Topping D70 DAC Review and Measurements - Stream of Consciousness

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by purr1n, May 17, 2020.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    To be fair, 5x the cost for 3.5/5 of the performance depending upon preferences.
     
  2. bboris77

    bboris77 Friend

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    I just realized something really bizarre in the manual for the D70 - it says that the frequency response is +-0.9dB. That has got to be a typo as it would be a pretty bad result. Your measurements do not support this at all. Unless they used the worst case scenario - filter number 5.
     
  3. Baten

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    They probably factor in the worst filter, then.
     
  4. bboris77

    bboris77 Friend

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    Yes, and they probably measured it at 44kHz. Strange for company that seems to live by measurements to publish the worst-case scenario as the official spec. I guess they still have a thing or two to learn about marketing gamesmanship hehe.
     
  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    TBH, at least they were honest in publishing worst case. Amir's been know to compare published specs to his measured specs, and release his ire if they were slightly off.
     
  6. bboris77

    bboris77 Friend

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    Here is an update from a former owner after spending 6 months with the unit. It was a full-featured unit with good performance, but overpriced in my opinion. I decided to sell it because I did not need the optical input anymore, and I never used bluetooth or balanced.

    There were a couple of quirks that were bothering me while I owned it, so I will mention them:

    1. Every once in a while (2-3 times a month), the unit would need a restart when streaming via USB and switching between different bitrates. The DAC would lock up and would not play, and would work fine after restart.

    2. Even though I initially said that the unit did not pick up any RFI, I did eventually experience some minor radio interference but it's still better than the Modi 3. It really is the fact that I live close to an airport that is the problem, so this is not a major thing for most people.

    3. Ultimately, what sealed the deal for me was the fact that I got a basic USB DAC, the JDS Labs Atom. I could not compare the units properly because it was not possible to volume match them - the D70 was slightly louder. However, the mids seemed more transparent on the Atom, while the bass was definitely more elevated on the D70, probably because of the volume difference. Still, I could not get past the slightly subdued midrange of the D70 when compared directly to the Atom DAC. Maybe it is a side effect of the fact that the D70's output is capacitor-coupled.

    Ultimately, it would be an acceptable unit at half the price if you use all of its features.
     

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