Post by accudazed on Feb 25, 2023 15:08:57 GMT
Okay.
I'm going out on a limb here. I - an unknown hifi fan - am recommending a hifi product to you dear forum members. I have never done this before.
About anything.
In my humble opinion, the Topping D90SE DAC is a truly remarkable landmark product (usual disclaimer, no connection with the company, not a shareholder, blah, blah). There is a very real possibility that the D90SE is currently one of the world's best DAC's. The fact that - in the crazy world of hifi pricing - it is currently 'only' £899 makes it an even more astonishing product.
There you go. I've done it. Feel better now. My D90SE recommendation is now out in the public domain. No going back.
I am making this recommendation on a belief that I am doing a good deed. It's a "O.M.G. this thing is amazing... I must share my personal 'discovery' of a once in a generation product with fellow lovers of music/hifi fans" situation. There's no pressure here from me by the way. If you think I am talking bollocks, that's fine. It would be a boring world if we all owned the same things. But if you are after measurable HIGH FIDELITY please read on.
Recommending anything to anyone is fraught with danger. In the crazy world of hifi where the internet is populated by hifi forums infested with some extremely unpleasant individuals I could only contemplate such a heinous 'recommendation crime' on a forum like this one. TAS is the place for friendly, respectful, sensible, etc. music/hifi discussion so I am confident I will still be alive by the end of the week.
I could type out reams and reams of information on the D90SE DAC based on my many hours of listening to it with a variety of digital sources and an awful lot of internet research. But is there really any point doing that? I am an unknown person after all with no demonstrable hifi credentials. Also, you have to bear in mind that making hifi recommendations puts you into an 'arena' where two long competing and seemingly irreconcilable competing views frequently clash. Ready for it... objective measurements of sonic performance and (or should that be 'vs'?) subjective opinions based on personal listening (invariably conducted without any blind testing).
I have no idea whether I posses a mythical 'golden ear' of the like that - allegedly - many hifi journalists possess, but I do know the following:
a) I cannot hear anything above 16 kHz.
b) objectively, the Topping D90SE measures spectacularly well achieving figures for critical sonic performance parameters e.g., SINAD, noise, dynamic range, jitter, linearity that seemed unreachable 20 years ago and, seem to be beyond most manufacturers to this day. That's progress I guess. As many of the D90SE's measurements are getting near theoretical maximal limits achievable with current technology (and some pretty expensive measuring gear too!) I think we will have to wait for quantum computing to enable hifi engineers to make the next big move forwards with DAC technology.
c) my subjective opinion on the the D90SE's sound quality is of questionable value to you. I mean, what the hell do I know? What 'listening' training do I have? For the record though I think it is amazing. Transparency, detail retrieval, resolution, slam, soundstage, etc. are astonishing.
d) the D90SE's build quality, attention to detail, functionality and real world engineering excellence/craftsmanship are superb.
e) the D90SE gets closer to giving you JUST what was recorded/produced/mastered/pressed than virtually all else available today.
f) I am not an expert in hifi. I have never designed/manufactured anything hifi wise. I just listen to music, buy CD's and read stuff like hifi reviews and engineering articles.
There is a catch though. The D90SE takes no prisoners. If any component in your system majors on distortion, noise, etc. (like that inherent in many very expensive valve amps* and cheap CD players I have heard) then you have a sonic car crash on your hands. Similarly, if you have a CD or sound file that has been recorded/mastered/etc. poorly then the Topping will reveal that too in all its inglorious detail. I don't mind this though. I want to know whether someone has f****d it up. Time and again the poor Topping DAC gets mixed reviews from some 'experts' (sorry, bit of sarcasm there) when all it has done has shown that there are weak components in the reviewer's system (always a risk for any high end component) affecting sound quality. Hifi like Topping's D90SE are the ultimate honest messengers, so regular shootings are inevitable.
If you go for a Topping D90SE DAC then the rest of your system has to be up to it or its excellence simply cannot be fully appreciated. A bit obvious that I know, but I feel better for stating it. Your other separates must major on transparency, neutrality, wide bandwidth, high dynamic-range, low noise and low distortion. If you slot the Topping in a system with these boxes ticked and then feed it a really good uncompressed recording, e.g. "Nightfly" by Donald Fagan or "Play on Words" by Sara K , the results are just spectacular. By contrast, recordings like the "Death Magnetic" album by Metallic are revealed in their truly horrific hyper compressed glory (i.e., borderline unbearable but I do like the songs!).
30 years ago I never imagined home audio could have reached this level of sonic performance; genuine high fidelity at last.
So there you go. Recommendation done. Buy a Topping D90SE DAC and be forever happy/amazed.
Or not.
"that inherent in many very expensive valve amps*"
That is not a criticism by the way. One said engineer of such products once told me that he chooses components in his amps which distort the source signal because his customers like the resultant sound. He feared that if he made his valve amps sound neutral and transparent his loyal customer base would walk away.
