Jelentősen megnövekszik a felbontás, a térhatás, a hangszerek körül kitágul a tér, a lecsengések, a finom rezdülések életszerűvé válnak, mint amikor felhúzod a redőnyt, és beárad a fény. When it comes to high-resolution MQA streaming, for now there are only 3 services that are offering such files: Tidal, Nugs.net and Xiami Music in China. Once you have a subscription to any of these 3, you’ll have access to a wide variety of MQA files that are released on a weekly basis. These files can have up to 24-bit and 192 kHz in resolution with the last bits of information being stored in a lossy format, so in reality a 24-bit 192 kHz MQA file can have almost the same file size as a 16-bit 44.1 kHz WAV file. An MQA file would still have additional information and bits of resolution compared to a lossless 16-bit file, so it is normal that an MQA record will sound better than a non-MQA variant of the same recording. If I would ask you few years ago about Topping you would raise your shoulders, however nowadays it is a different picture as this brand also rhymes with good sound quality at very affordable prices. Topping took by storm the affordable audio market by releasing interesting desktop and portable units, their DX and D line are still very popular among audio enthusiasts. Since AK4497 is a not a current output DAC chip as AK4499 is, an I/V conversion stage wasn’t necessary as it was on D90, completely dropping four OPA1612 for a purer and a shorter signal path.

The D70s features full MQA-decoding, delivering the best possible version of your music. MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) files contain the full, uncompressed information of the original master recordings. MP3 files, on the other hand, contain just 10% of the original information. That’s one-tenth of the nuance, depth, and richness that the artist intended for you to hear. Midrange is easily the nicest part of this DAC when it comes to frequency response, it feels elevated and most of your attention will be drawn to this region. No matter what I was playing, it would make it sweeter, smoother and warmer sounding. That’s right folks, D70S is coming close to what I’d call a warm sounding source and while it doesn’t roll-off anything in the frequency response, its midrange part is standing out very often. Acoustic instruments felt crude and real, all the voices felt alive, having heavier tonalities. I really liked the added weight it brought to my music, as everything that was linear shifted into smooth and engaging and everything that was bright, became neutral and extended. On the wrong setup Arya will sound cold and lifeless, it can be even forward and cramped with the wrong source. D70 is brightening the day a little bit for them, it adds some midrange magic, a weightier tone, a little bit of substance and opens up the window for a wider soundstage and for a deeper sound.I cannot go on without awarding the D70S our highest badge, it really deserves one as it performs like a high-end DAC from any point of view! Congratulations to the team and I’m looking forward to their next digital creatures! Mid-bass performance is again on a high level, deep reaching, punchy and very outlined. D70 is not overdoing it too much, you will hear it only when it is called for. All in all, there is nothing to complain about its sub or mid-bass performance. Boasting Bluetooth 5.0, the D70s supports 24-bit transmission of lossless codecs (AAC, SBC, aptX, aptX LL, aptX HD, and LDAC). For a life-like presentation was important to have a grain-free treble performance. Treble is sounding extended up to subsonic levels but without putting on the fire the upper treble. Treble is not harsh or bright sounding by any means, it is quite defined but not a lot, it has substance but doesn’t attract a lot of attention to it. You can make it even more defined and extended in the treble area by using a different digital filter, filter 5 will give you that, but it somehow shifts its performance to a colder and brighter side.

I would rank I2S as being the best, followed by USB, very closely by AES and then by coaxial and optical. Your mileage may vary as I am not using fancy digital cables.D70 uses lots of audio grade capacitors from Nichion, few of them are Nichion Muse – highly regarded by the audio enthusiasts. The D70 like the rest of the Topping products comes with full set of safety and emissions regulatory certificates which is important for a mains operated product. These certifications are expensive and add to the development time and hence the reason they are skipped in some other competing products.

