Review and Measurements of Topping D50 DAC

[Krunok]

Oh my, my daddy is bigger than your daddy, LOL. No Victrola, so close to 70 it hurts, and my car has 455 hp according to the manufacturer, but other examples typically dyno to 415 net of driveline losses, so the real number is over 480 at the crank. My house has an elevator, LOL.

I felt a lot better when I was 54.

LOOOL

I wonder what advice will Thomas have for you.

 

[Ron Texas]

LOOOL

I wonder what advice will Thomas have for you.

Drive carefully?

 

[Boye]

For Wasapi, that control panel setting makes no difference.
So confirming, even when using WASAPI you always see 96 kHz sampling on the display of D50?

Thank you, I will look into that.
So far, the only available Wasapi setting sends the sound to the Remote Desktop PC from which I am currently controlling the NUC based player. This results in no output to the dac. Remote Desktop seems to mess up the sound output from Squeezelite-X:

Other settings like #4 - Topping USB Audio Device [ASIO] makes it work and show the actual 44.1 kHz sampling frequency. The bit depth still appears as 32 bit, though. Skipping between tracks causes some pop and click sounds.

I will look more into it tomorrow, when I get a chance to hook up my monitor and keyboard to the NUC.
These issues are probably not related to the D50 itself, so please tell me if I should post this in another forum.

 

[Krunok]

Drive carefully?

I doubt that. I think his logic would be that cars with 480HP were not designed having safe driving in mind but rather pressing the pedal to the metal.

 

[Boye]

So confirming, even when using WASAPI remote desktop nuc - ou always see 96 kHz sampling on the display of D50?

Well, I just learned that wasapi doesn't work with Squeezelite-X. I was able to use ASIO instead, and the displayed sampling freq now corresponds to that of the music file, excellent. The bit depth still remains at 32 bit, though. I will ask in the Squeezelite-X forum about the clicks that can be heard when changing tracks or cueing in a track.
Lovely piece of hardware, the D50. And it fits so well with the NUC. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[amirm]

I am glad it worked out. ASIO and WASAPI are equivalent in this regard.

 

[Toku]

Well, I just learned that wasapi doesn't work with Squeezelite-X. I was able to use ASIO instead, and the displayed sampling freq now corresponds to that of the music file, excellent. The bit depth still remains at 32 bit, though. I will ask in the Squeezelite-X forum about the clicks that can be heard when changing tracks or cueing in a track.
Lovely piece of hardware, the D50. And it fits so well with the NUC. Thanks for the recommendation.

The bit depth displayed by D50 displays the Bit depth set in "Output" of "Format" tab in "Topping USB Audio Device Control Panel". It is not the Bit depth of the music being played.

 

[xevman]

Is it normal for the Topping D50 to get warm when plugged in and not in use? I have it connected to a 5V 1AMP PSU but when I switched the unit off over night and went to turn it on this morning it was slightly warm.

 

[Toku]

Is it normal for the Topping D50 to get warm when plugged in and not in use? I have it connected to a 5V 1AMP PSU but when I switched the unit off over night and went to turn it on this morning it was slightly warm.

Depending on the temperature of the room, the degree will be different, but it will be slightly warmer.
When power is turned off, D50 goes to sleep. It will not stop completely.

 

[Boye]

I agree. I was a little surprised but not too concerned about it being a little warm. At the moment I have no way to measure the idle consumption, but based on how hot an op-amp is using 1 W, I would imagine the D50 runs idle using a couple of Watts or less.

 

[Deleted member 3116]

Could anyone who has opened their D50 tell me if the OPA1612 inside are hot to the touch?

Id greatly appreciate this info and will explain after

 

[xevman]

Could anyone who has opened their D50 tell me if the OPA1612 inside are hot to the touch?

Id greatly appreciate this info and will explain after

I'll check after work.

 

[Deleted member 3116]

I'll check after work.

thanks!

 

[xevman]

thanks!

they don't seem to get hot at all just warm along the rest of the unit

 

[PorchSong]

I keep my D50 on 24/7 to an Anker Powerport usb wall charger I believe is pushing 2.4A (max) and it is cold to the touch (exterior). I do not have the D50 plugged into the Quick Charger 3.0 output on the Anker. I am feeling no heat whatsoever from the unit on any of its surfaces. Only time it gets "warm" is when my Aune X7s heats it up as its a Class A amp and I have the D50 sitting on top.

 

[didi]

Let me thank Amirm for his invaluable, most indefatiguable reviews and measurements of audio equipments! But for him, we'd be kept mostly in the dark by various manufacturers who taint or hide the real performance of the DACs they produce!

I am glad that Amirm has read my request posted on massdrop. com and measured the response of Topping D50's various filter settings! However, my humble request is just to be told which one of the five filters really yields the best response! My ears can easily get deceived by artefacts and so on! I do really trust his measurements and expertise! That may also go with the volume settings of this DAC! Which could be the most feliciteous setting of the kind!

Another issue that Amirm could help with would be a guide/measurements of the best Windows 10 settings that would indeed do justice to a performant DAC such as Topping D50! Most of us do rely heavily, if not entirely, on Amirm's expertise and bona fide!

As for the issue of Topping D50 having gotten hot or hotter than expected, all I could say is that, in the very beginning of using it, it would get hot/hotter, probably because I have not installed the drivers from the manufacturer's website (I use it with ASIO drivers only!) For the past two or three months, the temperature of the DAC never exceeds 28-30 degrees Celsius!

One big issue, though, is that, no matter how hard I tried to update the firmware to the present version, I could not!

 

[amirm]

Thank you for the kind words @didi. As for the filter, I will have to go back and look at the measurements and see which one is most correct from signal processing point of view.

On Windows 10 guide, yes, I have been feeling that I need to do that. I will put that on my TODO list.

 

[Deleted member 65]

One big issue, though, is that, no matter how hard I tried to update the firmware to the present version, I could not!

You need to install Topping D50 Asio drivers to be able to update firmware, just deinstall after update is finished.

 

[derp1n]

I am glad that Amirm has read my request posted on massdrop. com and measured the response of Topping D50's various filter settings! However, my humble request is just to be told which one of the five filters really yields the best response! My ears can easily get deceived by artefacts and so on! I do really trust his measurements and expertise! That may also go with the volume settings of this DAC! Which could be the most feliciteous setting of the kind!

Linear phase fast roll off is always (for any DAC) the correct filter to use. I think that's mode 5, and it's likely the default.

 

[Vosya]

I will have to go back and look at the measurements and see which one is most correct from signal processing point of view.

It definitely needs to be done. Because current measurements exposes Topping D50 extremely negatively. Topping's support more than a week did not answer my question regarding the comparison of results with DX7s. This is alarming, since it is in their interest to prove that D50 is really a good product, and negative advertising on this forum, which is mentioned on their website in the announcement of Topping D50, should not like them.