[I.Greyhound Fan]

I just received a new Topping E50 DAC that I purchased in hopes that it will improve the clarity of the sound of our TV for my wife who has some hearing loss.  I have not hooked it up to the TV yet, but I did connect it to my computer in my bedroom system which consists of a Marantz 2ch receiver, Monitor Audio RX-1 Silver speakers and Audirvana as my music player.  After downloading the windows driver, I had it up and running in a minute.  From the first few notes I was very impressed.  The DAC that I have been using in the system is a Schiitt Modi Plus which sounds pretty good in its own right.  But the E50 has more clarity and detail while retaining musicality and tight punchy bass. There is no glare or harshness. The Modi has a hint more depth and slightly wider soundstage but not by much. The Modi is also warmer while the E50 is more neutral with a touch of bottom end warmth.  I am hoping that as the E50 breaks in that things will improve. The E50 does not come with a power supply.  Instead, it comes with a usb power cable to connect to your computer, however, I ordered a $20 Jameco wall wart linear power supply that should arrive tomorrow.  It also comes with a cheap usb cable that I used intially to connect to my computer.  Unfortunately, it caused very faint clicks and pops in the left channel which resolved once I swapped in an Oyaide neo class D+ Class A usb cable.

I will report back once I get the new power supply and I have about 100 hours on it.  One thing for sure is that the guys at ASR who think that these cheap DAC's can sound as good as more expensive DAC's need to get their hearing checked.  The E50 sounds great for the $200 price but it can't hold a candle to my Luxman or Chord DAC.

Cheers,

Larry

[rbbert]

I don't think listening tests are part of ASR's reviews.  IIRC the claim is that with the measurements being as good as they are, the DAC should sound as good as (almost) any DAC made.

Steve Stone at The Absolute Sound wrote that this DAC sounds better than many much more expensive DACs.

[newzooreview]

Topping also adjusts the DAC's behavior to game the ASR measurements. The analyzer itself has a noise floor, and if you juice the output voltage on your DAC above industry standards you can fake a "better" DAC performance, compared to other DACs, just by having the inherent noise on the analyzer being a little less in ratio to your over-voltage output signal.

Here's a time stamp to this point in a very thorough explanation of the whole measurements snake oil industry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa1y9JRip68&t=1290s

I own a Topping E30, and it is the worst DAC I've ever heard. It sounds like a steel chisel scoring tempered glass. I'm told that a power supply as expensive as the DAC might help. I wasn't expecting it to sound like my Holo May KTE, but it was significantly worse than my old first generation Bifrost.

As the technical discussion linked above points out, one thing that the high output voltage trick will sacrifice is the handling of intersample overs, and this very audibly affects the sound. Benchmark put out a good white paper on the issue: https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/intersample-overs-in-cd-recordings

[mr_bill]

I respect your opinions.

The Steven Stone TAS listening review is very interesting as a subjective review.

[jonbee]

I own a Topping E30, and it is the worst DAC I've ever heard. It sounds like a steel chisel scoring tempered glass.

I owned an E30, and was not overly impressed. Th E50 is much better sounding, imo, and quite listenable even in very good systems. Both are improved by the cheap Reliapro PS, but neither will get you to a good high end dac quality.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I respect your opinions.

The Steven Stone TAS listening review is very interesting as a subjective review.

Can you post a link to his review, I can't seem to find it.

My son came home from work last night and he was astounded at how good the E50 sounded.

[AllanS]

Topping also adjusts the DAC's behavior to game the ASR measurements.

That’s one reason I steered clear of the LA90 amp.  It smoked the AHB2 which I suspect, without a spread of evidence, was targeted just to top the SINAD charts.
I will be curious to hear how the E50 grows on you.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I hooked up a new linear power supply, the cheap Jameco 5v 1A wall wart and there was a noticeable improvement.  The attack was crisper and there is a little more detail.  It makes me wonder what a good linear ps would do.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I was able to compare the E50 to my son's Qutest in his system which consists of a $6K Cary 300.2d integrated amp and Wharfedale Evo 4.4 speakers, Rhythmik F12se sub with an old desktop computer as the music server.  The E50 was powered by the Jameco LPS.

The E50 sounded a little harsh and odd in his system until we hooked it up to his Regen which is powered by a Teradak LPS.  Then things smoothed out and sounded great.  I am pretty sure that the computers power supply and usb section is very noisy.  The computer was a generic college computer that was a give away from the school.  Note that the Regen is also used with the Qutest.

The E50 actually had noticeably deeper bass with more punch than the Qutest but the Q had better bass control. I actually preferred the bass of the E50 as I like a little slower bass. The Qutest also had a wider soundstage (that is not to say that the E50's was narrow).  The E50 had better imaging for vocals which were directly in the center between the speakers while the Q's is a tuned to be a little more diffuse.  The Q was a little more musical and had slightly more detail with a fuller sound and more depth.

For $200 the E50 sounds excellent and it was not embarrassed by the $1700 Qutest. I bet that it would sound even better with a higher end LPS.  I am amazed at how far DAC technology has come.

I wonder what the guys at ASR would say about the Qutest sounding better than the E50.

[Tyson]

I was able to compare the E50 to my son's Qutest in his system which consists of a $6K Cary 300.2d integrated amp and Wharfedale Evo 4.4 speakers, Rhythmik F12se sub with an old desktop computer as the music server.  The E50 was powered by the Jameco LPS.

The E50 sounded a little harsh and odd in his system until we hooked it up to his Regen which is powered by a Teradak LPS.  Then things smoothed out and sounded great.  I am pretty sure that the computers power supply and usb section is very noisy.  The computer was a generic college computer that was a give away from the school.  Note that the Regen is also used with the Qutest.

The E50 actually had noticeably deeper bass with more punch than the Qutest but the Q had better bass control. I actually preferred the bass of the E50 as I like a little slower bass. The Qutest also had a wider soundstage (that is not to say that the E50's was narrow).  The E50 had better imaging for vocals which were directly in the center between the speakers while the Q's is a tuned to be a little more diffuse.  The Q was a little more musical and had slightly more detail with a fuller sound and more depth.

For $200 the E50 sounds excellent and it was not embarrassed by the $1700 Qutest. I bet that it would sound even better with a higher end LPS.  I am amazed at how far DAC technology has come.

I wonder what the guys at ASR would say about the Qutest sounding better than the E50.

The guys at ASR know that only schmucks actually listen to audio gear.  Real men listen to measurements.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

The guys at ASR know that only schmucks actually listen to audio gear.  Real men listen to measurements.

Love it!