Has the Topping A50 headphone amp appeared yet?

[Veri]

omg, this is getting expensive.

If you want optimal power, you'd additionally need balanced 2.5mm cables for your headphones. At this point, I would personally steer into heresy/E30 direction since it will have all the power output you'd want over single ended in a neat package.

 

[foggyeyes]

I have two of these amps and both the PSUs that came with the devices emit whine noise when the devices are turned off. These PSUs also look and feel somewhat cheap. Well, once the devices are turned on, whining noise stops. Any recommendation for some serious third party 15V PSU with reasonable price (wall or notebook one - except P50 that is just to expensive IMHO for what it does and I really don't want more Topping stuff at the moment)?

Very weird, personally I couldn't notice any noise while amp was turned off, both using headphones/line output to my Denon amplifier. Concerning the choice of an additional PSU, I'm not sure that notebook ones are linear...
have seen only cheap linear psu with 5V USB output though

 

[foggyeyes]

Adding shipping cost, in my country Sweden Topping A50 from Audioiphonics (France) is cheaper than Magni 3 Hersey from Schiit (their store in the UK). Moreover, A50 is in stock, Hersey is not. Which one is the better choice for my Denon Ah-D7200 and HifiMan Sundara? I have been thinking of a budget solutions by combining Topping E30 with Hersey, but recently I have spotted this A50 which is cheaper than Hersey and looks good with D50s, which I would love to have as well and perhaps I should also include a P50 to get a small gorgeous stack.... omg, this is getting expensive.

there is actually no need to buy the p50, as the difference is inaudible. mine a50 is working flawlessly, while located near a bunch of power cords.

 

[MalinYamato]

there is actually no need to buy the p50, as the difference is inaudible. mine a50 is working flawlessly, while located near a bunch of power cords.

My budget loves to hear what you said. Thanks! What DAC do you use to feed your A50? After some months of reading reviews I have somehow narrowed down to E30 AK4493, yet I might spend USD 130 more on D50s with its dual ES90382QMs, if it sounds 130 dollar better with my mid-fi earphones and speakers.

 

[Racheski]

Thanks, now I need to find proper RCA cables which are not long, which is not easy I see, most are 1> meter and since these devices are stacked that is way too long haha.

I'm using these for my A50/D50s stack from JDS Labs:

https://jdslabs.com/product/stack-rca-cables/

They are $15 and fit perfectly.

 

[Racheski]

A50 and D50s arrived from Drop today and I'm powering them via the P50. Using HD 6XX on the 6.35mm SE output I find max volume on low gain painfully loud.

Question for the community - I was plugging in the HD 6XX to the 6.35mm jack and the Focal Elex to the 2.5mm jack simultaneously. Does this impact the sound coming out of the amp, and could this cause damage to the device? Personally I could not detect any difference, but I'm by no means an audiophile with discerning ears. Impedence for 6XX is 300 ohms and Elex is 80 ohms.

 

[auronthas]

Question for the community - I was plugging in the HD 6XX to the 6.35mm jack and the Focal Elex to the 2.5mm jack simultaneously. Does this impact the sound coming out of the amp, and could this cause damage to the device? Personally I could not detect any difference, but I'm by no means an audiophile with discerning ears. Impedence for 6XX is 300 ohms and Elex is 80 ohms.

Why do you need two headphones but with a single volume control? Are they matching in term of sensitivity/impedance ? I believe HD6XX is harder to drive than Focal Elex, it should be HD 6XX to 2.5mm jack.

I think the headphone output 6.35mm and 2.5mm are shared power, try to unplug one of headphones, do you hear loudness?

 

[kkeretic]

Very weird, personally I couldn't notice any noise while amp was turned off, both using headphones/line output to my Denon amplifier.

The A50 itself is not noisy, it is dead silent, but the high frequency whining comes from its PSU when turned off. So I would like to use some other 15V PSU.

 

[auronthas]

The A50 itself is not noisy, it is dead silent, but the high frequency whining comes from its PSU when turned off. So I would like to use some other 15V PSU.

I am using a computer power adapter 15V DC which used to power my DX3 Pro, now to my new A50.

 

[MalinYamato]

The A50 itself is not noisy, it is dead silent, but the high frequency whining comes from its PSU when turned off. So I would like to use some other 15V PSU.

