[BattousaiX26]

I’m using the latest firmware on my d50 and it made no perceived difference to me. I’ve also struggled in the past to hear differences between hifi cables and cheaper ones, but switching to spdif from usb makes a noticeable change for me. I also hear a similar improvement when i use my emotiva big ego and its stock crappy usb micro cable as a usb to toslink converter. That with a 6 inch wireworld nova toslink cable aslo tames the d50 imo. Its definitely the usb interface thats not great. I also find similar improvements when using my schiit modi 3 and smsl su-8 with a usb to spdif converter.

The smsl is the biggest improvement of them all with the eitr as its the harshest imo.

I also didn't notice sound improvement after upgrading my firmware.

 

[BrotherKathos]

I'm pretty happy with the D50 in my chain. I kind of wish I'd gotten the silver one though in hindsight.... I've done a b comparisons with the modi 3, and without the eitr and loki I prefer the modi 3. I also prefer the modi 3 and eitr vs the usb from d50 as its the same price within $30 for both which makes the modi 3 and eitr much better option for that price range imo. I also prefer the modi 3 and eitr without the loki to the D50 and Eitr. This is all with my HE-400i headphones. Its not until I add the eitr and loki to the chain that I prefer the D50 since I can tame the treble just a bit more. The D50 does have a better ability to seperate and open the instruments and sound compared to the modi 3, so when you tame the treble a bit it becomes a much better all rounder imo with better detail and immersive sound.

 

[Vosya]

Anyone explored topping driver? I saw buffer settings which might affect how the usb module sounds.

Best on my setup

 

[Taz777]

I'm pretty happy with the D50 in my chain. I kind of wish I'd gotten the silver one though in hindsight.... I've done a b comparisons with the modi 3, and without the eitr and loki I prefer the modi 3. I also prefer the modi 3 and eitr vs the usb from d50 as its the same price within $30 for both which makes the modi 3 and eitr much better option for that price range imo. I also prefer the modi 3 and eitr without the loki to the D50 and Eitr. This is all with my HE-400i headphones. Its not until I add the eitr and loki to the chain that I prefer the D50 since I can tame the treble just a bit more. The D50 does have a better ability to seperate and open the instruments and sound compared to the modi 3, so when you tame the treble a bit it becomes a much better all rounder imo with better detail and immersive sound.

Very nice system!

Did you try one of the seven filter options to tame the treble? Whilst the effect is very subtle, it just may be enough.

I'm using different filter settings for my desktop speaker system compared to my bedside headphones system and I've found that the filters make a very tiny change to the frequency balance and sound.

 

[BrotherKathos]

Very nice system!

Did you try one of the seven filter options to tame the treble? Whilst the effect is very subtle, it just may be enough.

I'm using different filter settings for my desktop speaker system compared to my bedside headphones system and I've found that the filters make a very tiny change to the frequency balance and sound.

Thanks for the reply!

I did try the filters, but they did not really tame the treble enough on their own. I found mode 4 to tame the treble the most, but I like the presentation of mode 5 the best and just use the loki to simmer down that sparkle. The loki is great with my chain since its treble adjustment targets the 8K peak the he-400i has. I'm also fairly treble sensitive, so my preferences are probably towards the darker side compared to most as I find too much treble to reduce clarity in music due to the 'ice pick in my ears' effect it gives.

 

[carlmart]

I'm pretty happy with the D50 in my chain. I kind of wish I'd gotten the silver one though in hindsight.... I've done a b comparisons with the modi 3, and without the eitr and loki I prefer the modi 3. I also prefer the modi 3 and eitr vs the usb from d50 as its the same price within $30 for both which makes the modi 3 and eitr much better option for that price range imo. I also prefer the modi 3 and eitr without the loki to the D50 and Eitr. This is all with my HE-400i headphones. Its not until I add the eitr and loki to the chain that I prefer the D50 since I can tame the treble just a bit more. The D50 does have a better ability to seperate and open the instruments and sound compared to the modi 3, so when you tame the treble a bit it becomes a much better all rounder imo with better detail and immersive sound.

Can you please write down, using names and arrows, the chains you mention?

As I don't know what each box does it's difficult to know where the D50 needs help.

You can leave the headphone boxes out, as I only listen with amp & speakers. Though I would be willing to get a second DAC system to use with my computer, with amp + speakers too.

 

[BrotherKathos]

Can you please write down, using names and arrows, the chains you mention?

As I don't know what each box does it's difficult to know where the D50 needs help.

You can leave the headphone boxes out, as I only listen with amp & speakers. Though I would be willing to get a second DAC system to use with my computer, with amp + speakers too.

schiit eitr is usb to spdif converter with some signal improvement tech . schiit Loki is 4 band equalizer. Ifi idenfender 3.0 is usb power noise and ground eliminator.

