Has the Topping A50 headphone amp appeared yet?

[TomB19]

The other thing the P50 does is to provide an objectively excellent aesthetic.

 

[Veri]

The other thing the P50 does is to provide an objectively excellent aesthetic.

Except for the 2.5mm so close to the knob. That is a pretty silly flaw, imo.

 

[Deleted member 12179]

I can't agree with your interpretation of what Zeos is saying.
To me, it seem pretty clear that what he is saying is that it is less analytical. If you want analytical, it's thew worst. If you want 'warmer' it's the best.
He does admit that feel, fit finish and looks are an important factor and that he could perhaps be biased to an opinion because of that - although he doesn't make this point that clearly.

However, I tend to agree with the following post (in other words, don't take his listening impressions as worth anything):

The other thing the P50 does is to provide an objectively excellent aesthetic.

Yes, if it wasn't for the tiny and ugly and flat volume knob. In the JDS atom you can at least change the knob and put whatever you like.

 

[TomB19]

Reading, gentlemen. Reading.

There is no volume knob on a P50. There are no headphone jacks on a P50.

If you want to trash the A50 and not look so bad doing it, I suggest you stop quoting my post about the P50. lol!

By the way, I've seen the Atom. If you feel it looks better than an A50, that's great. You are in great shape to save yourself some money but I can't help but think you're trying to convince yourself more than you're trying to convince others.

 

[will.b]

The other thing the P50 does is to provide an objectively excellent aesthetic.

Yes, I find the complete set is quite pleasing on the eye as well:



@Veri I'm using the remote with the D50s for volume control but not had a problem with the A50 knob position really.

 

[Tup3x]

Except for the 2.5mm so close to the knob. That is a pretty silly flaw, imo.

Which should have been 4,5mm connector and they should have included 4,5mm to 2,5mm adaptor. This is a full blown desktop product after all.

 

[mid_fi_Senpai]

I don’t think the 2.5mm Jack is that big of an issue when the unit is up off the desk. Stacking it on top of the P50 or D50 gives your fingers that little extra gap you need.
The P50 is pretty convenient. Originally I plugged my D50s into a USB power strip and got a ton of static. Plugging directly into the P50 it’s dead silent. I could have purchase various USB adapters but this is the quick, dirty, not cheapest way to get clean sound. Plus I think it just looks cool.

 

[imrul]

so d50 can't be plugged into a wall?

 

[TomB19]

so d50 can't be plugged into a wall?

Needs a 5v supply.

 

[kkeretic]

I am driving my D50s on a ten euro worth 5V 2.4A mobile phone charger and the A50 on its PS adapter and the combo is dead silent. No static, hiss, whistling or anything like that.

 

[kkeretic]

Hi, I'm looking for an amp for my Akg k712 pro, the A50 topping is a good choice for me ?

I have this combo and it sounds nice.

 

[saturnaal]

After some months now with the amp, I've come to the conclusion that the 2.5mm balanced port is a bullet point feature with little to no value. It is indeed too close to the volume knob, and with the exception of total available power is worse performing in every metric. I don't see the appeal.

2.5mm connectors are weak, and not exactly a common option for headphone cables. It's pretty easy to get a 2.5mm balanced cable for IEMs, but really, what's the point of that? The amp provides sufficient power through its single ended outputs to drive even my power hungry Fostex T50RP beyond reasonable levels.

If they ever introduce an A50s, I hope they do away with the balanced output nonsense all together and just focus on the fundamentals. Also, please swap the behavior of the power button. Short press for on/off, long press for switching gains would be far better in my opinion. Going to hit the off button and getting a +9db volume bump instead because you didn't hold it down isn't my favorite user story of all time.

 

[TomB19]

Great comments, saturnaal.

I don't like the power button behavior, either, but it's irrellevant to me, as I use the p50 to turn everything off. Works slick.

 

[Deleted member 12179]

After some months now with the amp, I've come to the conclusion that the 2.5mm balanced port is a bullet point feature with little to no value. It is indeed too close to the volume knob, and with the exception of total available power is worse performing in every metric. I don't see the appeal.

2.5mm connectors are weak, and not exactly a common option for headphone cables. It's pretty easy to get a 2.5mm balanced cable for IEMs, but really, what's the point of that? The amp provides sufficient power through its single ended outputs to drive even my power hungry Fostex T50RP beyond reasonable levels.

If they ever introduce an A50s, I hope they do away with the balanced output nonsense all together and just focus on the fundamentals. Also, please swap the behavior of the power button. Short press for on/off, long press for switching gains would be far better in my opinion. Going to hit the off button and getting a +9db volume bump instead because you didn't hold it down isn't my favorite user story of all time.

Maybe for A50s they should do regular quarter inch jack and then the sony 4.4 balanced connector, and skip the 3.5mm.
Thing is balanced cable apparently gives more volume in the same amp, so for daps, or bluetooth dacs, balance has the energy advantage, so many people who want to keep their balanced cable in their headphones/iems, wanna also keep the balanced cable when switching to their headphone amp. They should also make the impedance less of a big deal, so iems work here well too.

 

[JohnYang1997]

so d50 can't be plugged into a wall?

Many adapters are

After some months now with the amp, I've come to the conclusion that the 2.5mm balanced port is a bullet point feature with little to no value. It is indeed too close to the volume knob, and with the exception of total available power is worse performing in every metric. I don't see the appeal.

2.5mm connectors are weak, and not exactly a common option for headphone cables. It's pretty easy to get a 2.5mm balanced cable for IEMs, but really, what's the point of that? The amp provides sufficient power through its single ended outputs to drive even my power hungry Fostex T50RP beyond reasonable levels.

If they ever introduce an A50s, I hope they do away with the balanced output nonsense all together and just focus on the fundamentals. Also, please swap the behavior of the power button. Short press for on/off, long press for switching gains would be far better in my opinion. Going to hit the off button and getting a +9db volume bump instead because you didn't hold it down isn't my favorite user story of all time.

A50s will still have balanced out but with 4.4mm. That's the idea of A50s. Two most important aspects: 1, no channel imbalance at all. 2, balanced output in a relatively small box.

There will also be a dedicated budget amp for single ended output. The whole process is delayed due to coronavirus.

 

[imrul]

Is there an A90 in the works to pair with D90?

 

[JohnYang1997]

Is there an A90 in the works to pair with D90?

yes

 

[kkeretic]

Was rolling opamps for a few days now and found there is simply not enough space for anything taller than a classic DIP8 chip. And I would really like to hear some of those single->adapter->double opamps lying around. Just a hint for the A50s .

 

[saturnaal]

People are seriously still fussing about with rolling opamps? Really, why? A piece of electronic equipment is designed explicitly around the spec'd components. Enabling users to muss about with the circuit sounds like far more trouble than its worth from the manufacturers perspective.

 

[Veri]

People are seriously still fussing about with rolling opamps? Really, why? A piece of electronic equipment is designed explicitly around the spec'd components. Enabling users to muss about with the circuit sounds like far more trouble than its worth from the manufacturers perspective.

It enables people to buy more things which I guess is fun..

It is especially damning on Topping DACs like the D50 since there are already two single OPA1612 op-amps soldered on which are fed into the dual replaceable one. Replacing it can't possibly do that much, exactly why it's chosen: give users their placebo with little chance of oscillation and distortion.

On the A50 and DX7Pro I'm not sure what the dual replaceable op-amps do exactly, in any case one can only go downwards from stock LME47920's performance.....