Topping E50 Review (Balanced DAC)

[nikosidis]

We used RCA output. I put the sound meter on the table so it did not move and it did show the same db output from pink noise. 4V is balanced output. Do you know the differences regarding RCA output? I will have a look at the Velvet settings.

It is LU4 in the settings. That is 4V so no 5V used. Same as E50.

 

[melorin]

Does anyone experience that after power loss, the DAC forgets I set it to fixed output mode and reverts back to -30dB pre-mode at start?

 

[_Meow_]

Hello gentlemen. I have a Topping L50 amplifier and Sennheiser HD 560S headphones. If I correctly interpret the results of the audio reviews, the "bottleneck" in terms of sound quality in this pair is the headphones. Will this "bottleneck" allow me to hear the difference between D10s and E50 DACs, what do you think?

 

[staticV3]

I have a Topping L50 amplifier and Sennheiser HD 560S headphones. If I correctly interpret the results of the audio reviews, the "bottleneck" in terms of sound quality in this pair is the headphones. Will this "bottleneck" allow me to hear the difference between D10s and E50 DACs, what do you think?

No, not with the proper controls in place.

 

[_Meow_]

... oh, one more question: when connected to the back panel of PC without grounding, do these models differ in the likelihood of background noise?

 

[Veri]

... oh, one more question: when connected to the back panel of PC without grounding, do these models differ in the likelihood of background noise?

D10 as a very entry level DAC, will have more likelyhood of such issues yes.

 

[_Meow_]

So my better choice is E50 after all. Thanks a lot.

 

[DancingShaman]

Hi folks. I've done a search both on this forum and internet and there is not much info on this, so I willl post I here and I would appreciate your inputs if any.. I was using E50 with a Mac and Audio Engine speakers for a year just fine, without any issues. I've recently upgraded to Genelec speakers and now, whenever the Mac restarts, so does the DAC with it, and I suppose it send electric to the speakers which cause a huge BOOM sound. Would no damage the speakers, but it's extremely annoying. Catches me off guard every time!

If I remove the cables from the DAC, then obviously, I don't have the cracking / booming sound issue, but that is not a very ideal solution. Only thing that's changed is the Genelecs, I'm pretty sure they are solid.

Anyone experienced this issue or heard of something similar? Any input would be vey helpful.

Cheers.

 

[_Meow_]

Hello, I'm back with a question about E50. For a number of reasons, for now, I use players in Windows 7 to listen to music; this DAC is officially supported by Windows 10+. When asked about the driver for Win 7, Shenzhenaudio store employee provided a link for version 4.86; but in this version E50 is not specified, so I have some doubts. Please tell me if this driver is suitable; and can DAC work without a driver - at least only through the Windows mixer?

 

[sejarzo]

Hi folks. I've done a search both on this forum and internet and there is not much info on this, so I willl post I here and I would appreciate your inputs if any.. I was using E50 with a Mac and Audio Engine speakers for a year just fine, without any issues. I've recently upgraded to Genelec speakers and now, whenever the Mac restarts, so does the DAC with it, and I suppose it send electric to the speakers which cause a huge BOOM sound. Would no damage the speakers, but it's extremely annoying. Catches me off guard every time!

If I remove the cables from the DAC, then obviously, I don't have the cracking / booming sound issue, but that is not a very ideal solution. Only thing that's changed is the Genelecs, I'm pretty sure they are solid.

Anyone experienced this issue or heard of something similar? Any input would be vey helpful.

Cheers.

I'm confused by your comment "now, whenever the Mac restarts, so does the DAC with it,..." The DAC always restarted when the Mac restarted, correct?

I am surprised that this didn't happen with your previous speakers, if the DAC always outputs a significant pulse on restart. Do the Audioengine speakers go into a sleep mode quickly if there is no input signal, such that the pulse would have simply brought them out of sleep so you would not have heard it?

 

[DancingShaman]

I'm confused by your comment "now, whenever the Mac restarts, so does the DAC with it,..." The DAC always restarted when the Mac restarted, correct?

I am surprised that this didn't happen with your previous speakers, if the DAC always outputs a significant pulse on restart. Do the Audioengine speakers go into a sleep mode quickly if there is no input signal, such that the pulse would have simply brought them out of sleep so you would not have heard it?

I'm also surprised that it didn't happen with the AudioEngines. There is so many variables, USB hub, cables, power etc. It's going to take a while to isolate.. for now, I"m advised by Genelec to simply turn off the monitors first when shutting things down, to keep the potential damage to minimum.

 

[sejarzo]

USB hub

That's the first thing I would remove from the chain. I've had Topping D30, D10, and E30 in my desktop headphone system for years and never had a similar problem with any of them on startup/restart, nor when I used the D10 or E30 with a laptop or a mini-PC connected to my speaker rig. Never used a hub, only USB ports directly on the computer in use.