How do you know that A50 performs well without the stock PSU? Did you try it with P50?

 

[kkeretic]

How do you know that A50 performs well without the stock PSU? Did you try it with P50?

Don't know, haven't tried, but also don't care because all I have ever heard and seen so far caused by different external PSUs on any piece of audio gear I ever owned was solely the level of heat the PSU itself emits and the amount of whine noise it makes.

 

[MalinYamato]

View attachment 61818View attachment 61819View attachment 61820View attachment 61821
What else do you want?

is it save to assume that there will be no hiss or hum in my 25 ohm AH-D7200, based on impedance match spec, which states 16 to 300 ohm or 16 to 600 ohm?

 

[foggyeyes]

My budget loves to hear what you said. Thanks! What DAC do you use to feed your A50? After some months of reading reviews I have somehow narrowed down to E30 AK4493, yet I might spend USD 130 more on D50s with its dual ES90382QMs, if it sounds 130 dollar better with my mid-fi earphones and speakers.

Concerning the DAC choice, i wouldn't recomment to pay extra bucks for an expensive dac. DAC itself should have decent specs, and that's all. I have SMSL Sanskrit 10th (1st revision), very satisfied
just try to compare different sources, it's really hard to hear which is more expensive... E30 is ok, I would stick to it. The new SMSL ones are also good.
300$ and more DACs are snake oil IMHO.

 

[foggyeyes]

is it save to assume that there will be no hiss or hum in my 25 ohm AH-D7200, based on impedance match spec, which states 16 to 300 ohm or 16 to 600 ohm?

there shouldn't be any hiss, but the amp can change the frequency response curve of your headphones, according to its output impedance. will it be in a good or in bad way-no one knows.

 

[MalinYamato]

2200 mW @ 64 ohms via 2.5 mm BAL? Wow, I love this amp

hmmm,,,how much wattage do our phones actually need to deliver optimal sound?

 

[MalinYamato]

Concerning the DAC choice, i wouldn't recomment to pay extra bucks for an expensive dac. DAC itself should have decent specs, and that's all. I have SMSL Sanskrit 10th (1st revision), very satisfied
just try to compare different sources, it's really hard to hear which is more expensive... E30 is ok, I would stick to it. The new SMSL ones are also good.
300$ and more DACs are snake oil IMHO.

Thanks, makes sense to me. The other day I just got to know about multi-bit dacs as advertised by Schiit, a Mody multi bit -- the worlds cheapest multi-bit at USD 300. On paper it should perform much better than any other ridiculously over-priced traditional DAC.

 

[Veri]

Thanks, makes sense to me. The other day I just got to know about multi-bit dacs as advertised by Schiit, a Mody multi bit -- the worlds cheapest multi-bit at USD 300. On paper it should perform much better than any other ridiculously over-priced traditional DAC.

Let me introduce you to https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-battle-of-schiit-audio-dacs.5487/

 

[foggyeyes]

Thanks, makes sense to me. The other day I just got to know about multi-bit dacs as advertised by Schiit, a Mody multi bit -- the worlds cheapest multi-bit at USD 300. On paper it should perform much better than any other ridiculously over-priced traditional DAC.

just check out the link above, the Schiit products often measures quite bad

 

[MalinYamato]

Let me introduce you to https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-battle-of-schiit-audio-dacs.5487/

oh, thanks for the wakeup call. LOL, how much engineering effort(cost) does it take to succeed in taking advantage of the "multi-bit" technology without introducing audible noise?

 

[Veri]

oh, thanks for the wakeup call. LOL, how much engineering effort(cost) does it take to succeed in taking advantage of the "multi-bit" technology without introducing audible noise?

There was actually a poster here once who referenced an academic paper about a "de-glitcher" for the multibit chips Schiit uses. So all its errors (be them audible or inaudible) could be corrected with this de-glitcher, but the overall cost of everything would be really pricy and has never gotten to market: because there are cheaper ways to get high quality audio than (already pricy) multibit chips and developing correction hardware for it.
Multi-bit is outdated, and the ones that do it right (Denafrips ares ii, Holo spring, ...) cost an arm and a leg and should sound identical to a proper DAC, for example a Topping D90.