How Topping Changed My View of Affordable DACs

When I first became interested in digital audio, Topping was not a name most audiophiles associated with serious high-end equipment. The established choices came from companies such as Benchmark, Lavry, RME and a long list of traditional European, American and Japanese manufacturers.

Chinese digital audio products existed, of course, but many arrived as bare circuit boards or small desktop boxes aimed mainly at hobbyists. I know that world quite well. In the mid-2000s, I bought Chinese DAC boards myself and modified them with different op-amps, power supplies and output stages. I spent a particularly long time experimenting with designs based on the Wolfson WM8740.

Those projects taught me, that the same chip could produce very different results depending on the power supply, circuit-board layout and analog stage built around it.

Topping eventually took the same basic ingredients available to every manufacturer and turned them into polished, finished products with consistently strong engineering. What began with inexpensive desktop devices developed into a range covering everything from simple USB converters to ambitious full-size DACs.

Today, Topping is one of the first manufacturers I consider when someone asks me to recommend a standalone DAC. That is not because every Topping product is automatically the best choice, or because a measurement chart tells the whole story. It is because the company has become remarkably good at applying well-understood engineering principles at affordable prices.

There Is No Secret Technology

The reason Topping DACs perform so well is less mysterious than some marketing departments might prefer.

Topping has not discovered a new form of digital conversion. It uses many of the same ESS, AKM and other conversion chips available to competing manufacturers. The difference lies in how consistently the surrounding circuitry is designed.

A high-performance DAC requires more than selecting the latest flagship chip and placing its model number on the front page of the brochure. The complete implementation matters:

• Power supplies must remain quiet under real operating conditions.
• The circuit-board layout must prevent digital noise from reaching sensitive analog sections.
• The clocking and input stages must handle timing errors correctly.
• The current-to-voltage conversion stage must be linear and stable.
• The analog output stage must provide low noise, low distortion and sufficient output voltage.
• The firmware, drivers and volume control must work reliably.

None of this is exotic. It is simply difficult to execute all of it well, especially while keeping the product compact and affordable.

That consistency is Topping’s real strength. The company normally does not ask the buyer to believe in mysterious proprietary treatments or vaguely described improvements in musicality. Its better products can be tested, and the results usually show that the engineers achieved what they intended.

Why the DAC Chip Is Only Part of the Story

DAC chips are easy to market because they have recognizable model numbers. Buyers see a current ESS or AKM flagship chip and mistakenly assume that the complete product must perform at the same level.

The figures published in a chip manufacturer’s data sheet describe what the component can achieve under carefully controlled conditions. A finished DAC still has to provide suitable power, reference voltages, clocking, filtering and output circuitry.

I learned this directly through my own DIY experiments. Swapping components around the same WM8740 board could change its noise level, output behavior and subjective presentation. The conversion chip had not changed. Everything surrounding it had.

Topping’s products tend to perform well because the company treats the DAC chip as one part of a complete system rather than as the product’s entire identity.

Power-Supply Design Matters More Than Weight

Audiophiles often associate good power supplies with large transformers and heavy metal enclosures. I used to think in much the same way.

A substantial linear supply can certainly work well, but size and weight do not guarantee low noise. A modern switching supply can also provide extremely clean power when the filtering, grounding and voltage regulation inside the DAC are properly designed.

What matters is the noise that actually reaches the sensitive circuitry.

Different sections of a DAC have different requirements. Digital processors, clocks, conversion stages and analog outputs should not simply share one poorly regulated supply rail. Good designs isolate or regulate these sections so that activity in one part of the circuit does not contaminate another.

Topping has become very effective at achieving this in compact enclosures. That is one reason its small DACs can produce exceptionally low noise without the oversized external power supplies traditionally associated with high-end audio.

This also explains why adding an aftermarket linear power supply does not automatically improve a Topping DAC. If the internal regulation already rejects incoming noise effectively, replacing the supplied power source may produce no measurable or audible benefit.

PCB Layout and Grounding

A circuit diagram tells only part of the story. Two products can use similar components and still perform differently because of how those components are arranged on the circuit board.

Digital audio equipment contains processors and interfaces switching at high frequencies, while the analog output section may be dealing with signals close to the limits of measurement. Poor placement, long signal paths or careless grounding can allow digital interference to enter the analog output.

A competent layout keeps noisy digital sections away from sensitive analog circuitry, minimizes critical signal paths and controls how current returns through the ground system.

This is not visually exciting and rarely makes for a persuasive advertisement. It is, however, one of the main differences between a DAC that merely contains good components and one that performs well as a finished product.

Topping’s strongest designs show the benefits of treating the circuit board as part of the engineering rather than as a surface onto which expensive components are placed.

Clocking, USB and Jitter

Jitter describes timing variation in the digital signal. The samples may contain the correct numerical values, but they must still be converted at precisely controlled moments.

Jitter was a more serious practical concern with some early DACs and older digital interfaces. Modern asynchronous USB receivers, buffering, phase-locked loops and clock-recovery circuits have made the problem much easier to control.

Topping usually implements these established solutions competently. As a result, jitter-related artifacts in its better products tend to sit far below anything likely to be audible.

A well-designed input stage should make the DAC relatively insensitive to normal differences between competent digital sources. That is the result I want to see.

The Analog Output Stage

Digital conversion does not end when the DAC chip produces a signal.

Depending on the architecture, the output may still require current-to-voltage conversion, filtering, buffering and amplification before it can be sent to a preamplifier, integrated amplifier or pair of active speakers.

