Topping D90 III Sabre DAC Reviewed

One of the most exciting yet volatile categories in the audiophile hobby includes DACs and streamers. Without question, the Chi-Fi brands have disrupted this category in ways that can only be seen as good for mainstream consumers and value-seeking audiophiles alike. External DACs was a category, especially on the very high end, where audiophiles went to the cutting edge of technology, but often quickly bled out, thanks to quickly changing and non-upgradable ultra-expensive DACs. That isn’t the case today, for a number of reasons. Some modern DACs today thankfully are capable of being significantly upgraded to stay bleeding-edge in terms of performance. Other digital-to-analog converters, like the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC (buy at Amazon from this link), are so affordable yet so high-performance that any potential losses are negligible. That’s an audiophile win-win, no matter how you look at it.

The Topping D90 III Sabre DAC, a small but mighty digital-to-analog converter, is half of the width of a traditional 17-inch wide component, which is not unlike many of today’s hottest and most aspirational DACs and streamers. The unit is packed wonderfully and is made with a better build quality than one might expect from a component at this price point. The Topping D90 III Sabre DAC has all of the most compelling digital input options that you would expect (think: I2S via HDMI or AES-EBU inputs), as well as digital preamp functionality. The DAC handles even the most sophisticated hi-res signals with ease, and can connect wirelessly to, say, powered speakers or headphones and present music in HD. And, to ice the cake, the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC is fully balanced in terms of its analog signal output, although it has unbalanced RCA outputs, too. Here’s where things get crazy … there are people I know who have a ton of experience in audio (and some who have a few pretty impressive Grammies) who think that this Topping D90 III Sabre DAC is one of the best DACs that money can buy. Period. Talk about lofty expectations in a world where companies like Spain’s WADAX manufactures DACs that cost $500,000 – not $899? So, somebody has to put the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC to the test to see if the extreme hype is justified, right? That somebody is me … so let’s do this. 

What Makes the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC So Special? 

• The Topping D90 III Sabre DAC uses one of the best DAC chip sets in the market today in the ES9039SPRO. In fact, they use two of them (one for each channel). There are some (think: mainly audiophile forums) who think that every DAC with a good chip is a top-performing DAC. Sadly, they are wrong, as you can try shoe-horning an AMG Mercedes twin turbo-charged powerplant into a VW Golf, but will never get the same performance from when it was in the Benz. With that said, using prime material is a good start to design around a highly capable DAC chip set. Topping has done just that and at these prices, they deserve some praise. 
• The Topping D90 III Sabre DAC is a fully-balanced DAC. Some audiophile components at $899 sometimes come with XLR outputs that aren’t actually balanced, but you get the real deal here with the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC, and we like that. 
• The biggest factor in the performance of a DAC (or any digital audio component) is the power supply, and the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC offers a solid one, considering the size and price of the component.
• The next place that DACs differentiate themselves is via jitter reduction, and the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC uses a processor that deals with clocking issues to get a reportedly very impressive STN (signal to noise) ratio and very quiet, measured jitter.
• If you are a computer audio user, connecting via HD to the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC is a snap. 
• There are input options like SP-DIF (coax), I2S (via HDMI) AES-EBU, USB, and so on.These are the options you expect on more expensive components, thus you can see how the aggressive comparisons get made – and for good reason. 
• There is a simple remote included that is Bluetooth and works like a champion, even from around a corner or behind a door. 
• I’ve asked people to explain to me what Lenbrook (the parent company of NAD, PSB and BlueSound) is planning on doing with the latest failed audio format experiment in MQA, and nobody has been able to make sense of it. I am sure that there is a long-term plan for MQA, and we will report on it when we see the path forward. For now, many audiophile components don’t support MQA anymore, just as many silver disc players don’t support, say, DVD-Audio disc playback, as they all are failed HD audio formats. The Topping D90 III Sabre DAC can convert a file in MQA with ease, which is just another check box in the “yes” category for the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC. 
• The Topping D90 III Sabre DAC comes in silver or black, which isn’t always the case with lower-cost, Chi-Fi-type components. The DAC is also a pretty-looking, well-made component. Topping didn’t go cheap on the metal work on the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC by any means. 

Why Should You Care About the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC?

Too much energy in the audiophile hobby goes into gear that even the well-above-average earner can ever dream of affording. The Topping D90 III Sabre DAC is a component that any audiophile can own and, if they do, they are going to be rewarded.