My chain is Computer usb port > ifi idefender 3.0 > audioquest forest usb cable > schiit eitr > mogami 2964 rca > topping D50 > mogami 2964 rca > Loki > to head amp and headphones. This is what sounds the best to me with the D50. Might change the connection from d50 to loki to mogami 2549 to get better capacitence over 2964, but its probably not an audible improvement, or at least not one my ears will be able to hear.

 

[DjBobby]

In case anybody is interested, I am selling mine less than one month old silver D50. It is for sure great dac, just doesn't blend so well into my system.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/topping-d50-silver.896539/

 

[Taz777]

In case anybody is interested, I am selling mine less than one month old silver D50. It is for sure great dac, just doesn't blend so well into my system.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/topping-d50-silver.896539/

What are you planning to get instead?

I have two D50s (one for my computer-based system and one for my bedroom headphones based system. I'm really happy with the computer-based system's sound. However, in the future I may upgrade the DAC in the headphones system.

 

[DjBobby]

What are you planning to get instead?

I have two D50s (one for my computer-based system and one for my bedroom headphones based system. I'm really happy with the computer-based system's sound. However, in the future I may upgrade the DAC in the headphones system.

I might go for the Burson Swing: https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/swing/

 

[lacknothing]

Here is a pretty crazy experiment from today, combining best aspects of D50 and UDA38.
For UDA38 that would be superior DAC chip and TCXO dac clock (though the TXCO looks big and fancy may not actually perform better than the D50s XO), for the D50 it would be IV and output stage.
Its destructive but fixable for the UDA with a couple cut traces and reversible for D50 (but on the risky side).
Just needs a couple wires to connect the 9038Pro chip outputs to the IV stage in the D50, only the amplifiers have power in the D50 which is the dual 16V supply (can confirm 16V sounds a bit better than 12V to my ears, plus replacing ceramic and tantalum caps with polypropylene helped a bit too).
I did this because there was very good chance it would sound better than either the UDA or D50 on their own and it absolutely does, sounds really fantastic. Its modding to absolute extreme but I only need 1 DAC and they were already too heavily modified to sell so why not.

I very much appreciate that you share your insights here. Encourages me a lot to go the mod route with this relatively cheap D50 as well.
As for your mentioning of the rails fix I think that's always the first. Thanks also for directing to the TPS7A4701 TPS7A3301 Low Ripple Positive Negative Linear Power Supply Board 1A.

As for the conclusion to draw of above fix, I would hesitate to address it specifically to the "better" DAC + crystal in the UDA38.
There was already brought up that the D50 has its problems upstream to the DAC chip itself, on the USB interface in particular. So it could well be that with the UDA38 feeding the IV of the D50 circumvents exactly this problems.
Any further thoughts on this?

 

[439598]

As for the conclusion to draw of above fix, I would hesitate to address it specifically to the "better" DAC + crystal in the UDA38.
There was already brought up that the D50 has its problems upstream to the DAC chip itself, on the USB interface in particular. So it could well be that with the UDA38 feeding the IV of the D50 circumvents exactly this problems.
Any further thoughts on this?

what problems do you mean? the only real problem with the D50 I was aware of was the DC-DC converter supply for amp chips downstream.

 

[lacknothing]

what problems do you mean? the only real problem with the D50 I was aware of was the DC-DC converter supply for amp chips downstream.

Sorry, did mix you up with DjBobby

After extensive testing of the D50 I came to the conclusion that the D50 is an outstanding dac, with crappy USB implementation. I was really irritated with the sound coming out of the USB, no matter which filter and which source I was using. Connected the SMSL x-USB II, their latest usb to spdif converter through the coax to the D50 and I was shocked with the difference in the audio quality. The sound completely lost the metallic edge, got on depth and smoothes, increased micro-detail and got holographic soundstage. When going back to the D50's own USB input, the music got flat, hard, steely and and fatiguing. The difference was not in the placebo realm, it was huge indeed. Completely different sounding dac.
So for me there is no going back, this is a seriously audiophile sound coming now out of my amp and floor standers, with the MacBook Pro - usb to SMSL X-usb II (latest version) - coax to D50.

 

[439598]

Sorry, did mix you up with DjBobby

ok, np. after checking it out the SMSL x-USB II is essentially the same thing as the D50 USB input, an XMOS U208 chip used for USB to IS2 and SPDIF conversion. internally the D50 uses IS2 output from the U208, which would be prefered over SPDIF.
I wonder what could be causing the difference between these interfaces, its possible the U208 is susceptible to power supply noise and x-USB has better power conditioning than D50 since it has no external power input and is designed to be powered directly through USB which is associated with noisy PC SMPSs.
it could also be an issue with the type B USB cable used with the D50 (poor shielding, not within impedance specification)

 

[lacknothing]

As far as I know, feeding by SPDIF has the disadvantage that the clock must be reconstructed from the incoming data stream whereas with USB this is nicely decoupled by asynchronous buffering, relaying on the DAC's clock to be the master.