Soundnews has very interesting and verbose reviews, but I would take them as seriously as a Harry Potter book. Both of these stacks will be basicallyttransparent, even with the 3rd harmonic issue on the SU-9 messing some stuff up. Due to the issue with the SU-9 and the lack of communication from SMSL regarding a fix for the affected devices, I would personally say go with the Topping stack. Although it is not free of faults [playing music at 384kHz may result in very audible artifacts], at least the company is communicative and claims to be working on a solution already.teoboss said:read the review here : //soundnews.net amplifier and source
ps : differences are really light, but it seems that smsl is a little bit better [but I think that for me it would be not possible to ear any difference ...]Click to expand...
@dan2021 I also went with the 30Pro stack instead of the cheaper Topping options. In my case, I needed two analoge inputs on the amp [DAC + Phono] and didn't really wanted to fiddle with adapters. This stack is pretty much the cheapest that fits that bill.
aandres_gm said:Soundnews has very interesting and verbose reviews, but I would take them as seriously as a Harry Potter book. Both of these stacks will be basicallyttransparent, even with the 3rd harmonic issue on the SU-9 messing some stuff up. Due to the issue with the SU-9 and the lack of communication from SMSL regarding a fix for the affected devices, I would personally say go with the Topping stack. Although it is not free of faults [playing music at 384kHz may result in very audible artifacts], at least the company is communicative and claims to be working on a solution already.
@dan2021 I also went with the 30Pro stack instead of the cheaper Topping options. In my case, I needed two analoge inputs on the amp [DAC + Phono] and didn't really wanted to fiddle with adapters. This stack is pretty much the cheapest that fits that bill.Click to expand...
I confirm all the good I can about topping support
After one day I have a question, I write them an email, in the meanwhile I found the "answer" on the web [it was a driver / settings "problem"] but the day after [due to the fuse] I found them reply, very good
The very best, as amp, would be one with balanced input AND balanced output, but in this case the cheaper one was the topping A90 , out of budget for me [and even out of dimensions for my desktop]
aandres_gm said:Soundnews has very interesting and verbose reviews, but I would take them as seriously as a Harry Potter book. Both of these stacks will be basicallyttransparent, even with the 3rd harmonic issue on the SU-9 messing some stuff up. Due to the issue with the SU-9 and the lack of communication from SMSL regarding a fix for the affected devices, I would personally say go with the Topping stack. Although it is not free of faults [playing music at 384kHz may result in very audible artifacts], at least the company is communicative and claims to be working on a solution already.
@dan2021 I also went with the 30Pro stack instead of the cheaper Topping options. In my case, I needed two analoge inputs on the amp [DAC + Phono] and didn't really wanted to fiddle with adapters. This stack is pretty much the cheapest that fits that bill.Click to expand...
I am far away from big city, so it is not easy for me to listen amps and/or dacs [and now with the covid even worse]
So I have to trust on online review, better if with similar amps / dacs, and better if more reviewer agree on the same "ranking"
I do not know if the topping D30pro/A30pro is [today] the best combo, but I am sure it is one of the best available
I will be ok for the next years