TOPPING D90SE Updates to D90 III Discrete

[felix37]

new review from SANDU

 

[theeclone]

new review from SANDU

This pretty much aligns with what I'm hearing. Can't recall if he said much about which inputs he used, or how much burn in time he gave it. Wonder if that would affect the 3 dimensionality he talked about being slightly lacking.

I'm at about day 4 of constantly running music through it and I think I'm starting to notice improvements. After trying USB for a while I've switched back to i2s and man what an improvement! And I was right that something about DSD in bypass mode when using i2s is pretty special. With USB I preferred it with bypass off, but now I'm back to bypass on.

 

[theeclone]

To those who think all DACs sound the same: ha! Boy do I wish you were here right now. I plan to revisit this after more burn in, but yeah.

 

[Bansaku]

I just pulled the trigger and ordered the D90 III Discrete from AliExpress for $1020 CAD ($727 USD) thanks to my coins, coupons, and the Black Friday sale. Can't wait to put it up against my Enyo 15th with Iris 12th. Speaking of the latter, I wonder how well it will jive with I2S and the D90 III Discrete.

 

[theeclone]

I just pulled the trigger and ordered the D90 III Discrete from AliExpress for $1020 CAD ($727 USD) thanks to my coins, coupons, and the Black Friday sale. Can't wait to put it up against my Enyo 15th with Isis 12th. Speaking of the latter, I wonder how well it will jive with I2S and the D90 III Discrete.

Damn, that's a helluva deal for a brand new kilobuck DAC!

I bet i2s will sound great from a DDC of that caliber. Wonder if you'll run into issues with correctly showing the DSD rate on the D90 screen when using i2s like I do. Been going back and forth with Topping support and I'm fairly sure it's just a firmware issue that doesn't affect playback quality.

 

[sanvara]

I just pulled the trigger and ordered the D90 III Discrete from AliExpress for $1020 CAD ($727 USD) thanks to my coins, coupons, and the Black Friday sale. Can't wait to put it up against my Enyo 15th with Iris 12th. Speaking of the latter, I wonder how well it will jive with I2S and the D90 III Discrete.

I did the same thing. There was the $80 coupon, 15% cashback and another 5% cashback for using paypal making it $672 USD here if the 15% comes through. Price is outrageous for something of this quality. They might be trying to move product before more US tariffs next year.

Using it with Gustard U18 with I2S. I'm kind of blown away by how great it sounds. Haven't tried a native DSD file but played around with DSD upsampling with Audirvana and it's showing the DSD rate on the screen.

 

[crion]

I think I found two severe FW bugs in D90 iii Discrete FW v0.39 and Topping USB drivers 5.72.0:

* Output voltage from RCA outputs in 4V(2.1Vrms) and 5V(2.6Vrms) mode is severely off spec in DAC mode. Overloading regular RCA inputs of popular preamps. Please if anyone can verify with measurements of RCA output in DAC mode.

* Clock is sometimes not synched to computer/input stream correctly all the time on ASIO. Roon set to exclusive ASIO output can say 44.1KHz, Topping USB Audio Panel says 44.1KHz but D90 iii Discrete OLED screen says 48KHz! And this goes on also at higher frequencies 174Khz vs 192KHz for example. You can even reboot the D90 iii Discrete and it still doesn't correct itself.

Anyone else experienced these FW or USB driver bugs?

Edit: emailed service[at]tpdz[dot]net
Edit2: Yes, issue is present even when not using ASIO
Edit3: I think I can hear a pitch difference when frequency is not in sync. If I adjust the computer output to the same KHz as the D90 iii discrete is showing on its OLED the pitch sounds correct.
Edit4: Setting to USB 1 <save settings> , set to usb 2.0 <save settings>
Seems to have an effect on my previous bug/feature where 44.kHz and multiples where bugged and was played in the wrong pitch.
Edit5: Now I can also set it to output DAC mode over RCA without any distorstion!!!

 

[theeclone]

I think I found two severe FW bugs in D90 iii Discrete FW v0.39 and Topping USB drivers 5.72.0:

* Output voltage from RCA outputs in 4V(2.1Vrms) and 5V(2.6Vrms) mode is severely off spec in DAC mode. Overloading regular RCA inputs of popular preamps. Please if anyone can verify with measurements of RCA output in DAC mode.

* Clock is sometimes not synched to computer/input stream correctly all the time on ASIO. Roon set to exclusive ASIO output can say 44.1KHz, Topping USB Audio Panel says 44.1KHz but D90 iii Discrete OLED screen says 48KHz! And this goes on also at higher frequencies 174Khz vs 192KHz for example. You can even reboot the D90 iii Discrete and it still doesn't correct itself.

Anyone else experienced these FW or USB driver bugs?

I haven't tried these use cases but I do experience the incorrect sample rate/format being displayed for DSD over i2s, which is possibly related. Topping was finally able to reproduce it on their end and have forwarded the info to R&D.

You might try emailing them at service[at]topping.pro. They've been pretty friendly and responsive.

 

[LucyWu]

ASIO is a USB wrapper, and there is no audio or clock involved. Just data sent in regular bursts by the computer in response to requests from the DAC. Any information about audio sample rates is shared as part of that data flow, it sounds like a simple bug but should not impact on actual replay of the music.

IIS is entirely difference, and includes bit clock and master clock reference signals. Those clocks are used by the dac to sync via PLL (usually) with the internal processing of the data arriving over the IIS interface. There is no other notification of the data rate required for a given stream, so again, sounds like a simple informational bug.

 

[crion]

@LucyWu Yes, checked the issue is also present when not using ASIO USB wrapper.

 

[Tomori]

I recently received a D90 III Discrete. However, I am afraid there is something wrong with my unit. Whenever the unit goes from silence (no inputs) to playing and back to silence one or two pop sounds are audible from the speakers.

This happens on 4V, 5V with Optical, Coax or USB inputs. It happens even if the sampling rate of whatever is played does not change. It happens in DAC mode and in PRE. I am feeding the DAC with a Wiim Ultra streamer and it is powering two Fosi V3 Monos connected via XLR.

Has anyone else experience something similar?

Have you had any luck Troubleshooting this further? I am experiencing the same issue when paired with the Topping A90 Discrete regardless of Sample Rate and DAC/PRE Mode. Also tried multiple XLR Cables and Headphones as well as the Topping HS02 Isolator, which someone else suggested, but to no avail.

I tried Contacting Topping Support but haven't heard back as of yet.

 

[crion]

I just wanted to add that when I see the frequency mismatch from computer output and D90 iii discrete OLED screen, say 48KHz vs 44.1KHz, I hear a pitch difference. If I manually adjust the computer frequency output to what D90 iii discrete OLED screen is showing then the pitch is corrected.

So this was not only a displaybug.

 

[felix37]

just received the dac today .... not easy to setup ,so far tryed usb from pc and optical working with nice sound to my years
if you disconnect and reconnect the usb when playing a lot of noise is added to the music
tryed to upload and online to change the eq with the topping tune pc app ,the app reconized the d3d and also shows on off from the topping display ,no change in eq occurs to the topping audio ,some one here tryed the Peq ? so far not working in my machine
the display of the resolution nothing to do the real music resolution played it changes if usb,optical ,and music software (audirvana -tidal) dependent

 

[crion]

@felix37 Go into the "Setup" (Turn on power while holding down leftmost button on D90 unit) and select enable PEQ or similar. You might be able to do it with just a press on the center button on remote (quick setup menu) but not sure its in there.

 

[felix37]

thanks