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Khadas Tone Board DAC = WOW!
Nov 23, 2019 at 9:13 PM Post #92 of 192
overhaze said:
Would there be any audible difference in swapping out a Topping D10 for a Tone Board?
Click to expand...

the topping has an older ess sabre chip, but per audioscience's review there's no "ess hump"

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...iew-and-measurements-of-topping-d10-dac.2470/

whether anyone can actually hear that is another question, but at the price it's not extortion to see what you think

the topping has the bonus of more outputs than the khadas, but no option for coax input



and dang ! i note the topping has an op amp socket so you can roll socketed dual op amps :ksc75smile:

i wish i didn't know that, because now i really want one (having an abundance of spares from my xonar hdav experimentation); i am loving the khadas though
 
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Nov 23, 2019 at 9:42 PM Post #94 of 192
Alright, the Khadas to me is more clear and the instrument separation is very slightly better but this is not the reason I like it more than D10. I like the overall tonal balance of all the frequencies. The sound is full and effortless, of course the amplifier synergy is very important as well. D10 is not a slouch at all. I like the minimalistic character of Khadas, no display or turn on/off buttons and unnecessary components.
 
Nov 23, 2019 at 9:51 PM Post #95 of 192
yavormoskov said:
Alright, the Khadas to me is more clear and the instrument separation is very slightly better but this is not the reason I like it more than D10. I like the overall tonal balance of all the frequencies. The sound is full and effortless, of course the amplifier synergy is very important as well. D10 is not a slouch at all. I like the minimalistic character of Khadas, no display or turn on/off buttons and unnecessary components.
Click to expand...

good to hear

as it represents the pinnacle of my dac collection (thus far), i am pleased to hear that similar alternative choices aren't significantly better ... until they are



although having been knocked over by the improvements to sound in my asus xonar card when i rolled the standard (LM)4562NA first to a dual opa627, and then a burson v5i, the availability of doing that in the topping is an itch i long to scratch, as it may surprise me

but there in only so much redundancy my budget can direct to dac ownership and experimentation before i will need an intervention to save me from myself
 
Nov 24, 2019 at 1:22 AM Post #96 of 192
scruffy1 said:
good to hear

as it represents the pinnacle of my dac collection (thus far), i am pleased to hear that similar alternative choices aren't significantly better ... until they are



although having been knocked over by the improvements to sound in my asus xonar card when i rolled the standard (LM)4562NA first to a dual opa627, and then a burson v5i, the availability of doing that in the topping is an itch i long to scratch, as it may surprise me

but there in only so much redundancy my budget can direct to DAC ownership and experimentation before i will need an intervention to save me from myself
Click to expand...

Well, you are probably familiar with the theory of diminishing returns. Yes, it is better but how do you define better? If you are familiar with ESS dacs the difference is not going to be night and day, just some incremental improvements. Factor in the cables, the amplifier and headphones you are using. Are they sound wise transparent enough so the Khadas can shine or not. So if you ask if it is better than D10 the answer is yes. Is it twice better - no.
 
Nov 24, 2019 at 1:28 AM Post #97 of 192
yavormoskov said:
Well, you are probably familiar with the theory of diminishing returns. Yes, it is better but how do you define better? If you are familiar with ESS dacs the difference is not going to be night and day, just some incremental improvements. Factor in the cables, the amplifier and headphones you are using. Are they sound wise transparent enough so the Khadas can shine or not. So if you ask if it is better than D10 the answer is yes. Is it twice better - no.
Click to expand...

my dilemma ?

is easily adding an op amp that alone costs half the dac purchase going to "amp it up" as it were ?

because the bursons (v5i and v5), plus the opa627's are all "free" potential upgrades if i have a platform to try them on

and amen to synergy; the pan am with the russian tubes is way nicer than with the french ones, but that doesn't work as well with the ad700's


and so it goes...
 
Dec 6, 2019 at 9:15 PM Post #99 of 192
i didn't even know the default drivers worked :)

but given it sounds great anyway, i might not be in a hurry to confuse myself (or make it not work)
 
Dec 7, 2019 at 8:29 AM Post #100 of 192
Right I did a quick RMAA test. Now to do this I had to use a behringer u-control with a ground loop isolater in order to get usable results so its no where near accurate enough to give an actual idea of how my Khadas Atom combo really performs but it is consistent enough from run to run to show when something is off or different.

Here are the results with the Thesycon driver
xmos driver.PNG


And here are the results with the Windows default driver

windows driver.PNG


The only difference between the two was the driver used. There does seem to be a difference there.
 
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