TOPPING E30 II DAC: Closer Examination

I had just finished testing a few larger sources from FiiO, as well as many others in various stages of testing. As such, the TOPPING E30 II felt so small by comparison, making perfect sense for the compact desktop use case it's aiming for. The E30 II measures in at 10 x 12.5 x 3.2 cm and ~265 g, making it significantly smaller than even the TOPPING E50, that is the next step up in the company's own product line. Indeed, the E30 II reminds me more of the JDS Atom+ DAC, but the larger mass here is from the CNC machined aluminium alloy rather than the usual ABS plastic seen in smaller/more budget-friendly sources. This automatically makes the TOPPING E30 II a rare beast and that's even before we find out it comes in four colors—black, silver, blue, and red. I had asked for a color other than black to showcase this but unfortunately it appears most review samples were made in black which happens to be the most popular color based on TOPPING's sales records.

The case has a sandblasted matte finish that is cool to the touch, gets spotty with fingerprints which are easily wiped off, and feels anything but cheap. The Hi-Res Audio badge is part of the case itself and the lack of an MQA sticker is because there is no on-device MQA decoding support here, for better or for worse. I am on the former side given MQA certification would have added to the cost, and it doesn't make much sense in the more value-oriented market, but potential customers who swear by MQA need to be aware of this. On the front is a glass panel that has the TOPPING logo and E30 II marking on the left underneath, followed by an integrated display, which again is rarely seen in the price range the E30 II operates in. To the right of the display is the IR receiver port you want to aim the remote at, and a capacitive button to work through the onboard menu. Another sticker on the side again shows this is indeed the E30 II, which can be easily peeled off for a cleaner look.


The display and remote control combination comes in very handy for many things we will get into in more detail, but the crux of the TOPPING E30 II is on the back. This is where all connectivity options are found, including input and output options alike, in addition to certification logos. The E30 II only offers single-ended RCA for output, either as a preamp to active speakers, for example, or to amplifiers such as the L30 II itself. No interconnect cables are provided with the product, so you need to get your own set for the amp you pair this with—unless you purchase the E30 II/L30 II stack that comes with free RCA interconnect cables. The output connectors here come covered in silicone sleeves, and have L/R markings for the channels in addition to white/red RCA connector housings. The TOPPING E30 II is more generous on the input side with support for coaxial and optical SPDIF inputs on top of the expected USB Type-B input the provided cable works with. I expect most of our readers will use the E50 connected to a PC via USB for the digital to analog conversion, and rounding off the connectors is the 5 V plug for power with a 5 V USB power supply.


There isn't much to see on the bottom, with four small hemispherical rubber pads lifting the TOPPING E30 II up and preventing scratches to the metal case. These also minimize slippage on the desk, although the added weight helps there too. After all testing was done, I attempted to disassemble the DAC for a close internal look. Things started simply enough with the three hex head screws on the back, which had me better gauge the thickness of the aluminium used for the body. The PCB then slides out, but only so much because of the internal display connector going to the PCB via a ribbon cable. Now, I could certainly dislodge the cable, but putting it back in place would have been quite difficult, so I chose not to go any further.

Thankfully, just going as far as I had still allowed for a close examination of the primary components, including the connectors themselves. We also see the XMOS U30870C10, an XMOS XU208 USB bridge with the xCORE 32-bit 8-core microcontroller that has been used successfully for USB audio Class 2 implementations. It can pass up to 32-bit, 768 kHz PCM playback to the DAC from the USB input, in addition to DSD64 to DSD512 native playback support and/or DSD64 to DSD256 DoP playback. The optical and coaxial inputs can do up to 24-bit, 192 kHz PCM playback. There's an ST Microelectronics STM32G030CT ARM Cortex-M0+ microcontroller with 64 KB of flash memory, 8 KB RAM, and a 64 MHz CPU. The 5 V power supply is cleaned up courtesy of a discrete, low noise reference driver (LNRD) circuit. Then come the two AKM AK4493S used here to herald a return of AKM DACs to the market after the untimely factory fire three years ago. These all come together for impressive numbers, be it the THD+N of <0.00015%, SNR of 123 dB, and crosstalk of -132 dB, all at 1 kHz and on the single-ended output, and an output of 2.1 Vrms with an output impedance of 20 Ω.