Any recommendations for REALLY good Power Supply for the Topping E30?

[Marcos Mazur]

Powering this dac using phone charger sounds kind of dirty and the harshness hurts my ears, I've tested Power Bank and it's really clean as they say, but the quality is kind of claustrophobic and very poor in bass, the same I've read in reviews about IFI Power Supply and IFI X (and the same for the USB filter IFI Silencer+), now I'm plugging directly into the notebook (The USB Data and Power cable), I've clearly noticed that the sound quality of the E30 is better than the above options, sounding good soundstage, clean, accurate without any audible noise or distortion, I would say it's a comfortable sound, BUT I sometimes feel a pain in my ear, like a ''needling'', it bothers me a LOT! Believe it's some kind of noise or interference from the USB ports.

Could anyone recommend a good Power Supply Linear that is good in the bass and brings superior to what I mentioned?

 

[Marcos Mazur]

7 hours ago, R1200CL said:

The PS will cost you more than the Topping.

Maybe you can find a reasonable Uptone LPS-1 used ?

Many options on AliExpress. I don’t like to recommend any. 
Here is a rebranded option. 
https://www.smallgreencomputer.com/collections/linear-power-supplies/products/sgc-5v-12v-linear-power-supply-25w?variant=32028829876293

 

More expensive is the Fared. And a new Uptone LPS-1.2.

 

https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/topping-p50-low-noise-linear-power-supply-for-topping-d50-d50s-dx3-pro-d30
Probably cheapest decent you can get. 
 

A proper DC cable will matter as well. A lot. Especially in bass. 
https://www.ghentaudio.com/part/dc-gac4.html

 

 

Thanks for the recommendation, this seems to be what I'm looking for.
It's really something to think about since the power supply costs more than the dac, not to mention the + shipping, because in my country there is practically no such thing. Do you know if there is any DAC that already has an internal power supply inside and a good usb isolation that avoids noise, harsh and ''needling''? (I think that way I would need less cables and ''low-noise'' things to improve the sound.)
Seems to be an option too. 🤔

[Marcos Mazur]

On 9/10/2021 at 5:15 PM, greentrumpet said:

Not convinced you can fix this, I bought one to use solely as a USB converter, it failed immediately, straight from the box. I know many rate them but I fear they are unreliable. Thankfully the supplier refunded me.

Thanks.
Also think it's something difficult or very specific, one of these power supply would be an option, the E30 also sounds very analytical, at first I thought of IFI Power to solve it, because it's cheap, but it's no use if the sound is artificial and congested like the obtained from the power bank, the strange thing is that for many audiophiles the power bank is top, for me it's the opposite, it's not enough for the sound to be clean if it's not natural.

[Marcos Mazur]

On 9/12/2021 at 7:12 PM, audiobomber said:

I would dump the E30 and buy another DAC. I had a Topping D50S for a couple of weeks. The sound quality was very disappointing, made music boring due to poor PRaT. Adding a Topping P50S linear power supply did not help.

 

I saw this warning on Amazon: "Topping does not recommend connecting the E30 to the CD player, because the E30 has high requirements on the input of the CD player, and most CD devices will cause music to stutter/ skip."

 

It appears there is very poor jitter reduction in the E30, which could explain your issues. 

Thanks for the sugestion , I think you may be right, from what I read the E30 was fine in the measurements, BUT will that only guarantee good sound? it's the best DAC I've had so far, as I've seen worse, but I always hoped it wouldn't at least hurt my ears.

[Marcos Mazur]

On 9/12/2021 at 7:12 PM, audiobomber said:

I would dump the E30 and buy another DAC. I had a Topping D50S for a couple of weeks. The sound quality was very disappointing, made music boring due to poor PRaT. Adding a Topping P50S linear power supply did not help.

 

I saw this warning on Amazon: "Topping does not recommend connecting the E30 to the CD player, because the E30 has high requirements on the input of the CD player, and most CD devices will cause music to stutter/ skip."

 

It appears there is very poor jitter reduction in the E30, which could explain your issues. 

 

 

On 9/12/2021 at 7:12 PM, audiobomber said:

I would dump the E30 and buy another DAC. I had a Topping D50S for a couple of weeks. The sound quality was very disappointing, made music boring due to poor PRaT. Adding a Topping P50S linear power supply did not help.

 

I saw this warning on Amazon: "Topping does not recommend connecting the E30 to the CD player, because the E30 has high requirements on the input of the CD player, and most CD devices will cause music to stutter/ skip."

