June 14, 2021Audio Product Reviews

TOPPING D90LE vs D90SE vs D90 Comparison Chart

HiFi audio is an industry known for constant innovation, and the same is true of TOPPING, one of the most popular manufacturers of DACs and amps. They've iterated their flagship D90 DAC three times to date. While everyone loves an upgrade, consumers can get overwhelmed by the number of available models.

How to Choose

Choosing between these models is actually pretty simple. The D90 is no longer available, and so your choices are narrowed down to only two options: the D90SE or the D90LE. Between these two, there's actually only one difference: the D90SE features MQA; the D90LE does not. The models are otherwise identical.

MQA, or Master Quality Authenticated, is a lossy audio compression format popularized by TIDAL. Unlike other formats, it is a proprietary system and requires a licensing fee to implement. This explains the ~$80 price difference between the models.

And that's it! We've included a comparison chart below to highlight the differences between the models, but to be honest the choice is pretty simple: to MQA or not to MQA?


	TOPPING D90 DAC	TOPPING D90SE DAC	TOPPING D90LE DAC
Price	$749.99 USD (Standard) $849.99 USD (MQA)	$899	$719.10
Dimensions	8.74 x 6.3 x 1.77" 4.5 x 22.2 x 16 (cm)	8.7 x 6.2 x 1.7" 22.2 x 16 x 4.5cm	8.7 x 6.2 x 1.7" 22.2 x 16 x 4.5cm
Weight	6.6 (lbs) 2.9 (kg)	6.6lbs 2.9kg	6.6lbs 2.9kg
D/A Chip	AKM AK4499EQ	ESS SABRE ES9038PRO	ESS SABRE ES9038PRO
Inputs	USB IIS LVDS (HDMI) Optical Coaxial SPDIF AES/EBU Bluetooth	USB IIS Optical Coaxial AES Bluetooth	USB IIS Optical Coaxial AES Bluetooth
Outputs	Balanced XLR Single Ended RCA	Balanced XLR Single Ended RCA	Balanced XLR Single Ended RCA
Bluetooth	aptX HD LDAC 5.0	AAC SBC APTX APTX LL APTX HD LDAC 5.0	AAC SBC APTX APTX LL APTX HD LDAC 5.0
USB Interface	XMOS XU208 (Standard) XMOS XU216 (MQA)	XMOS XU216	XMOS XU216
Sampling Rates	USB: PCM up to 32bit,768kHz / Native DSD up to DSD512 / DSD DoP up to DSD256 IIS: PCM up to 32bit,768kHz / DSD up to DSD512 Coaxial, Optical, AES: PCM up to 24bit 192kHz	USB: PCM up to 32bit,768kHz / Native DSD up to DSD512 / DSD DoP up to DSD256 IIS: PCM up to 32bit,768kHz / DSD up to DSD1024 Coaxial, Optical, AES: PCM up to 24bit 192kHz, DSD (DOP) DSD64	USB: PCM up to 32bit,768kHz / Native DSD up to DSD512 / DSD DoP up to DSD256 IIS: PCM up to 32bit,768kHz / DSD up to DSD1024 Coaxial, Optical, AES: PCM up to 24bit 192kHz, DSD (DOP) DSD64
Dynamic Range	128 dB @1kHz	134dB @1kHz	134dB @1kHz
THD+N	<0.00015%	<0.00005%	<0.00005%
SNR	127dB @1kHz	134dB @1kHz	134dB @1kHz
Crosstalk	-141dB @1kHz	-139dB @1kHz	-139dB @1kHz
MQA	Yes	Yes	No