Topping E50 Review (Balanced DAC)

[enricoclaudio]

I don’t use to shake my DACs so can’t say if mine has something lose inside ‍

 

[half_dog]

I don’t use to shake my DACs so can’t say if mine has something lose inside ‍

Me neither but earlier today I was cleaning my desk and when I moved my E50 I felt something "loose" (not completely but not so well tight). Nothing more than that happened but I got a little scared.
May I ask you to gentle shake yours and report back? If it won't bother you...

 

[enricoclaudio]

Me neither but earlier today I was cleaning my desk and when I moved my E50 I felt something "loose" (not completely but not so well tight). Nothing more than that happened but I got a little scared.
May I ask you to gentle shake yours and report back? If it won't bother you...

I did shake mine like a “maraca” and nothing felt loose inside!!

 

[half_dog]

I did shake mine like a “maraca” and nothing felt loose inside!!

Thanks! I really appreciate your attention!
Well... I'm going to contact the seller, that "sounds" strange to me.

 

[half_dog]

I did shake mine like a “maraca” and nothing felt loose inside!!

That's the noise. More, sometimes the button is unresponsive...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lP-PSxIAtXvoRizYJGuxCpDVOA-wanFV/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[Dmitriy]

That's the noise. More, sometimes the button is unresponsive...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lP-PSxIAtXvoRizYJGuxCpDVOA-wanFV/view?usp=drivesdk

I tried to knock on my e50, there is no such sound, it looks like you really have something wrong, but as for the button, I don't use it, I only use the remote control, it's much more convenient for me, maybe you didn't exactly hit the sensor, the main thing is that the device works as it should, and don't worry about it much, or unscrew the back panel and see what is not fixed

 

[Pulkass]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the new Topping E50 balanced USB DAC. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $269. I just reviewed its companion headphone amplifier, the Topping L50.

The E50 takes my favorite orange LED display and makes it even nicer!

View attachment 150583

It is a gorgeous bright orange display. A single button turns the unit on and cycles through the inputs. You also get a remote control:

View attachment 150584

As you see, power is provided through a 5 volt barrel connector. Topping provides a USB to barrel cable adapter so you can use any USB power supply.

As with more recent Topping products, it uses TRS output for balanced output instead of XLR which takes up a lot more space.

Topping E50 Measurements
As usual we start without dashboard. Let's test the balanced output with USB input:

View attachment 150585

Another exemplary performance from Topping, landing it almost at top of all DACs ever tested:
View attachment 150587

RCA output is nearly as good:

View attachment 150588

Noise performance is excellent as well:

View attachment 150589

Linearity is as perfect as you can get:
View attachment 150590

IMD performance is excellent:
View attachment 150591

I see a hint of ESS dac chip IMD hump. I wonder if that is what powers it.

Multitone performance is superb with almost no frequency dependency:
View attachment 150593

Jitter over USB is perfect:
View attachment 150594

It degrades just a hair over Toslink/Coax:
View attachment 150595

There are three filers available:
View attachment 150597

They impact our THD+N vs frequency thusly:
View attachment 150599

Conclusions
What can I say but another star performance from Topping. Company is so focused on squeezing every bit of noise and distortion out of these products while providing them to us at bargain prices. And in this case, great looks as well. I wish I could complain about something but nothing comes to mind.

-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

What balanced jacks should be used,? My x over has XLR in!!!!

 

[half_dog]

I tried to knock on my e50, there is no such sound, it looks like you really have something wrong, but as for the button, I don't use it, I only use the remote control, it's much more convenient for me, maybe you didn't exactly hit the sensor, the main thing is that the device works as it should, and don't worry about it much, or unscrew the back panel and see what is not fixed

I'm afraid this unresponsiveness can be related to the thing loose inside the E50 and this will might bring the device to fail earlier than expected.

I've contacted the seller and depending on how they are going address this I will open it to try to see what may be loose...

 

[Aldoszx]

My E50 just came last week.
It has an annoying behavior and I'm wondering if somebody encountered this. I,m using it as Roon endpoint with RPi4 and Ropieee.
RPi is always on and the DAC enters standby when nothing is playing.
The problem appears when it has to wake up from standby state.
At first attempt to play something, tries to start and could not.
For a moment it not seen by Roon anymore, and at the second attempt the music plays.
Maybe there is a problem with Ropieee and the USB auto suspend.
D50s used before E50 was ok.

