Topping D50

I’m listening to Sonny Rollins on Tidal hifi through the D50 and it sounds glorious. Seems like I had a tube in the pre amp section of my amp starting to go bad and that was causing the distortion I was hearing. Changed the offending tube out and it’s pretty damn good.
 
I’m listening to Sonny Rollins on Tidal hifi through the D50 and it sounds glorious. Seems like I had a tube in the pre amp section of my amp starting to go bad and that was causing the distortion I was hearing. Changed the offending tube out and it’s pretty damn good.

Happy for you man, glad it all worked out and let us know how the D50 holds up.

Eric
 
I’m listening to Sonny Rollins on Tidal hifi through the D50 and it sounds glorious. Seems like I had a tube in the pre amp section of my amp starting to go bad and that was causing the distortion I was hearing. Changed the offending tube out and it’s pretty damn good.

That's great to hear! Noticing any improvements over your old DAC yet?

The new batch was supposed to start shipping yesterday....so hopefully more folks will start reporting on their experiences (including me, if it ever arrives.)
 
Does anyone know if a linear power supply can improve the sound quality of this unit? Since my SMSL M8 sound no different with the P1, I am thinking about using it o the D50?
 
Does anyone know if a linear power supply can improve the sound quality of this unit? Since my SMSL M8 sound no different with the P1, I am thinking about using it o the D50?

Can't hurt - as long as the output voltage/amperage is the same for the Topping. Give it a try and let us know what you think. So many different opinions on whether or not a linear power supply makes a difference.
 
Does anyone know if a linear power supply can improve the sound quality of this unit? Since my SMSL M8 sound no different with the P1, I am thinking about using it o the D50?

Yes. A *good* linear power supply will always improve the sound quality of a dac, especially a usb dac.
 
Got the D50 today. It does sound excellent. Especially if you love microdetails. It is very similar in presentation to the SMSL Idea/Sabaj DA3 but a notch or two better in detail and realism. However, I also have the Hifimediy ES9038Pro Dac which is the same price and think it is more engaging and holographic. The D50 has more features though, especially for the DSD obsessed. Amazing the sound quality you can get for $250.

Let me add that I believe these are wasted as dacs from noisy portable devices like phones and Ipads etc. There are cheaper options, like the Idea/DA3 that will perform just as good. You really need a clean source and PS to get the best out of the D50 and similar. Desktop PC is best, since you can control lowest latency and buffer/samples. With minimum latency and 64 samples, these dacs sound really really good. With noisier sources these cheaper ESS dacs have a tendency to sound splashy and colder/harder than they really are.

Just my .02.
 
Got the D50 today. It does sound excellent. Especially if you love microdetails.

This is excellent news. Mine arrives Monday according to DHL. I will be feeding it via the coax SPDIF interface and have several power supplies to check out. So far, the subjective reviews are coming in positive.
 
Got the D50 today. It does sound excellent. Especially if you love microdetails. It is very similar in presentation to the SMSL Idea/Sabaj DA3 but a notch or two better in detail and realism. However, I also have the Hifimediy ES9038Pro Dac which is the same price and think it is more engaging and holographic. The D50 has more features though, especially for the DSD obsessed. Amazing the sound quality you can get for $250.

Let me add that I believe these are wasted as dacs from noisy portable devices like phones and Ipads etc. There are cheaper options, like the Idea/DA3 that will perform just as good. You really need a clean source and PS to get the best out of the D50 and similar. Desktop PC is best, since you can control lowest latency and buffer/samples. With minimum latency and 64 samples, these dacs sound really really good. With noisier sources these cheaper ESS dacs have a tendency to sound splashy and colder/harder than they really are.

Just my .02.
Tempting... I have a D30 that sounded great of course but won't power up (I think it might have been affected by a recent nearby lightning strike, or perhaps a power surge)

I've got the new Topping D10 and it is excellent, sound quality is wonderful... but part of me is wondering if I would be able to discern any improvement with the D50?
 
I wonder if the D50 might be a good future candidate for modding. The price is certainly right, and it is a great platform to begin with. But given its small form factor, I don't know if there is any room inside of it to start modding anything.
 