I have recently upgraded my R2R dac to the Denafrips Ares II, relocated my modded Teradak and sold my ESS9038q2m. I do have a 9038pro in my SMSL DP5 that i can use for comparison. I still consider the uber wide soundstage, detail and sparkle on top are artificial. At first, coming from D/S you think you are missing a lot, but when you really listen you start to notice you can actually hear more. You can point out shapes, not just general direction but the outline of a singer or instrument, the size of the recording venue, distance, timbre etc. Ha ennél jobb minőséget szeretnék ( én sajnos állandóan mindig jobbat szeretnék…) akkor ott az USB bemenet, meg a NAS-omon összeterelt kb.2000 lemez file-alapú lejátszása. Az ember egyszerűen ráköt egy laptopot, egy AB-s USB kábellel (nyomtató kábel) és máris képes kvázi bármit, DSD-t is lejátszani. Meg bármilyen más HD minőségű anyagot (lásd a specifikációkat). Érdemes tudni, hogy most majd a szoftver-környezet kezd beleszólni a hangba. A Tidal a laptopról csak úgy magában nem szól jól. Kell hozzá a Roon ami kikerüli a Windows hangminőség-romboló bugyrait. JRiverrel plusz JPlay, nagyságrendnyi a különbség. A cukormáz immár a múlt (elavult), egy sokkal neutrálisabb hangzási balansz köszön vissza. A felbontás is jobb, még akkor is ha ugyanazt a 24/96-os felvételt hasonlítom össze Bluetooth vs. USB. Amikor már eléggé szétcsodálkoztuk magunkat ezen az egyszerű interface-különbségen, és nem vagyunk azon a szellemi síkon ( az tényleg sík, nem a hegycsúcs…) hogy a kábelen 0-ák meg 1-ek mennek át, TEHÁT semmiféle különbség sem lehet két USB kábel között (ezt saját jól felfogott érdekedben gyorsan felejtsd el), akkor eljön a kábelcsere pillanata. Na, ez az a pont amikor érdemes tudni, mihez nyúljon az ember. Eddigi (!!!) tapasztalatom szerint, a bolti fahangú nyomtatókábelnél a 30-100 ezer Ft-ig terjedő tartományban léteznek jobb hangú audiofil USB kábelek (pl. AudioQuest Carbon ) de amikor igazán életre szeretnénk kelteni a zenét, kicsit nyújtózkodni kell. Felhívtam Váradi Viktort a Core Audio-nál, ők forgalmazzák a svéd Entreq cég kábeleit. Egyszer volt itt nálam egy millió Ft környéki Entreq USB kábel, el kell mondanom, hogy azóta is az élmény hatása alatt vagyok, gyökeresen és totálisan változtatta meg az addigi véleményemet egy DAC alapú zene-forrás felépítésének helyes arányairól. Kértem kölcsön pár kábelt, amelyek közül nálam teljes egyértelműséggel az Entreq Primer Pro tipusa jött be, hangra is, ár-érték arányban is. Egy szimpla Lenovo laptopról ezzel a kábellel közvetlenül rákapcsolódva a D70S-re, olyasfajta hang jön, amit a legtöbben a High-Endbe sorolnának, én azt mondanám, hogy közelít…

AK4118 Digital Receiver

Midrange, Ah! The magic velvety midrange. It always grabbed my attention with a slight warmish tint. D70 is impressive mostly in this region, no matter the music you will be listening to, it will always sound natural, having a very good flow. D70 is somehow bonding all the notes together and caries all those to the listener in a very non-Delta/Sigma kind of way. I have modified quite a few dacs in the last 10 years and I found that while delta sigma dacs have progressed greatly over the last decades the old ladder dacs, non oversampling, still sound better. It's all in the implementation. Especially the output stage. And of course input and power supply. But especially the output stage that has to work particularly hard to iron out the mess of the inherent d/s hf-noise and amplify the voltage to the needed level. The D70s has six input interfaces, allowing you to connect multiple devices at once: a laptop or computer through USB, a phone or tablet via bluetooth, a balanced source via AES, and more. Switch through them on-the-fly with the included remote control. Both USB and IIS support up to 32bit/768kHz & DSD512 native. AES, optical, and coaxial support up to 24bit/192kHz. Bluetooth supports 24bit/96kHz. AK4118 receiver for ultra-low jitter S/PDIF input A D70S a létező legegyszerűbb módon, Bluetooth-on keresztül ( a telefonban az LDAC opciót be kell kapcsolni a jó minőséghez!) is kifejezetten jó hangot szolgáltat, ezt el kell ismernem, olyan minőséget, amit a zenehallgatók 90%-a el fog fogadni, nagy részük még lenyűgözőnek is fogja tartani. Tidal-ról élményszerű. Később, miután elkezdtem jobban felmérni a kis DAC lehetőségeit, rájöttem, hogy a Bluetooth, minden előnye mellett, rátesz egy mindenen jelen lévő saját karaktert, egyfajta mázat a zenére. Ez a máz egy kicsit édeskés, egy kicsit komprimálja a dinamikát, egy kicsit lekerekít. Olyan, mint egy gyengébb csöves erősítő, csak nem olyan mértékben, olyan kerek gombóc. Kellemes, de a DAC tud ennél többet. In terms of detail retrieval D70 is good, however it never drove attention to all those micro-vibrations and micro-details, it never tries to show its muscles.