Topping RD3 TP Balanced DAC Review

[CleanSound]

If someone has to pay a third of the cost to be repaired just for postage for example it's a no-go.
That is a major drawback.

So far, I have not have to return anything on AliExpress. But I do dread the day that I do have to make a return or claim warranty.

I have only purchased from Apos for the Chinese brands and I have used their warranty on multiple occasions. And I am very happy with Apos.

You are correct, selling on AliExpress only will only make their sales harder on a line that is already getting criticism (at least on this thread).

Again, I go back to saying, Topping has excellent engineering but down right questionable business decisions.

 

[IamJF]

So not a single professional here and you have no idea what to do with a lower wattage amp in a 19" housing. But that doesn't make it any less useful

There are zillions of JBL Control 1 out there. Bars, caffees, lobbies, ... a lot of projects have a tight budget and a "normal" demand on security (not like an ariport or railway station). They don't plan for equipment that needs 20 years failfree operation.
More serious home cinemas have 19" racks for the equipment. In the next room preferable. You need good priced and low noise amps and you don't need huge wattage for rear and ceiling speakers. Noise is important (cause lot's of speakers) but you don't need to be WAY better as the preamp (AHB2 would not make sense here).

Don't buy if you don't like - why must people always get upset about the need of others.
I hope they make a 4 channel version without display and switchable gain. Would buy 2 ;-)

 

[IamJF]

A music computer and quick Bluetooth connection for a mobile phone. You can alter level, have a big and easy to read display. Everything is neat in the 19" rack (with the amps), save and easy to use.

For $230,-? It's more then a steal for the use in a bar/coffee shop/lobby/...

 

[CleanSound]

So not a single professional here and you have no idea what to do with a lower wattage amp in a 19" housing. But that doesn't make it any less useful

There are zillions of JBL Control 1 out there. Bars, caffees, lobbies, ... a lot of projects have a tight budget and a "normal" demand on security (not like an ariport or railway station). They don't plan for equipment that needs 20 years failfree operation.
More serious home cinemas have 19" racks for the equipment. In the next room preferable. You need good priced and low noise amps and you don't need huge wattage for rear and ceiling speakers. Noise is important (cause lot's of speakers) but you don't need to be WAY better as the preamp (AHB2 would not make sense here).

Don't buy if you don't like - why must people always get upset about the need of others.
I hope they make a 4 channel version without display and switchable gain. Would buy 2 ;-)

Of course there will be a group of people finding it fitting for their use case and buying it. Just like there is a group of people buying pink cars.

The question is what is the market size for it. Some of us are saying, that market size is tiny (like a total of 8 amps sold so far tiny) and the business decision to make this obscure product line with an identity crisis is a bad decision.

 

[ocinn]

Well it does fit mine so please speak for yourself.

Why does this $230, 3892cm³ DAC, beat out a $130, equally to even higher performing, 843cm³ (4.6x smaller), SMSL M300se with nicer build and looks, far more features, no AC power line required, known high quality support and customer service, multitude of international dealers, and a fantastic “free” headphone amp, for your use case?

Would love to understand your point of view.

 

[Rednaxela]

@CleanSound, @ocinn

I am genuinely considering getting one because of this.

Of course this is a bit of a corner case. On the other hand a certain recognition for the potential of this combination would not be out of place here at ASR.

Instead of telling Topping that they were mistaken we could also praise this device for being an excellent companion to other pro oriented gear that has found their way into the domestic environment but are otherwise lacking in functionality or analog output quality.

 

[IamJF]

Of course there will be a group of people finding it fitting for their use case and buying it. Just like there is a group of people buying pink cars.

The question is what is the market size for it. Some of us are saying, that market size is tiny (like a total of 8 amps sold so far tiny) and the business decision to make this obscure product line with an identity crisis is a bad decision.

This store is horrible. But RD3 has 7 orders, E30ii has 2 orders, DX1 one order. Maybe per day? Who knows. RA3 has 12 orders - these are the hot sellers.

There are a lot of big companies only living in the pro market! It's a pretty conservative market, movement is solw. But quality of cheaper products is getting better the last years and Topping as company with plenty of experience in high quality DAC and high volume production is a welcome player.

 

[TonyJZX]

i really like my 1st gen M300se... but its hampered by the fact its a CS43131 unit... i know it shouldnt matter but you can see how the market tends towards the big two.

my opinion is that the M300 is a tad underpriced for what it is... and SMSL probably worked out they cant sell it for more... people will just go with a sanskrit or some AKM ESS unit either smsl or competitor for a lot more

doesnt matter how well the M300 does, it's always going to be a 3rd party unit... and apparently this is borne out by the fact SMSL sold a massive 41 unis since day one

the SU-1 and C-100 just sell better... the SU-1 is easily over 1,000 units...

and while topping is probably is the last brand I want to buy i cant deny they executed the design well... i dont want the DAC but the amp looks like something i'd buy on a whim, maybe for xmas

of course i dont need any more amps and dacs but $229 isnt going to matter to me

 

[JaccoW]

The biggest downside I see is a lack of silver. These could work with some old-school rack mounts to modernize them as an all-inclusive package.
Oh yeah, and the non-removable ears. Otherwise it could be a pretty easy swap with the original tuner for example.

