Review and Measurements of Topping D50 DAC

[RayDunzl]

The D50 did not come with a Coaxial cord

An RCA cable will work, if you have a device with digital coaxial output to try.

 

[gvl]

What are the candidates?

Well, I may need some help here, but something run of the mill but not complete junk.

A SMPS from Mean Well maybe: link or link
A linear regulated maybe: link or link
Something else?
vs. iFi iPower 5V?

Then what are we measuring? Ripple voltage? Noise spectrum? Under what load? 500mA?

 

[amirm]

Answering your question, the only thing that matters is the output of the DAC. We don't listen to the power supply leads.

 

[gvl]

Answering your question, the only thing that matters is the output of the DAC. We don't listen to the power supply leads.

Yes, but you probably don't want to measure a bunch of DACs with a bunch of power supplies in different permutations and likely end up with inclusive results. I think it is appropriate to just concentrate on the power supply leads in a controlled experiment in this particular case just to keep things simple. It can't hurt if you start with clean power. If you find your best and worst PSUs then you can do a test on a DAC, say D50, and draw a conclusion if the leads matter (or not), with that particular DAC.

 

[Krunok]

Yes, but you probably don't want to measure a bunch of DACs with a bunch of power supplies in different permutations and likely end up with inclusive results. I think it is appropriate to just concentrate on the power supply leads in a controlled experiment in this particular case just to keep things simple. It can't hurt if you start with clean power. If you find your best and worst PSUs then you can do a test on a DAC, say D50, and draw a conclusion if the leads matter (or not), with that particular DAC.

Just take a look at Topping D10 measurements. D10 was powered by the USB port from Amir's comp, which can hardly be considered as "clean power supply", and yet it measured extremely well. Modern devices, if designed properly, will filter and stabilize pretty much whatever you give them via USB port so "Audiophile approved ultra clean power sources" are waste of money.

 

[Zek]

Well, I may need some help here, but something run of the mill but not complete junk.
A SMPS from Mean Well maybe: link or link
A linear regulated maybe: link or link
Something else?
vs. iFi iPower 5V?

Links don't work for me.

 

[gvl]

Links don't work for me.

Looks like their website is down, check back later maybe.

 

[gvl]

Modern devices, if designed properly, will filter and stabilize pretty much whatever you give them via USB port so "Audiophile approved ultra clean power sources" are waste of money.

And how do you establish if they are? Perhaps need to add a test to each review to evaluate how a particular DAC copes with dirty power.

 

[sonci]

Just take a look at Topping D10 measurements. D10 was powered by the USB port from Amir's comp, which can hardly be considered as "clean power supply", and yet it measured extremely well. Modern devices, if designed properly, will filter and stabilize pretty much whatever you give them via USB port so "Audiophile approved ultra clean power sources" are waste of money.

They are designed and built at a cost. You can't expect that a 100$ dac can have a high end power section, just the limiting space is a factor.

 

[Veri]

They are designed and built at a cost. You can't expect that a 100$ dac can have a high end power section, just the limiting space is a factor.

The topping D10 already proved basic power filtering and good design is all you need to play with practically any USB laptop power.

 

[gvl]

The topping D10 already proved basic power filtering and good design is all you need to play with practically any USB laptop power.

Are you extrapolating from one particular uncharacterized USB port to all USB ports in the world? Not exactly scientific.

 

[Veri]

Are you extrapolating from one particular uncharacterized USB port to all USB ports in the world? Not exactly scientific.

I'm saying it doesn't make sense to buy a power device at half the price or more of the damn DAC in the first place. Unless there is a noticeable problem in which it might make sense to buy something to fix it, which doesn't exactly take a scientist to figure out...

 

[gvl]

I'm saying it doesn't make sense to buy a power device at half the price or more of the damn DAC in the first place. Unless there is a noticeable problem in which it might make sense to buy something to fix it, which doesn't exactly take a scientist to figure out...

Did you read my first post that started this?

 

[skrekk]

I'm saying it doesn't make sense to buy a power device at half the price or more of the damn DAC in the first place.

I agree although "Power Supply Rejection Ratio" (PSRR) is something which should be quantified by audio device manufacturers who use an external supply but it usually isn't these days. It could be fairly easily tested with the right equipment although I don't think there's an industry standard for devices like this.

 

[Krunok]

Are you extrapolating from one particular uncharacterized USB port to all USB ports in the world? Not exactly scientific.

Are you saying that only if you measure all the USB ports in the world you can make conclusions? Come on..
I would say that USB port of Amir's comp is most probably "typical" meaning it's not much better nor much worse than majority of the USB ports in our comps as well. 99% of them use the same chipset so I'd say it's quite a reasonable assumption that D10 will behave in a very similar way when connected to yours or mine comp via USB.

 

[mastershake]

man i really want this and was about to pull the trigger from massdrop but they only have silver left. i really wanted the black version.... doh. so torn. the black will match a lot more of my other stuff. hmm

 

[amirm]

Yeh, I am a big fan of black too.

 

[mastershake]

yeah im bummed they ran out of black. im sure they will most likely drop again but i dont really want to wait lol. its only 199 on massdrop also.

 

[jaytrinitron]

I was wondering, is the distortion shown here that also affects the dx7 and dx7s high enough to be audible? I was looking at the ol dac because the distortion is lower for it. Also considering the umc204hd for that low distortion but worried that at such low cost there would be a lot of unit-to-unit variability and mine would not measure as Amir's did (plus there are no linearity numbers for it). And should I worry about the sharp roll off in the d50 frequency response at 20 khz? I probably can't hear that high, but still...

 

[dc655321]

I was wondering, is the distortion shown here that also affects the dx7 and dx7s high enough to be audible?

Are you a bat or a dolphin? If so, kudos on your typing skills !
If you're referring to the "hump" in the IMD graphs, then no, I would not expect that to be audible.
What do plan on pairing the D50/Dx7s with for amplification?

And should I worry about the sharp roll off in the d50 frequency response at 20 khz?

That roll off is supposed to be there - it's the anti-imaging filter. That is the DAC filtering out frequencies above 1/2 the sampling rate (I think a 24 bit, 44.1 kHz test signal is used here).