Equally at home in a traditional audiophile rig or as a high-end front end for a headphone or wireless speaker system, the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC can be both a converter and a modest preamp, without providing much in the way of compromises. Even for those with a solid internal DAC in, say, their stereo preamp, you likely will find a performance improvement by using the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC as your digital-to-analog converter. 

Some Things You Might Not Like About the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC 

• Stereotypically, Chi-Fi has its advantages, but local dealer support isn’t one of them, as the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC is more of a DIY project. With that said, setup was a total piece of cake and took me well under 15 minutes to get my review sample up and totally rocking – with no support needed. Then again, if you need help, you aren’t getting U.S.-based live chat or phone support. You are likely going to have to email China for help. Not that you won’t get it, but this isn’t as seamless as other, much more expensive audiophile solutions in the digital world. 
• The small form factor keeps the cost down, but it physically doesn’t match other more full-sized audiophile components that might be in your rack. Does this affect the sound? No, I am being picky here and, in my case, the DAC is behind a closed door, so who cares what it looks like? I still do, but it isn’t THAT big of a deal. 
• The included remote is a nice touch, especially with a Bluetooth connection, but it is not a backlit remote. This also wasn’t a deal breaker for me, as most of my streamers have a control for levels, so I set the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC for unity gain and left it there. I didn’t have to, but that meant that I didn’t have to use the remote very much. Another thoughtful feature is the inclusion of a 12v trigger, which could be useful in a CI (custom installation) configuration like mine, using Crestron Home. I never had the programmer over, but if I did, we could have dialed in control of the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC to even higher levels. 

Listening to the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC … 

The whole premise of this review is somewhat elevated, because of the critics making such hyperbolic claims as, “You are crazy if you need a higher-end DAC than the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC,” so I put this $899 digital audiophile component in a system complete with electronics and sources from Boulder, Pass Labs, Bricasti, PS Audio, Benchmark Media, and more. That’s the big leagues for an $899 DAC, but this little guy didn’t back down. I see what the pundits were talking about, because the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC can hang. No question, this is a very capable DAC, regardless of the money. 

The latest Peter Gabriel album, i/o, gets mixed reviews creatively from my Gabriel-fan friends, but everybody can agree that the recording quality is drastically better than past recordings. The track “The Court (Bright-Side Mix)” has a lot of contrast between loud and quiet passages that makes for a very dramatic demo with a very familiar vocal sound. In the first verse, with the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC in my reference system, there were two things that jumped out at me. First, the bass was spectacularly powerful and accurate from the first note. Unlike other DACs that I’ve auditioned recently, the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC could hang with the Bricasti M3 $6,000 pro audio DAC. That’s tall praise, people. The second thing that jumped out at me was the width of the soundstage, as it was sonically wide open, thus able to present a well-balanced overall musical picture as the engineer, producer, and artists intended. On “The Court,” you can hear different passages with overdubbed Peter Gabriel vocals. In the outro of the song, around 3:20, the echoey vocals resonate way outside of the exterior physical borders of my Bowers & Wilkins 802 D4 speakers. 

So, I can hear your question already … If this DAC at $899 can hang with an A-Lister like the $6,000 Bricasti – then maybe it is as good as some of the pundits say it is? Maybe it is a giant killer? Let’s not get carried away just yet … When playing “Hey You” from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, you can hear a lot of the tight bass and open soundstage. However, as it is higher-frequency material, you don’t get all of the same liquid-sounding and accurate highs. In comparison to the $1,895 Benchmark Media DAC3 B, the guitar picking on the opening verse just comes across a little bit more tinny or thin on the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC. For the big David Gilmour guitar solo, the $6,000 Bricasti M3 DAC delivered a less fatiguing but still-somehow-even-more-scorching Strat sound. The Topping D90 III Sabre DAC delivered in the low-end weight and the width of the soundstage, when comparing this more entry-level DAC with ones costing many times more and plucked right from the racks of the world’s best recording studios. For a fraction of the price, you are getting most of the playback performance of the big-boy DACs costing many times more. You might not get the Nth degree of sound, especially in the high end, but you get most of it, and for pennies on the dollar. 

