Topping E50 Review (Balanced DAC)

[Eldus]

Thinking about pulling the trigger on the E50, maybe an L50, to match my PA5. Anything I should be aware of?

 

[Gianni]

Hi all, is the IMD hump still present on the latest E50 firmware? I saw Topping has just released a new firmware update that fix the IMD hump for DX5.

 

[RHO]

Hi all, is the IMD hump still present on the latest E50 firmware? I saw Topping has just released a new firmware update that fix the IMD hump for DX5.

What IMD hump? It is barely noticeable in the measurements and at such a low level it would drown in the noise if this DAC wouldn't have such good noise figures. I would not worry one little bit about it in this device.

 

[Blew]

its been hell. have had to unit for pretty much 2 months and that error started from day one, tried it on 3 different pc's, same result. it happens when listening to tidal mostly, but i had the issue with foobar too. it couldnt deal with 88, and the error can happen 7 to 8 minutes after the listening session starts or hours after. in any case the unit errors, and you have to reset it to make it start working again, ive been dealing with it pretty much in every single listening session, for the past 2 months. tried everything: different bitsizes configs, set up configs, drivers, usb windows power management configs, several power supplies known to man. everything. i´ve reached the end of my rope, found 2 more users online with the same issue as me so, i concluded its a batch problem. my new dac (s.m.s.l) will arrive today.

I just got the same PNL error for the first time. Why now? I used a different power supply. Changing power supply fixed it. I'm now using a 2A USB charger instead of the previous 1A.

 

[Gradius]

Still the risk is there that you ruined a completely fine device.

To be fair... the unit is still working fine.

Come'n let him have some fun, shall we?

 

[pglee]

Thinking about pulling the trigger on the E50, maybe an L50, to match my PA5. Anything I should be aware of?

The user interface is a bit annoying if you have more than one source connected. It uses a single touch button to control power and switching source. You need to use the remote to set up certain settings. The differences in sound is most likely imperceptible from your D30 but if you really want to know that you have one of the best performing DAC's around or use MQA, it's worth it because the cost is so low. It doesn't come with a USB power supply so you need to supply your own. If you use an under-powered one (e.g. the USB found on a surge protector), the LED display will create a noticeable whine noise. The LED can be set to turn off automatically after 30 seconds. Don't lose the manual or the remote.

 

[JaccoW]

The user interface is a bit annoying if you have more than one source connected. It uses a single touch button to control power and switching source. You need to use the remote to set up certain settings. The differences in sound is most likely imperceptible from your D30 but if you really want to know that you have one of the best performing DAC's around or use MQA, it's worth it because the cost is so low. It doesn't come with a USB power supply so you need to supply your own. If you use an under-powered one (e.g. the USB found on a surge protector), the LED display will create a noticeable whine noise. The LED can be set to turn off automatically after 30 seconds. Don't lose the manual or the remote.

I have every single port connected on mine and simply use the remote to switch between different inputs. While a direct switch would have been nice, I have seen much more expensive amplifiers (Rega Elex-R for example) use a single button to switch between 5 different inputs.

And they do sell an aluminum replacement remote.

 

[Blew]

The Topping E50 appears to be heavily affected by the quality of the USB power supplying it, so I've been experimenting with different 1A+ USB power supplies for it. So far I've tried a number of mostly phone chargers around the house and found one iPhone charger to be the best so far. The noisy 1A USB output on an amplifier of mine sounds the worst of all. Does anyone have any better recommendations for USB power supplies to try with it?

 

[vkvedam]

I took the 10% off advantage and placed an order for a red E50 . I had an E30 which got fried and ended up with 'E-d' error. Are there any similar issues with E50 that I need to be aware of :-(

 

[Gradius]

The Topping E50 appears to be heavily affected by the quality of the USB power supplying it, so I've been experimenting with different 1A+ USB power supplies for it. So far I've tried a number of mostly phone chargers around the house and found one iPhone charger to be the best so far. The noisy 1A USB output on an amplifier of mine sounds the worst of all. Does anyone have any better recommendations for USB power supplies to try with it?

Mean Well are the best for the price.

