Topping M50

[harrydarwen]

The EQ seems pretty limited as well, unless adjustment options are available but not shown.

Speed Test​

 

[AndreaT]

Well, I received my M50 from Shenzenaudio three days ago. I finally set it up. The UI is limited by the size of the tiny screen, I had to wear two pair of reading glasses to enter my Wi-Fi pw, and it is still unclear if it has read my whole music library from a 4 TB SSD. However, it works with minimal learning curve. It sounds great, the RC is responsive and fast, it feeds through a digital coax a Topping E50 DAC. For the asking price it is a bargain. My priority is to duplicate my >70K-song library and have it on each of the music system at my home, a sort of digital juke-box duplicated in each convenient locations. And no need to control it with my laptop that stays put on my work desk. I think I am going to purchase a second M50 for my other home. I can carry on a small SSD my entire CD collection. Great job Mr. John Yang!!

 

[AndyLewis]

Got one too. Will use the OTG usb to E50 - as the coax taken by my cd transport & optical by the wiim mini. Use the E50 as a pre amp & therefore vol control into a 6000A in Power Amp mode - the pre on the amp is good but not as good as the E50. The signal from this is strong - I have to turn down the volume comp to the fixed 2v output on the mini / cd so that's great too. The USB input on the E50 is the cleanest input from what I remember on the ASR test - best jitter correction etc too so Micro cf cards at 19€ a pop at the moment - 2 or 3 will be plenty for me.
Sounds great & reliable as WiFi is flakey here to say the least! I'll enjoy my 192 / 24 music with no interruptions.
Successfully linked it via wifi/blutooth to my phone but the damn HiBy app keeps closing - I'll just have to get off the couch now & again to read the 1.5mm titles - oh well - Happy Christmas to me - delighted with it!

 

[AndreaT]

Got one too. Will use the OTG usb to E50 - as the coax taken by my cd transport & optical by the wiim mini. Use the E50 as a pre amp & therefore vol control into a 6000A in Power Amp mode - the pre on the amp is good but not as good as the E50. The signal from this is strong - I have to turn down the volume comp to the fixed 2v output on the mini / cd so that's great too. The USB input on the E50 is the cleanest input from what I remember on the ASR test - best jitter correction etc too so Micro cf cards at 19€ a pop at the moment - 2 or 3 will be plenty for me.
Sounds great & reliable as WiFi is flakey here to say the least! I'll enjoy my 192 / 24 music with no interruptions.
Successfully linked it via wifi/blutooth to my phone but the damn HiBy app keeps closing - I'll just have to get off the couch now & again to read the 1.5mm titles - oh well - Happy Christmas to me - delighted with it!

Yes, HiBy link in need of major overhaul both in stability and archive criteria of catalogue. Why no one asks Mr.Weiss and his team to take care of the UI App?

 

[AndyLewis]

Asked Topping they said to check device linked via HiBy & not the Phone - tried it - same result...
Agreed - some control software of the Wiim's standard would sort that out - shame about it.
Lucky I had a hands-free magnifying glass for entering the wifi password too!
Oh well ; )

 

[AndyLewis]

The EQ seems pretty limited as well, unless adjustment options are available but not shown.

Speed Test​

They are - as long as you have a magnifying glass & comfy sitting/kneeling position 1 foot away! I have mine set on a custom variation of the "Jazz" setting... ; )

 

[AndyLewis]

BTW there is an effective but laborious way to get album art of your choice to pop up with each track on your own custom wav. files. A small jpg up to 500 x 500 or 600 / whatever shape fits best plopped in with the tracks - bur you need a copy with same track name gor each track. If there's a more efficient way please let me know!!! ; )

 

[GDUBYA]

BTW there is an effective but laborious way to get album art of your choice to pop up with each track on your own custom wav. files. A small jpg up to 500 x 500 or 600 / whatever shape fits best plopped in with the tracks - bur you need a copy with same track name gor each track. If there's a more efficient way please let me know!!! ; )

If you’re talking about inserting tags within the files there are a number of programs like mp3tag. I do it within foobar2000 after grabbing the art from somewhere like Amazon. And resizing with another program. But where I am having difficulty is getting the album art to show up on the hiby app. I get the art on my tiny screen, but not on my iPad.

 

[AndyLewis]

If you’re talking about inserting tags within the files there are a number of programs like mp3tag. I do it within foobar2000 after grabbing the art from somewhere like Amazon. And resizing with another program. But where I am having difficulty is getting the album art to show up on the hiby app. I get the art on my tiny screen, but not on my iPad.

Yes - does that work with wav. / flac files too btw? You're lucky - the damn Hiby app just shuts down when I try to connect with it on my Android phone - so I just use the M50 controller from my seat & strained eyes - the album art at least helps a bit!! ; )

 

[GDUBYA]

Yes - does that work with wav. / flac files too btw? You're lucky - the damn Hiby app just shuts down when I try to connect with it on my Android phone - so I just use the M50 controller from my seat & strained eyes - the album art at least helps a bit!! ; )

100% certain you can insert in FLAC files. I presume the same with wav files, but I have very few files in wav format and just haven’t done it recently, so I don’t recall. With the editors, you can change lots of the things too, not just add artwork. But even when I have artwork in the files, I cannot get it to show in the HiByMusic app.