 

[kchap]

My E50 just came last week.
It has an annoying behavior and I'm wondering if somebody encountered this. I,m using it as Roon endpoint with RPi4 and Ropieee.
RPi is always on and the DAC enters standby when nothing is playing.
The problem appears when it has to wake up from standby state.
At first attempt to play something, tries to start and could not.
For a moment it not seen by Roon anymore, and at the second attempt the music plays.
Maybe there is a problem with Ropieee and the USB auto suspend.
D50s used before E50 was ok.

I have not noticed this; I use Volumio and have used Moode. I might not be leaving it long enough. I do usually turn the PI off after use. I will perform a test.

 

[kchap]

I tried a test for 6 hours, I put a track on pause and an left it in that state. It seems with a RPi4 and Volumio the USB interface does not go into sleep mode.

 

[enricoclaudio]

RPi4 USB ports are always ON so with a RPi4 + RoPieee your E50 wouldn’t go to sleep mode if it’s plugged into the RPi4 via USB.

 

[Aldoszx]

RPi4 USB ports are always ON so with a RPi4 + RoPieee your E50 wouldn’t go to sleep mode if it’s plugged into the RPi4 via USB.

Ropieee has implemented the USB Auto Suspend feature.
That means RPi put USB to standby when nothing is played.
The feature is working great with D10s, E30, D50s, but not with E50.

 

[bogi]

The feature is working great with D10s, E30, D50s, but not with E50.

Turn off the automatic standby function of E50 (the AUTO button on remote). After initial handshake E50 will remain turned on regardless on presence of +5V on VBUS USB signal from computer.

Other approach would be to find out how to turn off USB Auto Suspend mode on Ropieee.

 

[MeZoX]

check out that customer review from amazon lol

 

[half_dog]

....and don't worry about it much, or unscrew the back panel and see what is not fixed

So... I've unscrewed the back panel (all the three screws) and it didn't come off. For others equipments as E30 and L30 this would be enough. Maybe there is something glued holding the back plate or more screws under the rubber feet...

 

[Toku]

That's the noise. More, sometimes the button is unresponsive...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lP-PSxIAtXvoRizYJGuxCpDVOA-wanFV/view?usp=drivesdk

Since the size of the PC board of E50 is larger than that of E30, it is easy to make sound due to vibration.
The PC board is fixed while being inserted into the slits on both sides inside the aluminum case, and when it is vibrated, it shakes a little and makes a sound.
The way the vibration sound is produced differs for each E50. My E50 sounded quieter than yours.
I think that the touch operation of SEL is too fast and the touch time is short. Try operating it a little more slowly. It cannot respond to high speed double touch.
I compared it with my E50 and it works the same.

 

[half_dog]

Since the size of the PC board of E50 is larger than that of E30, it is easy to make sound due to vibration.
The PC board is fixed while being inserted into the slits on both sides inside the aluminum case, and when it is vibrated, it shakes a little and makes a sound.
The way the vibration sound is produced differs for each E50. My E50 sounded quieter than yours.
I think that the touch operation of SEL is too fast and the touch time is short. Try operating it a little more slowly. It cannot respond to double touch.
I compared it with my E50 and it works the same.

Thanks for your reply @Toku! It's comprehensive each E50 has a different behavior but mine is sooo loud that scared me. I had had some ideia how it would be build, I have seen some pictures from E30 and L30 (and already had removed the back plate from my units). No success on E50 though. In fact it's operating normally but this noise leave me some insecurity... If I learn how to open it I could check what's wiggling and fix it somehow.

About my operation speed, yep, my anxiety makes me do things too fast. Actually it response much better if I touch slowly.
With regard to the double touch, I might be mistaken but double touch is not supposed to select the output?

 

[Toku]

Thanks for your reply @Toku! It's comprehensive each E50 has a different behavior but mine is sooo loud that scared me. I had had some ideia how it would be build, I have seen some pictures from E30 and L30 (and already had removed the back plate from my units). No success on E50 though. In fact it's operating normally but this noise leave me some insecurity... If I learn how to open it I could check what's wiggling and fix it somehow.

About my operation speed, yep, my anxiety makes me do things too fast. Actually it response much better if I touch slowly.
With regard to the double touch, I might be mistaken but double touch is not supposed to select the output?

I'm sorry, I corrected the previous post.
The E50 cannot keep up with the high-speed double touch. I think you can get a reliable operation by double-touching a little more slowly. It's also a good idea to leave some time between operations. The operation of the E50's MCU (CPU) seems to be a little slow.
When I operate it like you on my E50, it becomes unstable.

 

[777]

Because in Tidal I have many crackling and the MQA could not stay because of that.

I solve the problem. I uninstalled Topping-Thesycon drivers. That software-driver is the worst driver from audio industry. Now Windows 10 works perfectly. No more popping, crackling.