• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Topping E50 Review (Balanced DAC)

Debqtz

Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2021
Messages
13
Likes
4
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.
The salesperson put the cable out on loan to me for free for 2 months. I paid 0$ for it. Can buy it if I want after that. And the story I was told on how unprofitable to sell the cables came straight from the owner of Nordost Joe Reynolds. Don't see a reason for him to lie but yeah
 

Debqtz

Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2021
Messages
13
Likes
4
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.
But yeah am super happy with my system. Went form a pair of Sennhieser HD6XX connected to a Darkvoice 336SE on stock tubes plugged into a AudioQuest Dragonfly Red connected to my computer all junk cables.
Now I'm on a Blusound Node (2021) connected to a Topping D90SE which is connected to a Music Fedility MX-HPA to my Focal Utopias all with quality cables and interconnects. Sounds AMAAAAAAAZING lol, 20 times as amazing? No, but just goes to show how good a deal Senn. 600 series are
 

Walter

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Aug 25, 2020
Messages
856
Likes
1,242
You definitely have a very nice system that I would love to have. Nordost essentially lies about cables every day, in my opinion. You have a great opportunity, unless you just like the look of the cables enough to pay for them. Get some inexpensive cable from a local retailer, or some of the Amazon Basics cables that are verified real oxygen free copper, and get a friend to switch them around without letting you know which is which. A dealer gave me a similar opportunity with an even more ridiculous cable--optical--in 2000 and was astounded that I returned both the $80 and $200 cables because they sounded no different from the one that came with my Sony CD changer. I'd actually persuaded myself that the $80 one sounded slightly better, only to discover that I had forgotten which one was hooked up!
 

Filio45

Active Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2019
Messages
169
Likes
74
Performance wise, the noise floor of D30pro would be a lot lower at 1.3uV. Better suitable as preamp than E50. Otherwise E50 is a better performance/price device
Hi. How much higher noise floor is the E50? A bit put off by your comment with regards to buying it, as I intend to connect straight to active monitors. Thanks
 
Last edited:

Debqtz

Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2021
Messages
13
Likes
4
You definitely have a very nice system that I would love to have. Nordost essentially lies about cables every day, in my opinion. You have a great opportunity, unless you just like the look of the cables enough to pay for them. Get some inexpensive cable from a local retailer, or some of the Amazon Basics cables that are verified real oxygen free copper, and get a friend to switch them around without letting you know which is which. A dealer gave me a similar opportunity with an even more ridiculous cable--optical--in 2000 and was astounded that I returned both the $80 and $200 cables because they sounded no different from the one that came with my Sony CD changer. I'd actually persuaded myself that the $80 one sounded slightly better, only to discover that I had forgotten which one was hooked up!
Yeah I will try that!
 

Walter

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Aug 25, 2020
Messages
856
Likes
1,242
Yeah I will try that!
Cool. The only thing to watch out for, especially on Amazon, is fake copper cable that is actually ALUMINUM. That CAN affect the sound. I generally bought mine at Radio Shack when I lived in the USA.
 

Atanasi

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 8, 2019
Messages
713
Likes
792
Hi. How much higher noise floor is the E50? A bit put off by your comment with regards to buying it, as I intend to connect straight to active monitors. Thanks
Active monitors have self-noise. You should check if the noise from the DAC or pre-amp is more or less than the self-noise of the active monitor.

For example, Genelec 8030C has self-noise of 5 dBA at 1 m. The most sensitive gain is -6 dBu for 100 dB, so the self-noise corresponds to a signal level of -101 dBu. E50's balanced output is specified for 2.3 microvolts of noise, which is -110.5 dBu, clearly below the self-noise.
 

usern

Senior Member
Joined
May 31, 2020
Messages
487
Likes
499
I have Audient iD4, which has higher noise floor than these Topping DACs, and could not tell the difference if the XLR cable is connected or not with Genelec 8030C or Neumann KH 80 DSP. Both speakers have audible hiss in a quiet room though (no input connected).
 

