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Topping D50s power supply?

RunOutGroove

RunOutGroove

Addicted Member
I found one of these for a decent price and ended up pushing the button... I felt like I needed to see if I could improve my digital audio chain from my CD (actually a DVD) player (and TV, I suppose, but I'm less critical as far as that goes) so I talked myself into buying one of these things. I feel like it's probably good enough that it's likely a much better DAC than the one in my DVD player, but still cheap enough that if I end up not being able to hear much of a difference, I won't feel like I've wasted much money on it.

Since I'll be using it with the hi-fi and not a computer, I suppose that I'll need a power supply with this thing. I know that those linear power supplies are the best option (and that might be something I'll get later if I happen to find a deal on one), but being that I'm on a budget, I figure that I'll order some kind of regular old wall wort. I understand that this thing is 5v, no? What's a decent one of these that I can order from Amazon? Are there any differences between them... is there anything that I should be looking for... staying away from?
 
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You might consider a better switching mode that looks similar to this one. They're all over the bay in a variety of voltages.

mean-well-led-power-supply-rs-series-enclosed-12v-50w.jpg
 
They run on 5volts 1 amp. I found one on a white noise machine no one was using. Runs nice and cool. I read a review somewhere where a guy was bragging on how he hooked up the wrong i think amps or volts anyway he then complained it was running hot.
As long as you buy correct USB wall charger and don't cheap out too much it should power up fine.
 
Poultrygeist said:
You might consider a better switching mode that looks similar to this one. They're all over the bay in a variety of voltages.

mean-well-led-power-supply-rs-series-enclosed-12v-50w.jpg
Click to expand...
I don't even know what that is? What's a "switching mode?" One like that it seems that I'd need a case and AC cord at the least, no?
 
I ran it from my laptop using the provided usb cable for awhile. But i get lazy sometimes and wanted to use bluetooth without having to turn on laptop. Congrats on the purchase BTW i really like mine.
 
Crazy Gnome said:
No.... You need a USB charger. A USB cable is provided but can order a longer one if needed.
I will post one that will work in a bit
Click to expand...
Hmm... though of course you can power it via USB, from a computer or with a wall plug that goes on the end of the USB cord, there's also a hookup on it for a outboard power supply (the same kind of of connection that most wall worts seem to have) and I've heard that it's somewhat better to go that route than USB (quieter maybe?). Not only that, but I'd rather leave that USB port open so that I have the option to plug in a laptop, a phone, etc. True, the thing does have Bluetooth capability but the SQ might be a little better with a direct connection and I've always found that Bluetooth on anything is a bit unreliable...
 
The power supply cord that comes with the topping is usb plug on one end and DC plug at the other end.
It also comes with a standard USB that would be used for hooking up a device. When i powered via the laptop i used one usb connection for the power and another usb connection for sound. It has been awhile since i had hooked mine up. Sorry for the confusion. I did not notice a difference soundwise between powering via the laptop or the wall plug .
You can try the power supply you posted and let us know if it works. I didn't look for a power supply like that because i used the provided cable.
I prefer the direct connect route although the bluetooth for the topping has LDAC and so does my phone. LDAC is one of only 2 BT codec that is hi-res cerified. It works well if u are in the same room and is great for when i am playing singles or just feeling lazy.
 
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Crazy Gnome said:
The power supply cord that comes with the topping is usb plug on one end and DC plug at the other end.
It also comes with a standard USB that would be used for hooking up a device. When i powered via the laptop i used one usb connection for the power and another usb connection for sound. It has been awhile since i had hooked mine up. Sorry for the confusion. I did not notice a difference soundwise between powering via the laptop or the wall plug .
You can try the power supply you posted and let us know if it works. I didn't look for a power supply like that because i used the provided cable.
I prefer the direct connect route although the bluetooth for the topping has LDAC and so does my phone. LDAC is one of only 2 BT codec that is hi-res cerified. It works well if u are in the same room and is great for when i am playing singles or just feeling lazy.
Click to expand...

I feel like I heard that a power supply type thing provides a bit cleaner power, cleaner still is one of these linear power supply things and though it seems that they can be had much cheaper than the one that's designed to go with this unit, they're still pretty expensive and in light of the fact that I want to keep within my meagre budget, I won't be bothering with one of those. The regular old wall wort thing is cheap enough though and when I get it all set up. I'll have to test that against powering it via USB cord and see if I can tell any difference. I really hope that I can hear a clear difference between this DAC and what I'm getting currently out of my DVD player (an Onkyo that supposedly has a pretty good DAC chip in it). For my computer setup, I'm using a tiny little SMSL amp (to power some cool little NHT Super One speakers) and that thing has a built in DAC. I've tried hooking it up going USB and routing it through the DAC and just with a regular audio cord and it seems that the going USB and using the DAC in the SMSL has a very clear difference. The probably pretty meagre DAC in the SMSL amp appears to be much better than the one built into my old iMac. Hopefully the improvement with this Topping on my audio system will be similarly dramatic...

It isn't like the Onkyo DVD player sounds bad to me, but I can hear qualities to it that could definitely be improved. I upgraded some stuff on my turntable not too long ago and that made a lot of difference but also made be aware of shortcomings of my CD path. Such is the life of audio, I guess; improving one thing makes the other thing seem wea,k so you upgrade that thing... Rinse and repeat...
 
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When my Topping D30 DAC power supply (rather predictably) died, I built an old fashioned standard PS for it. Im fairly sure this would have a flow-on effect on better SQ. Its a great DAC.

Its just a small toriodal, bridge, a couple of big caps, regulator and a case. If you can source those parts cheap, even better.

The diagram isnt the exact build, but close to it.

basic-power-supply-circuit-2.png
 
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