About 6 months I took the opportunity to upgrade some equipment. I bought a Denafrips Ares II Dac. The Ares is a very analog sounding R2R Dac. While I was happy with the sound, I decided to try a Topping D90 Dac. They are very different dacs but have both received great reviews. The Ares has no remote, volume control or display. The D90 can be used as a DAC or digital preamp with built-in volume control, has a nice display, decent remote and RCA and XLR outputs. The Ares has a "relaxed" mid-theater sound whereas the D90 is more detailed, a more front-row sound with lots of detail. After spending time with both, I kept the D90. Liked it so much that I bought a second one for my office system. Fast forward about 6 months and Topping introduced their Pre90 preamp. $600 so what do I have to lose? (Maybe a couple hundred bucks lost if I don't like it and end up selling it.) Not a lot of reviews of the Pre90 other than a review by Audio Science. I am not a big fan of the Audio Science reviews and don't understand most of the technical stuff they discuss, but my takeaway from reading their reviews of the D90 and Pre90 are that Topping designs and builds equipment which measures extremely well, has very low noise and distortion specs. So another purchase is made thru Apos Audio, who is great to deal with. My equipment gets to me in 2-3 days from China via DHL. Well, the Pre90 sounds great. It is perhaps (in my opinion) the best sounding preamp one can buy for $600 if you can live with 2 inputs. They make an add-on box for more inputs but I did not need this as I could use 2 digital sources thru the DAC to the Pre90 and 1 analog source to the Pre90 RCAs. Is it as good as a $2500 tube preamp? I don't know about that, but it certainly more than holds its own against a bunch of more expensive gear, and I could easily live with it long-term, just as I am happy living long-term with the D90. I am wondering now, will Topping make a power amp?
