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.
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?
The IPhone and IPad are just crippled computer, but are computer non the less. They just do not give you all the control like the Apple IMac or a windows based PC. The core processor are all from the same family.Nope. Just my phone and iPad. Don’t need a computer.
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?
Got the D50 today. It does sound excellent. Especially if you love microdetails.
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)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.
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.
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 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.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.
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.I'm on the verge of pulling the trigger on a D-10. Can you be more descriptive?
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.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.