Wow, the amazing talking hand makes a return to RU-vid! A few gestures may have got lost in translation, but on the whole the hand did a pretty good job on its own.
BTW, another reputable reviewer (passion for sound) reviewed the d50s and said modifying the d50s opamp to Muses02 made a substantial improvement to the d50s that it closed the gap between it and the hyped Airist Audio R2R DAC. You might want to try it out since its a cheap mod. It supposedly made the sound more holographic like R2R/multibit dacs.
The best thing to do is to refer to the Audio Science Review measurements of the D50S, that are very, very good. It's not up to the dac to sound "fast, clinical, cold, warm", but to create an analog signal faithful to the digital instructions, with low distortion and noise.
Please, compare it to Modi Multibit, i cant choose between them. Im afraid of topping d50s sharpness and cold sound. Now i have d30, its quite musical.
Actually, I went and checked, and the D50s DOES have APTX, APTX HD and Sony's LDAC. I dont know about the latter, but I do use APTX HD, because it sounds MUCH better that standard BT. Would have been good to hear how it sounded on this DAC, all you need is an up to date Android phone to test it...
Thank you for your good reviews. New in external DAC world, I bought a Topping D50S and its Linear Power Supply P50 and decided to make a very very preliminar test using them with CD player and a analogic receiver and I did not perceive any sound difference using or not them. If you have a time and some personal experience of this situation, , could make some comments about ? Thank you in advance.
Hello there. Just wanted to say that I like your detailed reviews. I also wanted to ask if you can do a review of the A50 + D50S + P50 stack? Thank you!
Great review though can you use a 4500mah power bank to power the DAC To achieve a lower noise floor instead of building or purchasing the Linear power supply which is £100 on amazon U.K.
I have a Schiit Asgard 3 coupled with a Topping E30! Would you recommend the D50s as a dac upgrade? Something that would pair really nicely with the Asgard?
battery should work better than a PSU though. PSU still need to convert AC to DC no matter what, while battery already had it clean as DC power and prepared, in 5v too actually. So technically, any battery brick is better than 100$ linear PSU. Weird how it reacts negatively to battery though, I'll test it later once I got the unit.
Thank you for a good review. I like the way you describe the sound and the difference between this and other DAC’s. That’s not easy to do well, but you give a good and understandable description. Of the DAC’s you have reviewed, which is your favourite or perhaps favourite two? Thank you :)
Thanks for those nice words! So far D50s is my favorite one. iFi Zen DAC is the second one and Loxjie D10 would be 3rd by a really small margin over Schiit Modi 3.
Thank you for getting back to me. It’s useful information and I value your opinion. The conversion to analog must be a mathematical nightmare. I imagine that having the original analog stream to compare with D to A conversion models would be necessary to refine the model. However the conversion has to be right for all subject digital streams, not just one! With such a degree of complexity, and the need to write the program to hardware, it is little wonder that the conversions vary between makers of the chips. It is interesting too, but not surprising, that the optimum power supply to the DAC is important to achieve a good sounding conversion. Thank you for reviewing the latest products. I am sure that development of new DAC’s will continue as long as we have analog hearing.
How is the sound signature of this D50s compared with the Khadas Tone board? I would be interested on knowing that more detailedly, so not just which one sounds "better" or more detailed, but which one is more laid back or pleasant to listen to for a long time. You seem to have a great sensibility regarding sound characteristics than most reviewers, so I would like to know the differences between this two, because is Khadas is as good or almost as good or the sound signature is more pleasant, more to lay back on the sofa rather than sitting on the edge of the sofa listening, I go for the Khadas, otherwise, d50s with the added features maybe it's worth the cost. thanks a lot!!!!!
Hi and thanks for your nice words! Khadas Tone Board is a great DAC but it can't really match D50s' sound. For example, D50s separate instruments better and puts more empty space between them, which means that sense of sound-stage is more realistic. Main tones and vocals sound great with Khadas, but compared to D50s, subtle details get muffled and lost sometimes. That's why D50s will make things sound more present and echoes around them more believable. All these things are much more easily heard over speakers than over headphones (that don't really convey space and sound stage well). Regarding being upfront or laid-back... Khadas do sound softer. It has more lose upper bass that make sound warmer and more fatty (but also not as defined as with D50s). High frequencies on Khadas are a bit less extended and that also adds to the feeling of warmness and being more relaxed. Because of that it can not match D50s level of airiness. So, I don't know what else to add. D50s sound more realistic and present, it has better rhythm and timing. Khadas on the other hand sounds softer, warmer but a bit more closed and muffled. The price different is quite big... Is it justified, that's difficult to answer, depends on you, your system and your needs. Hope this helps. Cheers!
Did you try to compare it with the Modi 3 side-by-side? Is the D50s worth it's price bump from the Modi 3? Cause where I am it's atleast $80 more cause I can buy it locally, while the Modi 3 I need to have it shipped.
