[prymortal]

https://www.topping.audio/download
V5.50 driver for most of TOPPING DACs
Don't forget to unplug & replug in device after updating.

-----------------------------------------------------
V5.50.0 (September 8, 2022)
-----------------------------------------------------

* New: support for Windows 11 (22H2) x64

* New: support for Windows 11 (22H2) arm64

* Fix: USB IN buffer count was limited to 16 buffers, this lead to not enough buffers for high ASIO buffers sizes (e.g. 48kHz and 1024 samples)

* Fix: preferred ASIO buffer size are not restored after driver unload/load

* Fix: MIDI functions could become a ASIO device (e.g. if the device has dedicated Audio and MIDI functions)

* Chg: documentation

Just a FYI if you are on Windows 11 2H22 ("2022 ed") there are new drivers coming out this week/next week for all PC components & softwares.

 

[rsbrsvp]

Hi. Do tube amps pair well with thus dac? I assume they would because the dac seems to be very fast, and transparent leaving plenty of room for coloration and fattening of the sound without slowing things down to much.

 

[theveterans]

Hi. Do tube amps pair well with thus dac? I assume they would because the dac seems to be very fast, and transparent leaving plenty of room for coloration and fattening of the sound without slowing things down to much.

Depends on tubes and tube topology. I’d wager a 300B SET would pair nice with a D90 or a Feliks Echo OTL or Darkvoice/Bottlehead Crack will also fatten the tone up, but a 2A3 tubes or KT88 tube SET amps would be too bright and thin sounding for the D90. Bright tube amps such as the 2A3’s and the KT tube family pairs better with the R2R DACs than the D90

 

[milkdudd]

Are you talking about a power amp or an integrated amp? My findings with the D90 were that the built-in preamp sounded less than stellar. To me it sounded much better running it in dac mode, then into a preamp or integrated amp. I will admit I never gave it a full week or anything like that powered on the other way so maybe it would have gotten better

 

[rsbrsvp]

Depends on tubes and tube topology. I’d wager a 300B SET would pair nice with a D90 or a Feliks Echo OTL or Darkvoice/Bottlehead Crack will also fatten the tone up, but a 2A3 tubes or KT88 tube SET amps would be too bright and thin sounding for the D90. Bright tube amps such as the 2A3’s and the KT tube family pairs better with the R2R DACs than the D90

How about audio-gd HE-9 tube preamp. It is not warm but not bright. It actually does not effect the frequency response by much. It adds deep holographic soundstage and saturates the base and midrange- but only in a slightly warm way....???

 

[jlemaster1957]

How about audio-gd HE-9 tube preamp. It is not warm but not bright. It actually does not effect the frequency response by much. It adds deep holographic soundstage and saturates the base and midrange- but only in a slightly warm way....???

Price new MSRP ~$3000 USD?

 

[theveterans]

How about audio-gd HE-9 tube preamp. It is not warm but not bright. It actually does not effect the frequency response by much. It adds deep holographic soundstage and saturates the base and midrange- but only in a slightly warm way....???

Where does it say that it’s tube? The HE9 I see is SS. With SS discrete Class A amps normally it should be perfectly neutral (neither too warm nor too bright so an excellent match with the D90. Tube Class A SET and even OTL OTOH varies in tonal balance way more than SS Class A/AB amps due to the tubes and transformer windings and transformer wire materials themselves

 

[rsbrsvp]

There is a vacuum tube version

 

[rsbrsvp]

Sorry. I made a typo. It is the HE-1 tube preamp.

https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews...o-gd-vacuum-he1-xlr-tube-preamplifier-review/

 

[theveterans]

Sorry. I made a typo. It is the HE-1 tube preamp.

https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews...o-gd-vacuum-he1-xlr-tube-preamplifier-review/

It should not sound bright based on the D90. If you feel the the whole presentation is pushed too far back, you can use the super slow roll off (AKM D90) to make the staging more round and you’ll definitely hear better separation just in case the stage was too pushed back

 

[rsbrsvp]

My hope was to tame the brightness of the D90SE and add some heft....

 

[theveterans]

My hope was to tame the brightness of the D90SE and add some heft....

Tubes headphone amplifiers are a hit or miss on this aspect in my experience unfortunately. Tubes preamp in general are generally designed to be neutral in tone with the benefits of additional tone density in the vocals and mids and of course the soundstage expansion

BTW. Have you tried playing with the DAC filter? Super slow roll-off should be least bright sounding while pushing vocals more upfront compared to the rest of the filters

 

[rsbrsvp]

I do not own this dac- but I find it interesting.

This dac measures better than any dac on earth at any price, but the almost universally, no one says it sounds the best. Many do not like the sound; some say it is good- but not great. audio-gd dacs measure some of the worst in the world but many and even most users claim they sound incredible.

I am beginning to think that distortion done right equals pleasure and no distortion equals sterile. I once owned a benchmark dac- also known for stunning measurements and it was completely flat. Totally unenjoyable to my ears. This is complex for me.... The human ear simply does not agree with the scientific measurements; pretty consistantly.

Even though I have never heard the DA90SE, I have read enough reviews to be pretty certain that I will dislike it without some coloration injected in there; but because it is so ridiculously clean, it may be the perfect base for any coloration one would choose. May be- is the key two words...

 

[milkdudd]

I suggest you give the Gustard line a look. The X26 Pro is the Delta Sigma top of the line to the best of my knowledge. It uses dual saber chips if I remember correctly. The R26 is their new R2R dac. Both get out of this world reviews from owners. I have the slightly older A22 which uses dual AKM 4499 chips. I love mine. They get even better with the Gustard U18 DDC and C18 clock. There are dedicated threads on this forum for the X26 Pro, R26 and U18. The dac prices are significantly more than the D90 SE, but not ridiculously expensive

 

[rsbrsvp]

How about the LKS 005???