Topping E70 Stereo DAC Review

[CALCULATOR]

Well, now we know what's in your mind. I made no comparison between the E70V and E70; never heard the latter. I simply stated that I was quite pleased with my E70V. I've spent as much as $1800 on a dac (Denafrips Pontus 2) and could tell no difference in audio quality between it and my E70V. I call that a damn good bang-for-the-buck value. Sold my P2 for $1725, so I think I did okay.

The R2R's, to me, have a particular sound having tried the base dena and a Gustard R26.

The kind that Topping E70 is (forgot, delta??? Whatever the designation is called) sounds much more transparent and accurate. My Gustard R26 has more... Depth.

I like both, I always encourage my audio friends to try both kinds. Two of them say "dacs are all the same"

They really are not. They're different, and definitely not everyone's cup of tea. And I think it largely depends on WHAT MUSIC DO YOU LIKE.

My iFi zen, love how it sounds with rock and metal.

The Gustard is good with anything.

The topping and smsl dacs I have I do not enjoy with rock and metal as much when paired with a class D amp, and that, I think, is because a good class D is so frocking good and accurate that I can hear the imperfections in how the track is mastered.

We all gotta remember that nowadays we probably have better more accurate equipment in our rooms than most studios where the music is made lmao

And with that you'll hear some things that will throw you off, don't worry, some music is just poorly produced.

 

[CALCULATOR]

Cool setup. mate! Are your speakers the Klipsch 600M? Lots of favorable reviews of those beasts!

Yes sir! And thank you. I retired my sim audio to another room and settled on a compact topping stack, more room on my desk now because I also do engineering work in the same seat.

I tried a variety and always go back to these because all their imperfections aside, they are very good with electronic music.

I'm waiting on the mark II to drop in price to around $400 and I'll snatch a set.

And the RP8000 mark II's

Eventually I'll move all 8 reference premiere speakers to the home theater set up and move on to something more unique when I'm older and have more money (hopefully)

 

[CALCULATOR]

A couple of hours in with the Velvet and PA7 and I am amazed by how good I'm hearing my music.

It's a different experience from my tower+Parasound+Gustard configuration in the living room right behind me in the picture

For what it's worth- if you're on the fence about getting an E70- DO IT!

 

[smokey_mountain_asr]

I have to agree with you. Scientifically speaking DACs should sound the same but our brains play tricks and we hear different genre of music differently on different DAC, @CALCULATOR and I share the same feel. JDS Labs DAC that is Saber-based is not forgiving to metal and rock but with good jazz and classical JDS sounds phenomenally good sometimes eclipsing my SL-1200GR reproduction with AT-540ML cart. I had done a lot of A-B DSD to vinyl comparisons of the same records and jazz DSD on modest JDS Atom+ gets to me play those files again and again. 3 Doors Down that is supposedly decently mastered album sounds dry, shallow on Atom+. I bought Velvet to see if AKM implementation will sound better than JDS Atom +.

 

[CALCULATOR]

I have to agree with you. Scientifically speaking DACs should sound the same but our brains play tricks and we hear different genre of music differently on different DAC, @CALCULATOR and I share the same feel. JDS Labs DAC that is Saber-based is not forgiving to metal and rock but with good jazz and classical JDS sounds phenomenally good sometimes eclipsing my SL-1200GR reproduction with AT-540ML cart. I had done a lot of A-B DSD to vinyl comparisons of the same records and jazz DSD on modest JDS Atom+ gets to me play those files again and again. 3 Doors Down that is supposedly decently mastered album sounds dry, shallow on Atom+. I bought Velvet to see if AKM implementation will sound better than JDS Atom +.

I have a feeling that even if I, personally, put the Saber and AKM side by side I wouldn't be able to tell a thing.

R2R was a noticeable difference for me, but, it is still a very mild one. It's hard to explain but it is THERE. AND I DIG IT A LOT.

I played with the PCM filters non stop of the D90SE, and now with my E70V, and I swear I cannot hear a damn difference at all.

I think some people may have super hearing, mine is definitely decayed a bit and I've tested it at a doctor 4 years ago... So I'm sure now it's even worse.

Anyway, all that said I am beyond pleased with the E70V so far I can't believe I waited so long to decide to get it.

 

[smokey_mountain_asr]

I have a feeling that even if I, personally, put the Saber and AKM side by side I wouldn't be able to tell a thing.

