Thanks for response mate! Not enough funds for d90! Aha might buy one soon though but a cheaper dac. Maybe smsl su8
Cheaper DAC's are getting better and better, perhaps the D90 MQA follow on will meet your budget requirements.
Actually the recently released D50S is a newer less costly DAC, have you checked that one out?
TOPPING D90 vs TOPPING D50s Comparison Chart
https://apos.audio/blogs/news/topping-d90-vs-topping-d50s-comparison-chart
APOS is having a sale with the D50s+A50s+P50 bundled for $549.99:
https://apos.audio/collections/apos...s-topping-50s-ensemble?variant=32494814429258
And, the A50s is a new headphone AMP with some of the A90 charm
I wound up returning the A90 back to apos after extensive listening. My Pass Class A Whammy which for me and a friend both thought the Pass is much more musical and detailed and has gobs of dynamics the A90 doesn’t- the a90 being full featured but lacking a bit of everyday enjoyment- i also wound up getting the Ray Samuels Apache class a dual mono amp which sounds beyond words but emotional is one of them... but all in all the a90 is a great no noise no fuss amp with tons of inputs and outputs
How many hours had you run the "Whammy" and how many hours did you let the new A90 run before giving up the comparison?
This is important as it's not a fair comparison until you let both reach their optimal sound, and out of the box the A90 was very nice, but didn't meet the same enjoyment factor as my FiiO M15 - which had been running constantly for a couple of months.
After a similar time of burn-in the A90 is now my favorite AMP for daily listening. I do enjoy the M15 often, but for daily use the A90 is the one that draws my ears in every time.
I'm happy you like your DIY amp, but next time you give a comparison review please don't give up on the new unit so quickly, please give it a chance to get the same break-in time needed for optimal sound, as the AMP with the "home team" advantage already has.
I suggest you the Gustard A18,
here you have a review and comparison against Topping D90. I think is a great DAC for more or less 550 €.
@Biskwit
Gustard shipped out at least one updated A18 (reported, linked below) with Optical digital input and MQA added, but no official word of announcement has come out that I've seen yet:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-this-gustard-a18-from-apos.16612/post-537000
The review link you shared is for the previous version, without Optical input or MQA capability.