• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Has the Topping A50 headphone amp appeared yet?

L5730

L5730

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Oct 6, 2018
Messages
679
Likes
449
Location
East of England
10231363.jpg


Seen on head-fi in January this year. Note the "coming soon" in red.
Looks nice. Maybe because of the JDS Labs Atom, they have held back and redesigned the thing?

6.35 mm (1/4") and 3.5 mm (1/8") unbalanced outputs
2.5 mm balanced output.
1000mV ... ?
CNC Unibody.
 
Wow, this is super nice. One of the best looking stacks I've seen. Paired with a D50s, this could be an award winning amp.
 
L5730 said:
1000mV ... ?
Click to expand...
1000mW/32Ω, I suppose.

Very nice looking stack. A bit weird Topping demoed this with the ancient D50 (not S). Anyway, I'm more intrigued by this "P50" Power Supply. Would be glad to know what are the (questionable?) claims Topping will say about it... and glad to see @amirm measuring these.
 
RCA input of A50 will automatically connect to RCA output after it is turn off, which bypasses the input signal to RCA output. It will switch off this channel after A50 is turn on. Working with the power amplifier/ active speakers of whole set system, it can set the speaker muted when A50 is turn on, and resume output when A50 is turn off, which makes it conveniently.
Click to expand...

This is an awesome idea for someone like me. I do think there should be a discreet mechanical switch, so folks who want to use the device as a pre-amp to control the volume of their active speakers or other audio chain down signal can. But for me, it would act as a straight through when turned off, perfect.

Output impedance could add some colour, but it shouldn't be too bad. That's still pretty low.

I like the idea of a chip controlled volume, no channel imbalance, precise 0.5 dB steps etc. I wonder why a stereo pot is so popular? Cost? Easy implementation? Sound 'quality'?

Also available on ShenzhenAudio
 
Last edited:
I had been keeping an eye out for this one for some time, to pair with my D50s. Over the weekend I noticed it is now also available for purchase at the Apos store. They offer hassle free price matching and accept a wide variety of payment options, so I placed an order and had a very prompt and professional customer service followup. Looks like it's shipping via DHL from Hong Kong.

I'm mildly disappointed in the slightly elevated output impedance, but it's well within reasonable margins. The lack of pre-amp capability is also a shame, would have liked to take advantage of that nice volume control for my down-stream components, but if the build quality is comparable to the D50s, and it measures up to the provided specs, it's still a great piece. The 2.5mm balanced out seems like a really unnecessary feature, but someone will probably get some use out of it.

If @amirm doesn't have one on the way already, I'd be open to sending mine in for review.
 
Last edited:
Audiophonics listed it today in its 2 color versions: silver and black.

price is 169€
 
Last edited:
need to compare this to JDS Labs Atom
 
Veri said:
Note the output impedance though.
Click to expand...
Output impedance is one of the measurements I'm most interested in. Spec is higher than I'd like, but there's several recent examples of measured impedance coming in significantly lower than spec, like the Singxer SDA-2. I'd like to see <2 Ohms become the standard.

Topping seems to be struggling with this, while excelling in nearly every other regard.
 
Any thoughts on how well this a50 would work with my HifiMan HE560's? Think they run 45 ohms, wondering if too low for the a50.

Background info:
I'm new to the audiophile headphone scene & this site (so don't know what I'm doing or have vocab to describe). I've already picked up an HD650, HE560 v3, was running those with my denon avr3808ci receiver (before learning better) but it obviously wasn't sounding right. Just ordered topping d50s from drop, debating what to power those headphones with and saw this pop up. I also picked up a magni 3 last week, but for the HE560 something's just missing. Still seems a bit anemic, missing weight in the midrange. Low volume also seems unbalanced. Wondering if the amp is lacking, need tubes, or should just tweak with an EQ (I'm a bit more pragmatic than purist).
Sound I normally go in for: warmer more mellow tones. Too much high frequency just hurts my ears (prefer cello over violin for example), prefer to not overdo bass either. Music: mix of classical, older rock (think U2 Joshua Tree), and EDM.
 
SomeGuy said:
Any thoughts on how well this a50 would work with my HifiMan HE560's? Think they run 45 ohms, wondering if too low for the a50.

Background info:
I'm new to the audiophile headphone scene & this site (so don't know what I'm doing or have vocab to describe). I've already picked up an HD650, HE560 v3, was running those with my denon avr3808ci receiver (before learning better) but it obviously wasn't sounding right. Just ordered topping d50s from drop, debating what to power those headphones with and saw this pop up. I also picked up a magni 3 last week, but for the HE560 something's just missing. Still seems a bit anemic, missing weight in the midrange. Low volume also seems unbalanced. Wondering if the amp is lacking, need tubes, or should just tweak with an EQ (I'm a bit more pragmatic than purist).
Sound I normally go in for: warmer more mellow tones. Too much high frequency just hurts my ears (prefer cello over violin for example), prefer to not overdo bass either. Music: mix of classical, older rock (think U2 Joshua Tree), and EDM.
Click to expand...
shouldn't have any issue
 
SomeGuy said:
Any thoughts on how well this a50 would work with my HifiMan HE560's? Think they run 45 ohms, wondering if too low for the a50.
Click to expand...

A planar like the HE560 will work no problem :) go for it.
 
Ordered one. Here's hoping it sounds good with those cans, or at least better than the Magni 3. Thx.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
Building Valeria: A Compact Horn-Loaded Speaker
Replies
10
Views
3K
Audionaut
Audionaut
M
Topping G5, Bluetooth Antenna: NOT Included?
Replies
1
Views
836
staticV3
staticV3
Sha1rholder
Not Very Advanced Knowledge about Headphone Amplifiers
2
Replies
21
Views
5K
NTTY
NTTY
NTTY
Sony CDP-337ESD Review (CD Player)
2
Replies
29
Views
4K
WDeranged
WDeranged
M
Headphone Amp with DAC and balanced XLR pre-Out for studio monitors?! Topping DX5? SMSL DL200?
Replies
9
Views
4K
Rockfella
Rockfella
Back
Top Bottom