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Topping USB Driver for Windows 10 -- Recommended?

JClarkw

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I've searched here on USB drivers but haven't found anything yet that I can understand. I'm reasonably experienced with Windows PC's and, I think, capable of installing a driver as needed, but prying information out of Topping's tech support is like pulling hens' teeth. Maybe somebody can explain this stuff to me:

Is it recommended/necessary to install the proprietary driver to get the best sound over the widest range of bit depths and sampling rates that the Topping DACs can provide? I ask because the Cambridge Audio literature on their DACMagic Plus (much more communicative than Topping's) is telling me that the Windows native USB driver is bad news and that I need an ASIO driver to get best performance. On the other hand Topping tech support has told me, after several rounds of Q&A, "ASIO provide very good performance. But for some users, the setting will be cumbersome (in Windows), and it is not so convenient to use directly, so we will not recommend all users to try it." Their driver installation guide says nothing, however, about driver settings or use! In his review of the D50s Amir said, "All the testing was with Windows 10 USB UAC2 class driver (i.e. I did NOT install anything)." (He did not say anything about listening to actual music streamed through a Windows 10 computer.)

I'm sure plenty of folks here have used the Topping USB driver. Has anyone encountered problems (including problems caused by it's replacing the original drivers) and/or found detailed instructions for its use? Can anyone give me recommendations yea or nay? -- JClarkW
 

maverickronin

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It's usually best to skip the drivers now that W10 has UAC2 support.
 
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JClarkw

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It's usually best to skip the drivers now that W10 has UAC2 support.

maverickronin -- Neither "usbaudio2.sys" nor "usbaudio2.inf" appear to exist on my Windows 10 Pro system (reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/audio/usb-2-0-audio-drivers), which upgraded to 1909 several months ago. So how do I tell whether I have W10 UAC2 support or not?

Are there any settings involved in using it (assuming I have it), or is it just automatic (assuming USB connection to the Topping D51s)?

Also to ScofieldKid, I had tried to read that thread but gave up for lack of comprehension. -- JClarkW
 

Hemi-Demon

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If you want native DSD 512 (and or 32/768 PCM for whatever reason), and ASIO playback you will need the driver. If not then the UAC2 driver will be fine.
 

maverickronin

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maverickronin -- Neither "usbaudio2.sys" nor "usbaudio2.inf" appear to exist on my Windows 10 Pro system (reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/audio/usb-2-0-audio-drivers), which upgraded to 1909 several months ago. So how do I tell whether I have W10 UAC2 support or not?

It's been included since 1709 iirc.

The drivers should be in System32\DriverStore\FileRepository

Are there any settings involved in using it (assuming I have it), or is it just automatic (assuming USB connection to the Topping D51s)?

It's completely automatic like a UAC1 DAC.
 
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JClarkw

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If you want native DSD 512 (and or 32/768 PCM for whatever reason), and ASIO playback you will need the driver. If not then the UAC2 driver will be fine.

Sorry, Hemi-Demon, but I don't know those acronyms. Why would I want them (or not)? -- JClarkW
 

REK2575

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I recently installed the Topping v4.82 drivers on Windows 10 for the Dx3 Pro (also the firmware update). I hoped it would help with some popping I was experiencing in the speakers. But I found it gave no benefit. It is subjective, but I think it almost made the problem more noticeable. Didn't notice any benefit to using ASIO with the Topping drivers. So, I decided not to let the Topping control panel launch with start up. Went back to using Wasapi Exclusive, and -- again subjective -- but things seem better.

TL;DR -- from my experience, installing the Topping drivers did nothing. I haven't uninstalled them, but I'm not letting them run automatically with start-up anymore and will probably keep it that way.
 

maverickronin

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Sorry, Hemi-Demon, but I don't know those acronyms. Why would I want them (or not)? -- JClarkW

PCM is the normal way of storing digital audio.

DSD is an alternative method that more or less only exists for marketing purposes. If you haven't heard of it already, then you don't own any music in it.

ASIO is a protocol for bypassing the Windows mixer with low latency. It's mostly only useful for recording interfaces now that WASAPI exclusive mode is fairly well supported.
 

REK2575

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Actually, I should say I do have one use for the Topping drivers. Qobuz's PC/desktop app freezes up for me if I try to stream 24bit/192kHz content using WASAPI. If I turn on the Topping control panel and switch to ASIO, it's able to handle 24/192. I guess that's reason enough for me to keep the drivers installed, but I think this may be more of a problem with Qobuz's buggy desktop app than anything else.
 

ScofieldKid

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https://www.thesycon.de/eng/usb_audiodriver.shtml
From the D50S thread... but anyway... My own gut says the Thesycon driver might help in some situations. For example, I'm assuming they let you do things like save settings between reboots. That could be important for avoiding full-volume at power-on. Just my guess. The other extra features, like DSD / midi / multi-channel / virtual-mixer, yeah, most people give that a "don't care".
 
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JClarkw

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https://www.thesycon.de/eng/usb_audiodriver.shtml
From the D50S thread... but anyway... My own gut says the Thesycon driver might help in some situations. For example, I'm assuming they let you do things like save settings between reboots. That could be important for avoiding full-volume at power-on. Just my guess. The other extra features, like DSD / midi / multi-channel / virtual-mixer, yeah, most people give that a "don't care".

Thanks very much also for the useful link, which I hadn't noticed in that thread. -- JClarkW
 

Joe Garfield

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Hi Everyone,
I got Topping E30 and it doesn't seem to work right: I can't get any sound when using iphone (USB Camera Adapter), I needed drivers to get sound off PC (Widows 10), and even with drivers I don't get any PCM reading number while it's playing. Most importantly, I bought this because of ASIO, but when I set ASIO settings it won't let me go below something like 10ms because it says I need to finish installing/updating. I'd like to use this for digital piano playing so latency is critical to me. Thanks for any suggestions.

Just for the record I installed v4.82 drivers and the latest FW update, per these instructions: https://hifigo.com/blogs/news/topping-releases-new-firmware-upgrade-for-e30-dac
 
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ranrt

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Thanks Joe, this is new E30 my s/n starts with 2007 i got it today by fedex , i orderd from Aliexpress.
I do not need to perform firmware upgrade as this is new one.
I hope i did not got a lemon unit. now it shows Err and USB blinking led
 

crunchy

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new confused dx3 pro owner reporting in got mine working fine to a point
.... so windows 10 usb audio does not support 32bit 768khz output ?
i need a usb audio 3.0 driver ?
or ive borked something up ? ..... i came across a nice driver for professionals .... cost money
i currently have the latest topping driver 4.86.0 and windows 10 only allows me to set 32bit 384khz with usb output.

im using an msi b450 tomahawk max motherboard and the dx3 pro is connected to a usb 3.1 gen 2 type a socket with the included cable.
 

Mr:River

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Does anyone know how to make the E30 display a sample rate of 44 - 192kHz?
Here it only gets stuck at 0.0db it doesn't go out of that.:confused:
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