I'm going out on a limb here. I - an unknown hifi fan - am recommending a hifi product to you dear forum members. I have never done this before.
About anything.
In my humble opinion, the Topping D90SE DAC is a truly remarkable landmark product (usual disclaimer, no connection with the company, not a shareholder, blah, blah). There is a very real possibility that the D90SE is currently one of the world's best DAC's. The fact that - in the crazy world of hifi pricing - it is currently 'only' £899 makes it an even more astonishing product.
There you go. I've done it. Feel better now. My D90SE recommendation is now out in the public domain. No going back.
I am making this recommendation on a belief that I am doing a good deed. It's a "O.M.G. this thing is amazing... I must share my personal 'discovery' of a once in a generation product with fellow lovers of music/hifi fans" situation. There's no pressure here from me by the way. If you think I am talking bollocks, that's fine. It would be a boring world if we all owned the same things. But if you are after measurable HIGH FIDELITY please read on.
Recommending anything to anyone is fraught with danger. In the crazy world of hifi where the internet is populated by hifi forums infested with some extremely unpleasant individuals I could only contemplate such a heinous 'recommendation crime' on a forum like this one. TAS is the place for friendly, respectful, sensible, etc. music/hifi discussion so I am confident I will still be alive by the end of the week.
I could type out reams and reams of information on the D90SE DAC based on my many hours of listening to it with a variety of digital sources and an awful lot of internet research. But is there really any point doing that? I am an unknown person after all with no demonstrable hifi credentials. Also, you have to bear in mind that making hifi recommendations puts you into an 'arena' where two long competing and seemingly irreconcilable competing views frequently clash. Ready for it... objective measurements of sonic performance and (or should that be 'vs'?) subjective opinions based on personal listening (invariably conducted without any blind testing).
I have no idea whether I posses a mythical 'golden ear' of the like that - allegedly - many hifi journalists possess, but I do know the following:
a) I cannot hear anything above 16 kHz.
b) objectively, the Topping D90SE measures spectacularly well achieving figures for critical sonic performance parameters e.g., SINAD, noise, dynamic range, jitter, linearity that seemed unreachable 20 years ago and, seem to be beyond most manufacturers to this day. That's progress I guess. As many of the D90SE's measurements are getting near theoretical maximal limits achievable with current technology (and some pretty expensive measuring gear too!) I think we will have to wait for quantum computing to enable hifi engineers to make the next big move forwards with DAC technology.
c) my subjective opinion on the the D90SE's sound quality is of questionable value to you. I mean, what the hell do I know? What 'listening' training do I have? For the record though I think it is amazing. Transparency, detail retrieval, resolution, slam, soundstage, etc. are astonishing.
d) the D90SE's build quality, attention to detail, functionality and real world engineering excellence/craftsmanship are superb.
e) the D90SE gets closer to giving you JUST what was recorded/produced/mastered/pressed than virtually all else available today.
f) I am not an expert in hifi. I have never designed/manufactured anything hifi wise. I just listen to music, buy CD's and read stuff like hifi reviews and engineering articles.
There is a catch though. The D90SE takes no prisoners. If any component in your system majors on distortion, noise, etc. (like that inherent in many very expensive valve amps* and cheap CD players I have heard) then you have a sonic car crash on your hands. Similarly, if you have a CD or sound file that has been recorded/mastered/etc. poorly then the Topping will reveal that too in all its inglorious detail. I don't mind this though. I want to know whether someone has f****d it up. Time and again the poor Topping DAC gets mixed reviews from some 'experts' (sorry, bit of sarcasm there) when all it has done has shown that there are weak components in the reviewer's system (always a risk for any high end component) affecting sound quality. Hifi like Topping's D90SE are the ultimate honest messengers, so regular shootings are inevitable.
If you go for a Topping D90SE DAC then the rest of your system has to be up to it or its excellence simply cannot be fully appreciated. A bit obvious that I know, but I feel better for stating it. Your other separates must major on transparency, neutrality, wide bandwidth, high dynamic-range, low noise and low distortion. If you slot the Topping in a system with these boxes ticked and then feed it a really good uncompressed recording, e.g. "Nightfly" by Donald Fagan or "Play on Words" by Sara K , the results are just spectacular. By contrast, recordings like the "Death Magnetic" album by Metallic are revealed in their truly horrific hyper compressed glory (i.e., borderline unbearable but I do like the songs!).
30 years ago I never imagined home audio could have reached this level of sonic performance; genuine high fidelity at last.
So there you go. Recommendation done. Buy a Topping D90SE DAC and be forever happy/amazed.
Or not.
"that inherent in many very expensive valve amps*"
That is not a criticism by the way. One said engineer of such products once told me that he chooses components in his amps which distort the source signal because his customers like the resultant sound. He feared that if he made his valve amps sound neutral and transparent his loyal customer base would walk away.
