Allo Katana vs Topping 90/70 etc

[eksiil]

seeing the Topping 90 dac widely praised I wonder if anyone here is in a position to compare its (or its lesser siblings') streaming performance to the Allo Katana (+Isolator)? (the Katana being fed a wifi signal, the Topping, presumably, via USB).

many thanks

ahto

[Qwin]

That's a very specific combination so I can only speak about the D90.

I got this a few days ago, it replaces the DAC in my PS Audio Stellar GCD.
It is a very clean, detailed sound, yet very natural sounding, easy to listen to.

More neutral than the Stellar, which is big and bouncy, less detailed in comparison.

Very impressed with how the D90 performs, well built and even the packaging was well done.

It's a very good DAC, I use it just as a DAC, with the Volume control turned off/bypassed.
Using a laptop via USB at present, but end use is a Pi4 music server/streamer using Volumio.
I have the Allo Kalli i2s re-clocking hat board + the Audio GD i2s line driver, output board (HDMI socket).
Also the Audiophonics AES/EBU output hat board (Made by TeraDak).
I will be comparing these two against the USB output from the Pi4, the D90 accepts all three inputs.
USB and i2s inputs, accept native DSD up to 512 on the D90, as well as PCM capability, so you can play material of virtually any form without any conversion, using these inputs.
So at least I have the choice with this DAC.
As far as I know, AES/Coax/Toslink only works with PCM, its certainly that way on the D90.

[killie99]

I've been looking at the D90, does anyone know if is there a user guide I can download as I can't find it on the Topping website?

[Qwin]

Their Website seems to have changed in the last few days, it was under downloads.
There is a link to the PDF in Audiophonics Product webpage, under downloads here: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-with-volume/topping-d90-balanced-dac-ak4499-xmos-xu208-i2s-32bit-768khz-dsd512-bluetooth-50-black-p-14281.html

[mikeyb]

I've been looking at the D90, does anyone know if is there a user guide I can download as I can't find it on the Topping website?

Is this it?

http://www.tphifi.net/drivers/d90_user_manual.zip

Edit: ah I see Qwin beat me to it

[Firebottle]

D90 user manual here http://www.tpdz.net/newsinfo/371566.html

[mikeyb]

That's 3 copies now, one for midweek, one for the weekend and one spare.

Jeez be calling you Al or Walp soon [emoji23]

[killie99]

brilliant, I'll read all 3 this afternoon :lol:
I think the problem was I not on the main Topping page, I was on topping-audio.com which doesn't have a download section for some reason. Thanks.