Topping E70 Stereo DAC Review

[scruffy1]

Changelog:

https://www.thesycon.de/usbaudio/TUSBAudio_history.txt

Yes, it’s just the Thesycon driver that basically everyone uses with XMOS chips and many others as well.

thanks for that reply

@MRC01 : i know the difference between firmware and drivers, but thanks for your input

 

[Bogda]

Am I the only one who is really bothered by touch button on the front. You cannot find it in a dark room since it is not lit, you are never sure if it registered the touch, occasional accidental touches... I really hate this general trend towards touch controls for everything.
With everybody praising the sound engineering prowess of topping, how did they fumble on such a simple thing.

 

[Grobbelboy]

Agree that a physical button would have been better, but for me it's doesn't really cause a problem because I only rarely have to use it. When I connect my laptop or phone it activates by itself and I use auto power off so there's no need to manually switch it off either.

 

[Dennis_FL]

Am I the only one who is really bothered by touch button on the front. You cannot find it in a dark room since it is not lit, you are never sure if it registered the touch, occasional accidental touches... I really hate this general trend towards touch controls for everything.
With everybody praising the sound engineering prowess of topping, how did they fumble on such a simple thing.

I have a Sonos Move speaker which has touch controls. We kept it on our rear Lanai and had a constant problem with the speaker coming on at max volume when we were away from home. I had long chats with Sonos tech support and they had me do multiple diagnostics without a solution.

Then I discovered a gecko had taken a liking to music and was tapping its foot on the volume up control.

 

[scruffy1]

Agree that a physical button would have been better, but for me it's doesn't really cause a problem because I only rarely have to use it. When I connect my laptop or phone it activates by itself and I use auto power off so there's no need to manually switch it off either.

i presume that's by plugging them in?

because if you know how to do that with bluetooth, that would be a secret to share please

Am I the only one who is really bothered by touch button on the front. You cannot find it in a dark room since it is not lit, you are never sure if it registered the touch, occasional accidental touches... I really hate this general trend towards touch controls for everything.
With everybody praising the sound engineering prowess of topping, how did they fumble on such a simple thing.

there's a button on the remote if you need the tactile feedback

 

[TheWalkman]

Am I the only one who is really bothered by touch button on the front. You cannot find it in a dark room since it is not lit, you are never sure if it registered the touch, occasional accidental touches... I really hate this general trend towards touch controls for everything.
With everybody praising the sound engineering prowess of topping, how did they fumble on such a simple thing.

You are not the only one. If you own the preamp, you better not lose your remote!

 

[aka_Z]

He can buy another one Btw, I don't remember when I touched my E70V, especially not power button.

 

[Bogda]

You were better off with E50 then.
I bought e70 because of volume knob. I have multiple sources connected (PC, streamer, TV) so I switch sources manually often with power button.

 

[MrSoul4470]

I have not used the button on the device even once. I HATE fingerprints on my audio stuff and I wouldn't have bought the E70V, if there wasn't a remote or a auto-turn-on feature.

 

[aka_Z]

You were better off with E50 then.
I bought e70 because of volume knob. I have multiple sources connected (PC, streamer, TV) so I switch sources manually often with power button.

I like how it looks with a volume knob and I like velveted sound

 

[pavlo_y0l0s]

Looking at this one for my next purchase. Topping website says it’s got better and revised I/V conversion circuit compared to older DACs.

 

[aka_Z]

Marketing has to write something I have E70V for a while now, using every day and I'm super pleased

 

[pavlo_y0l0s]

A light mod to get rid of the soulless sound.

Wow, nice!
I’m curious what was the capacitance for the old components (caps as I see) vs values for the upgrades? Are those Nichicon gold capacitors that were installed? Thanks

 

[voodooless]

Wow, nice!
I’m curious what was the capacitance for the old components (caps as I see) vs values for the upgrades? Are those Nichicon gold capacitors that were installed? Thanks

Don’t waste resources on this, it won’t do anything to the sound. The E70 is soulless because it’s a machine. If you want soul, maybe ask a little mouse to house in it?

 

[Killingbeans]

He has a bit of a point though. If the caps have a very different farad value, it might actually have EQ'ed the sound.

Still, moving the corner frequency of a filter in the signal path doesn't imbue a DAC with a soul

 

[voodooless]

He has a bit of a point though. If the caps have a very different farad value, it might actually have EQ'ed the sound.

All of those “mods” seem to be in the power supply section though.

 

[Killingbeans]

Good point. It won't do squat to the sound then.

 

[pavlo_y0l0s]

Don’t waste resources on this, it won’t do anything to the sound. The E70 is soulless because it’s a machine. If you want soul, maybe ask a little mouse to house in it?

Thanks.
I just like to tinker with electronics for fun.
Also cost cutting measures make sense in economies of scale, so it can be sometimes beneficial to upgrade components.
Maybe not in this particular DAC but I like to entertain the thought.
Like upgrading those buck converter caps and two other ones with Panasonic aluminum polymer caps.

 

[pavlo_y0l0s]

He has a bit of a point though. If the caps have a very different farad value, it might actually have EQ'ed the sound.

I just found out old values were 47uF for two caps by the buck converters, 100uF and 470uF by the DAC chip.

 

[Jimster480]

Thanks.
I just like to tinker with electronics for fun.
Also cost cutting measures make sense in economies of scale, so it can be sometimes beneficial to upgrade components.
Maybe not in this particular DAC but I like to entertain the thought.
Like upgrading those buck converter caps and two other ones with Panasonic aluminum polymer caps.

Sometimes you can improve products like this; just by upgrading things that were cheaped out upon. it is a shame that it is so hard to work on most devices of these days.