 

[Rednaxela]

The biggest downside I see is a lack of silver.

Agree. A silver one would be even more perfect.

 

[Sokel]

Company clearly and loudly stated that this products do NOT intend to be in the pro market.
Again,they do NOT.
These things pay the sins of their appearance because of these ears.

It's obviously about people who like bigger devices that match with the usual stuff we put on the rack.
BUT,when we say rack we don't mean the usual HT closet that we bolt stuff to,we mean the various furnitures,display racks (some of them pretty expensive).
That's where the misunderstanding goes.

Pro market is mostly about strong support and speed about resolving matters,it's gonna have to be a huge shift to mentality to go there.

 

[TonyJZX]

i'd pay a bit more for gold even

or even green

'

 

[ocinn]

I am genuinely considering getting one because of this.

I think maybe its time for a Minidsp Flex upgrade ;D

 

[CleanSound]

i'd pay a bit more for gold even

or even green

'

Wicked looking. Too bad it's not 420-440mm wide to match the standard 17 inch wide components, their older product lines are.

I am more and more convinced that these Chinese brands are designing their products for their own domestic market's taste/preference.

 

[Rednaxela]

I think maybe its time for a Minidsp Flex upgrade ;D

Thank you for the suggestion.

One thing I like about the Behringer though is that it’s fully self contained. It will stay functional until it dies.

But we’re digressing.

 

[ol_mcdonald]

SAE starting in the late '60s, rackmount and by any defintion of HIFI, would qualify at the time I would think.

I had SAE too….I like the rack mount-ability, cause I still have a rack and built it into my room in our new home.

 

[ol_mcdonald]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping "TP" RD3 balanced stereo USB rackmount DAC with Bluetooth. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $229.
View attachment 306076
The unit sports a gorgeous, white segmented display with highly responsive control. It is a joy to use. A remote control is provided as well. Back panel shows what we expect including the now standard trigger support on Topping products:
View attachment 306078
Power supply is built-in which is very nice as well.

I prefer this form factor to desktop products as it looks more "serious."

Topping RD3 TP Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard:
View attachment 306079
This is excellent performance and just a step below state of the art.
View attachment 306080

View attachment 306081

RCA output gives up just a bit of performance:
View attachment 306082
But still fully transparent as evidenced by superb dynamic range:

View attachment 306084

Linearity is excellent:
View attachment 306085

As is Jitter over USB:
View attachment 306086

There is however good bit of jitter over Coax/Toslink:
View attachment 306087

Fortunately their levels don't reach audibility.

IMD is excellent and just limited by noise:
View attachment 306088

If we eliminate that and just look at distortion floor, we can see superb performance:
View attachment 306089

We have our usual set of filters:
View attachment 306090
View attachment 306091

Even though attenuation is good we still get a bit of degradation in wideband THD+N vs frequency:
View attachment 306092

Conclusions
The performance of RD3 can be summed up as one step below perfection. In exchange for that, you get a very high value DAC with gorgeous display and in my opinion, highly usable rackmount form factor. As I noted in the review, I rather put an RD3 in my main system than a desktop DAC.

I am going to recommend the Topping "TP" RD3 balanced DAC.

Specifications​

• Dimensions (W x H x D)
  48.3X15.5X5.2cm
  Bluetooth
  Yes
• D/A Converter
  AK4493S
  Model Number
  RD3
• Material
  Metal
  DSD Sampling Frequencies
  2.8224 MHz (DSD64),5.6448 MHz (DSD128),11.2896 MHz (DSD256),22.5792 MHz (DSD512)
• PCM Word Length
  16-bit,24-bit,32-bit
  PCM Sampling Frequencies
  44.1 kHz,48 kHz,88.2 kHz,96 kHz,176.4 kHz,352.8 kHz,384 kHz,705.6 kHz,768 kHz
• Outputs
  RCA,XLR
  Inputs
  USB Type-B,Optical (SPDIF),Coaxial
• Type
  Desktop
  Brand Name
  TOPPING
• Origin
  Mainland China

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Can you speak to the preamp section/volume control for those of us who use their DAC as preamp? I currently use a Topping D90 SE that works very well in this role.

 

[amirm]

Can you speak to the preamp section/volume control for those of us who use their DAC as preamp? I currently use a Topping D90 SE that works very well in this role.

It uses the volume control in the DAC. It should work just as well at it does in D90SE which relies on the same mechanism. There is no need to use an external preamp unless you have another analog source you need to integrate with.

 

[restorer-john]

It uses the volume control in the DAC.

Does it retain the last setting after a full power-off (not just a soft shutdown) event?

 

[CleanSound]

Instead of telling Topping that they were mistaken we could also praise this device for being an excellent companion to other pro oriented gear that has found their way into the domestic environment but are otherwise lacking in functionality or analog output quality.

It would be disingenuous of me to praise them. Because the philosophy of this TP line doesn't make sense to me or at least I don't agree with.

Topping are big boys, I am sure they can take some criticism and customer feedback.

And I want to make clear that I own two Topping products. So it's not like I have anything against Topping. But I do feel they don't understand (or don't care about) the needs and tastes of international markets.

That's ok, it is what it is, there's a reason why it's a free market and consumers have choices.