A cable with this connecter at one end and a USB A connection at the other is supplied so the E30 can either be powered by one of the umpteen USB charger plugs you’ve accrued over the years or directly from a suitable USB device. Power for the E30 is 5V DC - that is to say USB voltage but the E30 actually receives this power on a circular pin connection. Once again though, this is being offered for £115. It is also worth reiterating that the bulk of commercially available material tops out at 192Khz - there’s no burning need for more decoding than this. Now, for the avoidance of doubt, these are figures are not revelatory it’s been over five years since we saw that Chord Mojo which offered 768kHz decoding and a few devices we’ve reviewed in recent years have offered DSD512 too. This hardware allows the E30 to decode stereo PCM at sample rates up to 32/768kHz and DSD512. Hopefully, the supply of these devices will improve over the next few months as the damage is repaired. Topping has managed to secure the parts it needs to keep making E30s at this price which is no mean feat. Earlier this year Asahi Kasei Microdevices was severely damaged by fire and this has put the squeeze on the supply of their components. It’s also one that seems to have survived 2020 too. Unlike key rivals, the E30 offers multiple inputs It’s an astonishingly comprehensive one for the asking price. You can find plenty of devices that combine these components and there are still more that offer a higher specification but you then need to glance back to the top of the review and that £115 price tag. Nothing here is truly unprecedented (I apologise for using the de facto word of 2020 there but it is the correct one for the job). The USB connection uses an XMOS XU208 USB interface for communication.
Decoding is via a AK4493 DAC which is joined by an AK4118 interface module (which provides the required interface for the coax and optical input. The E30 is built around a duo of components from AKM.
AMAZON DIGITAL TO ANALOG AUDIO CONVERTER PC
Here is a DAC that can take a signal from your PC source and handle optical from your TV (and, if you were minded to, bolster the sound of an elderly CD player too).Īnd the word ‘bolster’ isn’t used in the spirit of blind optimism either. Those extra inputs put the E30 in a slightly different category though. Topping does make a single input DAC incidentally in the form of the D10s and this is available for £90. As noted, this is nothing spectacular in itself but it’s worth noting that the two DACs that have been reviewed in this price point before The Audioquest Dragonfly Black and iFi Zen DAC are both single input devices. It offers you one USB, one toslink and one coax input that are made available to a stereo RCA output. The E30 is a three input DAC with digital volume control, allowing you to use it as a preamp should you wish (with caveats that we’ll come to). Pretty much everything the company makes seems to be united in costing considerably less than you imagine it should. They now make an extensive range of products that include DACs, headphone amplifiers and a compact stereo amplifier. They are Chinese and have been in existence since 2008. Topping is one of a few companies in recent years across a few different disciplines, that has gone from seemingly nothing through to being a frequently considered option.
The E30 incorporates a display- seen here in preamp mode What can you expect for this level? Interestingly, this is also one of the most requested products I’ve ever had so I guess we ought to see what is what. What I’m saying is that this is a fully functioning DAC that occupies a price point that, depending on your views on the fleeting nature of our existence, may not even be in the discretionary spending category. Obviously, it includes all the things you might expect but there are a fair few that might be seen to be of less immediate worth including (but not limited to), a pen (this has happened twice in fact), a record, a single kitchen knife (which I no longer own), and last but by no means least, a number of nights out which, when I consider that I’m not exactly a ‘private table and champagne’ kind of night out person, might reflect on why I can remember so few of them.
Now, I may be about to reveal more about myself than is wise but I’ve idly listed things I have spent more than £115 on. That’s the price from a UK distributor too something that most AVForums product reviews are conditional on there being one of. What serves to fire the E30 up the ranks in interest stakes is that it delivers on its specification and format handling for £115. Its format handling, while extensive, is also not ground breaking. The specification is not, in the context of the third decade of the 21 stĬentury, terribly remarkable. The Topping E30 is a compact multi input DAC.
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