Thanks dude I didn’t think it was going to spiral that deep my bad.
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You’re a new dad. Worry spirals are part of your job!!
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Super mega stack!!!
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It’s like Voltron. 
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Interesting review
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A thoughtful and well written review. And extremely positive about the D90. He compares to DACS several times it’s price.
A couple things I’d like to add. Be recommends keeping it at max volume if using as a DAC only. The D90 has two modes, a Pre-Amp mode with volume control and a DAC mode without. DAC mode bypasses the internal volume controls and some say has a theoretical advantage. I doubt it’s audible though.
Also, he says that it’s the same size as the Benchmark HPA. It’s actually slightly wider , as you can see in the picture. My OCD could not handle having the wider component on top like that.
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This portion of the review from the very end asked by on of his subscribers is what I was hoping for and now I am getting excited to get the D90 connected to my THX amp.
”As far as the D90: does it have that “analogue” like ease signature that some AKM 4490 dacs (namely SMSL M9, which despite its shockingly low price somehow manages to produce the most analogue sound of any “sanely” priced dacs on the market that I ve heard) have, not the type softness, or the artificial, caramel like “velvety” sound that lot of folks mistake for the analogue signature, but that ease and even-ness, that comes from a great turntable, or high quality analogue tape recording? Please note that I come strictly from two channel speaker based listener’s point of view, as headphones based system is a different ball game of sorts… Thanks
Reply:
[Sandu V.]
Yes, it has that easy going nature, even more pronounced than any AK4490 designs. Add a much better speed, impact and slam and you will get a D90 as a result 
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So who is using this DAC with Qobuz? I am still getting an audible drop when the internal clock is changing quality of the song during my playlist, which was one of the reasons I wanted to swap out my other DaC? If you do have this DAC and you are using it with just Qobuz not any other software such as Audirvana or Roon please tell me what your Qobuz settings are to not get this audible drop? @angstorms you said you use with Qobuz without issue what’s the secret? @Torq I think you said you tested it without issue as well any tips on what I could be doing wrong?
Watch the front of the DAC, to see if happen on 16 bit and 24 bit 44.1 kHz source, you have the maximum listen quality set to Hi-res 24 bit / up to 96kHz.
I only see this on some 16bit/ 44.1 kHz songs ( Ben Iver Holocene jumps to 96kHz) 24 bit 44.1 kHz. songs that upconverted to 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz, they start 44.1 kHz, you can see the switch on front panel of the DAC.
If the source is 24 bit 96 kHz like Talking Heads “Burning Down the House” or New Order “Dream Never End” it does not jump in first few seconds
What it looks like is the Qobuz app issue.
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I had no issues, even testing with the native client - with a playlist that switches bit-rate/depth on every track, on macOS 10.15.3. That’s just something I did as a test though as I don’t use the native clients for actual listening.
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Dropping when it goes from 96 to 88.2 just now, and 88.2 back to 96, and also from 96 to 44.1, and 44.1 to 192, it’s happening every time. It’s such a pity this DAC sounds incredible compared to the SU8… 
so now I am in the same situation it appears that the only way to eliminate it is through audirvana…
I check it on Qutest tonight as well
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@MRHifiReviews. It is not DAC; it is the logic in the Native Qobuz application for selecting DAC sample rate frequency, I can get it to do it on Qutest, but I have to try harder.
Back to D90,
Here is a test Qobuz users can try.
As the song play, Document the sample rate frequencies for each song, as shown on the D90.
Here is the Qobuz Public Playlist to use https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/2796716 for testing.
First set Maximum Listening Quality to “Hi-res 24 bit/192 kHz.”
Here is what I am seeing
1st “Many Horror.” - 192 kHz
American Dream - 44.1kHz, it picks the wrong sample rate frequency should be 192 kHz. - you can force it by down selecting then up selecting a quality level.
2nd “Many Horror” 44.1 kHz
Holocene 44.1 kHz
“It serves you right to suffer …” 44.1 kHz
Old Pine 44.1 kHz
3rd “Many Horror” 44.1kHz
Now go back and just play each “Many Horror”.
- 192 kHz
- 44.1 kHz
- 44.1 kHz
It is a metadata issue which is being written against the cache
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Thanks for digging into it for me, this DAC sounds great paired with my THX amp, I will just bite the bullet and buy Audirvana if you can get The Qutest to do it then I’m sure all Dacs will as well. Interestingly enough you’re the first person to figure it out, and I suspect it’s software issue with the desktop application only as the IOS app doesn’t have this issue whatsoever. Thank you @angstorms for taking the time to look into it. I am really happy with the sound from D90 it definitely has a much better and sophisticated delivery of sound then the SMSL SU8 it seems to have a wider soundstage, smoother delivery, more detail, while not sounding as harsh, I am really happy with the upgrade and Audirvana will fix the audible dropouts.
It’s really hard to say honestly what DAC I like better this or the Bifrost2. Since I haven’t A/B them with the same amps, I would have to spend at least 6-8 hours going through my track list back and forth between the two units to determine. My initial impression is that this D90 is a great match for the THX amps or at least my SMSL SP200 THX. I will give more thoughts as I get more time with it.
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I sent Qubuz a bug report for this and what everyone is calling drop out issue, I think they are linked. hopefully, they can repo the issue and get a fix out.
I am testing D90 on the SPL amp today to figure this out.
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This is a Thank You! From the community for taking time to figure this out, as I am sure several people (including myself) really appreciate this.
Thank You @angstorms!
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No problem.
I already pulled down Audirvana to test it, It correctly plays all the songs in the test sequence, you can click back and forth and songs are correctly set on the D90. Wow, does that app have a lot to learn about Proper UI design and layout!
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Yeah Audirvana is fantastic for fixing the dropout issue and sounds good, so is the D90 audibly so far need to put it through all my tracks to test more.
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