 

It appears there is very poor jitter reduction in the E30, which could explain your issues. 

I've even read that the P50 doesn't improve the sound by itself, it just predisposes a treble accent that gives the feeling of cleanliness and background, at least I speculate,I once thought about buying the P50.

[Marcos Mazur]

On 9/7/2021 at 6:21 AM, R1200CL said:

The PS will cost you more than the Topping.

Maybe you can find a reasonable Uptone LPS-1 used ?

Many options on AliExpress. I don’t like to recommend any. 
Here is a rebranded option. 
https://www.smallgreencomputer.com/collections/linear-power-supplies/products/sgc-5v-12v-linear-power-supply-25w?variant=32028829876293

 

More expensive is the Fared. And a new Uptone LPS-1.2.

 

https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/topping-p50-low-noise-linear-power-supply-for-topping-d50-d50s-dx3-pro-d30
Probably cheapest decent you can get. 
 

A proper DC cable will matter as well. A lot. Especially in bass. 
https://www.ghentaudio.com/part/dc-gac4.html

 

 

Very good, man
Thanks for the suggestions, I became more interested in Denafrips, I  saw the Darko video and other reviews, this for my taste looks fantastic and more complete, I just need to save some money, at the moment I will try to acquire Uptone LPS- 1 to see the result.

[Marcos Mazur]

On 9/15/2021 at 5:26 PM, audiobomber said:

The Topping P50S sounds better than the iFi iPower IME. I own both. The iPower X is a better comparator, it's as good the linear power supplies I own, from Welborne Labs and Zero-Zone.

 

Unfortunately Audio Science Review measurements bear no relation to sound quality.

Yeah, I am always in doubt, if in their measurements and conclusions ''nothing changes in the sound'', why do I clearly hear and feel differences in the presentation of the sound? These are different ''vibes'' fore sure, using the E30 with Phone Charger really sounds harsh and it's not normal and not ''enough'' as they say.

[Marcos Mazur]

On 9/15/2021 at 5:26 PM, audiobomber said:

The Topping P50S sounds better than the iFi iPower IME. I own both. The iPower X is a better comparator, it's as good the linear power supplies I own, from Welborne Labs and Zero-Zone.

 

Unfortunately Audio Science Review measurements bear no relation to sound quality.

I'm testing the Topping E30 with the Allo Shanti which is a great LPS, I would say the overall sound has improved, cleaner and airier, but the harshness that needles the ears is felt every minute, I thought this peculiar harshness was due to ''dirty energy'' from cheap power supply, apparently it's not, everything has gone wrong for me economically and also sonically 😁, in this post-pandemic time I'm saving up to change the '''bad link'' in this entry level setup, now I'm in wondering if this is caused by the Topping E30 itself, due to USB noise, jitter, poor design, or if my Pioneer SB22-LR is causing this or exacerbating the problem. as I am addicted to music, I continue to use it and I feel that it is damaging my ears a little. If this is caused by the E30 then the hype is overblown or the hype is misleading I think.

[Marcos Mazur]

On 9/22/2021 at 2:39 PM, bogi said:

Simply use audioscience forum only to get measurement data. Don't search and ignore any information about sound quality on that forum. They are attacking people discussing sound quality and the attackers are becoming their 'valuable' Likes points. Discuss sound quality on this forum or for example on head-fi.org.

As a matter of fact, the audio “science” review is good, I just think the people there hit the hammer too much and too hastily, I don't know head-fi.org, I'll take a look, thanks.

[Marcos Mazur]

23 hours ago, Miska said:

 

If your E30 is like mine, it may be generating distortion like crazy. They have made some hardware changes over time, so it may depend on which particular model one has.

 

You could try to get your unit replaced if it is not sounding decent.

 

Here's mine playing 1 kHz tone at 44.1k rate:

 

If yours is like mine, I'm not surprised if it sounds harsh.

 

 

😮 WTF, that's bad, man, thanks for showing the chart.
On the side of my E30 there is the code starting with 2008 (2008731819), is yours close to that?

That's interesting, man, I never thought that it could be a bad unit, it makes sense because they released a firmware a while ago and often released new drivers that improve ''sound-stage'', sign that the most current versions of it DAC may have undergone changes, which we will never know. The bizarre thing is that I'm using it without a driver, just the windows generic installed automatically, so I tolerate it better, but when I install the drivers, especially the new ones, the sound gets super harsh and forced, even brighter.