As everyone knows im always looking to increase the quality of music by either the file formats like MQA,DSD and so forth and by incorporating as nice as i can afford nice audiophile EQUIPMENT. I have quite a bit invested and ive been trying to justify the price of this very expensive Dac against one that is not even a 1/4 the price and has never failed to outperform the supposedly better dac in anyway you try to configure it,and i absolutely hate it ,first when you spend that much money you want and expect the more expensive to be hands down better right? Well im just like anyone else I do to,but i wont ignor it any longer its just plain as day, has anyone else had this experience. are my setting wrong, are there any suggestions any one can give me that will make my PSAUDIO DSJ sound better then then a little cheap Topping D 90 se Dac . Everything i ask it to do it does ,sounds fantastic in all formats what else can i say im at a lose…help!!!
I had a Topping D90SE for a while. It seemed very well made and it worked perfectly.But I didn’t like it’s sound; it didn’t give me what I was looking for in a high fidelity DAC.
I gave it to a friend’s daughter who has been using it in her headphone system and she’s in love with it.
There’s no right or wrong in this hobby. Find what you like and go with it.
What’s upstream and downstream of the DSJ?
You might try re-installing the latest firmware update for the DS Jr.
It is rare (but not unheard of), but I understand that sometimes the code can get mucked up and impact the performance of the DAC (at least I am aware of some firmware snafus with Sr.).
Good luck.
Lumin u1 mini, node 2i ,windows pc.that was hand built by my son thats really nice ,peachtree audio grand ,accuphase, parasound, VTV, prima luna hp,Bozak concert grands,goldenear triton 1s, kef 107.2, Dunlevy se iv
Thanks
Thanks you are correct
There are different settings in the settings of the topping so that you can adjust sound settings to your liking, like brick mode and so on there are about 7 of them sorry i cant remember all the different ones.
Not long after i got the DSJ I had to send it to psaudio because the bridge would not decode MQA and while there sunlight was installed, so i kinda doubt there is a problem there,but honestly i kinda hope it is I want it to win the race so to speak, please remind me how i would go about makeing sure sunlight was correctly installed
Start here:
https://www.psaudio.com/ps-how/upgrade-directstream-operating-system/
Hope it helps,
SEE
Thanks
Remember, taste is a matter of taste. For everyone else, there are measurements.
Thx, nice rig, just trying to get a sense of what you like
My digital - dedicated PC-Fidelizer,-Audirvāna 3.5-Heimdal 2 usb-matrix 2-RAL hdmi-DSJ sounds really good to my analog centric ears
Perhaps you just like the sound delivered by the Topping better?
Possible but when you pay that much more the more expensive should better
Not necessarily to everyone’s ears!
There’s a guy in my local audiophile group who is 100% driven by measurements. He buys based solely on measurements and he truly believes that the best measurements produce the highest fidelity.
His system sounds awful to me, dry, sterile, characterless. Thankfully, we have choices.
Thanks i can agree on that statement, i too have a friend like that but i dont follow the path of measurement or cost, i follow what my ears tell me,now i do believe in giving different products every chance to win my admiration and for many ive found out your just paying a high price for the name then there are company’s that really do try to bring quality at an affordable price, those are the ones we should support
Nice herd of speakers 
It’s all subjective. When you find a cheaper component that sounds better than a more expensive one, be happy
enjoy your music, sell the more expensive one and be happy with the extra cash…
I had a DS DAC. I got an Aries II from Denafrips for my secondary office system. I figured I should try it on my main system… perhaps I had had a drink or two? In that system to my ears it sounded better than the DS DAC 
in terms of clarity. The soundstage was still smaller and perhaps a bit flatter but instrument separation was better on the Aries II to my ears. It blew my mind because the DS DAC is so much more expensive than the Aries II and it does sound quite good. These things happen. It sent me down a rabbit hole which lead me to dCS. I am happy. My wallet is not. Moral of the story is trust your ears. Or don’t. Sometimes it saves your wallet sometimes not.