R2R was a noticeable difference for me, but, it is still a very mild one. It's hard to explain but it is THERE. AND I DIG IT A LOT.

I played with the PCM filters non stop of the D90SE, and now with my E70V, and I swear I cannot hear a damn difference at all.

I think some people may have super hearing, mine is definitely decayed a bit and I've tested it at a doctor 4 years ago... So I'm sure now it's even worse.

Anyway, all that said I am beyond pleased with the E70V so far I can't believe I waited so long to decide to get it.

I do agree, measurements support that we shall not be hearing difference, it is all psychoacoustics.

 

[CALCULATOR]

I do agree, measurements support that we shall not be hearing difference, it is all psychoacoustics.

Between R2R and Delta?

Hmmmmm

Maybe the Gustard and the Topping sound the same

I don't frickin know anymore

But it sure looks super cool check this out

 

[smokey_mountain_asr]

Between R2R and Delta?

Hmmmmm

Maybe the Gustard and the Topping sound the same

I don't frickin know anymore

But it sure looks super cool check this out

great setup!

 

[smokey_mountain_asr]

Calling on experts, I have received E70 Velvet today and connected it to the RPI4 with moOde player streaming to it. I checked that the Power Management mode is set to A-1 which should be sleep when no signal is present, however, DAC does not sleep even after 60 mins with no music streamed to it. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

 

[raif71]

I do agree, measurements support that we shall not be hearing difference, it is all psychoacoustics.

 

[aka_Z]

As long as USB

Calling on experts, I have received E70 Velvet today and connected it to the RPI4 with moOde player streaming to it. I checked that the Power Management mode is set to A-1 which should be sleep when no signal is present, however, DAC does not sleep even after 60 mins with no music streamed to it. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

As long as USB is active, E70V will consider input as active. If you can shutdown USB port on RPi, then E70V will go to standby after 1 minute.

 

[Vladetz]

As long as USB

As long as USB is active, E70V will consider input as active. If you can shutdown USB port on RPi, then E70V will go to standby after 1 minute.

Also you can see the same behavior with almost all USB DACs connected to windows PCs or RPI

 

[smokey_mountain_asr]

My benchmark was modest JDS Labs Atom+. I had Atom+ connected to the same USB cable before I bought E70V and it would sleep in exactly 60 mins after the RPI moOde stops playback. I assumed that it is normal behavior for all USB DACs. E70V sleeps on OPT and COAX when you stop the playback, just not on USB.
My question if moOde Player sends a "keep-live" signal that E70V senses and if that could be turned off? I know Kodi does have that option.

 

[aka_Z]

I would like to be able to do the same with my Shield but even I configued USB to be off during sleep, E70V remans active.

 

[smokey_mountain_asr]

I have tested on Shield, PC and E70V does not sleep, period. Basically there is no scenario that I found when E70V would sleep, only when I completely shut down the PC or Shield, only then DAC sleeps, which makes it useless for my use case (I was trying to use it as preamp to control the power amp). Topping almost made it right 12V trigger, signal sensing, but something went wrong along the way in implementation

 

[aka_Z]

A70(V) should auto select active input... Doesn't work for me either. Only what works, most of the time, is waking up if Bluetooth was last selected input and I then turn on bt on my phone. Probably it will wake up when detectcs active USB.

 

[Vladetz]

I have tested on Shield, PC and E70V does not sleep, period. Basically there is no scenario that I found when E70V would sleep, only when I completely shut down the PC or Shield, only then DAC sleeps, which makes it useless for my use case (I was trying to use it as preamp to control the power amp). Topping almost made it right 12V trigger, signal sensing, but something went wrong along the way in implementation

I would not say it is wrong
It just detects USB 5v power rail

 

[smokey_mountain_asr]

I am not seeing a setting in moOde Player to shut off USB power when music stops playing. I am talking to the moOde developer but I doubt they can implement that.

 

[jbaumann]

I have an E70 and would like to control its volume using Moode. Moode can do this using the volume control of the ESS9028, but there seems no way to control the pre amp gain.

Is there a relevant difference between using the volume control of the pre amp vs. setting the pre amp to 0dB (DAC mode) and using the volume control of the ESS9028?

Cheers, Joe

 

[staticV3]

Is there a relevant difference between using the volume control of the pre amp vs. setting the pre amp to 0dB (DAC mode) and using the volume control of the ESS9028?

the pre amp is also using the volume control of the ES9028, so there's no difference.