I have been lucky enough to join a (very rare) Australian loaner tour for the Topping D90SE. Thanks to
@Loquah (passionforsound) for organising that and thanks to
Apos Audio for providing the unit (you can buy it from them if you’re after one).
My preference in reviews, both when I’m writing mine or reading others’, is for relative comparisons. I find that much more useful and easier to write. So here, I’ll be mostly comparing the D90SE to my Schiit Modius. I have the two DAC’s grouped in Roon and the Modius into my Auralic Taurus balanced and the D90SE in SE. I tried them switched around too and with just the D90 connected to make sure there were no differences there and there weren’t. Most of my testing was into Focal Clear headphones or Mr Speakers Ether CX.
But first some non-sound impressions. There’s really not much to say about the build quality, it’s identical to all Topping’s desktop gear. That is, solid, very functional but very plain/generic aesthetically. I personally don’t like it aesthetically, but that’s personal preference only. I didn’t play with any of the filters on this. So all I used were the power and volume buttons on the front. They are fine, they feel solid enough, but again, pretty generic felling, not premium. I didn’t use the remote.
On to sound in comparison to the Modius. The first and by far the most important thing to say is these two sound VERY similar. I am not a DACnostic who thinks there’s no difference between DACs. I have AB’d quite a few different DACs like this: Modi3 v Schiit MB DAC module v Eitr>Mimby v Modius. Modius v D90SE was closer than any of those comparisons. That’s probably not a great reflection on the D90 given the price difference. Blind, I definitely struggle to pick these apart. I blinded myself a bunch of times by switching quickly so I lost track of where I was and then tried to pick which was which. I reckon I was around 50-50 at getting it right.
On some recordings, I could definitely pick a difference. That difference is what you would expect for Topping/Sabre v Schiit/AKM, namely the D90SE was ever-so-slightly clearer, sharper or more focused, creating a very slight sense of more space/air and slightly better detail retrieval. But that comes at the cost of a very, very slight treble glare at times. To stress again, these differences were tiny.
I didn’t identify that slightly digital character, that sort of limpness that some Topping gear has to my ears, like the A90. I personally don’t like that so was looking for it. But it’s likely that’s more of an amplification character and so coming via the Taurus was absent.
The D90SE produces a hair more sub bass quantity and slightly better bass texture/detail. It’s slightly thinner and clearer through the mids but overall they have a very similar tonal balance.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. For an excellent and more detailed review, check out
@Loquah's
passionforsound review here. He compares it to more appropriately priced gear like the Bifrost 2.
Would I recommend it? If you like the Topping house sound and have other Topping gear you want to match a DAC with and have the budget, then yeah it’s probably decent choice. I prefer the tonality of the Modius, but I like the clarity of the D90 when it’s evident. My perfect DAC would a combo of those. So if I was going to spend this kind of money, I think I’d be looking elsewhere.
