Topping A70 Pro HP & Preamp Review

[Blashyrkh]

What's the point of this one over the e70 ?

I recently (1 week) bought the L70 and thinking if it would be the case to return it and buy the A70 Pro and spend 150euro more.

Soundwise I don't think there will be any difference, I would have preferred more power for high impedance cans, and not 3kW for low impedance one.

The screen is a nice add, just for the pleasure to look at it, since I don't care about all the meters.
Let alone the rised input impedance that are useless with new equipment.

The Ext extension may be useful, since I may need to double feed the amp with a DAC and a guitar pedalboard.

 

[Tovarich007]

I don't think the RME guys are chasing the absolute measured performance, a contrario of these chinese brands. So I don't think they are so impressed, and if they would, they could do as well as Topping.

Sure, this new Topping combo is excellent and very nice looking too, and I love this fake retro vu-meter or the spectrum analyszer.
Two regrets though :

- no implementation of a digital EQ (RME's Dac have one, by the way) on the D70 Pro sabre
- the input imedance of the A70 Pro is 20 k, it's better than the 2 or 10 K of previous models, but still not fully universal, especially for some vintage analog components.
Input impedance of the RME is 40 K, and in the golden age of hifi, the standard was 47 k.

Dear Topping engineers and commercials, please do these two last efforts to get quasi perfection.

 

[Blashyrkh]

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.

I think it's totally useless for output, since you can store already volume for each one separately.


The problem is when I swap for example my Hd800 with Westone um50pro on the same output, you risk to destroy the Westone if not carefull.

A limiter when you remove or insert a headphone would be much usefull


I honestly fear handling the Westone with so much power amp

 

[Trell]

Skimming this fast gives my brain a very different word!

You failed to top copy/paste the II, as in as I wrote, I got the RME Fireface UCX II.

 

[MAK1975]

The A70 Pro obviously has world class measurements and power to destory ones ears if not used correctly. For people that already have an A90, A90D, A30 Pro, etc. this isn't going to give you anything audible that you don't already enjoy with your current unit. The new display features may add a little value to some and if you need to use it as a preamp to connect a Hypex or Purifi Class-D amp for a desktop setup this would be perfect.

In my case, I have been waiting for years to upgrade my 5 year old Jotunheim 1. I wish I would have known about ASR before I got into the hobby many years ago as I would have never purchased it. Looking at Amir's review the Jot 1 measures pretty poorly. I still enjoy using it and it powers all of my cans HD600, HD650, ZMF Classic, Beyer DT770, etc. very well. However, I am curious to see how much "better/cleaner" the A70 Pro will sound vs. my old Jot 1. So if you are like me and haven't upgraded your headphone amp in 5 years this seems like it would be a noticable improvement? Hopefully?

Already have an SMSL SU-8 v2 (using XLRs) based on Amir's recommendation many years ago and that sounds amazing. I have level matched and listened to the SU-8 vs my built in AKM4490 in the Jot 1, and can't tell any difference between the two. Will definitely fail a DAC blind listening test between them.

This or the new Topping L70 seems to make sense for me as an upgrade. For the extra $150 for the A70 Pro it seems like a no-brainer, considering what many HiFi companies still charge for poor measuring gear. Do I need 8 watts @ 32ohms? No, but if I can get it for $499 I'll take it.

 

[Entropy]

So if you are like me and haven't upgraded your headphone amp in 5 years this seems like it would be a noticable improvement? Hopefully?

Eh... maybe not. Actually, probably not. I believe jot1 measures perfectly fine, it should be rather difficult to tell the difference.

 

[Blashyrkh]

- the input imedance of the A70 Pro is 20 k, it's better than the 2 or 10 K of previous models, but still not fully universal, especially for some vintage analog components.

You mentioned it, only for old analog components like passive pre or tube stuff.
Anyway they didn't even go past 2Kohm output, that perfectly match the 1:10 ratio.

This is another another mental blow*** like having 300db SNR and 4kW for 16ohm cans.
Next step will be create a portable nuclear station.

 

[Jimster480]

Arf, sorry, I mean GUSTARD H16 AMP?

Define better? This Amp has better distortion and power profiles. However that doesn't mean they will be audible differences. It also would depend on what headphones you are trying to drive with said Amp.

 

[MAK1975]

Eh... maybe not. Actually, probably not. I believe jot1 measures perfectly fine, it should be rather difficult to tell the difference.

Thanks! If that's the case, then I'll just stick with the Jot. It works perfectly fine. Wish it had a preamp switch where I could mute the headphone if I am listening to my speakers, but I just unplug my headphones when using the preamp.

 

[drake5000]

Thank you for the review! Since I have an actual ground loop issue, I'm very interested in that ground lift feature. However have some concerns. Is it safe to keep that ground switch in "lift" all the time? If so, why not keep the ground lifted by default in such amps?

 

[MAK1975]

Take a look at the excellent graph by staticV3 (post #37 in this thread) to determine where your headphones sit.

Topping A70 Pro HP & Preamp Review

Is it better than GUSTARD DAC-X16? https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/gustard-x16-balanced-mqa-dac-review.17419/ That is a DAC and this is an AMP. Here is the D70 (DAC Version of this)...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Thanks for the graph reference that really puts it in perspective on how "overbuilt" this beast is! I can't think of any headphones that will come close to using the amount of juice the A70 Pro has on tap. Maybe the AKG K1000 ear speakers could take advantage of the volume knob. Looks like the A70 Pro can do a lot of damage if you accidentally turn the volume up too much!!

 

[amirm]

Someone asked how warm it gets. After all my testing it had gotten a bit warm but nothing seriously worrisome.

Another asked for preamp measurements. That was the first part of the review!

 

[Bleib]

Surprised 50mV is measured to almost 93dB when they advertise it as even better, way better than anything else really

 

[amirm]

Surprised 50mV is measured to almost 93dB when they advertise it as even better, way better than anything else really

As explained, this number is analyzer limited. Topping uses an external noise amplifier to get around this factor.

 

[Bleib]

As explained, this number is analyzer limited. Topping uses an external noise amplifier to get around this factor.

Ah, thank you. I should've read more carefully..

 

[Jochen]

Amazing performance, never seen these distortion-free graphs for an headphone amp. All that has to be done now is coming up with a heaphone the really needs that kind of power.

 

[Scytales]

What DAC chip does this device use ? An ESS, I guess ?

 

[Bleib]

What DAC chip does this device use ? An ESS, I guess ?

None. Check the DAC review

 

[MAK1975]

The A70 Pro is a Heaphone Amp/Pre-amp only, so it has no DAC chip. You need to pair it with a separate external DAC like the new D70.

 

[Scytales]

My apologize for the mistake !