Topping D50

[spacequeen7]

Several hours listening to D50, I would say comparing with modi multibit, D50 is warmer and making the sound thicker and modi multibit is slightly dryer (and I may feel modi multibit is slightly more detail). Of course, both are great DAC at this price point, choosing which depends on your current headphone/speaker sound signature.

BTW, if someone lịkes the tube like sound, D50 is a better choice than Modi Multibit .

what amp were you using to compare D50 vs. Mimby ?

 

[Ted Presley]

what amp were you using to compare D50 vs. Mimby ?

Ah, I only listen to IEM , so I use portable topping NX5.

Update 1: tried D50 with power amplifier and speaker at home, I confirm D50 gives a thicker bass, warmer vs. Modi multibit.

 

[Holypal]

Why D50 does not have balanced out?

 

[frogmeat69]

Why D50 does not have balanced out?

Probably so as not to compete with the dx7s.

 

[spacequeen7]

Ah, I only listen to IEM , so I use portable topping NX5.

Update 1: tried D50 with power amplifier and speaker at home, I confirm D50 gives a thicker bass, warmer vs. Modi multibit.

You mention D50 "sounds thicker" ?,I would agree that low end is more pronounced then your usual SS but that's about it ,nothing close to my R2R 11 and would agree with this post
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/top...dphone-amplifier.840214/page-18#post-14181371

I switched from Modi 1 and in comparison D50 have more refined bass ,more bloom ,nice high end sparkle and detail courtesy of Sabre chip
Cheers

 

[XERO1]

Several hours listening to D50, I would say comparing with modi multibit, D50 is warmer and making the sound thicker and modi multibit is slightly dryer (and I may feel modi multibit is slightly more detail). Of course, both are great DAC at this price point, choosing which depends on your current headphone/speaker sound signature.

BTW, if someone lịkes the tube like sound, D50 is a better choice than Modi Multibit .

Interesting....
I may have to pick one up and see for myself!

 

[Jearly410]

Ordered one off eBay during the 15%off sale. Unfortunately I have to wait a week for a black model to ship. It will be joining my MCTH in desktop duty.

 

[wushuliu]

The D50 is really good, but I think the Hifimediy ES9038Pro Dac is better though not as feature-rich. Also, if you are using a PC for the D50, install the XMOS drivers and lower the latency and buffer samples as low as you can. You should get some seriously good microdetails and realism. And use the lowest noise power supply you can find.

 

[franz12]

The D50 is really good, but I think the Hifimediy ES9038Pro Dac is better though not as feature-rich. Also, if you are using a PC for the D50, install the XMOS drivers and lower the latency and buffer samples as low as you can. You should get some seriously good microdetails and realism. And use the lowest noise power supply you can find.

D50 uses ess9038q2m which is scaled down version of ess9038pro, but D50 uses 2xESS9038q2m. Might be that one performs better than the other in certain circumstances. But human ears might have a hard time to discern one from the other anyway.

 

[wushuliu]

D50 uses ess9038q2m which is scaled down version of ess9038pro, but D50 uses 2xESS9038q2m. Might be that one performs better than the other in certain circumstances. But human ears might have a hard time to discern one from the other anyway.

That is a strange statement in light of how these chips are designed. They are not set it and forget it. They are very complicated with a lot of performance options that are left to the purchaser to choose from. Does the Topping use gain compensation? THD compensation? Current out or voltage out? Etc. Never mind the surrounding parts like opamp buffers/output stage/power supply/usb receivers, etc. which the two dacs do not in have in common.

If people can't tell these two apart, then they shouldn't even be considering them; in which case, there are perfectly good dacs on Amazon for $27.

 

[franz12]

That is a strange statement in light of how these chips are designed. They are not set it and forget it. They are very complicated with a lot of performance options that are left to the purchaser to choose from. Does the Topping use gain compensation? THD compensation? Current out or voltage out? Etc. Never mind the surrounding parts like opamp buffers/output stage/power supply/usb receivers, etc. which the two dacs do not in have in common.

If people can't tell these two apart, then they shouldn't even be considering them; in which case, there are perfectly good dacs on Amazon for $27.

I know. But at this low price, I don't expect one has much better implementation than the other. And D50 measures very well, while I have yet to see the measurement of the other. I eager to receive my unit from Massdrop and compare to my Q5 which has 2x AK4490.

 

[439598]

The D50 is really good, but I think the Hifimediy ES9038Pro Dac is better though not as feature-rich. Also, if you are using a PC for the D50, install the XMOS drivers and lower the latency and buffer samples as low as you can. You should get some seriously good microdetails and realism. And use the lowest noise power supply you can find.

I bought the Hifime UDA38pro aswell and was very impressed. the sound is gentle and pure, not a hint of grain or glare, not what I expected at all. It can sound very different depending on the music, certain jazz and classical recordings sounded truly beautiful. It was really surprising how little difference an external power supply made, an integrated power supply is probably the biggest difference between this and expensive high end DACs like the Audio GD NFB28.38,

Could you give any more details on how its better than the topping?

 

[wushuliu]

I bought the Hifime UDA38pro aswell and was very impressed. the sound is gentle and pure, not a hint of grain or glare, not what I expected at all. It can sound very different depending on the music, certain jazz and classical recordings sounded truly beautiful. It was really surprising how little difference an external power supply made, an integrated power supply is probably the biggest difference between this and expensive high end DACs like the Audio GD NFB28.38,

Could you give any more details on how its better than the topping?

That is how the Hifime sounds to me as well. It does not sound like a typical Sabre DAC. More like a Sabre/AKM hybrid. Great mids. I am not sure why that is. I do know Hifime took a (relatively) long time to get the dac to market. They mentioned tuning the gain compensation and THD compensation features of the ES9038. Unfortunately since ESS forces everyone who uses their new chips to sign an NDA, we won't be able to find out what Hifime did differently. Hopefully they can provide more details in the future

The Topping sounds like a typical Sabre DAC, albeit a *really* good one. Like the SMSL Idea/Sabaj, but better. I doubt Topping spent much time optimizing all the features. They have a high product turnaround cycle. I'm sure there will be a new dac from them within months. I think they just chose the stock settings of the chip and focused on the surrounding components.

 

[pieeyed]

I have been listening to the D50 using flac files running it thru a wyred 4 sound sti 1000 to 3.7 maggies. Must say the little D50 holds it's own to the many other dac's that I have. I find the music has a nice say crisp snap to it. I paid 229 usd for the D50 so I must say that I find it very good value for the money. Someone asked why it does not have balance outputs. The dac is just a tiny thing.

 

[Bhargu]

Isn't shielded RCA as good as balanced cables for when the distance is short?