I ended up w/ Buckeye NC252mp 2ch in white powder coat. Whether to get powder coat or not was a subject of debate because I'm not sure if the amp will ever actually be visible. I was drawing future plans for a large TV as a computer monitor, and the amp under the TV in the TV stand. The Motu M4 would have to be hidden because it's black, not that good looking, and has LCD screen I can't turn off. Also it has a XLR mic cable coming out front of it.
In that setup the Buckeye would be visible. But what if I put the Buckeye in a cabinet in the TV stand? Well, there are concerns about ventilation/heat. So I left it at that and decided to get the powder coat.
In retrospect, there are other options: Some TV stands have a hole cutout in the back, even for compartments with cabinets in them. This is also a hole that allows airflow if a slow fan is also in the cabinet. Or the hole in back could maybe even be made little larger with some DIY.
The ideal setup is the have PC in another room though this requires 45-50ft long cables. TV cable would have to be optic fiber, and USD hub would have to be powered. I'm not sure in such a setup if dac/amp should both be at the computer in another room with long speaker wire going to the speakers, or have the amp near the TV w/ long TRS->XLR cables instead. Or, have dac and amp by the TV and instead rely on the USB hub to carry the distance. If the amp's in the other room with the dac, well powder coat doesn't matter and I won't see it.
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Wow, I dodged a bullet w/ LA90D it seems w/ the troubling reports of issues. Overall I feel like my decision to get Buckeye nc252mp was correct given the risk of noise could be solved with future preamp, DM7 upgrade, or signal attenuators.
I got these TRS to XLR cables off Amazon, 3.5ft $6 each. As cheap as possible. Probably garbage, but it's balanced and only 3.5ft long so I figure these would have to be ludicrously bad to have audible issues. They will do for now, methinks. After all, without knowing where the amp will be in the future, I don't know how long the cables would have to be.
Buckeye Impressions:
-Plugs to put banana plugs in in the back were quite tight for 2 of the connectors. I had to use a pretty decent amount of force to get them in all the way. Only frame of reference for me was the PA5, where it just went right in, I screwed it, and it was done. Suppose it's way better to be too tight than too loose though.
-Powder coat as far as I can tell so far seems flawless. No weird dents, inconsistencies, scratches, that I could find on cursory examination.
-Size was larger than I anticipated. Significantly larger than PA5!
-Power cable is kindda too short. I'm glad my amp was near the power strip.
-Front LED is way too bright. There is so much light output from the one LED (blue in operation) such that I can see the light bounce on my fridge 16ft away, my counter 10ft away. This is in an (attempted) dark room setup though. But I would argue people who want a dark room for movies and games are not that rare. Even with room lights on, I think the LED is distractingly bright if I had a TV stand and looked down slightly to see the light shining at me. I think LED indicators belong in the back (a la Rythmik, but that freakin' sub requires a DC offset blocker to not make me lose my mind with the noise which meant it had to be farther away from the wall meaning the light in back has more room to scatter) but I know most would disagree.
At very least I think basically all devices everywhere should have an option to turn off whatever LED there is. The LED pushes light out forwards, but lets some light into the case meaning I can see blue coming out of the vents on the top. It's enough to tell LED color even if the LED is taped over in the front. Tape better be well done, because what is the point of having a powder coat to look good if there's a dumb looking piece of tape in the front? I think with tape in the front the issue can be satisfactorily resolved, but it feels like an unnecessary problem.
I know people will think I'm crazy. The PA5 did this perfectly: The light is in the front, but it is very dim. It's visible if I go out of my way to find it, but otherwise it is invisible.
-Noise performance is an A-. Quite good, not perfect. I can hear noise with my ear 5in away from tweeter but it's not as bad as it sounds. I can only barely hear it. To be sure I'm hearing it I had to switch it on and off. At listening position there's no way I can hear it. Currently I consider noise a non-issue, and I'd rather address other sources of noise (getting a new fridge, moving the Comcast modem in the other room even further away because I can still hear it sometimes, etc.)
Noise is less than KH80 most likely and definitely better than 8030c I assume. My friend could not accept 8030c's noise and sold them for PA5 (lol) + Kef R3, and says they can hear noise ear 3in from tweeter, though they have more acute hearing than I. Overall nc252mp fails to meet my original stringent standards due to high gain, but still comes away looking good.
SUMMARY:
Good noise performance. LED too bright for dark room w/o correct setup or modifications. Good powder coat.
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Also I just wanna add, that I find Topping to be the fast fashion of audio right now. There are stores like Forever21 that sell a ton of poorly made clothes with new styles all the time so people get FOMO and impulse buy because the stuff is cheap. When the stuff falls apart, they go for the next sale. Obviously Topping broke their own promise of taking special action if the replacement amp also fails (PA5), and there are troubling but not conclusive reports on LA90D side. PA7 is like a more poorly measuring PA5 and I don't think "we put less stuff under the black box to reduce heat" is good enough. Topping is not the only company that makes amps in any price bracket and Pa5 was not even their first product of its kind. Yet they are the ones with the longevity and even worse, customer service problems. The idea that "I can't guarentee it lasts 3 years, I don't even know if I will be here in 3 years" is disturbing. I understand not every company can be like Genelec, but 3 years is not a long time for a $400-800 product and I'm not going to buy a new amp every 3 years. Even purely out of greed, if I were in charge the Pa7 would be an oversized heatsink for extra $20-30 cost, and I will use that as PR for how much I listen to customers and want to make sure they are confident in their purchase.
Here's to hoping this terrible saga I've been through is finally at its end, and after yet another calibration I can actually focus on other things in my life. It's been so long since I heard music from left channel that it took a while for my brain to adjust. The amount of BS noise I've had to deal with, from sub DC offset hum, interference from the PC that got reduced but not removed with a new motherboard, to the PA5 causing noise and dying and then causing noise to the right channel, to the Comcast modem that manages to piss me off a room away, is overwhelming and it's been stressful dealing with all kinds of audio related issues with the setup I can't even think to name in here yet.
