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Topping A90 Headphone Amplifier Review

Veri

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Mine just arrived! Unboxed and connected. Out of the box.. silky smooth knob =) yay.
The sound is slamming. You can't get any bass distortion out of this thing lol :) so far really impressed.

TL;DR beast of an amp... or more like, all the headphone amp one could ever need. Awesome.
 

Rigel

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Mine just arrived! Unboxed and connected. Out of the box.. silky smooth knob =) yay.
The sound is slamming. You can't get any bass distortion out of this thing lol :) so far really impressed.

TL;DR beast of an amp... or more like, all the headphone amp one could ever need. Awesome.

To enjoy it then. Yes, the bass is very good, very clearly.
 

Pillars

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Topping is doing great things with this amp, for sure! The only gripe I can find is that it'd be nice if it had an auto off feature but it's really not a big deal for me.
 

Racheski

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TLDR, he puts the A90 at the same level as the HPA4. I find Sandu entertaining - he always starts off with good technical details of the device, and then seamlessly transitions to ridiculous descriptions of what he is hearing. His expression when he realizes the A90 is as good as the HPA4 is priceless - at first he blames the power cables!
 

jpanic4

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And I just got my 789.. took me so long to decide between the SP200 and 789. :(

I don't know what to do now...
 

jae

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TLDR, he puts the A90 at the same level as the HPA4. I find Sandu entertaining - he always starts off with good technical details of the device, and then seamlessly transitions to ridiculous descriptions of what he is hearing. His expression when he realizes the A90 is as good as the HPA4 is priceless - at first he blames the power cables!

Honestly, I commend him for that which is more than I can say for a lot of reviewers out there. It takes a certain amount of humility to admit you have subjective biases and come to the conclusion that something else is on par or surpasses something you own that you already spent significantly more money on. He spends a good time talking about specs, features, and feel/ergonomics of the unit, and comparison to another unit, which is infinitely more useful than talking about how the highs and lows sound.

I recently saw a review on one of the hypex or purifi class D module amps from one of the more popular "audiophile" reviewers and they kept going on about how sterile, thin, or bright the sound was despite the amp outclassing their own system in every metric while costing much less. They simply can't admit they are delusional, don't like the recordings they are listening to, prefer the sound of additional noise and distortion, or something of the sort. Of course those are the same people trying to tell you about special cables and how they prefer the sound of R2R dacs.

So it's nice to see a reviewer that isn't like this.
 
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Racheski

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Honestly, I commend him for that which is more than I can say for a lot of reviewers out there. It takes a certain amount of humility to admit you have subjective biases and come to the conclusion that something else is on par or surpasses something you own that you already spent significantly more on. He spends a good time talking about specs, features, and feel/ergonomics of the unit, and comparison to another unit, which is infinitely more useful than talking about how the highs and lows sound.

I recently saw a review on one of the hypex or purifi class D module amps from one of the more popular "audiophile" reviewers and they kept going on about how sterile, thin, or bright the sound was despite the amp outclassing their own system in every metric while costing much less. They simply can't admit they are delusional, don't like the recordings they are listening to, prefer the sound of additional noise and distortion, or something of the sort. Of course those are the same people trying to tell you about special cables and how they prefer the sound of R2R dacs.

So it's nice to see a reviewer that isn't like this.
He also posts meticulous write ups of all his reviews on Soundnews.net so readers can better understand his methodology when reviewing a device, which I appreciate and respect.
 

Spocko

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Thanks to ASR, my current headphone stack for desktop listening at work is the Geshelli Archel2 + Topping E30 all for under $300. The reason I bring this up is that the A90 ties the Geshelli in terms of raw numbers, both considered candidates for the "point of diminishing returns" , and after reading the review and specs, I'm so so tempted to buy the A90 and fall off the wagon of audiophile buying sobriety until I realize "wait, will my 50 year old rock concert damaged hearing even notice the difference?"
 

