Topping D50
Aug 30, 2019 at 10:40 PM Post #841 of 1,054
I just bought D50S from Aoshida-HIFI Audio Store Aliexpress. They gave me 195 USD price. (-: A true bargain!
 
Sep 1, 2019 at 11:43 PM Post #842 of 1,054
I just got D50 from Amazon to use with my portable Diamondboxx setup and really like the sound improvement over the blutooth.
But after a couple of days the OLED display developed a thin vertical line of dead pixels in the middle of the display. There is no degradation of sound quality as I can tell but I am still concerned if there may be more issues with the unit that I got. Should I replace this one until the return window is active or keep it? This is just a cosmetic little issue that I would not care about too much but it happened to a brand new DAC.
I read about D50 quality issues online and sending it back to China for repairs may not be the best option in the future. Some people reported the unit dying after a couple of months which is alarming but it happens with any Chinese electronics, I still believe that majority of D50 should be fine.

Here are a couple of pictures I took today showing this issue:

20190901_173851.jpg 20190901_173919.jpg
Any suggestions? Thanks.
 
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Sep 2, 2019 at 12:26 AM Post #843 of 1,054
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Sep 3, 2019 at 10:10 AM Post #845 of 1,054
Hello,
is this D50 a lot better than D30?
Now I have d30 and looking something better...

regards
Simon

Based on specs D50 is definitely better but not everyone may be able to tell the difference. A decent set of amp and headphones may be needed for A/B tests I think. D50 model is newer, has a volume control from 99 to 0db (can be used as pre-amp) which is great.
I preferred it over D30 mostly because of other factors, such as smaller size and 5V input for portable solution. You can easily power it from a portable 5V bank and it will play for many hours. Plus 9038 Sabre chip is extremely detailed and has sonic advantages over older chips. Just my .02.
 
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Sep 3, 2019 at 10:12 AM Post #846 of 1,054
Based on specs D50 is definitely better but not everyone may be able to tell the difference. A decent set of amp and headphones may be needed for A/B tests I think. D50 model is newer, has a volume control from 99 to 0db (can be used as pre-amp) which is great.
I preferred it over D30 mostly because of other factors, such as smaller size and 5V input for portable solution. You can easily power it from a portable 5V bank and it will play for many hours. Plus 9038 Sabre chip is extremely detailed and has sonic advantages over older chips. Just my .02.
Thank you.
I need new dac for my old speaker system.

regards,
Simon
 
Sep 4, 2019 at 12:39 PM Post #848 of 1,054
Is anybody using the Topping D50 straight from the PC USB output, with Windows?

With which program?
Yes. I am using Audirvana Plus, which is really very good. The user interface isn't quite as polished as it could be, but it plays all formats, including MQA and all the DSD formats as well.
 
Sep 4, 2019 at 5:21 PM Post #850 of 1,054
Apparently Audirvana and Foobar are players. This is not really what I'm looking for, even if I could use any of them.

What I want is a way to play ALL audio from my PC through the external Topping, if possible bypassing whatever is not essential from Windows to play the audio.

Any idea what I could use for that?
 
Sep 4, 2019 at 5:36 PM Post #851 of 1,054
In Windows you can select the source. When I have my topping or any other DAC plugged in, Windows automatically switches to that source for me and plays all audio (e.g. systems sounds, you tube, or whatever). As in all sounds go to the DAC and then outputs out to your amp or speakers or however you have it connected. As my screenshot below when i hit the volume icon and gives me the option to select different playback devices. One is my native PC speakers, the other one (USB Audio) is to a DAC (not topping i have another plugged in, but same premise)
screencapture.jpg
 
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Sep 4, 2019 at 5:41 PM Post #852 of 1,054
Apparently Audirvana and Foobar are players. This is not really what I'm looking for, even if I could use any of them.

What I want is a way to play ALL audio from my PC through the external Topping, if possible bypassing whatever is not essential from Windows to play the audio.

Any idea what I could use for that?
OK... I am using my Topping D50 as the default audio device for Windows. That means ALL sounds from Windows 10 are being routed through my D50. All you need to do is choose the D50 as the default sound device for Windows 10. So when I play Youtube, or watch a movie, or anything else, the sound comes through the D50 and into my DarkVoice and out of my headphones.

Is that what you were after? Just make sure to install the Windows 10 driver from the Topping Website.






p3588310407.jpg
 
Sep 12, 2019 at 10:04 AM Post #853 of 1,054
I received Topping D50 yesterday and I'm very pleased by the sound quality. It sure is a bit bright-ish but not fatiguing at least to me. I still changed the tube to lower gain, (maybe) slightly warmer one on my Taga Harmony thda-500t which my D50 is hooked on. I think synergy is very nice. Instrument layering is great and a lot of details can be heard. However, my unit has also some dead rows on oled display. There was one dead row right out of box, yesterday another (dis)appeared and today third! But all three dead rows are on left side of screen, on area where the numbers are in settings menu. Looks stupid on menu, but doesn't affect too much the main screen view. And as display is mostly turned off, it's not that critical fault. I don't believe display problems are linked in other problems, so I'm not that worried about functionality of DAC. Maybe oled display just has bad quality control, or there's problem on Topping's production line.

Topping D50.jpg
Yesterday
09122582.JPG
Today
 
Sep 15, 2019 at 9:19 AM Post #854 of 1,054
Anyone heard the new topping d70? I wonder if it is worth upgrading my d50.
 
Sep 15, 2019 at 11:58 AM Post #855 of 1,054
Yes, one aspect Audiosciencereview gives little, or should we say NO attention, is subjective listening.

Particularly comparing tested units with other similarly priced ones or even lower or higher priced ones.

The Topping D70 certainly looks interesting, not because it has balanced outputs, because that's a minor design question which all DACs could have.

Battery of subjective tests could be something this forum should have and would be welcome.
 

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