I wonder if the D50 might be a good future candidate for modding. The price is certainly right, and it is a great platform to begin with. But given its small form factor, I don't know if there is any room inside of it to start modding anything.

It's all small smd components, so you'll need some skill before messing around. However, there is a row of well labeled cheap 3.3v regulators that should be pretty easy to remove. Perfect opportunity to tap in an lt3045 or battery based 3.3v power supply. That would be the best bet for a mod. I don't know why these companies aren't just using the LTs for their designs yet - maybe with the next generation since I'm guessing these dacs were designed before the LT3045 really took off in diy use.
 
Tempting... I have a D30 that sounded great of course but won't power up (I think it might have been affected by a recent nearby lightning strike, or perhaps a power surge)

I've got the new Topping D10 and it is excellent, sound quality is wonderful... but part of me is wondering if I would be able to discern any improvement with the D50?

All depends on your source (and transducers). The D50 should sound better yes. It really pulls out the nuances if you dial it in right from the source. If you have great gear get the D50. If not, stick with the D10. Or you can get the Hifimediy ES9038Pro dac, which I consider better than either.
 
It's all small smd components, so you'll need some skill before messing around. However, there is a row of well labeled cheap 3.3v regulators that should be pretty easy to remove. Perfect opportunity to tap in an lt3045 or battery based 3.3v power supply. That would be the best bet for a mod. I don't know why these companies aren't just using the LTs for their designs yet - maybe with the next generation since I'm guessing these dacs were designed before the LT3045 really took off in diy use.
I kind of figured they might be all SMDs, given the size of the DAC. We could roll op amps, or make other upgrades like premium capacitors, if things weren't SMD-based.

I could however see someone create an analog output stage in a separate chassis, similar to what Modwright does with larger components (they create an all new analog stage, only they have room in the original chassis for it). Way beyond my capabilities, though. ;)
 
I'm on the verge of pulling the trigger on a D-10. Can you be more descriptive?
Sure, yes. The Topping D10 USB DAC to me sounds as good as the D30 in terms of clarity and definition, and uses the same Burr Brown OPA2134 op amp so the sound signature seems very similar to me as well. The advantages of the D10 are that it processes higher resolution files than the D30 can, is USB powered (no wall wart) and has a nice display to confirm the type on file you are sending it. Oh, and it's black in color. I think for what it costs you can't go wrong.

The main advantage of the D30 is that it has switchable inputs (USB, Toslink optical and RCA coax digital) in case you want to hook it up to several different digital sources. Plus, it definitely sounds good for the money... that's pretty well established LOL

I would like to hear a D50 sometime, though. These recent Topping DACs are certainly great values.
 
Thanks. You've pretty much convinced me to give a D-10 a shot. For the price it's almost a no brainer. It will be replacing a HiFime DIY Sabre DAC that's connected to a laptop in my bedroom. I've collected a few dsf files and right now the only DAC I have that will play them is the one in my AGPTek Rocker 2. The output of the D-10 will be driving either a Yamaha RX-V377 (aux input) or a Little Dot MkII/w HiFi Man HE-350 or Monolith M-560 headphones.
 
Thanks. You've pretty much convinced me to give a D-10 a shot. For the price it's almost a no brainer. It will be replacing a HiFime DIY Sabre DAC that's connected to a laptop in my bedroom. I've collected a few dsf files and right now the only DAC I have that will play them is the one in my AGPTek Rocker 2. The output of the D-10 will be driving either a Yamaha RX-V377 (aux input) or a Little Dot MkII/w HiFi Man HE-350 or Monolith M-560 headphones.
I'm pretty sure you really will like the D10, but if not you should be able to get most of what you spend back out of it... interesting you mention the Little Dot MKII, I just got one a couple days ago via Massdrop. Also ordered the Soviet made Voshkod driver tubes and the power tubes from Russia and they arrived in time as well.

It's my first tube powered headphone amp and so far I really like it. I've been using a Chinese tube buffer/preamp between my DAC and the Objective 02 headphone amp that I've been running up until now.

The D10 seems to be a good match with the Little Dot. I'm also running the preamp out of the Little Dot to my desktop near field setup, sounds great!
 
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