Topping A90 Discrete Review (Headphone Amp & Preamp)

[Veri]

As I use the D30 Pro: will this DAC have enough output voltage for the A90D or should I upgrade to another DAC?

Of course it has enough

 

[Lupin]

Yes of course. But they both just sound different. A90D is much smoother and more refined, A30Pro more hot and shouty. Best way to describe the differences. Both PLENTY of power. For music i'd blindly recommend the A90D in terms of listening fatigue, musical tonality etc. The A30Pro tends to fatigue a bit more after a while compared to the A90D. That said. If you have never heard the A90D next to the A30Pro then the A30Pro is a fine amp on it's own. Just not up to the level of the A90D for music. I think for other stuff like gaming, movies etc, it just doesn't matter which one you pick.

A30Pro is single ended but can take balanced cables. the Single ended amp in the A30Pro has plenty of power but feels slightly more brute forced and shouty compared to cranking up the volume with the A90D. The A30Pro sounds better with High Impedance headphones because it's switching to Class A. It will become smoother when it does that. My Beyers 600ohm T1 drivers sound great on both but the HD660s and Mr Speakers Mad Dogs definitely sound quite a bit better on the A90D.

I kept the A30Pro for funcionality (DAC Passthrough to active speakers) and because I just don't listen to music enough anymore, so it would be a bit wasted on me for my use case. For any music lover, GET THE A90D. It's just better overall in sound quality and listening experience.

Quite amazing how much subjective nonsense you can cram into 3 paragraphs...

 

[Cidious]

Thank you very much for your impressions!

As I use the D30 Pro: will this DAC have enough output voltage for the A90D or should I upgrade to another DAC?

WIll do just fine. I drive my Adam T5Vs directly from the DAC with the D30 Pro acting as pre-amp. And mostly I'm at -15 to -25 dB on the DAC when not even having maxed out the speaker amps.

 

[BDWoody]

Yes of course. But they both just sound different. A90D is much smoother and more refined, A30Pro more hot and shouty.

Oh boy.

I moved a few posts to the 'everything or nothing' thread, so let's keep it there please.

 

[usern]

Quite amazing how much subjective nonsense you can cram into 3 paragraphs...

Yeah, there should not be any audible difference between A30pro and A90D at same power output. It's easy to say that one thing is better than other if you are biased and do not test properly. And when looking for audible differences, then you should look at different headphones not different neutral amplifiers from same manufacturer.

 

[slsmaster]

Yeah, there should not be any audible difference between A30pro and A90D at same power output. It's easy to say that one thing is better than other if you are biased and do not test properly. And when looking for audible differences, then you should look at different headphones not different neutral amplifiers from same manufacturer.

But are the differences in channel balance audible? That was a metric that differed quite a bit between the A30Pro and A90D.

 

[Leiker535]

But are the differences in channel balance audible? That was a metric that differed quite a bit between the A30Pro and A90D.

They shouldn't be unless you are unlucky to get a bad A30Pro.

 

[Cidious]

and the ignorance continues by people that haven't even compared the two of them themselves. Just assuming. Because logic.. The cult continues. Have fun guys. It's a small world out there for you.

 

[Lupin]

and the ignorance continues by people that haven't even compared the two of them themselves. Just assuming. Because logic.. The cult continues. Have fun guys. It's a small world out there for you.

You keep insisting that you can hear the difference without conducting a properly controlled double blind volume matched test.
Numerous research papers have shown and proven that that the brain is not an reliable tool for this job and is very easily influenced. But you very conveniently decide to completely ignore these proven facts and and claim you're right just with anecdotes with what you think to hear.. indeed a very small world for you.

You're anecdotes will be much better received in places like Head-Fi where absolutely anything and everything goes without any need of backing up your statements in anyway. But wait you probably don't want to go there either as that is just another cult.

 

[DrDen]

I don’t know who is right. It depends on money you want to spend. I never thought about A30pro, because my system is fully balanced. I’m not so confident to claim that someone ought to get the exact device.

 

[usern]

and the ignorance continues by people that haven't even compared the two of them themselves. Just assuming. Because logic.. The cult continues. Have fun guys. It's a small world out there for you.

The problem is that you suggest people should buy 600$ NEUTRAL amplifier over 350$ NEUTRAL amplifier just because of 'musicality'. There are reasons to get A90D, but audible differences over A30pro are extremely likely not it. They both measure extremely good so the choice should be based on features, looks and possible quirks these amps have.

 

[Haruko]

You're anecdotes will be much better received in places like Head-Fi where absolutely anything and everything goes without any need of backing up your statements in anyway. But wait you probably don't want to go there either as that is just another cult.

boy are all people that buy anything from Audio-GD this salty ?

 

[BDWoody]

The cult continues

So, those who expect to see evidence are in a cult, and those who just go on anecdote and faith are the rational ones?

That's funny. There's a lot of projection out there.

Let's stop with the attempted insults, and either engage in good faith or find somewhere else to be upset about us.

 

[Arnas]

Cmon guys, he still bought solid device instead of 3k to 6k amp based on Head fi shills hype.
It takes some time to find the right path when you were led wrong way for so long...
Thats based on my story

 

[BDWoody]

It takes some time to find the right path when you were led wrong way for so long...

I get that, and certainly sympathize, but those still finding their way can leave the insults behind if they want to contribute here.

 

[Lupin]

boy are all people that buy anything from Audio-GD this salty ?

Nah
I personally feel that people are damaging the audio hobby as a whole with their "I say so" and/or "I hear this and that" and therefor it is the absolute and undeniable truth mentality.

 

[DrDen]

Nah
I personally feel that people are damaging for the audio hobby as a whole with their "I say so" and/or "I hear this and that" and therefor it is the absolute and undeniable truth mentality.

“Man is the measure of all things” — the ancient heresy. People haven’t changed.

 

[hooks]

My A90D arrived today, For max output do I want high gain setting on curve 1? I'm a little confused.

 

[Gggggas]

My A90D arrived today, For max output do I want high gain setting on curve 1? I'm a little confused.

Yes it is curve 1

 

[Gggggas]

Hello everyone,

I don't know if this has been stated before but regarding the loud pops when removing headphones from the 6.35 jack as well as the smaller pops from the 4.4mm I was told by the customer service that I can ship the device to them in China and they will adjust the sensitivity without affecting performance. I also mentioned the device powering off sometimes when unplugging headphones and from what I understood it is fixable.
I was informed that this has to be manually tuned by them and that it's not something adjusted by future firmware updates.