Thank you for your opinion and impression!
Hi! I am actually on similar boat with you, this year i tried a lot of different dacs, like: Ares 2, Bifrost 2, Smsl M400, SMSL SU-9, cheaper Allo revolution, Aune X8, smsl M8, Little Dot dac 1, Topping E30, Schiit Modius Currently i own the first revision of Topping D90 on AK4490 without MQA, from my point of view D90 provide the most balanced sound through all frequency range in comparison to all previous dacs. Ares was good but i think i missed some air with it, Birfrost was good, but the sound was colored, it was very noticable with my old music from 90s and 80s, but later i tried D90 from my friend and was very surprised, because it was actually the sound which i searched for! Actually nothing special, this dac does not have any outstanding sound sides that I could highlight, it just plays music in exactly the way that I drew myself in my imagination when I started to enter the topic of headphone audio. It sounds just ok, sad that i have to pay 700$ for dac that sounds just ok, but i tried a lot of cheaper dacs, and they cant do that, they cant provide balanced sound in terms of resolution, soundstage, detail retreival.
Im very interested in new D90SE dac, im trying to find honest comparison, not from reviewers, but from people which compared both side by side in their homes. If new dac can provide 15-20% improvement overall from old version, i will give it a try:]
I tried L30 and A90, A30pro and many other amps. From my point of view A90 is better sounding unit in comparison to L30, it has more power, bigger soundstage, but from my point of view A90 sounds boring and L30 amplifier sounds a little like catastrophe, from my point of view the sound of L30 is poor. In region under 200$ - Asgard 3 is the clear winner, yes it provide colored sound, but better get A3.
IMHO A30 pro is the best amplifier from Topping amplifier range. I shared my comparison of SA-1 and A30 pro amplifiers in A30 pro topic: