Topping D50s DAC 2 ES9038Q2M 32bit 768kHz DSD512 XMOS XU208 Bluetooth LDAC HiFi Decoder (Black)

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Next was the extra space around the soundstage which gave the music a new-found sense of relaxation. The music was wholly at ease. In comparison the E30 had a tense, rather hunched shoulders approach. The D50s sounded confidant, by comparison. Headphone Amps: Topping A50S, SMSL SP400, SH-9, Benchmark HPA4, SparkoS Labs Aries, Flux Lab Acoustics FCN-10, LittleDot MKIII SE I then swopped around the filters in the DAC itself without any affect. I switched the Bluetooth on and off to see if that was causing interference but no, it wasn’t.

I then changed the cable itself From Cable No.1 to Cable No.2. And you know what? This time there were no sound issues at all. None. Everything worked fine. There were no issues. The DAC worked perfectly. Tell me this, how on earth Topping were able to squeeze inside not one top-of-the-line ES9038Q2M but TWO of them for the best SNR this chip can offer? Its much bigger brother DX7S has also those, but it’s also three times its size and double the price. All is not lost. The Topping D50s will surely benefit more when paired with tube amplifiers and darker speakers. Also, if you’re willing to trade tonal quality for transparency – this DAC will be well-suited. It does a superb job of revealing the various layers and inner-details of your favorite recordings. vs. Chord Electronics Mojo So, to remind you, the reported issue is with the Cirrus Logic Receiver chip. In this case, the CS8416 which is a sort of digital management chip that does various bits of housekeeping around the DAC, shall we say. This is an unscheduled follow up to a recent review I did on the desktop DAC from Topping, the D50sAny piece of hi-fi equipment features ‘filters’, in that case. You can build a pair of speakers to sound neutral, bright or warm. The parts and design are a form of ‘filtering’ on those terms. You can change the brightness of the LCD with 3 positions and an Auto position (probably with an ambient light sensor) No, I’m not talking about filtering that’s integrated within the inherent DAC chip design here, I’m talking about user-selectable filters which you’re unable to switch off on this unit. I dwell upon this because I’ve reviewed plenty of DACs which don’t even have such user selectable features in the first place. None at all. I’ve also reviewed DACs and Network Hubs in which such “filters” can be disabled. Which is how it should be. A compact and fully featured DAC with an easy-to-use interface, this well-built little unit provides an overall excellent level of play across its inputs. Sure, the Zen DAC proved a stout test on the USB front but that machine doesn’t offer coax or optical options or even Bluetooth. The D50s does. You need to bear that in mind. What the D50s offered was a more naturalistic tonality here. The D50s offered a greater sense of character, it translated the personality of the piano, the essence of the trumpet and the nature of the bass guitar easily while the Soncoz struggled a little.

In bass terms, the bass guitar offered greater focus while the bass notes from the piano had weight and mass and gave the song a new sense of gravitas. SONCOZ COMPARISON What the D50s does offer is, as I mentioned above, Bluetooth. The sign of which can be viewed via the stubby aerial that screws into the rear. Version 5.0 is included here. With all that said, it still performed much better than the FiiO BTR3, BTR1 and Q5S, the included antenna is actually a small booster/amplifier for the Bluetooth signal so it all makes sense.The obvious reason is that the A50/D50s is horribly overpriced. I’d absolutely never under any circumstance fork over that much for an amp and DAC. For its USB interface, the D50s uses an excellent second generation XMOS XU208 XMOS chip. The brand is renowned for the performance of its components, ensuring accurate and rich reproduction. In addition, this interface allows the USB input of the D50s to support files up to 32bit PCM 768kHz and DSD512. The vocal was both emotional from the D50s but also brimming with detail while treble, via cymbal hits were more lively and organic in their approach. The Soncoz could be a little barren by comparison. A touch lifeless when sitting alongside the D50s. iPad and iPhone with Lightning port could use a “Lightning to USB Camera Adapter” and Android devices could use an OTG cable to connect to D50s, then they could serve as a lossless player and you can get much better sound performance from D50s.