🔷 Topping E30

M0N · August 14, 2020, 3:32pm

Personally I suggest 24/96 for a few reasons, it is a good balance of high sample rate and latency/intensive, it’s a format that windows is happy with for the most part, and it’s not 32 bit because windows hates 32 bit some times and music doesn’t really come in 32 bit for listening so 24/96 is typically my go to. Windows will upsample everything to the set samplerate. If you wanted something that would actively change the sample rate and bit depth depending on the source track, you would have to use an exclusive mode like asio and wasapi

tglodjo · August 15, 2020, 3:55pm

Has anyone installed the E30 driver? The DAC is working fine on my PC, but when I look at devices I’m prompted to troubleshoot and find a driver. I’ve tried downloading it from the Topping website (V4.86 released this month), but I can’t extract the zipped folder for the life of me. PC keeps saying it’s invalid. I tried alternative methods too, like WinRar, and I still get the same issue.

M0N · August 15, 2020, 4:08pm

And even after a re download it still won’t work correctly?

Edit: it seems that from the topping site the zip is just corrupted lol

tglodjo · August 15, 2020, 4:23pm

Yep. Corrupted every time. Do you use the E30 drivers or just play it with general windows compatibility? Anywhere else to get the driver since the Topping site’s zip is corrupted?

M0N · August 15, 2020, 4:30pm

I use this driver and it works without issue

http://www.tphifi.net/drivers/topping_usbaudio_setup_v4.82.0.zip

tglodjo · August 15, 2020, 4:36pm

Thanks. I’ll download that and revisit the other one later to see if it’s been fixed.

Deon · August 25, 2020, 7:07pm

Hey guys just a quick one, how would the E30 compare to the Schiit Bifrost v1?

TimpTim44 · August 29, 2020, 1:38pm

I watched/listened to a PBS concert last night. using the optical from tv to the e30. Worked fine, decent stereo and imaging even though using over-air tv (not cable.) Just remember to change sound setting on tv from Dolby to PCM. One of the reasons I bought the e30 instead of the Atom dac.

DagoRed · September 1, 2020, 4:25am

Which Bifrost v1. There are two of them.

MemoryError · September 9, 2020, 1:02pm

Unfortunately I get noise that changes when I change the display brightness. I found this trying to track down what was causing the noise.

I unplugged the digital source to it, still noise. I unplugged the dac from the amp and it apparently wasn’t the amp as the noise went away.

M0N · September 9, 2020, 1:08pm

How are you powering the e30? That’s pretty strange

MemoryError · September 9, 2020, 2:06pm

Wow, thank you. I thought it was via an included power supply, but then when you asked that I remembered that it came with a usb adapter for power. I swapped usb chargers and it is gone. AWESOME, I was pulling my hair out.

M0N · September 9, 2020, 2:06pm

Oh that’s good that it’s solved lol, never had that happen but sometimes there can be weird power issues

Coma · October 22, 2020, 6:50pm

Is the E30 still the budget recommendation?
My Modi 2 starts to annoy more and more, it often is not recognized anymore, doesn´t work till i restart many times or suddenly starts working after 10 minutes or so. The same when i connect it to my phone or my laptop. The unit seems to have a problem.
Since i wanted to save up for higher tier dac in the future i need a cheap replacement and i dont want to spent the 3-400 for the allo Revolution now. The E30 seems to be the one at the moment or did something else appear that i should get than?

Deleeh · October 22, 2020, 7:20pm

Hello,
Yeah, why not?
He didn’t do very badly and as far as I know the initial problems were solved.
And if you want to do something anyway where is better later it is not a bad one and also an option in which direction the dac chip should go.
The E30 tends to be warm and soft and yet precise, so it’s not analytical, cold.
If it should go more in that direction then rather the Jds Labs.
If you want something a bit cheaper, but the older technology is used, have a look at the grace design on Massdrop. maybe you will find a better one in the near future and it will be a memorable replacement.

Coma · October 22, 2020, 8:07pm

Since i live in germany (Hallo :D), Drop is not an option since it takes too long + taxes customs etc. The E30 seems to be a good option since i can get it on amazon and if i dont like it i can return it easily.
And a price of 130 Euros seems okay. I want to go into the Bifrost range after that. But for now i have to keep the price somewhat around 100-130. Cant find JDS labs Dac here either.

TimpTim44 · October 22, 2020, 9:00pm

@Coma FWIW, I really like my e30. Using with an Atom, and the optical is nice for occasional use with the tv.

elementze · October 22, 2020, 9:29pm

I’ve been using the E30 with an Atom Amp and (more recently) the L30. I like the matching stack, but with the Atom Amp I feel like it sounds better. Hard to quantify, but it’s more pleasent.

Overall, the E30 is my favorite budget DAC I’ve owned (EL Dac, Modi 3, D10, Audioengine D1, probably others I can’t thinkof). I run it optical input, and I have no complaints. Seeing the data rate on the front panel is a nice touch.

TimpTim44 · October 22, 2020, 9:33pm

@elementze Seems like the e30 screen reads capacity of device not individual track for me. What’s your experience?

elementze · October 22, 2020, 9:36pm

I’ve seen it change from track to track when hooked up on USB. On optical I only see 44.1kHz.