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Topping A70 Pro HP & Preamp Review

Rate this preamplifier and headphone amp:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 14 4.2%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 7 2.1%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 37 11.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 275 82.6%

  • Total voters
    333

enricoclaudio

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Thanks @amirm for another great review. This one really looks interesting and I'm definitely going to be following this thread to see how reliability and initial release bugs are managed by Topping. Then if everything is sorted out positively, I might consider it for a secondary system.
 

CedarX

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I see in the manual that there is a “safe volume mode” that limits the volume to a customizable value when switching input/output. It’s off by default but with that much power, it is certainly a great feature !!!
Though, ideally, I’d like to see a HP plug-in detection added to the feature.
 
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CedarX

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The manual says that the ground lift switch should be left to GND for best performance. I assume in LIFT position, it provides a floating ground to some (all?) of the preamp (HPA?) circuits. But why would this be detrimental to performance when you don’t have a ground loop issue? By “how much”? Is it measurable?
 

solderdude

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E70 is a DAC A70 is an amp.
E70Pro has different looks, different price, different display compared to E70
E70Pro and A70Pro are matching designs.
 

solderdude

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Sorry, i meaned L70.
A70Pro has different looks, different price, different display compared to L70
A70pro has more power (not that the difference matters that much)
Other than display and looks there would be no need to replace an L70 with an A70 unless you need the specific functionality.
 
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raif71

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A70Pro has different looks, different price, different display compared to L70
A70pro has more power (not that the difference matters that much)
Other than display and looks there would be no need to replace an L70 with an A70
Another reason for changing L70 with A70pro is if the user need a much higher input impedance as L70 is quite low according to this table (by @Veri ):
2kohm for L70 vs 20kohm for A70pro
 

Veri

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Per Topping marketing, that is in low gain... i suspect Amir left it in high gain....
You suspect wrong, it's because of the balanced output + slightly different analyser (APx555B vs APx555) + Topping using a noise amplifier to get a theoretical number >95dB, as is specified in their notes:

actual noise level is obtained by boosting the noise of A70 Pro by 40dB using a low noise amplifier in front of the APx555B then dividing the measured noise by 100.
 

Music1969

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That would not make sense. 50mv test is all about going very low.

according to the marketing you mention, doesn't low gain have 4x lower noise level ??

1683899844094.png
 

solderdude

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Another reason for changing L70 with A70pro is if the user need a much higher input impedance as L70 is quite low according to this table (by @Veri ):
2kohm for L70 vs 20kohm for A70pro
Yes, it looks like JohnYang found a way to have low noise combined with a higher input R.
 

enricoclaudio

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Another reason to change L70 for A70Pro is the inclusion of EXT port which allows to run the A70Pro as a pre amp with 5 x XLR inputs. This is when the new added screen becomes handy and part of the reason I went with the Benchmark HPA4 as my desk pre amp instead of the A90D + EXT.
 

Ken Tajalli

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Apart from HP amplifier, what other use is this?
I mean how many inputs does it have? You can buy a passive switched relay volume control from eBay for £50 or less.
For $499, Topping themselves sell good DACs with good HP amps and a perfectly good digital volume control.
 
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