Instrugramm

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Small theoretical question, if I'd get the A90 and use its preamp XLR Out to feed my XDUOO TA-20 would the sound be better or worse than if I fed the TA-20 directly from my D90? I know preamplifying can yield better results for active monitors but when feeding a tube amp I've no experience regarding the outcome.

I love my 789 but I hate always having to take out the XLRs when I want to use my TA-20, so it's either a second DAC or the A90 that come to mind to resolve the problem.
 

Audimon

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Small theoretical question, if I'd get the A90 and use its preamp XLR Out to feed my XDUOO TA-20 would the sound be better or worse than if I fed the TA-20 directly from my D90? I know preamplifying can yield better results for active monitors but when feeding a tube amp I've no experience regarding the outcome.

I love my 789 but I hate always having to take out the XLRs when I want to use my TA-20, so it's either a second DAC or the A90 that come to mind to resolve the problem.

From what I understood the logic and quality is pretty good on the A90 and there shouldn't be any audible influence on the signal.
But you better direct the question to the Topping Master @JohnYang1997 :)
 

Veri

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Small theoretical question, if I'd get the A90 and use its preamp XLR Out to feed my XDUOO TA-20 would the sound be better or worse than if I fed the TA-20 directly from my D90?
The A90 won't add anything, so it will sound the same, not better or worse. i.e. transparent. It will save you from unplugging XLRs though, as you say.
 

Instrugramm

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Thanks for your responses, it's a bit of a shame as I feel like my transparent amps become obsolete quite fast but if it sounds as good/transparent as everybody says, I certainly won't regret switching.
 

Veri

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Thanks for your responses, it's a bit of a shame as I feel like my transparent amps become obsolete quite fast but if it sounds as good/transparent as everybody says, I certainly won't regret switching.
For what it's worth, the build of the A90 both outside and inside is stellar. The knob needs just the tiniest force but also has the correct heft, real smooth. The switches for the gain and input are also nice. The power indicator is a very non-intrusive green LED. I can't fault the user experience one bit.. :)
 

jhm

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Thank you very much to Amir for the measurements and everyone else for all the advice and discussion on here.

Could I please ask for advice whether (assuming my hearing is that of an average 49 year old) I will hear a noticeable difference if I get an A90 to replace my current headphone amp, a Marantz HD-DAC1 (which is a headphone amp + CS4398 DAC) ? I know there are measurements on here from Amir of the HD-AMP1 (an integrated amp + ES9010K2M DAC) which gave not so good results but I don't know how much of those results is down to the amp and how much down to the DAC.

I'm currently using the CS4398 DAC inside the HD-DAC1 and after reading about the D90 here on ASR, I ordered a D90 yesterday. I was planning to feed the D90 into the HD-DAC1 (i.e. using it only as a headphone amp - it has a 3.5mm input) but I'm wondering now whether to replace the HD-DAC1 altogether with an A90 ?

I'm listening using a very old pair of Sennheiser HD580s and Etymotic ER4-SR in-ear monitors and I have on order an Audeze LCD-1 (for use out and about) and a Quad ERA-1 planar.

I don't have a problem with spending to buy the A90 if its excellent measurements (compared to the HD-DAC1) will be audible - having been in lockdown for coming up to 3 months now and being lucky enough to be able to work from home, I am saving a lot compared to usual!

Thank you in advance for any advice.
 

ripvw

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Could I please ask for advice whether (assuming my hearing is that of an average 49 year old) I will hear a noticeable difference if I get an A90 to replace my current headphone amp, a Marantz HD-DAC1 (which is a headphone amp + CS4398 DAC) ?
please disregard - wrong Marantz
 

Ddd

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Ok just confirmed!

A90 on Balance input Hi Gain Balanced output 6.0x gain..
No distortion!

Tested with 0dB 1KHz Sine Wave
Distortion happens no matter the volume at highest Gain 3 , 6.6x of THX 887 amplifier

Wonder is it because of the A90 whooping 49Vpp swings?

I love it! Now I can use my headphone on Highest Gain Balance input!
 

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