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Topping A90 Discrete Review (Headphone Amp & Preamp)

Rate this Headphone Amp/Pre-amp

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 16 4.0%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 13 3.2%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 69 17.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 306 75.7%

  • Total voters
    404

lovesegfault

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
27
Likes
38
From the instructions:

Unplug A90 Discrete power supply and wait a minute. (Very important).
That's what I did. After waiting a while, the display just shows "-2" and no drive comes up.
 

carlcamper

Active Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2020
Messages
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163
Location
Cavite, Philippines
Firmware update was a success! Also, happy to report that when plugging and unplugging to the 6.35mm unbalanced port, it just shows -5 on the screen instead of a restart.
 

lovesegfault

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
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38
Try removing power cord and leave it a minute before connecting to PC. Leave the cord out until update complete.
Let the amp off for a couple hours, then tried again. Nada. I just get -2 on the display and no disk on the computer. Go figure
 

lovesegfault

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
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Likes
38
Just gave it a shot on my linux machine, dmesg logs show the device immediately disconnects during bringup:

Code:
[  318.863344] usb 1-2: new full-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
[  318.991485] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0483, idProduct=5720, bcdDevice= 2.00
[  318.991489] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  318.991490] usb 1-2: Product: Mass Storage in FS Mode
[  318.991491] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: STMicroelectronics
[  318.991492] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: 208030784D53
[  318.993338] usb-storage 1-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[  318.993554] scsi host1: usb-storage 1-2:1.0
[  319.463973] usb 1-2: USB disconnect, device number 13
 

carlcamper

Active Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2020
Messages
126
Likes
163
Location
Cavite, Philippines

lovesegfault

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
27
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38
Sent Topping a couple of emails asking for help, but haven't heard anything back. Pretty disappointed. Does anyone know how to reach them?
 

carlcamper

Active Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2020
Messages
126
Likes
163
Location
Cavite, Philippines

Phony846

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2020
Messages
49
Likes
61
Location
San Diego
Unable to update the firmware on my A90D. I just got my A90D from Apos, and before even connecting wall power I plugged in the the USB-C cable and on THREE computers (two Macs, one Windows) no drive came up. No display. I then wall powered the A90D for a bit, pulled the plug, waited 2 minutes, and same results. I tried three USB-C cables and same results. What am I doing wrong?
 

lovesegfault

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
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Likes
38
Unable to update the firmware on my A90D. I just got my A90D from Apos, and before even connecting wall power I plugged in the the USB-C cable and on THREE computers (two Macs, one Windows) no drive came up. No display. I then wall powered the A90D for a bit, pulled the plug, waited 2 minutes, and same results. I tried three USB-C cables and same results. What am I doing wrong?
That makes two of us, I have the same issue. Support told me to try again on a Windows machine, even though that is obviously not the problem.
 

Phony846

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2020
Messages
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61
Location
San Diego
That makes two of us, I have the same issue. Support told me to try again on a Windows machine, even though that is obviously not the problem.
That is disappointing. On my Mac I opened the techie USB tree details and there's absolutely no device listed that would be associated with the A90D.
 

lovesegfault

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
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38
That is disappointing. On my Mac I opened the techie USB tree details and there's absolutely no device listed that would be associated with the A90D.
That's because it connects and immediately disconnects. I'm not familiar with macOS enough, but on Linux I can see the device come up on USB, and then immediately drop. Then I see -4 show up on the volume display, and nothing else happens.

I suspect some of these early boards came with broken bootloaders, so we're stuck without being able to update our FW.
 

Phony846

Member
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Sep 2, 2020
Messages
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Location
San Diego
That's because it connects and immediately disconnects. I'm not familiar with macOS enough, but on Linux I can see the device come up on USB, and then immediately drop. Then I see -4 show up on the volume display, and nothing else happens.

I suspect some of these early boards came with broken bootloaders, so we're stuck without being able to update our FW.
Ya, and if the bootloader is at fault then I think it's likely the issue can't be fixed by the consumer. Unless there's some special bootloader mode like iPhones. But I'd be shocked if Topping did that for a headphone amp.
 

domiji

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2020
Messages
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28
I updated mine today and i wasnt able to do this on my Mac Mini M1. I also got the -2 error code. So i switched to a Windows machine and everything went smoothly.
 

Deleted

Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2022
Messages
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10
I wonder if it's a power draw problem (asking for more power than is available). Can happen from USB hubs or some cables. Maybe not, but it would explain the drop rather than mounting the drive/unit.
 

enricoclaudio

Major Contributor
Audio Company
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Jan 7, 2021
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Houston, TX - USA
Could also be incompatibility. Remember M1 Macs have Thunderbolt 3/4 ports and some UBS-C components could behave not too friendly with TB3/TB4 ports. I have a Mac Studio M1 Max and a 14” MacBook Pro M1 Pro and some audio interfaces just don’t work. With a Mac mini M1 I would try plugging the A90D to one of the 2 USB A ports with a USB-C to USB-A cable to see if it works.
 

Phony846

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Sep 2, 2020
Messages
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61
Location
San Diego
Could also be incompatibility. Remember M1 Macs have Thunderbolt 3/4 ports and some UBS-C components could behave not too friendly with TB3/TB4 ports. I have a Mac Studio M1 Max and a 14” MacBook Pro M1 Pro and some audio interfaces just don’t work. With a Mac mini M1 I would try plugging the A90D to one of the 2 USB A ports with a USB-C to USB-A cable to see if it works.

Ah ha! So I have a Thunderbolt 4 dock for my M1 Pro Macbook Pro. That dock has a USB-A port. So I plugged in the A90D with a USB-C to USB-A cable, and viola, the Topping FW drive appeared in Finder.

When I tried the A90D on my Windows computer, it is an Intel NUC with what I'm pretty sure are Thunderbolt 3 ports. And I had no dice there. So it would appear to be a Thunderbolt 3/4 compatibility issue. Disappointing, but at least I have a workaround. Hopefully Topping can either fix the TB3/4 issue in future revisions, or at least post a warning on their firmware instructions.
 
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