This analog section can influence noise, distortion, output impedance and maximum output level. It can also explain why two DACs using the same conversion chip do not perform identically.

Topping generally designs its output stages for transparency rather than for an intentional sonic character. That approach may not appeal to listeners who specifically want a DAC to make the system warmer or softer, but it makes sense to me.

Why Topping Measurements Are So Impressive

Independent measurements of Topping DACs often show extremely low distortion and noise. That does not happen because the company has found a way around the laws of electronics. It happens because many small engineering decisions have been handled correctly.

Several measurements are particularly useful when evaluating a DAC.

THD+N and SINAD

THD+N measures total harmonic distortion plus noise. SINAD expresses a closely related relationship between the wanted signal and everything unwanted.

These figures are valuable because they quickly expose obvious engineering weaknesses. A DAC with unusually high distortion or noise is unlikely to be accurately reproducing the incoming signal.

Once performance is already far below audible limits, however, the ranking becomes less meaningful. A DAC achieving 122 dB SINAD is not automatically a better purchase than one reaching 118 dB.

Both may be transparent in any realistic home system.

Dynamic Range and Noise

Dynamic range describes the distance between the loudest signal the DAC can produce and its residual noise floor.

Modern Topping products often provide more usable dynamic range than a normal listening room, amplifier or recording could ever require.

That is reassuring because it means the DAC itself is unlikely to become the limiting factor. It does not mean that every additional decibel will produce an audible improvement.

Linearity

Linearity shows how accurately a DAC reproduces progressively smaller signal levels.

Poor low-level linearity can cause very quiet information to deviate from its intended value. A well-designed modern delta-sigma DAC can maintain excellent linearity far below levels encountered during normal listening.

This is one of the areas in which careful implementation matters, and it is more meaningful than simply knowing which chip is installed.

Multitone Performance

A single test tone is useful, but music is not a single sine wave. Multitone testing sends many frequencies through the DAC simultaneously and gives a more demanding picture of how the product behaves with a complex signal.

A clean multitone result shows that distortion and intermodulation products remain low even when the DAC has to reproduce many frequencies at once.

Output Voltage

Output voltage deserves more attention than it normally receives.

A typical unbalanced DAC produces around 2 volts through RCA, while a balanced output often provides approximately 4 volts through XLR. Some models allow different output levels.

This matters because a louder DAC can easily appear more dynamic or detailed during an uncontrolled comparison. Even a small level difference can influence perception. DAC comparisons should therefore be level matched rather than performed at the same position on the amplifier’s volume control.

Do Better Measurements Mean Better Sound?

Good measurements tell me that the engineers controlled noise, distortion, timing and output behavior. They do not tell me everything about owning the product.

A DAC can perform superbly on a test bench and still have an irritating interface, an unreadable display, poor remote control or unreliable firmware. Another model may measure fractionally worse yet be far more pleasant to use.

This is also where I think some discussions around Topping go wrong. One side treats measurement rankings as if they were listening-test results. The other dismisses measurements completely because they do not describe every aspect of the product.

Neither position is particularly useful.

Don’t They All Seem Like the Same?

Topping offers a large number of products, and the differences between neighboring models can sometimes seem surprisingly small.

That is partly because digital conversion has become a mature technology. Once two DACs already have low noise, low distortion and competent output stages, there may be little room for dramatic improvement in basic conversion quality.

The meaningful differences are often practical:

• Balanced or unbalanced outputs
• Bluetooth support
• Input selection
• Maximum output level
• Display and controls
• Remote operation
• Digital processing and EQ
• Preamp functionality
• Size and enclosure design

This is why I would not automatically buy the model with the highest specification or the newest DAC chip.

I would buy the least expensive model that provides the functions my system actually needs.

What Topping Does Not Do Perfectly

No manufacturer deserves uncritical praise, and Topping has several weaknesses worth considering.

Too Many Models and Fast Product Changes

The product range can be difficult to follow. New models and revisions appear regularly, sometimes before the previous version feels outdated. That is good for technical progress but less attractive for owners who want their purchase to remain the current model for several years. It can also make the differences between products unnecessarily confusing. After all, what is the difference between Mark I and Mark II?

Service Depends Heavily on the Retailer

Topping does not have the same local service structure as every established European, American or Japanese audio brand.

For that reason, I pay close attention to the retailer. Buying from a reputable local or EU-based seller may cost slightly more than ordering directly from China, but returns and warranty claims are generally easier.

Usability Is Not Always as Refined

The engineering may be excellent while the display, menu structure or remote control feels comparatively ordinary.

This has improved over time, but anyone choosing between two technically transparent DACs should consider the daily ownership experience rather than concentrating only on a measurement chart.

Not Every Upgrade Is Meaningful

A new Topping flagship may measure better than an older model without creating an audible difference in a normal system.

That is what happens when a technology approaches practical transparency. Progress continues on the test bench even after the audible problem has largely been solved.

Which Topping DAC Would I Buy?

Topping’s product range changes quickly, so I prefer thinking in categories rather than treating one model as a permanent recommendation.

For a Simple and Affordable System: E30 II (positioned in the sub-$200 price class)

The E30 II represents the kind of Topping product that changed the DAC market: compact, affordable, easy to integrate and technically capable enough for most systems. I would choose it when I need a straightforward converter for an integrated amplifier, powered speakers or a secondary system and do not require balanced outputs.

It is also the natural successor to the original E30, a product that demonstrated how little money was required for accurate digital conversion.

Best for: A basic system (portable or desktop) that needs a compact, transparent standalone DAC without unnecessary features. 

Also check out my review of the Topping E30