TOPPING D90SE Fully Balanced DAC

Product highlights

  • ESS SABRE ES9038 PRO DAC chip
  • 2nd generation 16-core XMOS XU216 processor
  • Max sampling rates: DSD1024 and PCM 32-bit/768kHz
  • Bluetooth 5.0 support with LDAC transmission
  • 0.00005% THD+N
  • MQA decoding with USB, coaxial, optical, and AES inputs
  • Selectable RCA & XLR outputs
  • Inputs: AES, Bluetooth, USB, Optical, Coaxial, IIS
  • Outputs: XLR, RCA
  • Customized Thesycon driver
  • Ultra low noise preamp
  • Remote control
  • 7 digital filters
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Does anyone have a direct comparison with the Bifrost 2?

Oh boy now you’ve gone and done it… Look at the “What did you buy today” part 2… This dac seems to have stired quite the fight between the measurement and non-measurement peeps

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My DAC is bigger than yours.

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Probably :stuck_out_tongue:
SU-8 ain’t that big

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Mine feels better tho… To the soul, feels better to the soul.

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This isnt a DAC measuring contest this about the TOPPING D90SE Fully Balanced DAC which has:

  • ESS SABRE ES9038 PRO DAC chip
  • 2nd generation 16-core XMOS XU216 processor
  • Max sampling rates: DSD1024 and PCM 32-bit/768kHz
  • Bluetooth 5.0 support with LDAC transmission
  • 0.00005% THD+N
  • MQA decoding with USB, coaxial, optical, and AES inputs
  • Selectable RCA & XLR outputs
  • Inputs: AES, Bluetooth, USB, Optical, Coaxial, IIS
  • Outputs: XLR, RCA
  • Customized Thesycon driver
  • Ultra low noise preamp
  • Remote control
  • 7 digital filters

For DAC measuring contests look here:

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So why does it sound awesome or not awesome ? features rich all the decoding THD number got the fancy chip. Only thing wish was added feature on these would be sub out with bass management.

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Alright alright.
Let’s give the ‘my dac is bigger than yours’ discussion for an off-topic threat guys! Let’s moderate outselves before the mods have to come in.

2 actual questions on the Topping D90SE
From me: How is the imaging?
From Bmn: Compare to the bf2?

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Not sure , but it does measure a lot of numbers, and has MQA

Assume you want a DAC which does not add or subtract from the signal. Think the home theater crowd tends to learn toward measurement due to DSP being a big part of the hobby. The 2ch and headphone side rely on component matching to achieve desired sound signature. Rather than an actual EQ component, aside from preset tone control ? Help a brother out.

Then again the tone preset options is DSP.

DAC’s can really influence soundstage and imaging too besides tone.

Those are two things we can’t measure, so we listen or ask people who have listened.

one DAC to rule them all.

I’m a stage and imaging ho. And @toruc_macta couldn’t agree more about the what measurement do you have to look at to indicate staging.

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It’ll be great when we have a few more HFGF owners give their firsthand feed back instead of…yeah but no but comments…Synergy feed backs would also be cool :+1:

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Sadly (or maybe luckily) :slight_smile: I’ve not owned either of the DACs so I’m just here loitering. Looking forward to the discussion as Topping will always have a soft spot in my heart. (D10).

When you get past the entry level I believe there’s no truly bad piece of equipment for the most part, there’s just preference and synergy. Can we all just get along?

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So it must be the headphone/speakers. Cant speak to the whats involved in measuring headphones.with speakers theres equipment for that.

The little i know, for speakers you get a testing microphone laptop and software to map in-room speaker response. So you got a setup that produces the desired sound you can then graph that out.

$899.00 whew too rich for my blood.

I’d be very surprised if you could graph soundstage or imaging…

As I said. i’m not in this fucking war of measurements vs non-measurements. I always look at measurements before buying audio gear. So don’t go throwing the whole war at me or this topic now…
I looked up the measurements and it looks like a damn impressive DAC. But imaging matters to me. So without starting a war please?

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Here ya go. Sorry some folks spoiled it for others.

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Would that make atmos tracks on apple music sound awesome ? Thinking about getting my first headphone setup for apple music since they do hires streaming.
Clicked on the little lossless icon on my apple device for ACDC and it said 24/192hz now im itching fot setup to play that back.

Got the topping e30 on the way for one of my TVs.

Got a rave review on ASR. Maybe not so steep, think i might want this. :thinking:

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