost tube-like, glow and the fact I can control the volume using a remote control again.
It is slightly picky though and needs to be aimed well for it to work though that can be an issue with my setup.

Currently connected with a pair of balanced TRS cables to the PreSonus but it will eventually be connected by RCA since I plan to connect it to a Rega Elex-R again.

For now I will leave you with some pictures though: (open in new tab for full-res)

 

[Debqtz]

Either some of the test candidates were plain broken in some way or you have just been fooled, which actually is super easy. Even at "only" $200, that's still about 95% of profit for dealer and manufacturer, maybe more.

Nordost stopped making the cables because they would take 150 hours of labor each handmade and there was a huge amount of waste gold. Each cable they sold at a loss which is why they discontinued them. Source= the owner of the company. But yeah bro you know everything

 

[half_dog]

The day I see a boutique cable being used in a lab instrument or medical equipment I will believe on its effectiveness - for its function. There is no meaning to compare a RF cable made to work at 100MHz bandwidth with impedance matching to an audio cable.

 

[Toku]

Ok. The source is a classical recording on the 2L label which uses DXD for all their masters. I'm just surprised that Tidal MQA is actually capable of delivering that.

I don't think DXD files will be created as master sound sources at the recording site and distributed by themselves.
It is converted from DXD files to various music files and supplied to us. I also get many kinds of music files from the 2L site and use them, but there is a description that the DXD file is the original sound.

 

[zepplock]

Nordost stopped making the cables because they would take 150 hours of labor each handmade and there was a huge amount of waste gold. Each cable they sold at a loss which is why they discontinued them. Source= the owner of the company. But yeah bro you know everything

Stop being fooled by marketing/sales gibberish. Huge amount of wasted gold? In cable?
Do you even understand how ridiculous it sound?

 

[bogi]

I think either Tidal or my new E50 is lying to me.

Those 352.8 come from the MQA thing.
MQA never contains anything more than 2x the base rate, thus at most 88.2 / 96 kHz worth. 352.8 kHz source file has been converted to 88.2k and then folded into 44.1k container throwing away enough many bits to make the ultrasonic content fit in the LSBs. When it is decoded, it is unfolded back to 88.2k and then if DAC supports it, upsampled with one of MQA's 16 (poor) upsampling filters back to 352.8k. DAC display then shows 352.8.

And now to quality of the MQA upsampling filters - see Archimago's measurements comparing Topping D90SE built-in filter and MQA filters:
"As you can see, I've created a 96kHz file with content starting at 17.5kHz rolling-off by 45kHz. Obviously music should not have high levels out to 40+kHz, but you never know and I'm trying to be illustrative here. The shape is intentional so we can identify the pattern across the frequencies."

That's what you are also paying for when you are buying MQA enabled DAC.

 

[solderdude]

Nordost stopped making the cables because they would take 150 hours of labor each handmade and there was a huge amount of waste gold.

Nordost found employees that work for less than $ 1.- per hour and for 1 cable it took almost 2 weeks with a 12 hour day shift and still could not make a profit on these cables ?
Someone has been pulling your leg with these numbers or you remembered it incorrectly.
150 mins to make them (2.5 hours !) is more likely.

 

[GimeDsp]

Please have Nordost submit products for testing and review

 

[Walter]

Nordost found employees that work for less than $ 1.- per hour and for 1 cable it took almost 2 weeks with a 12 hour day shift and still could not make a profit on these cables ?
Someone has been pulling your leg with these numbers or you remembered it incorrectly.
150 mins to make them (2.5 hours !) is more likely.

Yeah, he definitely got taken by the dealer, who probably made almost as much or more profit on the cables as any other component in the system. However, he'd already made the purchase so when I saw his initial post right after he made it, I refrained from saying so. I figured that in the long run, it was a fairly small percentage of the total cost of the system, the cables were most likely no worse than a $10 pair, and they look nice, so why criticize his new toy?

However, since others have not refrained, and he is now retelling the ridiculous story the salesman told him, I think enlightening him to the truth--if he will listen--is probably called for. It is still a very nice system, and compared to what he probably would have gotten talked into if he had not read ASR first, he did quite well.