(Unofficial) Topping D50 III DAC review and measurements

[staticV3]

Hello, I am thinking of buying D50 III because it has PEQ feature, in its features it says that PEQ can only be used when connected via USB, my purpose of using this DAC is to connect it to Raspberry Pi4 via USB and use it as a streamer, will I be able to use PEQ actively when I connect it to Pi4's USB?

Any audio signal that's sent to the D50III via USB can have PEQ applied to it using the D50III. There are no exceptions.

 

[nanook]

Being Linux I would be surprised if the drivers supported configuring the PEQ.

Good point - the tool to configure the PEQ, is this a browser based Web-interface, or does this need a Windows program?

 

[johny_2000]

Hello, I am thinking of buying D50 III because it has PEQ feature, in its features it says that PEQ can only be used when connected via USB, my purpose of using this DAC is to connect it to Raspberry Pi4 via USB and use it as a streamer, will I be able to use PEQ actively when I connect it to Pi4's USB?

Topping's PEQs software only runs on Windows 10/11, but if you load them once (from a laptop or something else), it will store up to 7 profiles in the D50 III's internal memory and can then be used with any USB source. Profiles can be switched using the menu joystick or the remote control.

 

[biasedListener]

Hi there,
FoA, congrats to Amir and the rest of you for this knowledge place. I have been reading you for a while, although have some background on computer science, I am an amateur in the analog/sound domain, so learning a lot from your posts and videos...

I just got this little engineering gem, and did not have the chance to get my hands on a windows box to check, but regarding the shared PEQ for both channels, I came across this (attached) in the manual from topping, which might suggest it is now applicable to either channel or both. Can anyone confirm? I this feature just for bigger brothers (D90)?

Cheers,

 

[amiet01]

I have a 2.0 active speaker set with separate subwoofer with my pc. I would like to connect both to this DAC, but I was wondering if it can output to SLR and RCA simultaneously? This way I would connect the speakers to SLR terminals (with some RCA to SLR cables) and the subwoofer to RCA output. Or do you perhaps have another solution for this that is preferred?

 

[JSmith]

I was wondering if it can output to XLR and RCA simultaneously?

Yes, both outputs are simultaneously active.


JSmith

 

[mash]

One slight addition........you can set the line out to RCA only, XLR only, or both active by pressing the line out button.

 

[Eldus]

I for one would love to see a Topping product with these 2 sets of outputs, one balanced and the other RCA, with a configurable DSP crossover and time alignment for subwoofer integration. The MiniDSP Flex is expensive.

Maybe even allow PCs to see it as a multichannel DAC for Dirac Live Bass Control.

 

[Rja4000]

I for one would love to see a Topping product with these 2 sets of outputs, one balanced and the other RCA, with a configurable DSP crossover and time alignment for subwoofer integration. The MiniDSP Flex is expensive.

Maybe even allow PCs to see it as a multichannel DAC for Dirac Live Bass Control.

That would probably require a real hardware DSP, as you find in miniDSP and RME products.
Price would then be in a different league.

 

[NTTY]

Also, because i know some are looking into this, here is a 997Hz Sine wave played at -90.31dBFS through the Topping D50 III in 16 bits mode

View attachment 363673

I can't resist, this is the same test from a Pioneer BDP-LX58 (Blu-ray player) to the Topping via digital Coax, and playing a 16bits 997Hz sine @-90.31dBFS.

Filter #1:

Filter #2:

Very beautiful traces (perfect), of course at 16bits you’d say, but indeed totally absent from added noise, which is not always the case.

This also another nice way to look at the oversampling filter response, by the way.

BTW, I got 123.2dB SINAD in left channel and 123.1dB in right one (Balanced outputs, volume down -1.5dB to get 4Vrms or so output, as Amir did):