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Topping PA5 Review (Amplifier)

FeliZ

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I am thinking of selling my beloved Chord Mojo ( I love this thing and how it sounds) and getting a remote Controlled dac and Preamp.
I owned better measuring dacs before , but unfortunately i liked the chord Sound Signature the most.
Do you have any recommendations for a good pairing , Topping E60 would bei the best choice?
 

anphex

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I am thinking of selling my beloved Chord Mojo ( I love this thing and how it sounds) and getting a remote Controlled dac and Preamp.
Do you have any recommendations for a good pairing , Topping E60 would bei the best choice?
Topping D30 Pro Topping E50 and this PA5. Can't get much better for the money.
Edit: Due to the follow up post by Heasung, I now also recommend the E50. More features for smaller price.
 

Heesung

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I am thinking of selling my beloved Chord Mojo ( I love this thing and how it sounds) and getting a remote Controlled dac and Preamp.
Do you have any recommendations for a good pairing , Topping E60 would bei the best choice?
There is no E60. You probably meant E50, I guess. E50 and PA5 can be a nice match as they advertise on their webpage. If you want a better one, I'd suggest D90SE, which is Topping's flagship DAC.
 

Holmz

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and... then this comment I made.>

Doodski said:
The amp's output impedance and the speaker impedance form a voltage divider in the simplest sense of the stuff. Do I need to explain a voltage divider? :D

I read this underlined part of the comment today near a day later and see that is reads kind of like it could have different intentions. My intentions where of the best variety and I apologize if the comment seemed off or cocky in any way. I was actually wanting to know so I could organize my thoughts and lay them out. I saw that you are a scientist and perhaps I was too fast in the commentary with my commentary. :facepalm:

All good mate… I appreciate the the attempt at helping.

I am still uncertain about how the minimum of 5-1/2 ohm example (for an 8 ohm speaker) would have a huge influence from the output impedance?
Maybe I do not understand the phase or inductance/capacitance well enough?

In the context of the other fellow it was how a 1 ohm versus 0.1 ohm output impedance results power being I*(R+r), and if the big “R” is 5-8, and the little “r” is 1, then the 20 would be 8/9th less than 20 or thereabout…

Any further help is still appreciated.


In terms of this particular amp., I am not sure in a classical 2.0 system that I have enough gain with a low voltage pre-amp.
(I am leaning more towards a Purifi.)
 

Holmz

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Are you talking tube power amps? (as opposed to headphone amps) Don't most of them have output (voltage) transformer which would have an open circuit as an output impedance? I am no expert in amps with output transformers but the power transfer work differently than typical amps with feedback no? I may be wrong.
Yeah power amps, but I thought this was PA3 was a power amp?

i.e. underlined below:

Topping PA5 Speaker Listening Tests
I am confident of the transparency of this amplifier with respect to noise and distortion. However, I was curious how far its power goes. So I hooked up the PA5 to my Infinity Reference 253 speaker. I must stay, I was not prepared for the level of impact, fidelity and overall quality of the sound. The PA5 grabbed the ears of this speaker and pulled it any direction music asked it to like nobody's business! There was thundering bass. Superb high frequency and ability to fill my space despite only playing one speaker. It was hard to imagine this little amplifier powering this speaker so beautifully.
 

Doodski

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Maybe I do not understand the phase or inductance/capacitance well enough?
That's where it's at. I imagine it like a speaker's impedance/phase graph for the speaker and another impedance/phase graph for the amp output and they dynamically blend and interact together changing the frequency response and creating a variable voltage divider. It's all dynamically happening very fast and predicting a instantaneous value would be very difficult (If not impossible for mere mortals?).
 
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Papaya_X

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Topping D30 Pro Topping E50 and this PA5. Can't get much better for the money.
Edit: Due to the follow up post by Heasung, I now also recommend the E50. More features for smaller price.
What about the EX5 if I want a headphone out ?
 

anphex

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What about the EX5 if I want a headphone out ?
Basically any Topping DAC will do. It's just a matter of price and features.
 

Calleberg

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That's where it's at. I imagine it like a speaker's impedance/phase graph for the speaker and another impedance/phase graph for the amp output and they dynamically blend and interact together changing the frequency response and creating a variable voltage divider. It's all dynamically happening very fast and predicting a instantaneous value would be very difficult (If not impossible for mere mortals?).

An article in Stereophile trying to make it less complicated:

 

brandonhall

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I am thinking of selling my beloved Chord Mojo ( I love this thing and how it sounds) and getting a remote Controlled dac and Preamp.
I owned better measuring dacs before , but unfortunately i liked the chord Sound Signature the most.
Do you have any recommendations for a good pairing , Topping E60 would bei the best choice?
I believe Chord DACs are known to have a "house sound" which I think is fine, but the Topping DACs are completely transparent. There is no coloration at all. As a result, you might find the Topping clinical, boring, or lacking dynamics. The Chinese manufacturers are trying to hit reference quality at an unbeatable price. On the other hand, the UK brands (Rega, Cambridge, Chord, etc..) always have a house sound which you may or may not love. Many here would argue that DSP is the way to go to add your own house sound.
 

PeteL

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You can, and usually do, still have feedback around the output transformer. Normally the speaker voltage is fed back to an earlier stage. Also, the output is not an open circuit. The secondary winding is terminated in a matching impedance (of the apeaker)
Thank you.
 

Rottmannash

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All good mate… I appreciate the the attempt at helping.

I am still uncertain about how the minimum of 5-1/2 ohm example (for an 8 ohm speaker) would have a huge influence from the output impedance?
Maybe I do not understand the phase or inductance/capacitance well enough?

In the context of the other fellow it was how a 1 ohm versus 0.1 ohm output impedance results power being I*(R+r), and if the big “R” is 5-8, and the little “r” is 1, then the 20 would be 8/9th less than 20 or thereabout…

Any further help is still appreciated.


In terms of this particular amp., I am not sure in a classical 2.0 system that I have enough gain with a low voltage pre-amp.
(I am leaning more towards a Purifi.)
can't go wrong with a Purifi.
 

pjug

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Surely volume to max will be an effective bypass. An analogue pot at max is going to be matched since effectively the tap is connected to the input.
Also, as a practical matter you can have someone turn the volume knob up and down with pink noise playing while you are seated, and also compare against max volume with the input volume lowered. If the apparent noise source location does not move then the pot balance is good enough, right?
 

Calleberg

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Surely volume to max will be an effective bypass. An analogue pot at max is going to be matched since effectively the tap is connected to the input.
For sure, the pot itself is really no different than the dual pots on any PRO amp, for home audio use, if you don´t need/want input attenuation, just crank them all the way up to 11, where the pot input and output is basically shorted together, ie bypass.

Can we please stop talking about the Volume control now, its there, yes but you don´t HAVE to use it.
Remember: "it is better to have and not need than to need and not have":)
 

anphex

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