Topping D90 great but question future

[w1000i]

I think Topping and other brand brought the best of DAC world to cheap price <1k$ everyone can affords with a lot of functions. They just implement a perfect DAC design without bullshit.

[w1000i]

1 hour ago, ambre said:

Hi Barrows,

I own also a Topping 90 feeded by the Allo Usbridge Signature with Uptone IsoRegen.

Using always Hqplayer ( poly-sinc-ext2 and ASDM 7 or ASDM5EC)  for upsampling DSD 256 of 512 depending which filter I use.  

Can you explain why at DSD 256 is better? Is that in terms of (ASR)  measurement  and/or by listening?

 

Very best regards, Andreas

 

it measures better with 256 instead of 512

[w1000i]

15 hours ago, barrows said:

I am not sure I remember...  I think it was a 250 mA maybe?  Anyway, the fuse is marked.  Topping uses a dirt cheap glass body fuse, even a good quality Littlefuse ceramic body model would likely sound better.  

It is definitely a 5 x 20 mm size, slow blow.

How do you evaluate the D90 compare to other DACs you tried ?

[w1000i]

15 minutes ago, barrows said:

Please note this is specifically referring to the D-90 in "DAC mode" with DSD 256 input from a Signature Rendu SEoptical, with a Synergistic Orange fuse in the D-90.

 

It is a giant killer.  Not the best I've heard, but very, very good.  It probably needs to be paired with a good preamp to really shine, as the "DAC mode" defeats the volume control, and I do not think the output stage is quite beefy enough (current headroom) to drive amps directly, but at the price, heck, it is a no brainer.

 

There are better DACs, but the ones I know of all cost 10x as much or more...

Do you think it's better than Audio gd R7 (r2r) ?

[w1000i]

1 hour ago, barrows said:

Please note this is specifically referring to the D-90 in "DAC mode" with DSD 256 input from a Signature Rendu SEoptical, with a Synergistic Orange fuse in the D-90.

 

It is a giant killer.  Not the best I've heard, but very, very good.  It probably needs to be paired with a good preamp to really shine, as the "DAC mode" defeats the volume control, and I do not think the output stage is quite beefy enough (current headroom) to drive amps directly, but at the price, heck, it is a no brainer.

 

There are better DACs, but the ones I know of all cost 10x as much or more...

 You mention the peramp in D90, and FYI Topping is about to lunch P90 as preamp and going to be the cleanest in the world alongside A90 a headphone amplifier.

[w1000i]

There is a new AKM4499 DAC could outperform D90 with great Preamp section.

Gustard A18

[w1000i]

On 5/24/2020 at 12:07 PM, Miska said:

The regular modulators like ASDM7 are not bad either...  And not particularly heavy, with -2s filters and regular modulators one can run DSD256 output even from some Intel Atom models.

 

Is there any guidance/explaine for modulators differences ?

[w1000i]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Just a question, what makes it great?

What I understood from Topping designer, some DACs uses passive LPF path for the preamp like SMSL M400. This Gustard has active LPF as per their advertisement.

[w1000i]

2 hours ago, all300b said:

| The D-90 does not appear to have any isolation of its USB input from the rest of the DAC. 

 

Uh oh... Maybe need to look into USB cleaners again. Am currently going straight USB from my MacBook Pro with Roon. As you say  PCM-DSD256 in Roon sounds fantastic on this DAC - I told a friend of mine that listening to REM Life's Rich Pageant this way reminded me for of hearing this LP this first time in his dorm room. To me, the 2X max upsampling does not sound as good, but I have seen others post a preference for it.

 

| Of course if one uses it with a good preamp, perhaps the lower output current will be a non-issue.

 

I get a strong "audiophile intuition" that a good preamp is needed for this one. Maybe it's the diminutive size. Glad to be plugging it in into a hefty integrated amp.

 

As per measurements is so clean, but you find skeptical opinions all the times. If you wan to see if its clean or not try optical input and the USB and if you didn't see a different then that it