Yes I did and in my opinion it is worth it if the rest of your system is good enough. It's fuller sounding and has more depth to the sound. If you want to save some money but still get great DAC, consider Loxjie D10 - as good as Modi 3 but maybe easier to get in some countries. Cheers!
D50s has been surpassed even by cheaper newer DACs. One of them is SMSL SU-1 - fantastic little DAC at super great price. Take a look at that review that is one of the latest videos here on the channel.
It is an excellent wired DAC but I am so disappointed when I came across a HUGE PROBLEM: It has a serious problem locking into the digital signal on Coax. It's a known issue online but TOPPING refuses to fix it without me incurring round trip shipping costs to China...
Thanks for your review, you really have good vocabulary at explaining all these music details. I was looking for nice dac to connect to my cambridge audio cxa60 class A/B amplifier. It has integrated WM8740 DAC chip from Wolfson but i and some other reviewer thinks that in this amp dac it is the worst part. Originally wanted to buy d30 but as understand d50s is even better so how do you think it will be upgrade worth 200 hundred? Perhaps you haven't heard this dac but as cxa60 musical, precise and full sounding to my ears so d50s should add more precision and resoliution
Thanks! As you guessed I really haven't heard CXA60 so it's difficult to give advice here. What I can say is that you should avoid D30 - it was a great budget option in its time but just last year we had many new products that surpassed it in every possible way. Topping D50s is one of those new and much better devices. I once heard it against integrated Marantz PM6006 DAC and D50s took an easy win. I can only suppose it would be similar with CXA60 but can't know that for sure. Just please have in mind that previous version - D50 is not nearly as good, so if you decide to go for it be sure to stick with newer D50s version. Cheers!
@@iiWiReviews thanks a lot for your reply, only because of your information and reviews you made i decided to go not with d30 or cheap smsl m100 but with more mature d50s and happy when found that d50s looks like upgrade from d50. I hope that this quite new dac will serve really well as an optical and bluetooth connections is what i need first. Thanks for your good suggestions.
Thanks for the review, I bought the D50 for my CD player an Onkyo C7030 expecting an improvement on the sound quality and there is no difference, the D50 costs more than my CD player with its built in DAC. FYI I am using a battery instead of power supply that came with the unit. Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated
its depend what is your rest of system. i had very similar situation when i had yamaha ax- 497 and i tested Ca dac magic 100 and Topping d50s and i didnt hear any differences, but than i bought NAD 375 and sound of these Dacs was a complitely diffirent. Topping d50s was absolutely better than CA
Hello great review by the way! I have a question.. does this sound better than Audioengine B1 or BluMe bluetooth dac's? Yes unfortunately I stream music from my phone only. I dont have much of a choice. My set up is Marantz 2275/CV D7s Thank you in advance 😎
@@mohammedsalih1 Get this www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y8B7RBV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It can push around 100 watts per each channel at 4 ohm, and around 65/68 at 8 ohm. It's quite powerful and a bargain for it's price. If you want an upgrade, get ready to spend anywhere from 500-2000.
Has anybody compared an LDAC Bluetooth source through this vs the ifi Zen Blue? I am primarily interested in a high end LDAC Bluetooth receiver. Thanks!
Thanks! I actually made my own power supply as I'm an electrical engineer, so I haven't purchased any. Heard good things about iFi iPower from a friend - amzn.to/2UooYwZ or maybe this one if you want something more robust and with more juice- amzn.to/2UnUc7o
Sound signature is similar, neutral, resolving, and quick. But D70s has bigger soundstage and sounds more dynamic. About the worth of extra cost, to me it feels justified and personally I would rather use D70s in my main system. If it's a more budget oriented one, with let's say amp and speakers at around $500 each, or less, the difference between D50s and D70s might not be that noticeable.
@@iiWiReviews thanks for the quick and constructive reply. I think with my system (chord cpm 2650 and proac studio 140) i can benefit from the wider soundstage. Great channel btw, keep up the good work!
YHT-2910 has integrated Burr-Brown DAC that can accept 192kHz/24-bit... So you don't need external DAC. I don't know about sound quality because I never heard it.
@@iiWiReviews sorry for stupid question but yamaha dac is 24 bit will adding any dac above 24 bit will do any favor or it be stupid idea. Also with same logic if I buy audeze isine10 (24 bit) and stack it with ibassco usb dac (32 bit) will that be any good ?
@@sainaveenbali No real benefit to doing that... all of the music out there is either CD quality (16 bit) or hi-res (24 bit) anyway. Anything above that are just rare test tracks...
@@iiWiReviews I heard a KECES with the same kind of chipset and love it. Sound almost as vinyl. An ess pro series. So I get curious about the Topping that's less expensive and i'd like to ear your opinion. Regards.