 

[AndyLewis]

Thanks. Got the HiBy app working eventually - my little jpeg of the playing track show up at the bottom of the listed album tracks on the app. At least I can select tracks from my phone & with the remote for my E50 in pre amp mode for volume, I'm very happy with this .....
; )

 

[Saponetto]

Ok, it's Christmas... just got a M50.

Had to ask my nephew borrow his (previously mine) P50 to get this little brick powered as it should be.
Well, it seems work fine. Plugged and tested on his (previously mine also) D50s, on my D70, on both D30 Pros and on a tiny E30 Mk1 (my backup DAC) using USB, Optical and Coaxial inputs.

Sound is nice, needless to say, same DSD or FLAC files seems less "cramped" than passing through my desktop PC's ASIO/WASAPI drivers.
Maybe it's due the good noise floor.
The nice surprise is the way this brick gives high-five to my DACs, sound flows out flawless, without chops or stutters at all.

Unique minor gripe, the sub-nano keyboard seems not to include any underscore key at all, needed for my complex WiFi passwords.
Even if I won't use at all the network functions, I'd really appreciate if some charitative souls could get me some hints on where to find that damn key.

Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas!

 

[AndyLewis]

Thanks. Got the HiBy app working eventually - my little jpeg of the playing track show up at the bottom of the listed album tracks on the app. At least I can select tracks from my phone & with the remote for my E50 in pre amp mode for volume, I'm very happy with this .....
; )

PS clicked on the little jpegs I created - just 500*500 or less & get these & full play details - more than happy!!

 

[Saponetto]

After a few days of use, I can confirm that this little brick sounds good, either if plugged to its elective supply, the P50, or if plugged to my main linear supply.
It drains a little less of 500mA during normal operation, just a few more when the display is lit on.

During my preliminary tests, it's worth to note that:
- the EQ function seems to only work playing files with sampling rate of 44.1.KHz, any superior sample rate just overrides the equalizer.
- the EQ seems to self-adapt the audio level depending on the band cursors applied gain, understandable but undesired for my purposes.

First thought, the firmware seems to be actually a "Rel. 1.0" as shown on the display, hence definitely an unripe release.
A not exaustive user manual adds tons of other doubts to the user that has to discover by testing itself some hidden functions of any remote key, e.g. the simple file manager functions that enable the user to delete files and folders from the local disks.

Briefly resuming, audio is nice, interface is meh.
Strongly hope that Topping would issue a firmware release that would make the M50 an user friendly device.

 

[navin]

Good for you. I have 6 streamers that do that far more efficiently. It is so worth it to not waste 30+ minutes entering a password. On a par with ignoring the MQA scam.
Mine goes Toslink and coax to a E50. My coax cable sounds much better.

Which 6 streamers do you have? Do any of them have a LAN (M50 does not) and USB Hard disk, IIS (HDMI) out and retail for under $500?

I was looking at the iFi Zen Stream, which has LAN but no IIS. Most say the SMSL SD 9 has issues.

 

[rarewolf]

Which 6 streamers do you have? Do any of them have a LAN (M50 does not) and USB Hard disk, IIS (HDMI) out and retail for under $500?

I was looking at the iFi Zen Stream, which has LAN but no IIS. Most say the SMSL SD 9 has issues.

The M50 provides LAN via wifi, and supports DLNA via HibyLink. The HibyMusic app is supposed to provide a better GUI for playing selections, but I wasn’t able to get it to work on iOS… but that was last year and could’ve been me

 

[Saponetto]

It ended I gave up.
Just sent back the M50, too many limits to override to get a simple player do its job.
I'm anyway glad I had the chance to test it, being so few information available.

 

[rarewolf]

It ended I gave up.
Just sent back the M50, too many limits to override to get a simple player do its job.
I'm anyway glad I had the chance to test it, being so few information available.

Agreed… but Topping only needed to create their own app to go with their streamer. The HibyMusic app is very popular, but there is absolutely no support from Hiby, let alone Topping, regarding making theM50 easy to use with your LAN…

 

[raif71]

It has been 6 months since I bought this player. Used it with sdcard 128gb and thumbdrive 256gb. Connected to various DACs via usb such as modius, denafrips ares and gustard x16 via iis.

 

[Saponetto]

Apart from the HiBy limits that were really a PITA forcing me to go back to the tiny display, my major gripe was to see that any equalization above 44.1 KHz is disabled.
My intentions were to set the M50 as a standalone player for office-desktop use but in absence of chances of customize the sound, it quiclky became unuseful, and it 's really a pity because it's a little nifty thing.