Mark Lawless

Member
Joined
May 25, 2019
Messages
13
Likes
2
My question is about jitter using Coax. You say that jitter is a little worse compared to USB, but is that source dependant? Does the DAC have its own internal clock that helps prevent jitter? On my other DACs D30 and E30 toppings. I hear a rather large difference between USB and Coax. But I would be happy to upgrade to this DAC if it would get rid of that performance difference. I have a Bluesound vault that only has coax output, going USB out from my PC using exclusive mode sounds fantastic, but using the bluesound vault the quality takes a real dip. Thanks for your help here, I love and promote your reviews on FB all the time.
 

fluxcapacitor

Active Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2020
Messages
115
Likes
70
i just received my E50 and extremely happy with it, very very nice sounding dac. I use it at max volume (0.0) and zero additional noise it adds to the sound. One thing that was very surprising for me was when i use usb connection and my graphic card kicks in, E50 is filtering the noise perfectly and there's no audible difference between graphic card is in use and dac is turned off. My previous dacs with same pc were used to badly affected by graphic card in load..E50 is simply filtering it perfectly. Amazed. Also, built quality, touching sense etc. feels premium. This is a solid dac. Highly recommended.
 

Veri

Master Contributor
Joined
Feb 6, 2018
Messages
9,596
Likes
12,036
i just received my E50 and extremely happy with it, very very nice sounding dac. I use it at max volume (0.0) and zero additional noise it adds to the sound. One thing that was very surprising for me was when i use usb connection and my graphic card kicks in, E50 is filtering the noise perfectly and there's no audible difference between graphic card is in use and dac is turned off. My previous dacs with same pc were used to badly affected by graphic card in load..E50 is simply filtering it perfectly. Amazed. Also, built quality, touching sense etc. feels premium. This is a solid dac. Highly recommended.
Are you using balanced out? Because that could minimize the computer / GPU kind of noise ;)
 

fluxcapacitor

Active Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2020
Messages
115
Likes
70
Are you using balanced out? Because that could minimize the computer / GPU kind of noise ;)
nope, using only unbalanced outputs as did with previous dacs. This was a big surprise for me cuz even marant nd8006 can't isolate that noise from gpu in use...
 

Veri

Master Contributor
Joined
Feb 6, 2018
Messages
9,596
Likes
12,036
nope, using only unbalanced outputs as did with previous dacs. This was a big surprise for me cuz even marant nd8006 can't isolate that noise from gpu in use...
That's nice to hear!
 

fluxcapacitor

Active Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2020
Messages
115
Likes
70
İnfact , this is awesome.dead silent at USB of PC with gpu in load.3cm from tweeter, zero additional noise in any condition.just for this reason, i was using only optical input.
 

TunaBug

Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 19, 2021
Messages
81
Likes
100
Location
Seattle-ish
I quite like this shot, well done! Topping ought to consider taking a few shots like this for marketing purposes.

Yes, that image caught my eye as well. The colors look a bit too manipulated, but it's nice.

I have a love/hate feeling toward the pictures on Topping's website. Their photography is generally very good, but then the information content on their pages is burned into images as well so that you can't copy/paste/search/translate any of it.
 

JaccoW

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2021
Messages
348
Likes
512
Location
The Netherlands
Yes, that image caught my eye as well. The colors look a bit too manipulated, but it's nice.

I have a love/hate feeling toward the pictures on Topping's website. Their photography is generally very good, but then the information content on their pages is burned into images as well so that you can't copy/paste/search/translate any of it.
Yet it's straight from the camera. ;) Just with a wide open 35mm F1.8 lens on APS-C. The only thing I might have done (don't remember) is to set the white balance before shooting. It's just a very full orange colour and pretty close to what I see in person. It feels close to the glow of a tube amp IMHO.
 

TunaBug

Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 19, 2021
Messages
81
Likes
100
Location
Seattle-ish
Yet it's straight from the camera. ;) Just with a wide open 35mm F1.8 lens on APS-C. The only thing I might have done (don't remember) is to set the white balance before shooting. It's just a very full orange colour and pretty close to what I see in person. It feels close to the glow of a tube amp IMHO.

Cool. I'm curious, what is the surface that was reflecting the numbers? I guess i thought the orange to red shift would have resulted in something of a more of purple reflection for the white bits.
 

fluxcapacitor

Active Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2020
Messages
115
Likes
70
DSC05854-3 (Copy).jpg


DSC05845-2 (Copy).jpg



DSC05848-4 (Copy).jpg
DSC05852-3 (Copy).jpg
DSC05857-2 (Copy).jpg
DSC05860-3 (Copy).jpg
DSC05860-3 (Copy).jpg
DSC05847-3 (Copy).jpg
 
Last edited:

AVKS

Active Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2020
Messages
215
Likes
287
Might be a stupid question, but does anyone know/can anyone share the length of the cables that come with the E50?
 
Top Bottom