Topping A70 Pro HP & Preamp Review

[Acerun]

If you don't need all the bills and whistles I suppose the L30II has the exact same SINAD for a fraction of the cost.

 

[Ziroz]

If you don't need all the bills and whistles I suppose the L30II has the exact same SINAD for a fraction of the cost.

External power supply is a major turn off for these lower end toppings, something like the smsl sh6 looks way better in my opinion, albeit a little less powerful.

 

[AndreaT]

Game over! As it has happened for DACs, HPAs have reached technological maturity. Further progress of SOA HPAs could evolve toward parametric DSP equalizers, aesthetics, and possibly stability at very low impedence (one of my IEM has a 12 ohm load as measured by Amir. The low power requirement tough might prevent triggering this HPA protection). For a fraction of the esoteric HPA models of few years ago, this Topping A70 offers Formula 1 performance (and output power) at family sedan cost. Thank you Amir! Thank you Topping!

 

[Adaboy4z]

Laying here looking at my E30ii and L30ii. Nope not gonna navigate to the product page to buy. haha

 

[shuppatsu]

External power supply is a major turn off for these lower end toppings, something like the smsl sh6 looks way better in my opinion, albeit a little less powerful.

It works both ways though. I agree that the larger enclosures with built-in power supply look better, and it’s somewhat annoying that I have to hold down my l30ii when plugging headphones in.

But on the other hand, it takes up way less space on the desk, and there’s already a lot of things on my desk. I appreciate the small footprint and wonder about gargantuan headphone amps like the Bryston BHA-1. Where do people put it? Do people keep their headphone amp with the rest of their stereo gear and run one of those coiled extension cables to where they are sitting?

The A70 isn’t quite that big, but still seems bigger than convenient for a desk. Where do these usually end up?

 

[192kbps]

Amazing performance, reasonable price. Plus, it looks gorgeous in gray
View attachment 285193

Never buy any color other than black.

 

[amirm]

@amirm
three minor questions:
- was the test done with ground lifted?

No I didn't need to. I find that most if not all Topping desktop products are very good with regarding ground loops in my setup.

 

[amirm]

- does it do RCA in, Balanced out? and vice versa? (edit: yes it does)

Yes, I tested it in one direction.

 

[amirm]

According to the manufacturer, they all have the same output impedances, which is mighty high, even at 600R. Most DACs are in tens of ohms, a few of them at few hundred. At any rate, where did we get 20K input impedance from?
Did Amir mention it? It is not on Topping website!

It is in the marketing material from the company on other sellers. I did not look at Topping's own site.

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

If you don't need all the bills and whistles I suppose the L30II has the exact same SINAD for a fraction of the cost.

It might be argued that SINAD has left the border of audibility so far behind that it too has become a bell and whistle

 

[Tovarich007]

Hmm, I think TOPPING performance is meaningless for "especially for some vintage analog components".
It is unreasonable for them, who fight with performance as their weapon, to conduct development considering them. Leave it to someone else.
There is no appeal in average and mediocre products with dispersed resources. Hopefully they will focus on improving performance and reliability and moving forward.

That being said, I think the performance is already near the limit. With nothing to do, they will start spending their time on improving versatility, convenience, and usability.

Why meaningless ?

It's not because you listen with top notch contemporary components that you don't want to listen sometimes to your old vintage analog sources and drag the best performance from them. An output impedance of 20 K is fine for the large majority of these souces but not for all, it can be a little too low (not a big effet but some light attenuation in the treble that can be perceived by young ears -not me at my age I admit, but I don't speak for myself).

Why do you think 47 k was the standard input impedance in the vintage audio times ? And why do you think other excellent makers like RME and Benchmark use high input impedance yet (47 k for Benchmark and 40 for RME) ?

Frankly, it won't cost nothing for Topping to increase a bit the input impedance of their devices, and it will be 100 % fine with all analog components,, and not only 90 % of them.

It's my only minor regret with this new A70 Pro, a stunning looking and performing component. Hope they're won't be any bugs or reliability issues, but very attracted by this model.

 

[Tovarich007]

It is in the marketing material from the company on other sellers. I did not look at Topping's own site.

Amir, can you measure this in your upcoming preamp test ? Do you think this could be a problem with some old component sources ?
20 k is a bit low compared with the old standard of 47 k, still sued by benchmark or RME, for instance.

 

[Metronomy]

Amazing performance, reasonable price. Plus, it looks gorgeous in gray
View attachment 285193

I was thinking about a single component maybe 2 cm taller and even a couple of watts less is not possible?

We are never happy!

 

[Jimster480]

Maybe the Raal SR1a.

Will have to look into that headphone. haven't heard of it before now.

 

[kongkong]

Best preamplifer...

 

[marcom22]

Best preamplifer...

VS a90d?

 

[Music1969]

VS a90d?

As mentioned in this thread already, the higher input impedance with no tradeoff in THD+N

 

[spigot]

Might pair this with my JVC Flats.

 

[AaronJ]

What digital input?
Consider it as a straight wire with volume control , plus a headphone amp on the side.
Preamp is a misnomer. In my book, a preamp would at min. have input switching facilities, if nothing else.

I have a DAC already. That’s my digital source. The A70 supports 2 inputs which is all I need. Yes this is a straight wire with volume control which is exactly what I want for a preamp.

 

[Extreme_Boky]

What is that "new 3-stage feedback circuit"? Does the amount of feedback increase as the output power increases (something I kind-of see in AP plots.... 3 instances when the graph creeps up, and then drops), thus the low THD+noise even at extremely high output levels (for a headphone amp)?

Or.... do they use multiple nested negative feedbacks in their design??