Topping A90 Headphone Amplifier Review

[EchoChamber]

Such a nice clean space. Are those Beyer Dynamic headphones?

Yes, from Drop, the DT 177X GO (32 ohms). The best closed back I could find at a "reasonable" price. I primarily bought them for office use, but I've been working 100% from home since March...

Whoah, whoah. What be them cans? Modded 1770s?
Yes, the 177X GO from Drop.

And for the love of all that is holy, please align one or both of your pads. Its making my teeth grind.

lol, sorry, those are actually really hard to align... I think I'm going back to the stock velour anyway. I feel the leather pads "smear" the highs.

 

[Jimbob54]

Yes, from Drop, the DT 177X GO (32 ohms). The best closed back I could find at a "reasonable" price. I primarily bought them for office use, but I've been working 100% from home since March...



lol, sorry, those are actually really hard to align... I think I'm going back to the stock velour anyway. I feel the leather pads "smear" the highs.

Everything I have read (not tried I must add) suggests Beyers and leather pads are a bad combo. I'll probably learn that myself the hard way one day too.

Non stock cable? Was that one of the bigger complaints of the Go- crap cable?

 

[EchoChamber]

Everything I have read (not tried I must add) suggests Beyers and leather pads are a bad combo. I'll probably learn that myself the hard way one day too.

The leather pads came with the Drop package. They are a little more comfortable, but I thinks pads are such an integral part of headphone design, they shouldn't be tempered with. I've tried different "premium" pads with my Hifiman Sundara and they sounded horrible (I returned them for a refund).

Non stock cable? Was that one of the bigger complaints of the Go- crap cable?

Yeah, I din't care much for them. Felt like an afterthought. So I made some using Canare instrument cable - that mini 4 pin termination was really hard to work on... Flexible and robust, a little heavy though... Does it sound better than stock? I thought so...

 

[Jimbob54]

My space blows compared to yours...

View attachment 66679

*zooms to check pad alignment*

 

[JohnYang1997]

I received my a90 but I'm getting a noise when I have my rca connected to my dac and playing music any thoughts what it could be ? I'm running a atom and khadas board prior I tested it through the same power outlet and cables same setup basically yet I get a buzz and it gets louder the higher I boost the volume. The khadas board doesn't have a casing but I don't get this noise from my atom. I used SE and Balanced worst on balance. Any suggestions thoughts ?

Ground loop situation. Try use shorter cable, try balanced dac etc

 

[rjley]

*zooms to check pad alignment*

You're funny!

 

[EchoChamber]

My space blows compared to yours...

View attachment 66679

Nice setup! Looks like you have one box too many... ;-)

 

[Jimbob54]

You're funny!
View attachment 66684

Bless you. I can sleep tonight.

 

[EchoChamber]

You're funny!
View attachment 66684

rjley 1 x 0 EchoChamber

 

[JohnYang1997]

Just to clarify John, the a90 is less irritating(than the 789, to you), (some say) too soft and dark and slow and some can turn the volume too high on the a90?

Pretty sure that's your meaning but at times in your post I'm unsure which amp you are referring to. Legit question BTW, don't care which way round you mean.

A90. I didn't expect people to hear the difference also. But the feedback has been consistent. From objective perspective in normal listening level, there's shouldn't be anything audible. But if they really hear a bit of difference, it will be caused by the noise.

 

[Jimbob54]

Nice setup! Looks like you have one box too many... ;-)

You can never have too many amps. Or headphones. *whispers* .......or dacs

 

[Jimbob54]

rjley 1 x 0 EchoChamber

They werent like that in the first pic. Cheating afoot.

 

[rjley]

Nice setup! Looks like you have one box too many... ;-)

I Know! I want to sell the 789 but have to go through a bit more comparing. The A90 is starting to come around sound wise it seems.

 

[Tks]

Received my A90 last week, fantastic pairing D90/A90 with my HE4XX and HD650. The D90 is even awesome synergy with my speaker system (Sonus Faber Concertino Domus via Krell 400Xi integrated amp). I choose silver colour to match all three components.

I am waiting for Amirm's A50 measurement and review .

Here's one of my headphone setup. The bottom tier is my integrated amplifier as base for the top three-tier

Man, the all silver look is great! Gonna try to avoid getting constantly black gear from now on.

 

[Pillars]

Anyone else have a substantial amount of rotation play in their volume knob? I've got a pretty large amount of dead zone movement on my unit, an easy 2-3mm of sponge before I feel grip/adjustment.

 

[Wazzupi]

Ground loop situation. Try use shorter cable, try balanced dac etc

I tried balanced and it worked thank u it still has a buzz at max volume and gain but it's practically equal to low gain no volume now. Before maxed out on high gain it was roaring and Everytime I moved my mouse I could hear static sound coming through louder im using a beat up Korg 100 dac for balanced I'll be buying a new dac soon. Could it be the rca cable ?

 

[hmscott]

Hi, that is exactly what I'm thinking of whether it is feasible. So I can utilise the high-end DAC tech from D90 (if I decide to buy it, if this setup is possible).

So from A90 RCA out to AVR, I can just link to any of the AVR RCA in right? Or is there any specify ones for such setup?

Thanks!

Yup, the RCA is single-ended - which is why it is provided for compatibility with pre-amp's / AMP's that don't have XLR inputs.

I don't have my A90 / D90 MQA yet, but as I've read that's how things stand. I'll update if I find any details worth adding after I get my stack set up.

DHL says Thursday is when my Topping A90 / D90 MQA arrive, and I'll likely get to setting it up this weekend - if not immediately.

Received my A90 last week...I choose silver colour to match all three components.
...Here's one of my headphone setup. The bottom tier is my integrated amplifier as base for the top three-tier
View attachment 66539

Man, the all silver look is great! Gonna try to avoid getting constantly black gear from now on.

Same here, I changed everything to light colors and a silver stack this time.

 

[mt196]

I tried balanced and it worked thank u it still has a buzz at max volume and gain but it's practically equal to low gain no volume now. Before maxed out on high gain it was roaring and Everytime I moved my mouse I could hear static sound coming through louder im using a beat up Korg 100 dac for balanced I'll be buying a new dac soon. Could it be the rca cable ?

If your Dac has external power (meaning it doesn't need power from the same USB used to connect it to the PC) you can use electrical tape (the black one for example) on the gnd pin of the USB connector. It solved 90% of my ground loops

 

[JohnYang1997]

I tried balanced and it worked thank u it still has a buzz at max volume and gain but it's practically equal to low gain no volume now. Before maxed out on high gain it was roaring and Everytime I moved my mouse I could hear static sound coming through louder im using a beat up Korg 100 dac for balanced I'll be buying a new dac soon. Could it be the rca cable ?

I still recommend balanced connection. Shorter RCA cable can only do so much.

 

[Veri]

Could it be the rca cable ?

The khadas without case is not a good environment to prevent grounding issues. Even with case there have been people with issues, it depends from amp to amp. Balanced output is so much more resilient...