I’ve been using “Gold Dust Woman” from Fleetwood Mac’s iconic Rumours album as a wonderfully-recorded, open and highly nuanced song that shows off so much about what a DAC does in the entirety of an audiophile system. With the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC in the loop, there was good presence in the lower frequencies, and the openness of the sound was comparable with the big-boy, more expensive DACs. The main difference sonically between the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC and more expensive DACs, like the PS Audio, Benchmark Media DAC3 B, and the aforementioned Bricasti, was the resolution of details in the higher frequencies. What you get with the many-times-more pricey DACs is a less twangy or slightly sound in the high end. On some of the somewhat “flangy” guitar sounds (on an acoustic guitar, but with a flanger “stop pedal” in the signal) the Topping comes across a little more forward-sounding in the highs, but almost everything else sounds quite comparable to the uber-pricey DACs. Basically, you are getting 90-plus percent (maybe even a higher percentage) of the performance of the solidly four-figure DACs for a small fraction of the price. That is truly amazing in terms of not just value, but in general performance.

Will the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC Hold Its Value? 

Who cares? It is $899, which isn’t an inconsequential audiophile investment, but it is also not the type of audiophile component that you need to get a lot of value from after, say, five years of use. The industry reputation of the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC is stellar, and there are tens of thousands of people who you could sell this DAC to if/when you make a move to something fancier or more refined, so you will get some of your money back. This DAC could easily find its way into a smaller system in your house or get donated to a young audiophile on his or her way up, too, thus providing value in a more obscure but unique way. In the end, it is hard to see how you can’t get $899 worth of value out of a DAC that is this good and priced so fairly. 

What Is the Competition for the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC?

While not a Chi-Fi brand at all, Schiit provides a similar high-value proposition for lower-cost audiophile products made/designed in California and Texas. At $799, the Schiit Bifrost, which uses four of the DAC chips found in their top-of-the-line Yggdrasil DAC, is a bit more expensive. Schiit goes about audio in a little different way, but also comes up with some great performance for the money. Their five-year warranty is also a solid perk. 

The Chord Qutest DAC at $1,595 is an even smaller form factor DAC from the United Kingdom, and one of digital audio’s better-known brands. The build quality on the Chord Qutest is second to none in its class. Its ease of use is fantastic as well. Sonically, the Chord DAC is perhaps best described as a little more polite than the Topping, especially when you toy with the Chord’s user-selectable filters. The Topping has a few filters too but nearly all of my listening is done without the filter (think: EQ) engaged, so that I could hear the sound (or lack thereof) of the component without any EQ present. 

Greg Handy has recently reviewed a few really compelling DAC streamers in this rough price range, and while they do a lot more work with internal streamer products, like the Eversolo DMP-A6 ($1,299 – read the review) or the Orchard Audio Pecan Pi+ ($795 – read the review), the Eversolo brings some of that HIFI Rose LED screen sexy to a DAC streamer that, like the Topping D90 III Sabre, gets a lot of love in the forums. The Orchard Audio is a very stripped-down unit that gets a lot of its design budget going into the chips and power supplies, as there is no LED in this version of the unit (Orchard does make one with a screen). 

Final Thoughts on the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC…

Since I was born, I’ve been a big hockey fan, and every once in a while, a young player comes along who is truly special. Such people are called a “generational talent,” and you know the names of many of these players, such Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby, McDavid, and a very few others. Often, when they are coming up as very young players who are solidly in their teenage years, they get to play with older/bigger young hockey players, which becomes an interesting barometer for these uber-talented athletes. That’s how I feel about the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC in terms of its place in the hobby. It is a really talented player with a ton of potential that plays for the league minimum, but performs like an All-Star. 

The Topping D90 III Sabre DAC is a truly fantastic performer at its price, and is capable of standing with audiophile digital-to-analog converters that cost many times more. The design of this component is thoughtful, but focused on delivering the most in the places where the most performance comes from. Other window dressing is skipped to be able to provide such an accurate DAC for such a reasonable price.

There are tens of thousands of audiophiles who would benefit from the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC in their systems. Those systems can range in configuration from a traditional audiophile two-channel system to a compact desktop system, as well as for someone using headphones (even wireless) who loves themselves some music in HD. Few DACs performing at this level are priced anywhere near the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC. This is a champion product in terms of value, as well as performance, which is why it gets so much well-deserved praise. Count me as a fan of Chi-Fi, and put the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC at the top of the list for reasons why. Those saying that you “don’t need any better” don’t fully understand the subtlety that comes from DACs costing four figures more, but understand this … the Nth degree of performance that the big boys deliver that the Topping D90 III Sabre DAC doesn’t cost you a pretty penny, because this is one hell of a DAC, regardless of price. When you factor in the value that is on the table here, you’ve got an unquestioned winner. Before I send this DAC back, I am going to pass it along to a few other FutureAudiophile.com reviewers, so that they too can hear the magic that you can get in a DAC for under $1,000. They are going to be as blown away as I was, I bet. You will feel the same way, too.