Topping DAC's on HPZ

For anyone who wants a cheap good dac and owns an iphone i suggest using the iphone dongle and a decent cable. I always felt the iphone dongle sounded nice, though lacked a little gain and was surprised when ken kessler had also found the same and measured it. I was using it for youtube videos and realised it sounded pretty nice when connected to my main rig. It's musical, that's all I'm going to say. Someone at apple listened to it while designing.
 
Having heard both the D50 and the D90, I find the D90 with the AKM chip is much less thin and bright sounding. It's not quite as rich or smooth as a Chord Qutest and certainly not like something like a MHDT Orchid which I would classify as thicker and warm.

I own the D90. Had a Qutest earlier.
 
I am curious to hear comparisions between Topping E30 & D90. I know D90 will beat E30 Hands down. But I want to know how much E30 can compete with D90. I would be happy if E30 can achieve 75% of what D90 can do.
 
(Foobar2000 didn't do jack when tried attenuating audio from it's GUI), nor on the device.
That right there.

Tried to play DSD via Foobar2000 in Pre mode and nearly got knocked out of my chair. Damn Windows 10 :mad: and it's need to default sound output to 100 on a new audio device that gets setup. Probably would have had me contributing to ""economic growth" if I hadn't been quick enough.
 
Did you google for an app that can play DSD on mobile? A simple search resulted in 2 players.

I tried fiio player from fiio and below are fhe screen shots. Played through ibasso dc01 dac. Now I do not have any means to know what is actually coming out. Although the app description says it is a native dsd player.

Another option is Hiby Music player.

PS: both Android apps.

MaSh

View attachment 48755View attachment 48756

The Hiby Music Player is quiet good, it has nice EQ presets as well if you want to experiment with the same. Comes in very handy for some IEM's.
 
I am curious to hear comparisions between Topping E30 & D90. I know D90 will beat E30 Hands down. But I want to know how much E30 can compete with D90. I would be happy if E30 can achieve 75% of what D90 can do.

Based on theory of diminishing returns i believe it would achieve atleast 75% of the D90 and similarly D90 would achieve 90% of another DAC costing 5 times But when we hear the difference you end up chasing it regardless :)
 
I had one and had a similar experience and ended up selling it after 3 months. Measurements alone don't tell the whole story.
Cheers,
Sid
Measurements can be very misleading. God has endowed us with an organic mic and not digital.
Measurements are critical till getting the technical perfection on the gear. It should be finally substantiated by actual listening before releasing.
 
I was also reading about the polarity reversal issue with an earlier batch.
If the snag is at the digital level, just switching connection on the speaker terminal will not solve the issues. The error in digital domain cannot be corrected by a 180 degree switch in analogue. When there is polarity reversal in digital domain, it also affects the phase (timing difference). What we do in analogue stage is pure acoustic correction only. There will be a shift between the acoustic and electric phase in what you listen which can be perceived in a bit contorted stage, instrument location and false impression of depth
 
Anyone tried connecting Highend >$2000 (Speakers & Amplifiers) gears with E30 DAC..?

If yes, please let us know how it fares.
 
What would be the better way to put E30 in following chain: E30 as DAC to Preamp input section of NAD integrated, Preamp output of NAD is connected to Crown XLS2502 ?
OR
E30 as Pre and RCA Y outs feeding both NAD and Crown ?
Please suggest
 
What would be the better way to put E30 in following chain: E30 as DAC to Preamp input section of NAD integrated, Preamp output of NAD is connected to Crown XLS2502 ?
OR
E30 as Pre and RCA Y outs feeding both NAD and Crown ?
Please suggest

First option makes sense as you can use proper preamp section of NAD Integrated rather than using Digital Preamp of E30. You should get a better sound quality by using the first option.
 
Agreed with @sathtom . Using the E30 as pure DAC and the NAD as pre-amp would be the first choice. But feel free to try out the other way round and let us know about your findings.
 
Based on theory of diminishing returns i believe it would achieve atleast 75% of the D90 and similarly D90 would achieve 90% of another DAC costing 5 times But when we hear the difference you end up chasing it regardless :)

Generally true. Depends on the resolving nature of your entire audio chain also IMHO. I tried my D90 at a friend's place who had a pair of basic 20k bookshelves, a basic integrated amp and a E30 since he wanted to try out a costlier Topping AKM dac. The D90 was better but it wasn't a significant difference. Later at my home, we tried his E30 with my Harbeths, Hegel, and also with my active Genelecs just as a fun experiment. Very significant difference vs the D90. I assume that the same results may be seen with highly resolving headphones/IEMs.
 
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