 

[half_dog]

The Topping E50 appears to be heavily affected by the quality of the USB power supplying it, so I've been experimenting with different 1A+ USB power supplies for it. So far I've tried a number of mostly phone chargers around the house and found one iPhone charger to be the best so far. The noisy 1A USB output on an amplifier of mine sounds the worst of all. Does anyone have any better recommendations for USB power supplies to try with it?

Mine is powered by a Samsung Quick Charger (cheap, noiseless and seems reliable) which can output 2A at 5V. It has been working flawlessly so far...

 

[Laserjock]

Mean Well are the best for the price.

MEAN WELL GST18A05-P1J AC-DC High Reliability Industrial Table Top Power Supply, 2.1mm Plug Level VI, 5V 3A 15W 3-Wire https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZ0LJXQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_HPTKDP78PAW96KD330WV

This one?

 

[dominikz]

The Topping E50 appears to be heavily affected by the quality of the USB power supplying it, so I've been experimenting with different 1A+ USB power supplies for it. So far I've tried a number of mostly phone chargers around the house and found one iPhone charger to be the best so far. The noisy 1A USB output on an amplifier of mine sounds the worst of all. Does anyone have any better recommendations for USB power supplies to try with it?

Could you clarify in which way is the E50 affected by the USB power quality?
I can't say I noticed any change in measured output on my E50 unit, regardless of which USB power source I used so far.

 

[JaccoW]

Alright, about those sudden dropouts of the E50 that others have been experiencing.
The "IN Err" and "Err PNL" message. It happened to me today.

For some reason, this particular youtube video consistently triggers it for me. After the 0:22 mark there seems to be some windnoise that triggers it within 10 seconds. YMMV

 

[Dac-man]

Just got an E50 from Amazon. Hooked it up to my audio analyzer, and powered it from the USB port on my computer. With a 24/192 PCM 1khz sinewave at 0dBFS (4v same as this review) I was getting 110 SINAD from left channel and 111 from the right. So I figured it was due to the dirty power from my USB port. So I powered from my ultra low noise supply with 0.2uV ripple noise. This improved the result to 111 on the left channel and 113 on the right. So I figured maybe it’s conducting noise through the audio input USB port. So I connected it to the Toslink output of my analyzer and ran the test. it remained unchanged at 111 and 113.

Very disappointed with these results. I have a $20 USB dongle that measures better.

 

[Laserjock]

Just got an E50 from Amazon. Hooked it up to my audio analyzer, and powered it from the USB port on my computer. With a 24/192 PCM 1khz sinewave at 0dBFS (4v same as this review) I was getting 110 SINAD from left channel and 111 from the right. So I figured it was due to the dirty power from my USB port. So I powered from my ultra low noise supply with 0.2uV ripple noise. This improved the result to 111 on the left channel and 113 on the right. So I figured maybe it’s conducting noise through the audio input USB port. So I connected it to the Toslink output of my analyzer and ran the test. it remained unchanged at 111 and 113.

Very disappointed with these results. I have a $20 USB dongle that measures better.

Was it balanced out and ~4.25VDC?

 

[Dac-man]

I was able to squeeze a bit more performance out of it with 4.24v output. Couldn’t get any more out of it without clipping. Yes it’s balanced out with the unit set to balanced. Also keep in mind this measurement is when powered by a supply that costs triple the price of the DAC. Most people likely aren’t doing this.

 

[Dac-man]

For comparison, here’s my $20 Meizu USB dongle connected to my iPhone with $10 USB adapter. Sounds better subjectively as well.

 

[Dac-man]

So I gave it another shot using my iPhone as the source. And the same lightning to USB adapter I used with the Miezu Dac. The usb is super clean out of the iPhone. Which is why the Miezu measures so good. As it’s very sensitive to usb noise. This is about as good as it gets from this DAC. Ultra clean USB and ultra clean power supply

 

[Laserjock]

View attachment 196562So I gave it another shot using my iPhone as the source. And the same lightning to USB adapter I used with the Miezu Dac. The usb is super clean out of the iPhone. Which is why the Miezu measures so good. As it’s very sensitive to usb noise. This is about as good as it gets from this DAC. Ultra clean USB and ultra clean power supply

Try unbalanced on the E50 to see if it follows Amir’s findings ?

I wonder how the unit to unit variability is and if you have any other DACs that have been tested here you can validate similar results.