Both, on paper, claim great technical performance and features, and certainly the Pre90 lived up to the claims, performing well in my system and on the test bench.

Both occupy the same clean, trim enclosure and sport the same crisply legible display. The firstthe Pre90 analog stereo preampand this eight-channel DAC share many features, many good and some less good. This is the second Topping audio device I have reviewed in Stereophile. All these are minor, and they can fade in significance based on the DM7's performance. Finally, it includes a master volume control and individual channel gain controls (all with 0.5dB resolution), but the finicky up/down buttons on the front panel dictate the use of the included remote for volume control.

Its eight analog outputs are fully balanced, but they are TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) phone jacks, which are more widely used in pro audio most audiophiles will require adapters. It employs the highly capable and respected ES-9038PRO DAC chip, ESS's flagship. The Topping DM7 DAC ($599.99) is a high-resolution, eight-channel DAC that supports PCM and DSD sources but will not handle any of the common Dolby/DTS codecs.

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