Ask me questions.

[MaxwellsEq]

From a design point of view, I always thought that the Meridian 101b control amplifier (preamplifier) had timeless looks and roughly the correct feature set for a preamplifier.

Meridian M2 and 101 preamp

Apologies - having created a 'my journey' thread in the 'Classic' forum I realise that the DIY section might be a better home... Quick recap: I recently bought a pair of Meridian M2s and a 101 preamp. The speakers are in reasonable condition but I bought them with the intention of fully...

pinkfishmedia.net

 

[KenA]

Of course I would pick questions that I have good answer of to answer. I am not forcing you or anyone for that matter to purchase our products. I certainly do not have good answer on the matter of La90d other than wait.

What a good honest answer. Good on you John for fronting up on this forum. You get 10/10 from me.
I eagerly await Paul from PS Audio to do the same thing.

 

[artburda]

I eagerly await Paul from PS Audio to do the same thing.

 

[CleanSound]

1) It's not that we are based on Chinese Hifi culture or tastes. It's difficult to design high power amplifiers and even more so with power supply built in. It's expensive to do everything when things are big and heavy. And higher the power more things could go wrong. We are only slowly climbing in power.

I wish more manufacturers will be as transparent as Topping. . .I love this answer because:

(1) it shows the difficulty in designing power amplifiers, hopefully for the people who say "why can't you do this and do that", myself included, understands it's easier said than done.

(2) how much more advancement we have left in power amp design. So to those who say, amp technology is mature and we've all there is to do, please note that is not true.

(3) shows that Topping continues to work towards more powerful amps. And hopefully one day, Topping will have a high power amp.

But John, can you share with us why it's hard to design a power amp with the power supply inside the unit? Does it have anything to do with EMF/EMI and/or noise?

 

[unpluggged]

I wish more manufacturers will be as transparent as Topping

"Transparency" on an Internet forum of an individual engineer and transparency of the vendor during pre-sale and, most importantly, post-sale interactions are two different things.

 

[CleanSound]

"Transparency" on an Internet forum of an individual engineer and transparency of the vendor during pre-sale and, most importantly, post-sale interactions are two different things.

Very true, but how many manufacturers do you know where their engineers are actually interacting with existing and potential customers? Of course, John, can't tell us how the sausage is made, but any information is still useful.

 

[CleanSound]

Of course I would pick questions that I have good answer of to answer. I am not forcing you or anyone for that matter to purchase our products. I certainly do not have good answer on the matter of La90d other than wait.

What a good honest answer. Good on you John for fronting up on this forum. You get 10/10 from me.
I eagerly await Paul from PS Audio to do the same thing.

From one straight shooter to another: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

 

[sprellemannen]

Very true, but how many manufacturers do you know where their engineers are actually interacting with existing and potential customers? Of course, John, can't tell us how the sausage is made, but any information is still useful.

I agree: He definitively deserves applause for interacting with customers and potential customers.

 

[unpluggged]

Very true, but how many manufacturers do you know where their engineers are actually interacting with existing and potential customers?

Quote a few, actually. And on this forum, too.

 

[unpluggged]

I agree: He definitively deserves applause for interacting with customers and potential customers.

By this logic, we must be grateful to them that they even allow us to buy their products.

 

[CleanSound]

By this logic, we must be grateful to them that they even allow us to buy their products.

Geesh, you must have some really bad experiences with Topping.

I am happy with my D90SE and appreciate that John took the time to interact with customers. His answer helped me to decide to pull the trigger on a Hypex, now that I know a high power amp from Topping ain't coming out any time soon.

 

[unpluggged]

Geesh, you must have some really bad experiences with Topping.

Not at all, I just don't worship them and don't hesitate to point out flaws in their business practices — potentially even compromised product safety, like ungrounded amplifier enclosures with supply voltages exceeding 20 V or uncertified power supplies.

John took the time to interact with customers.

Matthias Carstens, for instance, interacts way more with customers, both here and on the RME forum. And you know, most vendors even employ people whose specific job is to interact with customers (at least in the pro and enterprise segments), but some perceive this as a kind of favor being done to them.

 

[Lockjaw]

Anything related. I answer them as much as I can.

Hello Mr.Yang. Before I ask my questions I would like to thank you for already answering so many questions for the community. Now that that is out of the way I'd like to ask you three questions.

1. Why is it that so many manufacturers seem to have a hard time making DAPs that perform as well as portable DACs in terms of measurements?

2. Are there any plans for Topping to develop DAPs? If Topping does release a DAP, I am sure it'd outperform most competitors in terms of measurements regardless of its price. More so if it supports android and streaming as most companies seem to find getting good measurements for such a device really difficult.

3. Are there any plans for a fully balanced version of NX7 that supports a 4.4 input? I would be VERY interested in purchasing such a product.

 

[Eldus]

Would definitely consider that.

I also love the orange elements for the display and esp. that they don't flicker like some other DAC displays I have seen. =)

 

[antcollinet]

Not at all, I just don't worship them and don't hesitate to point out flaws in their business practices — potentially even compromised product safety, like ungrounded amplifier enclosures with supply voltages exceeding 20 V or uncertified power supplies.

You keep making this statement - but voltages considered to be safe by electrical standards are much higher than you seem to think they are.

50VAC or 120V DC (IEC), or 25VAC / 60V DC (EN)

 

[pseudoid]

@JohnYang1997, Thank you for starting such a great and candid Q&A thread.
I have but one single request from you:
Can you please provide some historical perspective of this great company called Topping which was built from the ashes of the original namesake.
More specifically; I would like to request pictures of the very first audio-ish product(s) that were sold in US and what year that was.

 

[unpluggged]

You keep making this statement - but voltages considered to be safe by electrical standards are much higher than you seem to think they are.

Yes, and I will keep making it. Not grounding a conductive chassis of an appliance when it's powered by voltage of more than 20 V is unacceptable, and that's what I was taught when I studied for my degree. And not everyone likes the sensation of touching 38 V, even if it won't kill you.

Safe or not, I avoid using any mains-powered appliance that lacks proper certification.

 

[pseudoid]

Not grounding...

 

[Asma]

Anything related. I answer them as much as I can.

Hello JohnYang1997. I want to update my old Topping E30 + A30 kit. Will I win in sound quality and power if I buy Topping E50 + L50 instead of Topping DX5? I want to hear your opinion.

 

[tritopia]

지금은 아마도 기다릴 것입니다.