Seems like Topping is releasing a brand new R2R Dac that seems to be using the same Dac Module as the Holo Audio Cyan 2. Priced at $999 and comes with plenty of features, including built-in PEQ. Good stuff!
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A lot of opinions running wild over on the other forum over this unit 
. I think it will come down to how good the analog output stage is, and how well it performs compared to the plethora of competition from $800 to $1,500. It will also be interesting to see where it sits once multiform comes to the BF 2 (not happening soon though).
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Silly to have any sort of strong opinion on it until people get their hands on it. IMO. Itâs the internet though, lol. I did see some were upset that the original price was $800, but is now $1000. Compared to the Cyan 2, that is still good.
Owning the Cyan 2, itâs extremely good. My need for any DAC upgrade has been sated by it, completely. I agree output stage, etc matters, but I think Topping is a genuinely good company that definitely knows what they are doing. Their amps have come a long way as well. I think a lot of subjectivists just want to hate on them because of how much they get put on a pedestal by the ASR community. But this kind of move, working with Holo Audio and releasing an R2R DAC, proves to me that Topping is willing to explore and go beyond the âASR approvedâ design approaches and actually try things that a lot more people like.
It is only a good thing in my mind as it will bring down the cost of good r2r as a whole over time.
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In my case it is that I am trying to buy more from US based companies as of late. There is also the fact that the last Topping product I liked was the D50s. I have not heard any of their current gen stuff though. Hopefully this R2R DAC is good, but we shall see once they get out into the wild.
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All I can think of is ASR touting it as the best sound/best measuring R2R DAC ever lol.
In all seriousness I hope itâs a good DAC.
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I think that title belongs to the Holo May KTE, unsurprisingly.
I actually genuinely think this is going to be an all around better Cyan 2 from a pure sound quality standpoint, and I personally hate Topping. Would be cool if they used Holoâs USB implementation too, itâs like the only USB input out there that is better than Topping. Iâm not gonna get my hopes up, because if anyone can screw this up and kill all the musicality of that board, itâs Topping, but if they donât overdo the NFCA like they tend to, this thing is gonna murder the R2R DAC market.
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Like he said, hopefully it can be fixed with an update. Granted that it is so close in price to other offerings from competitors that it might be worth looking at units +/- $200 from it.
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After trying a handful of high-end dacs, including the Cyan 2, it doesnât make enough of a difference to me tbh. Also HQPlayer is the âGreat Equalizerâ for the majority of any (assuming not placebo) differences in DACs. Iâm just sticking with the Element IV, which I donât even use that much either. I mostly just use either the Fiio btr13 or btr17 in my pocket, connected via APTX Adaptive to a transmitter that outputs to it via optical TOSLINK from my PC. I mostly use the element IV for my speakers and to dial in PEQ settings, which I then just apply to the BTR17 for full-sized headphones and they sound great. And the BTR13 is for all the IEMs. Love being untethered, being able to walk around, and enjoy great audio while I do it.
As far as the Topping goes, thatâs certainly a problem, but itâs likely not a dealbreaker audibly for most people, I donât think. Hopefully they fix it with firmware.
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