[DZetye]

anyone know what size connector the power connection is on the D50 and whether its positive polarity or not?

[dpump]

anyone know what size connector the power connection is on the D50 and whether its positive polarity or not?

The power connector is 5.5mm/2.1mm. Polarity is positive.

[rufusen]

I receive this message from the D50 when I send to the coax input coax a 192/24 file: "coax input unlock" and no music comes out, any help?
Many Thanks!

[terry parr]

I receive this message from the D50 when I send to the coax input coax a 192/24 file: "coax input unlock" and no music comes out, any help?
Many Thanks!

Forgive if this is a "duh" response, but have you downloaded the drivers for the D50?  It's not "plug n play" out of the box.  You'll need to install the drivers, using the supplied USB cable connected to your computer. 


If you've downloaded the drivers,  then a simple, quick push of the power button (the larger button on the left of the unit) should unlock it. 



While I'm at it, further advice would be for you to get an external power supply (as I feel it improves the overall performance of this dac).  It's a mystery to me why Topping doesn't include an external power supply when noticeable improvements can be heard when ditching the USB cable in favor of a 5V wall wart.  (Again, this is my subjective impression.  YMMV).  But, I would think most anyone here on this forum would be able to hear the difference in a  "before and after" comparison. 


Note:  I'm using the D50 as an external dac connected via coax to a Rotel RCD-1570 cdp (which employs a Wolfson WM 8740 dac).  I listen mainly with headphones (AKG K701 and 702, beyer T-90, Audio Technica ADX 5000).  Amp is a vintage receiver.  A 70's era Sony STR 6055.


Long story short:  The D50 in my system definitely makes an improvement, overall.  (Though admittedly, my rig isn't the last word in resolution, especially compared to a lot of people here on this forum).

Apologize for the wordy response, but I wanted to supply some context (to see if anything that I'm relating could be applied to your use case).  So many times on audio forums when people give advice, much needed context is often missing in my opinion.   

Anyway, Good luck!       

[rufusen]

Many Thanks, but I cannot locate drivers for my iMac, I only see drivers for Windows.
Are IOS drivers available somewhere for the Topping?
Thanks again!

[terry parr]

Many Thanks, but I cannot locate drivers for my iMac, I only see drivers for Windows.
Are IOS drivers available somewhere for the Topping?
Thanks again!

Sorry I won't be able to give you very specific advice here, rufusen. (If I could, I would).  But, here's what I got:  I'm not using computer audio with the D50.  I'm using the D50 as an external dac for a CD player.

But, I googled "drivers for Topping D50 for MAC" and there's a discussion on "audiokarma.org" where someone says that no drivers are needed for the D50 if you're using a MAC-based system.  Honestly, I don't know about this, as my system is Windows-based, but I'm not using my PC as a music source, so I don't know).

I don't own a MAC.  My Operating system on my laptop (my only computer) is Windows. 

There's quite a bit of discussion on the D50 on the "audiosciencereview" site.

 There's also discussion threads on the "massdrop" site (where a lot of people bought the D50).  This is probably the site that I'd go to first, as you're likely to get practical information first, as the "audiosciencereview" site is more concerned with how the D50 performs in technical measurements.  In order to hope to get the type of specific info that you're looking for, you'll have to weed-through a lot of info. 

I didn't check customer reviews on the D50 on  "amazon.com"  There may be something there that applies to your specific use-case. 


That's all I got, man.  If both of us were using the D50 in exactly the same way, and with the same equipment, then I could be of more help.  You'll get things sorted.  It just might take some research and some digging. 

The one nugget of info I came across when I was reading on "audiosciencereview" had someone talking about how re-starting your system once you have the D50 connected might re-set everything and get the D50 functioning properly.  But he was talking about how he was using a Topping headphone amp along with the D50, so...

It's difficult to help someone else out when your use-case doesn't match theirs, but there ya go, man.  And after all this, there's the option of contacting customer support at Topping. 

Wishing you good luck with it. 


   


     

[rufusen]

I really appreciate your help, and I've checked all the discussions you've linked, however I've not been able to solve my problem, so today, I decided to return the Topping.
I think it is a good DAC and  very reasonably priced. I went back to my old North Star DAC and I'm now using a Kingrex interface to send a i2s signal to it and I'm very happy with them tonight

All Best to you!

[terry parr]

I really appreciate your help, and I've checked all the discussions you've linked, however I've not been able to solve my problem, so today, I decided to return the Topping.
I think it is a good DAC and  very reasonably priced. I went back to my old North Star DAC and I'm now using a Kingrex interface to send a i2s signal to it and I'm very happy with them tonight

All Best to you!

Well, you can always keep the Topping in the back of your mind and casually research discussions on it from time-to-time.  You may re-visit it.  Who knows?  I'm sure the exact answer you were looking for was/is out there. 

The trick was finding it.

 "head-fi.org" is another source of information for people who use a Mac as a music source.  It's a headphones-based site, but still worth checking out to see any info that might apply to you in the future as there are plenty of headphone listeners using a MacBook Pro.   

Wish I could've been more help in this case.  Sorry I led you down blind alleys, but I related everything that I could possiblty think of that might help. 

Best to you, too. 

Terry

[andrewinukm]

I use my D50 as a DAC+preamp for the NuForce Optima STA-200, and Audience The One speakers in a really small bedroom. Music from PC, occasional gaming and movies on PS4. It's a fantastic DAC.