 

[_Meow_]

I would give 4.86 a try.

4.86 installed without problems. In my case, the question is: if I buy an E50 (which I don't have yet), will it work correctly with this version? Or work without driver as pnp audio device?

 

[JaccoW]

So I ordered a P50 LPS before reading all the talk about it in the last couple of pages. No comments on sound quality improvements (if any) but I do have a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 ADC. I could record the output over balanced TRS > TRS and unbalanced RCA > 2xTS compared to the LPS and just a standard 1A phone charger.

Would people be interested in that? I'll start a new thread if so. Perhaps just a selection of 1 minute recordings so people can do blind AB-tests at home themselves. The Foobar2000 ABX comparator plugin is a very useful tool for that.

Something like this decision table for a handful of different songs. I've got a large number of digital files, SACD rips and just regular CDs I could play over TOSlink.

Conditions	1	2	3	4
TRS/RCA	TRS	TRS	RCA	RCA
LPS/SW	LPS	SW	LPS	SW

The main reason for the P50 was curiosity and it solves a problem with a number of power connections. My mini-PC has a tendency to get out of sleep mode at weird times and by actually switching the DAC off it doesn't trigger everything else and saves me some electricity.

 

[Veri]

So I ordered a P50 LPS before reading all the talk about it in the last couple of pages. No comments on sound quality improvements (if any) but I do have a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 ADC. I could record the output over balanced TRS > TRS and unbalanced RCA > 2xTS compared to the LPS and just a standard 1A phone charger.

Would people be interested in that? I'll start a new thread if so. Perhaps just a selection of 1 minute recordings so people can do blind AB-tests at home themselves. The Foobar2000 ABX comparator plugin is a very useful tool for that.

Something like this decision table for a handful of different songs. I've got a large number of digital files, SACD rips and just regular CDs I could play over TOSlink.

Conditions	1	2	3	4
TRS/RCA	TRS	TRS	RCA	RCA
LPS/SW	LPS	SW	LPS	SW

The main reason for the P50 was curiosity and it solves a problem with a number of power connections. My mini-PC has a tendency to get out of sleep mode at weird times and by actually switching the DAC off it doesn't trigger everything else and saves me some electricity.

Cute little DAC stack doesn't hold a candle to the board games stack though!!

 

[Dunring]

Hi folks. I've done a search both on this forum and internet and there is not much info on this, so I willl post I here and I would appreciate your inputs if any.. I was using E50 with a Mac and Audio Engine speakers for a year just fine, without any issues. I've recently upgraded to Genelec speakers and now, whenever the Mac restarts, so does the DAC with it, and I suppose it send electric to the speakers which cause a huge BOOM sound. Would no damage the speakers, but it's extremely annoying. Catches me off guard every time!

If I remove the cables from the DAC, then obviously, I don't have the cracking / booming sound issue, but that is not a very ideal solution. Only thing that's changed is the Genelecs, I'm pretty sure they are solid.

Anyone experienced this issue or heard of something similar? Any input would be vey helpful.

Cheers.

You can turn the auto on/off feature so the DAC won't shut down when there's a loss of signal. I have one of these and this is the manual page that shows how:

Change the A-O to A-C and you'll be all set.

 

[escalibur]

Topping has released new drivers for most of their recent DACs: https://www.tpdz.net/newsinfo/820095.html

 

[Audioquest]

I just received this unit a few days ago. Decent for the money, and as good as it measures and when the rubber hits the road, it isn't a giant killer sound-wise. It lacks the elusive soundstage depth and transparency such as the Gustard x16, obviously you get more @ a little more than double the price. It is smoother though than the X16. Reason I compare it to this one is the E50 using 1 of the 9068 and same OPA output as the X16.
The display is way better too and it's no frills, just what most people really need. Wish it had NOS mode though. That's what made the clarity difference when I had the X16. With it turned off I'd say they compete pretty closely, so if you like a little more subdued sound then the E50 is a much better financial deal.
Either way, good for the money , just not quite as transparent as the better upscale units, easy to tell there's just a bit of veil surrounding the presentation and it doesnt delineate complex passages as well, but at the same time it's not a bleeding edge pencil in the ear tiring sound either and we're not talking 4 or 5 figures. A very good budget product.

 

[Zeliya]

Topping has released new drivers for most of their recent DACs: https://www.tpdz.net/newsinfo/820095.html

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What I noticed is that they leveled the sound level in MQA and non-MQA modes.
Ok!

 

[nsfgp]

Topping has released new drivers for most of their recent DACs: https://www.tpdz.net/newsinfo/820095.html

Release Notes: https://blog.jdslabs.com/downloads/drivers/xmos/TUSBAudio_history.txt