I like the purist approach to minimalising the function to a simple DAC however I have to wonder is the upgrade in sound is really noticeable. I understand the concepts behind this approach. I am just not sure the improvement in sound would outweigh the convenience of the volume control etc. thanks for making time to create this.
It may be my diminished hearing over the years, but I can perceive zero appreciable difference in taking this completely minimalist approach to functionality. Certainly things like turning off BT for power consumption sure, but the Preamp and changing to a single output does nothing for me except losing the preamp functionality. As switching outputs on the remote is simple it's no big deal. I'm sure some things may be measurable perhaps, but audible not so much for me.
Thanks a lot for this video. I'm about to buy a Topping E70 Velvet so your settings for the D90 will be very helpful to get the E70 Velvet to sound right.
The other thing to add to this useful video is if you are using this from a Windows machine via USB keep updating the drivers! The sound does keep improving. Last drivers released were this February. You will need Windows 10 upwards to benefit from this.
@@larrywe3320, thank you. I have the Sundara too and am considering the latest version of Arya with stealth magnet hence thinking of upgrading with a dac and amp. I am using the iFi Zen DAC amp V2 now
i find the bass is not as punch as i want it to be, and when i play call of duty the footsteps are super low and the gunshots are super high, any advice ?
It doesn't, it's just a good thing to turn off. If you keep your computer on 24/7 like I do, I don't want my DAC randomly turning off, I want it to stay on all the time. I just mentioned it so people are aware of it.
great. really great. thanks. you get absolutely no documentation with this thing and their website is pretty crap. like the adi 2 from rme has pretty much the same functions as this, and its manual is like a paperback novel.
hi, one question, i see you have lynx thread, two questions, does d90 topping sound better to you d / a sound than thread? And my other question, do you think the topping would work with a daw? i work in cubase on win 10.
Hello, I haven't really listened to the Lynx Hilo's D/A, I only use it for A/D. That being said, the Topping D90 measures objectively much better and is why I use the D90 as my DAC. Yes the Topping will work with any DAW and also has ASIO drivers.
@@TheN3tw0rq ok my friend, a question, have you used the d90 in any daw? if yes, is it fine to work with vsts, and for mixing with plugins? is latency good? I would use it to work on windows 10 and cubase 10 pro. and my other question, does the d90 d / a sound good?
I don't really create music so I don't personally use a DAW. The D90 should work fine with any DAW and will show up. It also has ASIO drivers available for it so latency won't be an issue. The D90 sounds good and has stellar objective performance.
@@electedmusic7685 you’re only gonna have latency if you monitor live performance using your DAW. That’s a very common problem with any interface or converter. But if you’re listening and mixing recorded material already, then the latency shouldn’t be an issue at all. In my case, I record dry signal in the DAW while using direct analog monitoring. And then apply effects to that recorded dry signal in post/mixing, so I don’t have to deal with latency.
I could but the Topping D90 is a better DAC. I could also use the Hilo for the headphone amp too, but the Topping A90 is a better headphone amp. Everything has it's purpose, the Hilo being the ADC of the chain, because it's excellent at that.
The d90 in preamp mode was a huge disappointment to me, it made loud popping noises whenever I played, paused, stopped the music, when muting the dac and anytime sample rate changed. I understand now why they're selling a separate preamp because the internal preamp module in the D90 is utterly useless. Topping support confirmed the popping noises are due to the way it's designed, so I ditched it. It was a sad choice I loved the way it sounded.
Haven't had any popping noises, but then again I've never tested the preamp mode on mine. Any popping issues I've always had with audio were the result of USB being USB. I use AES/EBU myself. Have you tested your D90 with the other inputs to see if it still pops? If you have an A90 paired with your D90, as many do, use it as the preamp instead. It's such a high quality amp, that you don't really need to adjust volume in the digital domain using the D90. I never use a preamp, I just use the Windows Volume mixer. But I understand people using a power amplifier without any gain controls.
@@TheN3tw0rq loads of poppings only in preamp mode, in dac mode it works perfectly, in fact I will surely end up getting preamp to fix the d90 issue. I thought it was the usb ( ill definitely test the other inputs!) but then I notice that even with no sources connected it would still make a pop when muting it from the remote!
My advice would be, use Preamp mode until you understand what could happen downstream if max voltage is fed into a downstream pre/pwr power amp! What happens if 4 Volts RMS is fed into a Power Amp which only needs 1.2 to 1.4 Volts RMS to give max Pwr??????
The majority of things you connect will be fine. Example if you use consumer gear and connect the DAC via RCA, the line level will be fine. Power amps connecting via XLR will be able to take 4V RMS just fine. The main problem is a power amp that doesn't have a volume control and then you blast music, you should always adjust your source first before turning on said amp. But if you're connecting a receiver/home theater via RCA, those will always have volume controls for themselves.
Just curious, i have the DAC at the bottom and the amp on top (A90 D90 stack) but i noticed the D90 gets really warm.. will that affect the sound of A90?
Hi, I have heard that putting the amp below is also better because the DAC adds weight to the amp when we plug in and out our headphones. This stack combo is priced rather high, how was the performance of this combo? I am looking at the A90 and D90se combo.
The A90 actually is what gets hot. It doesn't matter which way you stack them, it shouldn't affect the sound. I found audio equipment tends to "sound better" when it's hot anyway, but that's just my subjective opinion.
@@TheN3tw0rq hi, I recently buy a second hand d90 and it get really hot. I've tested it on pre and dac mode, stocked and not stocked. In all scenarios it get really hot. There's something wrong with the unit? Should I try to return it?
