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Chinese DACs - Topping, SMSL, Aune

F

Fulci

pfm Member
Who has tried any of these inexpensive DACs from Chinese brands, some come with top expensive chips like AK4497, AK4499 or ESS9038QM or even 9038PRO.

Thinking of trying a Topping D50s, DX7 or D70 or a Aune S6, X8, X1S, SMSL M300 II, M500, or something in the same level. Noise, jitter and distortion levels seem extremely low for any of these, but measurements is not everything.

want to read your experiences and to what you compared, specially now that a Mojo costs so little.
 
I have a Topping D70 and SMSL SU-8. Both are exceptional DACs.

They are highly competitive in their price bracket and above. I listen to Oppo 205, CA DacMagic Plus, M2Tech Young and the middle Kingdom DACs compare very well.
 
I’ve been reading those reviews but they are all very technical and scientific approach to their quality. I’d like to see direct comparisons with other dacs and subjective opinions on these.
 
I'm thinking of picking up a D50s at some point, it seems to do all I want from a DAC and is very cheap considering.

I've had one of their T2020 Tripath amps for years and it's a cracking little thing for the size/money.
 
If they are contemporary oversampling designs, most DACs are then they will sound more or less identical, any difference might be down to the reconstruction filter used.
I would purchase on the facilities you need.
Keith
 
I had a khadas tone board and that sounded identical to the mdac as far as I can remember. I have settled on topping dx3 pro, sounds great with HD800 and a Lcd 2 closed.
I do believe all the excellent measuring chi fi dacs have contributed to the reason why the mdac 2 project has taken so long. You can get these state of the art measuring dacs for a few hundred pounds as stated above.
 
Purité Audio said:
If they are contemporary oversampling designs, most DACs are then they will sound more or less identical, any difference might be down to the reconstruction filter used.
I would purchase on the facilities you need.
Keith
Click to expand...

Would you like to remind us what you stock for that matter?

ASR measurements set is too small to deduce whether it will work well in your own setup, or even if you'll like it subjectively. As always try at home with your own ears over the course of a week.

Differences exist but even i'll admit you'll need a pretty decent (well into mid-fi) setup to even tell the difference in a lot of cases.
 
Purité Audio said:
If you can’t hear a difference you are deaf or your system isn’t resolving enough?
Keith
Click to expand...

I was till lately in the "they both sound the same" camp. See previous threads where my SMSL D1 had no problem keeping up with the T+A DAC 8 DSD even in DSD mode. Then I improved vibration control across the board and what-not. Now they're not comparable.

So yes, system isnt resolving enough in most cases means you can legit save a load of cash and just get whatever works for you, but still suck-it-and-see applies.
 
I thought that’s what you meant to say, it usually comes down to that, deaf or system not good enough if you can’t hear the differences ‘I golden ears” can hear.
Keith
 
Purité Audio said:
I thought that’s what you meant to say, it usually comes down to that, deaf or system not good enough if you can’t hear the differences ‘I golden ears” can hear.
Keith
Click to expand...

I dont have golden ears for sure :) But as mentioned above from my own experiments i've now gone into "there is differences - it just depends on the rest of the chain" category. Hence as always just try at home and see what floats boats.
 
Fulci said:
Who has tried any of these inexpensive DACs from Chinese brands, some come with top expensive chips like AK4497, AK4499 or ESS9038QM or even 9038PRO.

Thinking of trying a Topping D50s, DX7 or D70 or a Aune S6, X8, X1S, SMSL M300 II, M500, or something in the same level. Noise, jitter and distortion levels seem extremely low for any of these, but measurements is not everything.

want to read your experiences and to what you compared, specially now that a Mojo costs so little.
Click to expand...


I have a Topping D30 - sounds great to my ears and easily on a par with an Audiolab Q DAC I used a while back and a Quad Vena I currently own.
Not as flexible as the two others I mentioned ... but a fraction of the price of either.

I use it to output AIFF files from a Mac Mini 2012, featuring Audirvana, to a headphone amp but also as an SPDIF 'pass through' from the Vena coax output to a Quad 405-2 (sounds sublime...)
 
AK and ESS have very different distortion with level profiles. Not exactly night and day stuff as they are very subtle at best, maybe totally inaudible.
 
I have an SMSL M-500 with which I replaced a mk 1 M2Tech Young DAC.

Better features was a factor, mostly a remote. And curiosity.

It sounds better in some ways, notably less splashy in the treble, where the Young seemed to be trying too hard. Also Young had a warm, phat lower-mid bass which obscured further lower frequency detail. The M-500 is more even handed here so appears to go deeper in the bass, revealing more detail.

After swapping a few times to confirm my impressions I was happy you sell the Young. However, I do miss it's design and tactility, the M-500 is very boring in comparison. Best obscured in a cupboard IMO.
 
I am a very happy Topping D70 user - a worthwhile step up in resolution from my old D30. I also tried a D50 but for some unknown reason it didn't sound right in my system at all.
 
Please let’s not make this another Keith bashing post. Let’s respect his opinions. DAC threads are getting duller than speaker cables threads.
 
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I believe Keith sells a broad range of dacs with different feature sets and aesthetics to suit a buyers preferences and pocket book. He tends not to focus on sq because he doesn't sell duds.
 
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