[eldus]

The D30 I received from massdrop has the blue power indicator and the red Unlock light. I do not want to crack it open as it voids the warranty, I am curious. It is a Definite upgrade from using Fiio E17k USB DAC Line-Out to Magni 3 set up.

 

[TERMiNAL_]

The D30 I received from massdrop has the blue power indicator and the red Unlock light. I do not want to crack it open as it voids the warranty, I am curious. It is a Definite upgrade from using Fiio E17k USB DAC Line-Out to Magni 3 set up.

Their's no need to crack it open though...as long as it is working fine.

Yes it's my first real external DAC and it's great for the price.

 

[mochi01]

If the massdrop units don't have a seal they can be safely opened, the problem is that the board is a bit loose inside, so they use glue to fix It in place. Mine didn't even have It so I had to fix It myself, It wobbled a lot.

Regarding capacitors, I don't think any of the electrolytics are in the signal path, so unless they have reduced capacitance in the new revisions It shouldn't affect the sound.

There may be a few reasons for so many board revisions: cost reduction, reliability fixes and component availability are the most likely.

 

[vrajcevski]

I am posting in a sense to keep some documentation of what I am doing - so _ If Anybody gets their hands on a schematics I would appreciate:
My diagnostics seems to have picked up the cause of no sound output. Did all the static ( DC) voltage measurements on the test points. The main Culprit where I think the problem is - Tp 16 -should be 3.3 Vdc and it is only 2.54. This voltage Supplies Vd to the CS4398 and should be anywhere from 3.3 V ( spec says it can go to 5) . It is an output voltage of a Lm117 regulator - and that one gets pretty hot ( burn your finger s hot ) so there seems to be a short of some sort somewhere. also when I press the probe, the voltage is changing slightly. Not having a diagram I will have to see if I can trace the circuit and see what is in the path. the CS reference design places a 10 uf and 0.1 uf to ground on the Chip leg. the 10uF would be an electrolytic not sure if SMD since the voltage is very small

Need to trace the circuit around the regulator to see if there is anything else that may be an issue.

There are a couple of other voltages that are off - tp 27 should be 7 v, and it is 6, and the negative 15 is actually - 13.5v - the positive one is fine. After the LM317s and feeding the op amp, these 2 are dropped to + or - 11V and are close enough.

I suspect the negative side may be flakey - for LM317 to do proper regulation the input should be at least 3 v above the output, and with -13.5 - i Suspect that it is borderline.

So apologies for the information dump- I get time every few days to play around with this.

Somebody mentioned capacitors changed -I'll look them over, not so much being in the signal path, BUT if they are out of spec they can cause stability and function issues.

If Anybody with a working D30 ahs done the measurments on al the testpoints, would approcaite the information a lot- In particular Tp 27 to ground, tp16 to ground, and tp14 to ground.

 

[vrajcevski]

Ok, Final diagnlostics - The 3.3 V Supply to the Cs4398 chip is not at the right voltage - it is about 0.9 v down, which basicaly means the DAC does not work - the USB receiver does the job ( that is the one picked up by windows) But nothing more.
I suspect deadish LM1117 3.3. Interestingly when I press on It I get the voltage to go up a little, so there may be either an internal short or something underneath - the caps seem OK The regulator gets hot since it needs to drop down from 6 v input to 2.5 V which is a pretty large current, and it is possible that the heatsink underneath is not working prperly.

I'll make one more attempt to get warranty from Aliexpress and then form Topping directly ( even a replacement board will be fine with me. If not - then I will start =swapping aprts when i get some more time. Currently living with Sabaj DA3 - sounds pretty good too. though I am feeding a headphoen amplifier.

 

[mochi01]

You may have already tried it but I have fixed quite a few electronics just by reflowing the solder. You can try with the VR and surrounding components.

By the way, after a lot of trial and error the most recent working drivers for the D30 that I,ve found are version 4.13 but the sound is exactly the same as with the topping supplied ones.

 

[TERMiNAL_]

You may have already tried it but I have fixed quite a few electronics just by reflowing the solder. You can try with the VR and surrounding components.

By the way, after a lot of trial and error the most recent working drivers for the D30 that I,ve found are version 4.13 but the sound is exactly the same as with the topping supplied ones.

Yes their is no reason to change the drives from the factory ones.

 

[vrajcevski]

It will be weekend soldering for me I think:
talked to both the supplier and Topping - me being in Australia, Shipping back to base for repair and than back to me will set me about 80 AUD. that is about 65 % of a brand new with free shipping from Aliexpress . No Go. Buying just the board and shipping is 57 USD - close to 80 AUD - No go . 10x tantalum from RS components 2.5 AUD - and some fun. if I blow it I will buy another one or a different one.

PS. reflowing the LDO did not help.Interestingly it does delay the voltage drop by about 5 seconds. So I will assume I have not done it to well, and may need to reflow all somponents in the path rather than just the LDO.

 

[wigglepuff]

hi, has anyone read around forums and found that amirm review of the topping d30 was completely biased and innacurate and posted only data that made the modi 2u objectively look bad.

 

[simon740]

hi, has anyone read around forums and found that amirm review of the topping d30 was completely biased and innacurate and posted only data that made the modi 2u objectively look bad.

NO. This is not true...

 

[wigglepuff]

NO. This is not true...

what do you mean? superbest audio friends forum debunked amirm measurement test look it up (oh and amirm didn't do an actual sound audition test also), and the whole thread in the Steve Hoffman Forum got deleted.

 

[K Roland_61]

Have anyone tried another power supply? I found a 15Vdc 2A (stock one is 0.5A) and frankly the sound is fuller than with the stock PSU...

 

[mochi01]

Stock power supply should be 15v 1a, and there's a diode at the input that limits the current draw to 1a. I've also tried with a better PSU but didn't notice any benefits.

 

[K Roland_61]

Interesting, the PSU I have is 0.5A

II'l look for an 1A one, thanks.

 

[wigglepuff]

isn't the modi 2u still better than this and actually cheaper?