Using a Topping E30 DAC on a PC with streaming services.

[Beaucejim]

I just bought a Topping E30 DAC and have connected it to my Windows 11 pc with the USB connection - my computer has neither optical nor coaxial. I currently subscribe to Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and Tidal. With Tidal the sample rate on the Topping display changes from song to song. With Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube Music, the display is static, it never changes and it displays the setting that I set from the Windows control panel - right now I have it set at 24/192. So I just see 192.0 on my Topping screen never anything else. In Amazon Music, I do have exclusive mode turned on - I have no idea if that makes a difference - in Tidal it does, if I turn it off I just see the 192.0 again and the volume is reduced.

How do I get the Topping E30 to display the sample rates?

 

[LTig]

I'm sure the E30 shows the correct sample rate. Then it's up to the player software which audio driver it uses and which of them both upsamples all incoming sound to 192 kHz.

 

[Beaucejim]

So, if I understand correctly, the software for Spotify, Amazon and YouTube take the incoming sample rate and change it to a higher rate in the software... and Tidal does not do this? I noticed that when I change the sound format - in the control panel --> sound -->advanced tab - that sample rate will show on the Topping display. So if I choose 24 bits, 96000 Hz my Topping display will remain at 96.0 (unless I am using Tidal) and if I choose 24 bits, 192000 Hz the display will remain at 192.0.

 

[Saponetto]

The main argument is which software actually manages exclusive mode and which can't.
Tidal and Qobuz desktop apps manages it as well, Amazon Music seems to just partially "emulate" an exclusive mode.
No clue about YT but it's my fault, it's a service I didn't test yet.
Anyway, if you select WASAPI out or use any ASIO driver, E30 shows the correct values.

 

[Beaucejim]

Thanks for the info. Sorry for my ignorance but how and where do I select WASAPI out and where can I find a good ASIO driver?

 

[Saponetto]

Wasapi is embedded within Windows from 7 to above, so you should'nt get difficult to find it within the drivers list your music player app has available for use.
For instance, what is your currently used music player?

About ASIO drivers, these are usually customized for the DAC hardware so, talking about Topping, you'll find these in their customer support page.

 

[Beaucejim]

Wasapi is embedded within Windows from 7 to above, so you should'nt get difficult to find it within the drivers list your music player app has available for use.
For instance, what is your currently used music player?

About ASIO drivers, these are usually customized for the DAC hardware so, talking about Topping, you'll find these in their customer support page.

Since I don't listen to music stored on my computer I don't have a music player, I just use the ones that come with each service. Are there music players that can stream from Spotify, Amazon, Tidal etc.? I always assumed that you had to use their native applications to stream music from their service. None of those applications have any drivers lists as far as I know.

I downloaded the latest version of the Topping driver but it has no instructions and doesn't metion anything about ASIO other than to say that it is not active on the Topping Control Panel Buffer Settings tab.

 

[Saponetto]

Sorry for the delay in my answer.
What I wrote is valid either for the native application of the streaming services or for file players, such as Jriver, AIMP, Foobar.

Tidal and Qobuz natively manage the "exclusive mode" that is, simply, the option that the native apps (or also file players) offer to the listener to select the WASAPI drivers embedded in W10-11.
Amazon Music Unlimited also enables to select the exclusive mode, but it actually doesn't override the W10-11 Mixer.

This is easily verified if you use any external APO equalizer on your PC:
Tidal and Qobuz completely override the APO equalizer functionalities, Amazon MU doesn't, leaving the listener able to alter the sound with APO.

About the ASIO driver dialog window, it will show "ASIO active" only when any service (or player) is configured to use the ASIO driver.
If no ASIO driver is selected within the services configuration menus, the dialog window will simply show "ASIO not active".

At the end of the day, when playing your favorite music via apps or players of your choice using ASIO or Exclusive mode (WASAPI), the display of the DAC will forcibly show you the right values.

Let us know if you did solve!

 

[massimodec]

Sorry for the delay in my answer.
What I wrote is valid either for the native application of the streaming services or for file players, such as Jriver, AIMP, Foobar.

Tidal and Qobuz natively manage the "exclusive mode" that is, simply, the option that the native apps (or also file players) offer to the listener to select the WASAPI drivers embedded in W10-11.
Amazon Music Unlimited also enables to select the exclusive mode, but it actually doesn't override the W10-11 Mixer.

This is easily verified if you use any external APO equalizer on your PC:
Tidal and Qobuz completely override the APO equalizer functionalities, Amazon MU doesn't, leaving the listener able to alter the sound with APO.

About the ASIO driver dialog window, it will show "ASIO active" only when any service (or player) is configured to use the ASIO driver.
If no ASIO driver is selected within the services configuration menus, the dialog window will simply show "ASIO not active".

At the end of the day, when playing your favorite music via apps or players of your choice using ASIO or Exclusive mode (WASAPI), the display of the DAC will forcibly show you the right values.

Let us know if you did solve!

Hi,
for me too I do not receive anything.
I installed drivers that Topping indicated me for Win7, with ASIO too, DX7 pro+ connected with USB, but it seems that the Topping is not receiving any indication on how to play a WAV file which is on PC...
If I play a WAV file with VLC for instance, it come ou from usual PC speaker, but it appears that there is no way to send it to the Topping DAC.
Thank you for directons !

 

[Saponetto]

Is your dialog windows of the Topping driver showing you the name of the DAC device?
Is your DX7 Pro+ able to reproduce any audio file, such as FLAC or MP3?

If not, my first thought is to check the USB cable and use another USB port.
A W7 machine is quote old, be sure that the Service Pack2 is installed in order to acquire the WASAPI driver and the UAC-2 driver.

Also give a try to Media Player Classic BE (Black Edition) as a software player.
it works like a charm using either WASAPI or ASIO.

Let us know.

 

[massimodec]

Is your dialog windows of the Topping driver showing you the name of the DAC device?
Is your DX7 Pro+ able to reproduce any audio file, such as FLAC or MP3?

If not, my first thought is to check the USB cable and use another USB port.
A W7 machine is quote old, be sure that the Service Pack2 is installed in order to acquire the WASAPI driver and the UAC-2 driver.

Also give a try to Media Player Classic BE (Black Edition) as a software player.
it works like a charm using either WASAPI or ASIO.

Let us know.

Hi, thank you.
Afer many try&nothings, I found that the Audio Control Panel window had many sound units listed: there was theTopping as "other speakers".
So I disabled Realtek Speaker, which it looks native on my PC, and enabled the Topping, and sounds arrived in the headphone.
But still, the Foobar2000 player states that ASIO is not active, even if it is installed...
I understood that ASIO was setting an exclusive "listening" to WAV file it played, keepig out any noise produced by the PC.
Maybe it does it: I tried the speaker icon and it was silent and uneffect,ive...
So, is it easy to make the Media Player Classic BE you are suggesting work with WASAPI ? or ASIO ?
Thank you again.

 

[Saponetto]

Well, it's a good point that there is no hardware problem in your audio chain.
In order to achieve a good interface with the ASIO driver, Foobar needs some tricks and plugins, see the exhaustive tutorials available online.
My suggestion, aimed at shorten the process, is to use as player MPC BE that works fine, either with WASAPI or with ASIO drivers.

For my daily needs, I use WASAPI drivers for PCM contents playback, e.g. Qobuz streaming, or any FLAC files via MPC BE.
I use ASIO driver just for DSD contents playback from JRiver.