TOPPING E70/E70V DACs: Closer Examination

The previous two TOPPING stacks I have reviewed used a form factor that was on the compact side for desktop use under a monitor stand, for example. I am happy that the higher end TOPPING E70 DAC and L70 amp follow this trend, albeit now we have a design that is longer than it is deeper with the E70 DAC measuring in at 200 x 138 x 44 mm. It takes up real estate on your desk thus but the landscape profile used means you can still mostly fit the stack under a stand or alongside it. At this point I decided to pull out both E70 and E70V in the same photos for easier comparisons to show the outside is far more similar than it is not. Indeed, peel off the sticker on the front and the only differentiator is the word VELVET on the bottom left corner. Both use thick CNC-machined aluminium alloy construction leading to a solid feel and increased stability on your desk, which is used because some plastic chassis sources can move around with attached cables. The TOPPING E70/E70V comes in black or silver color versions and this comes in the form of anodization of the aluminium base which in turn has a sandblasted matte finish. It feels cool to the touch but can be spotty with fingerprints which are easily wiped off.

There are the expected Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless badges on the top of the case and the lack of an MQA sticker is because there is no on-device MQA decoding support here on either device, 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 the TOPPING logo and product name, along with a glass panel that has an integrated display underneath. There is a capacitive button to the left to help work through the onboard controls if you do not wish to use the remote control and then to the right of the display is the IR receiver port for those wanting to use the remote. Then we see a volume knob at the other end with a red accent ring on this black version, and this helps confirm the preamp functionality on the E70/E70V.


The back side is where all connectivity options are found, including input and output options alike. The E70/E70V are identical here to where you are not going to miss out on the single-ended RCA or balanced dual 3-pin XLR outputs to feed to, say, an amplifier or a set of power speakers. When it comes to inputs, you get USB Type-B, coax, optical, and Bluetooth 5.1. Then we see an interesting 12 V trigger that, when connected to a compatible device using a 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm cable, can help daisy-chain the on/off signal to allow the combination to be powered on or off together. There is then the expected 3-prong power plug for the AC mains cable itself. I appreciate the tiny switch on the back too even if a larger one is better in helping more easily locate it when just feeling around the general vicinity with your fingers. It's at least all the way to the end and there are not many cables going around it! The bottom side of either DAC has a sticker rating the power input to ~20 W max in addition to hosting the various certification labels. Note the two screws here as well as the four small hemispherical rubber feet at the corners lifting up the device and preventing scratches to the chassis while adding friction against the resting surface.


After all testing was done, I attempted to disassemble the E70 DAC for a close internal look. You really only need to take out the two socket-head screws on the bottom and then two more on either end on the back panel itself. Then you can pry out the back panel and pull it out enough to note there are internal cables connecting the PCB to the front panel. At this point I did not proceed further since I had a good view of the primary components already and TOPPING helped fill in the missing pieces of this electrical engineering puzzle beginning with the internal power supply, a brand new TOPPING-brand current/voltage conversion circuit that the company says provides lower distortion and noise while taking up less space to help with the DAC's performance itself. The TOPPING E70 uses a single ESS Sabre ES9028PRO 32-bit 8-channel DAC chipset with four channels connected in a parallel configuration per side in this stereo audio application. It's getting long in the tooth now with newer and better ESS DACs already out but isn't a bottleneck in any means unless you absolutely require MQA support. The USB bridge encoder, on the other hand, is the newer XMOS XU316—a nice change from the even older XU208/216 used by most others even today. There's a STMicroelectronics STM32G030C8T6 32-bit ARM-Cortex M0+ microcontroller to aid with the E70's functionality and a Qualcomm QCC5125 Bluetooth SoC for wireless connectivity to your input device. A plastic sheet on the underside of the PCB prevents any electrical shorting from the metal chassis itself and the system overall is rated for highly impressive numbers as seen in the specifications table on the front page, as well as being independently verified by others.


The same was done with the TOPPING E70V to observe a very similar design but with a few tweaks here and there. TOPPING went with for a low-noise voltage reference power supply here and next to it is the new AKM flagship AK4499EXEQ 2-channel DAC chipset that uses AKM's VELVETSOUND technology, hence the E70 VELVET being the product name here. It is paired with an AK4191EQ delta-sigma DAC modulator for digital noise reduction and oversampling processing to where this combination is certainly more expensive than the ES9028PRO—expect to see the E70V costing more than the E70. The rest of the hardware is the same down to the use of the XMOS XU316, the STMicroelectronics microcontroller, and the Qualcomm wireless SoC. This configuration also leads to extremely impressive performance, albeit slightly worse for measurement-heads, and also has been independently confirmed to match the reported values.