You are good in your reviews i like your style but,The truth that you don't say but you say is that they want to take moref money from the back door.They sell a product and i don't mean D50S or other products from Topping but from what i read and see in videos from other companies they do the same thing.Exept from few models from a few companies that you get the right power to drive their dacs in this categorie 300$ and less they need linear power supply to work as what you pay.LIke buing a car and if you want to run over 60mph you have to buy a new set of tyres.I prefer to pay a few bucs more and get the best of it.That is more decent.Keep your good reviws.Greetings from Greece and i wish to all the people a good health.
Hi, thanks for the great detail review. So I guess the shiit modi is a bit better than this dac. Also do you mind posting the schematic of the liner power supply that you made? Thanks
Hi! I think D50s sounds better than Modi 3, but I still have to try Modi Multibit which is the same price as D50s actually. I made my power supply using this info - www.teddypardo.com/diy/teddyreg.html Transformer and rectifier are not included in this schematic, you calculate that according to maximum needed power of PS. Cheers!
@@iiWiReviews I'm thinking about using it with my DTA-100 PRO, which already has built-in dac but the optical input does not sound good at all. Thinking about getting the shiit multi bit before watching your review on the d50s. Are you going to compare the 2 dacs?
Hi! Just look at my answer to the comment of "Exodus Velo" posted several hours ago. He asked about same thing and I wrote him a very long answer. Cheers!
Oh, sorry, I was thinking about the original D50 (no s) that didn't have remote. My bad. 😅 Not sure about D50s and universal remotes... If somebody tried it, please feel free to share your experience.
Thanks for the review. I tried the D50 but was pretty disappointed. And your review got me interested in the D50S. How would you compare it to the Project Pre Box S2? Or what price point of DAC is the D50S comparable to, $300. $400? And how much better is it than the Schiit modi 3? Thanks.
Hi! I was disappointed with D50 too. I did hear Project Pre Box S2 with several headphones and it sounded very nice to my ears. That said I haven't heard it in my own system that I'm testing these other DACs including D50s, so it's really impossible to compare them for me right now. Regarding Modi 3, well D50s is simply more resolving and it separates instruments better. Modi 3 sounds a bit flat in compassion. Drums, strings etc. have more energy through D50s. It's not a huge difference but I definitely prefer D50s.
Thats because they are filters and not EQ settings. The filters are used for 'corrective' equalisation, as opposed to creative equalisation. They are used to clean up a signal (mastering issues), rather than to shape the sound creatively. They only provide attenuation of unwanted frequencies, and there's no scope to boost any part of the frequency range. The different settings are subtle, with lesser quality equipment, the effect is not very noticeable.
Yes you can but I don't recommend it. Chances are you will not get enough volume level and sound will be thin/harsh. You should go for a DAC that has a headphone amplifier and real headphone out.
@@iiWiReviews sure will do. I have a sound demo of it vs the modi 3 if ur interested (listen via headphones) : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PjQR4zozSgg.html and here compared to akm4452 : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nJ0ktpuxToM.html
@@iiWiReviews Got the d50s yesterday. And after a day of initial listening I would just say the d50s is very clean, revealing and the best Delta Sigma dac I've heard too. But you would be pleasantly surprised how the modi multibit's presentation differs from the d50s. Its just a more organic and holographic sound I think you can only get from R2R and FPGA based dacs. On 1st impressions, I still prefer the mimby but the d50s has better resolution. On the mimby, I am reminded of your chordette review saying there is a real tone richness to be heard but is not because of a colored frequency response. That is just 1st impressions, (I might still be used to the warm sound sig of the mimby) , I'll see how it goes in the coming days.
No it's not. It's more a slightly different tonality than anything else. If you don't need a BT connectivity I find E30 to be a better bang for the buck. Also, take a look at Loxjie D30.
@@iiWiReviews Yes I was looking at Loxjie but it's hard to find specially here in the philippines. There will no problem with BT i can easily find BT receiver. Here's my System: Amp: Marantz Pm5005= V Sound signature Boosted Bass, Recessed Mid, Boosted Treble Speaker: Wharfdale evo4.2= VG strong Bass, Neutral Mid, Rolled off Treble -over all sound is very Detailed: E30 will be my first DAC You're doing a good Job (reviews). More Power and God Bless
Bluetooth connection on Zen Blue sounds a bit better and more detailed to my ears so if BT is all you need go for Blue. On the other hand, when any sort of wired connection is used (USB, Coaxial or Optical) D50s sounds better.
The Bluetooth comparison between this and ifi Zen Blue is very helpful to me. I mainly want this device for Bluetooth, so I will go with the ifi Zen Blue V2. Thank you iiWi!
Yep, you pretty lost me when you mentioned hearing the difference between the 7 included filters. Thats pretty snake oil in my humble opinion, no offence.