Been using the D50 for the past few months and experimented with a few things. Here's what I found:

• USB filter makes a difference. Quite significant improvement with Uptone ISO Regen (powered by iFi iPower 9V). Instruments & vocal plasement became more pin point, depth of stage is easier to discern, sounded less "FM-radio". But it losses a bit of "warmth" that was caused by distortion/veil which a friend preferred despite losing some resolution and clarity. To me, that warmth sounded like cheap radio (low res, high noise, high distortion, veiled).

BUT there's an issue: with the ISO Regen, D50 will sometimes stop outputting any signal suddenly. It just goes quiet. Sometimes, it can play for hours without any issue, and other times it can happens once every few minutes. Turning the DAC off & on again fixes it, but it's annoying. Not sure if it's Foobar, PC, ISO Regen, or D50 is the problem.

• Since all DACs & digital equipments (the chips and clocks) are sensitive to power supply, so I never bothered with common USB chargers. But then I found that STA-200 has a 5V output. I got curious and compared this output with iFi iPower 5V (yes, I have 2x iPowers: 9V & 5V). Opening up the STA-200 shows that its 5V output is a simple linear power supply, and likely of moderate quality.

At first, I wasn't sure I heard a difference. After many rounds of back and forth, iFi iPower is just a wee bit cleaner compared to STA200’s 5V output. This is likely to be much much better than common 5V USB chargers.

*Side track1 : of the many USB chargers, Apple's iPhone chargers do not leak noise into the main AC (tested with AudioPrism Noise Sniffer by a friend), use this if you don’t want to buy iPower or other power filters. iPower likely generates noise back into the AC mains, which may explain why the AC filter works (below).
*Side track 2: STA-200 shares the same circuitry as Job 225 and Goldmund Metis, except it has lesser watts, I opened it up and saw the PCB printed with the words “JOB”. A Taiwanese magazine interview with the owner of Optoma mentioned that he is friends with Goldmund founder, so Goldmund gladly provided this circuit to Optoma when Optoma acquired NuForce and wanted to launch a new amp quickly. It’s a stupendous amp, and superb matching with D50 silver. STA-200 is $500 from Audio Advisor and Amazon—60% off from $1299. Bought it because reviews on this amp and Job 225 mentioned that it has good soundstage depth, which to me means that it has really good resolution & capability in order to pull off the “depth” trick. And I needed such amp to test my prototype cables.

• Recently, I bought a used power filter—DA&T AC Filter. DA&T is a mid/high end audio company from Taiwan, but their AC Filters are really affordable.

The STA-200 hated the filter as it caused an audible hum/buzz at the speakers, even though it sounded better with the filter. So I plugged the 2× iPowers (for ISO Regen & Topping D50) into the AC Filter isntead.

Jaw dropped… The improvement was very significant.
As much improvement as adding an ISO Regen, possibly more. The clarity in vocals is amazing, musical instruments have even better pin point location, less veil, better clarity, better depth location, better instrument separation. When I removed the AC filter, it now sounded like radio or elevator music.

---
The above tweaks (or whatever you may call it) cost about 2× of D50, but it took it to another level. You could say I could’ve bought another DAC instead. But the power filter and USB filter will stay as the D50 is being upgraded in the future.

And the D50 is so amazing now, it sounds like a higher end DAC.

Cables used are almost all Audience cables: OHNO RCA & my DIY carbon-fibre prototype, OHNO speaker cables, Forte f3 powerChord. The system might seem expensive, but almost all gears were bought as 2nd-hand, or over many months from various deals/discounts. 

[thetakeout]

andrewinukm,

Can you bullet point the items you added to the D50?

What power supply did you settle on, or is it powered by the preamp? Is the Uptone ISO Regen a USB filter?

I am about to pull the trigger on a D50 and want to optimize it.  I would love to stand on the shoulders of your experience!

Thanks

[wushuliu]

Just my .02, if you want to avoid shelling out a bunch of money on USB purifiers and get better sound quality, avoid USB altogether and use the coaxial input with a USB spdif converter. I've chased the USB input dragon for years and keep coming back to coax input. It just sounds better.

[andrewinukm]

andrewinukm,

Can you bullet point the items you added to the D50?

What power supply did you settle on, or is it powered by the preamp? Is the Uptone ISO Regen a USB filter?

I am about to pull the trigger on a D50 and want to optimize it.  I would love to stand on the shoulders of your experience!

Thanks

• iFi iPower (5V) for power.
• UpTone ISO Regen (powered by another iFi iPower 9V)
• DA&T AC Filter (to filter AC power of iFi & amp)
• Other "black magic" un-explainable tweaky stuff that no one will believe until they hear it for themselves

Also check out Head-fi's thread on D50. Acko did lots of crazy mods on his D50, it's now a frankenstein.

I'd go with Wushuliu's advice as well. Maybe get a Schiit Eitr + iFi iPower and be done.

[viggen]

I just got the D50S and am powering it with a RavPower battery bank I got on Amazon for $20.  The dac came with USB to 5v 2.1mm cables.

[viggen]

Can someone please tell me how to disconnect the ribbon cable in the second video below?  Thanks.

I thought I found a good video on it here.  But, turns out the pcb in the D50 is slightly different than the one in the D50s.  Mainly, the lcd ribbon cable is connected to the pcb differently as shown here.

Trying to swap the opamp from lme49720 to muses02.  According to Passion for Sound, an YT audio reviewer, the opamp is swappable without soldering.