Audiophilepure

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/topping-d900-dac-review-r1393/

With the ABX testing out of the way, I put on “Hairshirt” from Darcy Proper’s superb hi-res remaster of R.E.M.’s Green. There’s little doubt that the D900 and XSP are tonally similar. Both are clean, modern-sounding Delta-Sigma DACs with clearly defined transients and ample treble extension. Still, it wasn’t hard to tell which one I preferred. The D900 imparts a touch more sibilance to Michael Stipe’s voice, flattens Mike Mills’s nimble bass, and over-emphasizes the leading edge of Peter Buck’s mandolin strings. The Topping also stages slightly closer to the listener and exhibits a hint of dynamic compression. While those traits might normally exaggerate lower-mixed instruments, the left-panned chime actually sounds more recessed through the Topping, with less pronounced echo, suggesting that the D900 just doesn’t resolve as well as the Matrix. That impression is reinforced by the Topping’s somewhat muddy low end. Are these differences enormous? No. Would they jump out in casual listening? Probably not. But they’re clearly audible under careful, level-matched evaluation.

Next up is the title track from the Mobile Fidelity SACD of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Texas Flood. As on “Hairshirt,” the D900 heavily emphasizes leading transient edges, rendering the XSP— whose transient presentation is hardly rounded or polite — the more nuanced of the two. On “Texas Flood,” this difference is most evident on Chris Layton’s snare. It’s a punishing crack through the D900, which also seems to boost the snare’s reverb. The Matrix, by contrast, better balances the snare’s wires and body and allows more space for its natural decay. Tommy Shannon’s bass is flabbier and less defined through the Topping as well. Most disappointingly, the D900 robs SRV’s guitars of the tonal nuance clearly audible through the Matrix, which makes it easy to hear that he’s using a mix of amplifiers. Finally, the Topping adds a hint of grain to Vaughan’s lead vocal, which remains smooth and unforced through the XSP.

I was fortunate to have Wattson Audio’s $4995 Madison LE streamer in for review while I wrote this. At twice the price, the Madison LE is certainly more refined, with truer tone, less audible congestion, and a deeper soundstage. That said, doubling the price did not, in fact, double the quality. For me and my audio geek buddies, the Madison LE offered a clearly audible advantage but, without a direct comparison, I doubt most folks would have a beef with anything sound-wise from the Orchard Audio piece.



The PecanPi+ is about the same price as Bluesound’s NODE ICON, and the PecanPi+ offers about the same step size in sound quality compared to the ICON as going from the Pi to the Madison LE. What that tells me is that Orchard Audio has paid better attention to those design factors that affect final fidelity, rather than relying on fancy packaging and building their own rather clumsy operating system as Bluesound has done. Ayzenshtat cleverly let the Volumio team do the heavy lifting for an operating system, so he could concentrate on the audio path. Given that he’s one guy compared to who knows how many bodies on the BluOS team says a lot to me about working smarter and not letting the marketing team drive a product’s development.