The D10 balanced is available.
Topping DAC's on HPZ
- Thread starter apbinu
- Start date
Ha ha... No... But if you don't need balanced, why do you need the D10? Since you want the RCA outs, i assume it's not because of the conversion from USB to other digital outs such as optical and coaxial?Yes. D10s has rca out.BTW, Did you mean you have one to spare?
I have a mint condition E30. PM if interested.
Ditto for me. I use a Torvin amp and speakers. Just bought SMSL Su6. I was aghast. My ears cannot pick any difference. I came to the conclusion. Either my system is super pathetic that a DAC is not able to do anything or I am using an already deadly combination or DAC is just snake oil.Bang on. Over the years, I have purchased number of equipments and found audio gear from the 70s especially knock out any modern gear in terms of gear quality. I have spent a tidy sum trying to achieve a sound that I can tolerate and listen with whatever is available. To that extent I have tried DSP, graphic equalizers and ultimately settled on my old Kenwood Graphic equalizer GE-850 from 1991.
Been there done that. Tried innumerable DACs and always find them more or less the same. In 2017 I promised myself that I will never buy a new DAC again, but fast forward to 2021 I succumbed to the oohs and aahs from many talking gushingly about allo revolution dac. That's the thing about the audio ecosystem. Never trust what the crowd on this planet says about audio gear, power cables, interconnects, speaker cables and power conditioners. What you hear is so subjective and controlled by the brain. No other user's hearing is going to match yours. My guess is that if you are very analytical and have a perfect scientific bent of mind, you will clearly hear the the cold & analytical digital sound. Even with the crackling noise, the humble turntable sounds better with a good record compared to squeeky clean digital sound. With the limited genre of songs I listen to (Hindi songs only from the 50s, 60s and 70s, Jazz, Reggae, Rock/Hard Rock/Metal, Oldies, Albums from Doors, Deep Purple, Rainbows, Scorpions, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, absolute no for Hindustani/Carnatic Classical), no DAC has yet moved my soul. I have questioned myself if my hearing is correct. But then I can clearly make out the difference when you change speakers, phono cartridge, amplifier, solid state amplifier and valve amplifier. Also I know that there is no way back to the analog world. The world has moved on. Technology keeps getting better and better. It is best to live with what is currently available, adjust your sound signature and just enjoy the music.
EDIT: The audio world is full of snake oil and it works because placebo effect is real. I have experimented a lot. An example I would like to give is the USB Regen with it's so called clean usb output, that will take out the noise from your noisy usb interface because your PC has a noisy SMPS (which is true and noise has a huge effect on DAC even though digital fanboys will tell you humans can't hear it). I hever could make out an iota of improvement using the USB regen. Only recently I found that it is basically snake oil.
Uptone ISO Regen Review and Measurements
In the last few years the floodgates have opened to all manner of digital audio tweaks. One of the ones in vogue now is "cleaning" the USB data bus. It makes "intuitive sense" with USB being connected to a noisy computer which conveys that noise to the DAC and hence, damages the sound...
Depends on the room you're using it in, the transparency of your speakers and amp and the source. But more often than not, its the treatment or lack thereof that's the culprit.
When you say that your ears cannot pick up any difference, could you specify the device you considered for the comparison?
None...with and without a DAC in the current system.
In that case, to my mind, it could be due to too many reflections unless the DAC in your source device is already very good or the source device sans the DAC isn't sending a very clean digital signal to the DAC. Which brings me to my next question, could you specify your source as well?
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ArylicS50Pro streamer+ preamp
That is a well regarded device with a DAC that is supposedly competent enough though i haven't heard it. In such a scenario, there are three possibilities - the SU6,being an entry level DAC itself, is not an improvement over the Arylic's inbuilt one, though in such a case, the differences should be still apparent. In which case, the second possibility could be that the digital signal isn't clean enough and you may require a better source.
In my experience, source devices matter a fair deal once the rest of your chain is decent. For example, the Ifi Zen DAC sounded identical to the Chord Mojo when playing through my laptop but the differences became immediately apparent once i connected them to the Allo USBridge Signature & Digione Signature combo with Shanti LPSU.
Though to my mind, it seems more a case of room treatment. With room treatment, finer detail retrieval becomes much better along with imaging and soundstage (or may also shrink if it's over absorbing). In fact, it works wonders for off axis performance!
And more than any DAC, the most difference to the sound has been made through room treatment. That is when the true potential of any change in your chain can truly be unleashed.
Have you treated your room to deal with first reflections?
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Thanks appreciate your response. I must admit I am happy with the current setup. Don't want to go the room treatment way. Purely because I feel there is a high possibility that it will not end there.
The possibility is surely in the realm of probability
if you're happy with the sound, you needn't worry with any further tweaks. However, don't count out your SMSL SU6 just yet.
So i assume your DAC/Amp does not have a USB input. could you specify the device which you are going to feed the D10S with?
souravin
Well-Known Member
Is anyone using Topping E50? There are a lot of discussions around the improvement over E30. It should become more obvious with Allo Nirvana or Shanti.
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
I have been using the E50 for a while now. I purchased it solely based on objective measurements and few user reviews online.
It punches way above its price class and surely give other delta sigma DACs, a run for their money.
@Prodigy can also mention his observations if it helps.
souravin
Well-Known Member
Thank you for your suggestions
Topping E50 punches way above its Price Point. It’s too good of a dac and topping has got it right this time. I found it miles ahead of HQ Audio reference dac. Period.
Me and @ktks1 got it together. He had been talking about this dac quite a few times and always thought it would be like any other DS Dac’s. But this thing is different.
I have to power this with a quad LT3042 untra low noise psu and it definitely improves but the difference does not justify the price point of 100usd on psu. A simple mobile charger does a good job.
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Vjo
New Member
Thank you
ujjwal manna
New Member
I have been using E30 for last two weeks. I am using it primarily for Apple Music to take benefit from their lossless hi-res service and also for spotify. I use my iPhone or iPad for streaming. But when I connect through E30 to the analog input of my AVR (Denon x2500), the sound volume reduces significantly compared to when I stream via airplay. Is it normal? Appreciate if someone can provide some explanation.
Most AVRs have an input level setting. By default it is at low (0dB). Go to the system menu and bump it up.
The reason this is there is to normalize volume across different inputs.
Cheers,
Raghu
Passive_audio_enthusiast
Well-Known Member
M planning on replacing my mojo with this.
is the e30 running on dac mode? If not the loudness will be less
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