D90SE vs D70s vs M400: TOPPING & SMSL DAC Comparison

June 15, 2021

The D90SE is here, and as soon as the confetti clears we can get on with the fun part: ruthless comparison. Time to throw it in the ring with the SMSL M400 and TOPPING D70s DAC to see how it stacks up!


	TOPPING D90SE DAC	SMSL M400 DAC	TOPPING D70s DAC
Price	$899	$859	$649.99
Dimensions	8.7 x 6.2 x 1.7" 22.2 x 16 x 4.5cm	8.46 x 1.7 x 8.66 (in) 21.5 x 4.3 x 22 (cm)	9.8 x 7.6 x 1.9 (in) 25 x 19.5 x 5 (cm)
Weight	6.6 (lbs) 2.9 (kg)	3.4 (lbs) 1.5 (kg)	4.1 (lbs) 1.9 (kg)
D/A Chip	ESS SABRE ES9038PRO	AKM AK4499	AKM AK4497 (2x)
Inputs	USB IIS Optical Coaxial AES Bluetooth	USB IIS LVDS (HDMI) Optical Coaxial Bluetooth	USB Optical Coaxial AES IIS Bluetooth
MQA	Yes	Yes	Yes
Outputs	Balanced XLR Single Ended RCA	Single-ended RCA Balanced XLR	Balanced XLR Single Ended RCA
Bluetooth	AAC SBC APTX APTX LL APTX HD LDAC 5.0	AAC SBC UAT APTX aptX HD LDAC 5.0	AAC SBC APTX APTX LL APTX HD LDAC 5.0
USB Interface	XMOS XU216	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 DSD1024 Coaxial, Optical, AES: PCM up to 24bit 192kHz	USB: PCM up to 44.1bit 768kHz / DSD 2.8224 to 22.5792MHz IIS: PCM up to 44.1bit 768kHz / DSD 2.8224 to 22.5792MHz Coaxial, Optical, AES: PCM up to 44.1bit 192kHz	USB: 44.1 kHz – 768 kHz / 16 Bit – 32 Bit; DSD64–DSD51(Native); DSD64–DSD256 (Dop); MQA: 44.1kHz-384kHz/16bit-32bit IIS: PCM up to 44.1kHz-768kHz/16bit-32bit and DSD: DSD64-DSD512 (native) Coaxial, Optical, AES: 44.1kHz–192 kHz/16 Bit–32 Bit
Dynamic Range	134 dB	131dB	127dB
THD+N	<0.00005%	<0.000058%	0.0001%
SNR	134dB @1kHz	131dB @1kHz	127dB @1kHz