Description

TOPPING D90SE MQA ES9038PRO Bluetooth 5.0 LDAC

Audioscience review by Amir:

Conclusions
It is 3:00am but I had to stay up and post this review. It is not every day that every barrier we have seen in DACs gets shattered to new levels. We are seeing extreme attention to every aspect of this design to squeeze this much performance out of this ESS DAC. Just when we though the race was over, here comes one more over achiever! Those of you who have made it a hobby to upgrade the latest and greatest, here is another one for you! 

At the risk of stating the very obvious, it is my absolute pleasure to recommend the Topping D90SE.

 

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-d90se-review-balanced-dac.24235/

Features

• ESS ES9038 PRO DAC chip, MQA decoding with USB, coaxial, optical, and AES inputs
• Get bit-perfect audio playback without distortion or jitter. The XMOS 16-core XU216 microcontroller converts the highest quality digital files to analog voltage without the timing deviations that cause distortion. Plus, Asynchronous USB audio transfer and CPLD ensure jitter lower than -160dB.
• Ditch the cables, not the quality. Get rich 24-bit Bluetooth 5.0 transmission with support of major lossless codecs: AAC, SBC, APTX, APTX LL, APTX HD, and LDAC.
• Use the D90SE in “DAC + Preamplifier” mode and connect a power amplifier or monitor speakers. Control the output volume on the front panel or with the remote control.

 

Specifications:

USB IN

PCM: 16-32bit / 44.1 – 768kHz

DSD (Native): DSD64 – DSD512

DSD (DoP): DSD64 – DSD256

MQA: Renderer, MQA, MQA Studio

IIS IN

PCM: 16 – 32bit / 44.1kHz – 768kHz

DSD (Native): DSD64 – DSD1024

DSD (DoP): DSD64 – DSD256

MQA: Not supported

Coax/ Opt/ AES IN

PCM: 16 – 24bit / 44.1kHz – 192kHz

DSD (Native): Not supported

DSD (DoP): DSD64

MQA: Renderer, MQA, MQA Studio

Bluetooth: AAC / SBC / APTX / APTX LL / APTX HD / LDAC

Line out RCA decoding parameters (USB IN @96kHz)

THD+N@A-wt: <0.00007% @1kHz

THD@No-wt 90kBw: <0.0008% @20-20kHz

SNR@A-wt: 127dB @1kHz

Dynamic range @A-wt: 127dB @1kHz

Frequency response

20Hz – 20kHz (±0.1dB)

20Hz – 40kHz (±0.3dB)

Output level

2.1Vrms @0dBFS (4V Mode)

2.6Vrms @0dBFS (5V Mode)

Noise @A-wt: <1.3uVrms

Crosstalk: -124dB @1kHz

Channel balance: 0.3dB

Output impedance: 100Ω

Line out XLR decoding parameters (USB IN @96kHz)

THD+N@A-wt: <0.00005% @1kHz

THD@No-wt 90kBw: <0.0003% @20-20kHz

SNR@A-wt: 134dB @1kHz

Dynamic range @A-wt: 134dB @1kHz

Frequency response

20Hz – 20kHz (±0.1dB)

20Hz – 40kHz (±0.3dB)

Noise @A-wt: <1.1uVrms

Crosstalk: -139dB @1kHz

Channel balance: 0.3dB

Output impedance: 100Ω