Digital sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal disc player, Custom Intel/Win11 music server running JRiver Media Center v29, Roon and DiracLive. exaSound s88 Mark II, Okto dac8 PRO D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifiers: Coleman Audio 7.1SW for balanced-source switching. 3 Topping Pre90 preamps for buffer/line drivers.
Power Amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, NAD C 298.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima2 Studio with IsoAcoustics Gaia I isolation feet. Revel Performa3 f206 for surrounds. Two SVS SB-3000 & one SB-2000Pro subwoofers connected via JBL BassQ Room Mode Correction Manager.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB). Analog interconnects: Benchmark Studio&Stage XLR–XLR, Kubala-Sosna Anticipation (RCA), Cardas Cross (subwoofer). Speaker: Benchmark Studio&Stage, Blue Jeans Canare 4S11. AC: SignalCable MagicPower 20A. DC umbilical for server: Revelation Audio Labs Passage CryoSilver Reference.
Accessories: AudioQuest Niagara 5000, BrickWall 8RAUD, and CyberPower 850PFCLCD UPS power conditioners, Teddy Pardo 12V PS (for exaSound s88), HDPlex 300W Linear Power Supply (for server).
Listening room: 24' L × 14' W × 8' H, furnished with 2 MSR Acoustics Dimension4 SpringTraps in the front corners. Sidewalls lateral to L/R speakers have 2 thick, 2' wide floor-to-ceiling OC 705 panels. Front wall has large windows partly covered by fabric drapes and 4" thick 2' × 4' OC 705 panels. Rear of room opens into 10' × 7' foyer and a 12' × 8' dining area.—Kalman Rubinson
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COMMENTS
You mentioned, "Since my server is PC-based, I needed to download and install Topping's ASIO driver for the DM7..."
Do you know if this works well using MS WASAPI in exclusive mode? Some software that I am very much interested in utilizing does not work with ASIO drivers, but rather works either with WASAPI in exclusive mode, or with WDM drivers, and I prefer to avoid using the WDM drivers.
I have not tried WASAPI, only the recommended ASIO drivers.
It would be really nice to see the star of the Topping range, the dedicated $899usd 2ch dac "Topping D90SE" (Balanced DAC) reviewed and measured here. As this would be a real eye opener for many.
Cheers George
I bought a D90SE DAC earlier this year on the back of the reputation it was gaining as a giant slayer and hopefully to advance the sound quality of streaming as compared to the internal DAC in my venerable Luxman D-05u Cd/SACD/DAC player. I used it for a couple of months but concluded I preferred the more organic and fleshed out sound of the Luxman and so sold it. The differences were subtle but increasingly clear to me as I spent more time listening. The Topping just left me rather cold. Everything was in the right place but just in a rather mechanistic manner. Not my cup of tea. Of course YMMV. After all,contempt prior to investigation is a bar to all progress.
LOVE that statement. Thank you.
"I preferred the more organic and fleshed out sound of the Luxman.
Everything was in the right place, the but just in a rather mechanistic manner."
Not surprising, the Lux uses a nice PCM1795 d/a converter while not true R2R (the best) it's a lot closer to the R2R sound, than the ESS Deta Sigma D/A converter that's in the Topping.
But the price difference seven times!!!
$600-usd for the Topping D90se vs $4300-usd for the Lux
Cheers George
Yes I agree George the pricing is vastly different (though a bit less so here in the UK where the Topping is £900 new) but the Luxman throws in a superb CD/SACD player (the primary reason I bought it). If you subscribe to the ASR philosophy that measurements are sacred,the be all and end all then ,sure, buy a D90 SE and live happily ever after in the knowledge you have bought the best measuring DAC ever and therefore the best DAC ever period. However I try to choose equipment, by listening to music and asking myself “how does this music through this system make me feel?”. I really wanted to like the D90 SE (I plunked down the cash for it) and run streaming through a dedicated DAC,network switch blah blah but it just didn’t engage and move me the way music from the Luxman does. As ever YMMV.
Your experience is similar to mine.
After listening (and owning) several ESS based DACs - including some Toppings, I've decided to ignore them all together.
All of them caused listening fatigue after a while.
Measurement disciples often argue there shouldn't be audible differences between 'transparent' DACs, while Audio Precision is considered a GOD-like discriminator.
That stupidity is often amusing.
Because, still very important is the possibility to convert AC-3 stream or DTS coming out of TV-sets or in my case the Apple TV-device via cinch socket for surround-sound movies or for PCM-music from my Apple music abo. Both don't work via USB.
The ddts-100 cost me $120 15 years ago. And there is still no replacement that does so many things in one box.
Dirac says the Suite works with JRiver, but does not mention Roon. Does it work with Roon?
By the way, i think WASAPI works, because when I hooked DM7 to PC, I had not installed any drivers, and I got sound out of my stereo speakers when I clicked the "Test" button in the Windows Sound setup. I did not test WASAPI exclusive. But when I ran Roon, it did not work, until I installed the Topping drivers.
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