A question for you chaps.

If I was to purchase a lpsu with twin 5v output, are there any issues to consider with it powering both Digione and DAC?

An interesting session today.  

The D50 is now powered by the original digione smps. An instant improvement on the powerbank, I think we can safely assume the D50 doesn’t like battery power!

The coherence and fluidity is back. First two tracks though, I’m struck by an overall lack of resolution on a couple of 80’s favourites, Starship and REO Speedwagon. The D30 did way better with these. Switching to a more recent recording, Jason Mraz’s ‘Geek in the Pink' everything suddenly springs to life. Makes me think this DAC is more revealing of source material?  Moving onto Journey’s ‘Separate Ways’, it does a fab job with huge soundstage and deep, deep bass. Same experience with Scorpions ‘Coast to Coast’ remaster.

But, I still don’t think I’m hearing it at its best, or at least I am hoping I am not!  I need more detail, resolution and cutting-edge in the upper-mid and treble. This is confirmed when I move over to the superb Nelsons Shosta 10. The Rachel Podger 4 Seasons has less congestion and more separation between instruments on the D30.

So the jury is still out for me on the D50. I was going to buy a decent lpsu for it the other day but on hearing about the Allo Shanti I will hold fire and see what the price is before pulling the trigger on either.

Jules

Would you like to loan a psu that will suit the D50, also how are you connecting it form your digi one? / transport?

That’s a nice idea Tony.

Most kind of you, as ever, will drop you a PM.

I’m using a very decent Oyaide coax cable between digione and the Topping.

Many thanks to John for bringing over his new Topping D70 DAC chez moi this afternoon ... 

A very, very interesting session indeed, I just need to gather my thoughts as there was a lot going on!

What was the source? CD, Spotify or something else?

Thanks John!

So the question was how would the D70 compare to my D30? I hooked up the D70 to my passive using same cables as the D30 and with a bog standard kettle lead.

Firstly, I played John a couple of tracks with the D30 so we both had a good reference point. Opening track was a favourite of mine, ‘Separate Ways’ by Journey. It’s pretty damn good for an early 80’s recording but John noted it sounded a little compressed and I had to agree. So we moved onto to a more modern recording, Mr A-Z by Jason Mraz - not my usual kind of music but it’s a superb recording. We both thought this a big step up in quality - very dynamic and easy to follow the mix of instruments. Immediately went to the same track on the D70 and the differences were not difficult to spot - bass digs a bit deeper, there is more clarity, attack and bite to the midrange; improved dynamics too. A bit more of everything you might want. Next up we tried an Yngwie Malmsteen track which is a great favourite musically but as a recording it only sounds ‘ok’ with the D30. With the D70 it fared worse, much worse, sounding like it was recorded by Fisher Price in a wind-tunnel. It became patently obvious that the D70 is MUCH more critical and revealing of source.

It was John’s turn to choose something next and he came up with ‘Arsis’ by Gordian Knot. I’ve got to say it scared the shit out of me. The bass was so prodigious and low, that I could hear my frickin’ front door rattling! I kid you not. John felt that whilst my speakers were doing well with depth of bass, the higher instruments in the mix could have been better defined in my system. He knows the track very well so I’m not going to disagree!

Next up I wanted to see how it fared with my favourite classical test track, the live recording by Andris Nelsons of the Allegro from Shostakovich 10. It sounds epic on the D30 but here it went up a worthwhile notch or two, bringing even more sparkle out of this stunning track. John is going to try this track out on his system to see how it fares. Finally I wanted to try some solo piano, and this is where things started to fall apart. I tried three favourite modern recordings, but each time the piano tone and timbre was just not right, sounding rather muddy and murky. So I need to investigate why this might possibly be. John spotted the horrible jumble of wires behind my kit and thought this could be an issue. I have *very* little room to work with, so it’s really difficult to be neat, but what I’m going to do is to remove all the cables associated with my analogue system which is just not being used at the moment. After removing them I will do some further tidying to try and separate the cables. Will be interesting to see if this improves things.

Conclusion - the D30 is superb VFM but the D70 is a very decent step up for a relatively modest price (around $499) but it WILL show up any issues with your system, so I have some detective work to do. I really feel that when I buy the D70 I am truly going to be opening up Pandora’s Box!

Thanks again to John for an excellent session.

Yes that's certainly an option Jerry!

Before upping the rez any further I want to try and work out what is going on so I can fully enjoy the system.

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the interesting read.... I do like a good detective story.