Topping D70 Listening Impressions.

KiranPS

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Hi All,

I received my Topping D70 DAC, here are my initial Impressions.
It's a great sounding DAC for its price. Its able to match and beat DACs
twice its price, Well that DAC is a couple of years old.
I guess Digital Electronics Obsolescence is much faster than Analog.

I haven't heard a lot of DACs like many in this forum, So please take
that into account when reading my Impression. I have heard a few ESS based
DACs, PCM based DACs and classic and modern R2R based DACs including
ARC DAC1-20 and Some high-end DACs like esoteric and Sthaltek some time back.
I’ve always wanted to own an AK Based DAC so the D70.
I was mulling to get D90 but it was not available so went with D70.


Coming to D70,

D70 has USB built in and RCA and XLR output. It does come with a
BT Version. I did not need BT and also felt that RF transmitter
might introduce some unnecessary noise.

I connected the DAC to my W10 PC over USB. I used Foobar, I was able to Play Music from 44.1,48,88,96,352. I had to set 24 bit output (WASAPI Push) in FooBar (For some strange reason I could not set 16 bit for 44.1 and 48 files). I also connected the DAC to my NUC running Linux Streamer and I was able to play songs without any issues.

Listening Experience,

First of all, It is a very transparent DAC, when doing AB testing with my other DACs, I found that
the Background is much more silent (‘Darker’) and the voices and instruments are clearly defined and isolated. When playing HiRes Music it comes into its own, The sound is more rounded and fuller. I've always heard some artifacts when playing HiRes songs
on other DACs, It never sounded as I expect. D70 is more neutral than my
YuLong DAC which is more warmer in spite of having ESS Sabre, which has a reputation for being forward and brighter.
D70 Tonality was also spot-on, in some songs with high pitched female voices
you might notice a slight peaks in the end, this was completely well rounded
in D70.

This is one of the best Hires DACs that I’ve heard. For regular CD rips it improved tonality , background and instrument separation. The biggest improvement I felt is when playing higher resolution tracks (My Hires Tracks are sourced from 2L and similar sites).
Here is a site that has a collection of Free Hires Music.


image-1024x549.png


Looking forward to getting a D90, will post review of that and Comparison in the future.

Let me know your comments or any specific questions you might have about D70.
 
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