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Topping A90 Headphone Amplifier Review

jhm

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My A90 (15 months old) had no signs of life today when I tried to turn it on. I couldn't hear the usual click of the relay when I turned it on.

In case it's useful for anyone else, the fuse (inside the holder next to the power input on the back of the A90) had blown. I swapped the blown fuse for the supplied spare which was inside the holder and my A90 worked fine again. I ordered a spare pack of fuses (only £2.10 from Amazon UK) - "10 x 500mA 0.5A 20mm Glass Quick Fast Blow Fuse (Pack of 10)" - https://www.amazon.co.uk/500mA-20mm-Glass-Quick-Blow/dp/B013ECCE6I
 

Jimbob54

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can we run it with headphones plugged into all 3 headphone outputs? just got mine in today but don't have my dac yet (either d90 or modius)

Thanks!
Suppose that depends on what headphones and what volume. Also bear in mind that it's one volume dial for all 3 and one gain setting. Don't think I'd want my sensitive iem s on the same settings as my Hifiman he6se.
 

ReaderZ

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Suppose that depends on what headphones and what volume. Also bear in mind that it's one volume dial for all 3 and one gain setting. Don't think I'd want my sensitive iem s on the same settings as my Hifiman he6se.
I actually asked this and got a reply from John, it's not just volume, the combined impedence cannot be lower than 8 Ohm, so don't put 2 Aeon there.
 

andivax

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what can I connect to A90 using PREAMP?
I decided between A30Pro (no pre) and A90.
Thanx!
 

jmaz87

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pre-amps usually exist to add convenient volume control to something like a power amp with no volume control or in my case active speakers where the volume is on the back of each monitor.
 

coomean

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Hi There, I am a little confused by the power output of A90 and need some help.
Recently I got a pair of Hifiman HE6se v2 and used SMSL SP200 to drive it. Hoping for a little more headroom after EQ, I am auditioning the A90.
Strangely, I get the same loudness out of my HE6se v2 (by my ear and my iPhone App), with both SP200 and A90 at the highest gain and maximum volume setting.
Given their measurements by amirm, A90 (4.8 watts) should roughly double the power output of SP200 (2.1 watts) at 50 ohm.

Am I missing something? I feed both amps using a DAC through balanced XLR (4.0 Vrms).
 

Jimbob54

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Hi There, I am a little confused by the power output of A90 and need some help.
Recently I got a pair of Hifiman HE6se v2 and used SMSL SP200 to drive it. Hoping for a little more headroom after EQ, I am auditioning the A90.
Strangely, I get the same loudness out of my HE6se v2 (by my ear and my iPhone App), with both SP200 and A90 at the highest gain and maximum volume setting.
Given their measurements by amirm, A90 (4.8 watts) should roughly double the power output of SP200 (2.1 watts) at 50 ohm.

Am I missing something? I feed both amps using a DAC through balanced XLR (4.0 Vrms).
Youre using the XLR output for both amps?
 

Tachyon88

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Hi There, I am a little confused by the power output of A90 and need some help.
Recently I got a pair of Hifiman HE6se v2 and used SMSL SP200 to drive it. Hoping for a little more headroom after EQ, I am auditioning the A90.
Strangely, I get the same loudness out of my HE6se v2 (by my ear and my iPhone App), with both SP200 and A90 at the highest gain and maximum volume setting.
Given their measurements by amirm, A90 (4.8 watts) should roughly double the power output of SP200 (2.1 watts) at 50 ohm.

Am I missing something? I feed both amps using a DAC through balanced XLR (4.0 Vrms).

Do you have something turned down in your chain, like your app volume, OS volume, DAC volume.. that you may not have noticed ?
 

coomean

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Youre using the XLR output for both amps?
Yes, I am using the XLR output for both amp to my headphone.
Do you have something turned down in your chain, like your app volume, OS volume, DAC volume.. that you may not have noticed ?
I used maximum volume on my Mac, DAC, and on both amps.
Also, I noticed that the outputs from both Amps kept increasing as I increase the amp volume gradually to their maximum. If there is any bottleneck in the chain, I would expect the amp volume to stop increasing at some point.
 

jmaz87

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Yes, I am using the XLR output for both amp to my headphone.

I used maximum volume on my Mac, DAC, and on both amps.
Also, I noticed that the outputs from both Amps kept increasing as I increase the amp volume gradually to their maximum. If there is any bottleneck in the chain, I would expect the amp volume to stop increasing at some point.
is DAC to AMP XLR? your still adding gain at the amp regardless of "bottleneck" just limiting your maximum volume along with the whole range if something were limiting it like SE input to amp etc.
 

coomean

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is DAC to AMP XLR? your still adding gain at the amp regardless of "bottleneck" just limiting your maximum volume along with the whole range if something were limiting it like SE input to amp etc.
Yes, DAC to amp is also XLR. But I think you are right that the signal into amp is limiting the maximum volume.
Do you have something turned down in your chain, like your app volume, OS volume, DAC volume.. that you may not have noticed ?
This is it, thanks.
It turns out that I had EQ (pre gain -5dB) turned on in my DAC (Qudelix 5k), so its output into those two amps is lower than 4.0 Vrms. Once I turned the EQ off, the A90 could drive my HE6se v2 to ~114 dB (1K Hz test tone, measured by iPhone app) before clipping, while SP200 clipped at ~111 dB.
 

Maki

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The volume control on the A90 is perfectly fine in my opinion. It has no play, is well damped, and it has very good channel balance. I could be a bit deeper physically, but that`s it.

I have a much more expensive Burson Solist 3XP here and prefer the A90 analogue volume control any time over this wobbly thing you have to turn for ages to change the volume significantly. A motorized version for a new A90 variant would be cool though :)
The feel isn't that good to be honest. Functionally it's great and no complaints about the matching - but the stops don't feel as crisp as higher end pots and there's a bit of "springiness" where it will go back half a degree after you release the knob. That being said, it's pretty much par for the price. The most common "audiophile" pot used in the price range is the RK27, which also kind of sucks with the same mushy stops, and the smoothness can sometimes be really bad. It's a toss-up really.
 

enricoclaudio

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I have an A30Pro but the "what if" hit me so I ordered an A90 to compare with the A30Pro. To be honest, I can't decide between the two so I'm keeping both :) The A30Pro will get balanced signal from the MA mini-i Pro 3 and the A90 balanced signal from the MA X-SABRE 3. Not to mention that they look badass stacked ;)

IMG_8537.jpg
 
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To Amir and any other fellow audiophile: I welcome your opinions - I own a Topping D90SE, JDS Labs Atom+ and Sennheiser HD650s.

What is there to gain in terms of reality (interpret as you will) by replacing the JDS amp with a Topping A90?

Thank you sincerely.

Jonathan
 

enricoclaudio

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Oh, the heck with it...... we only live once.

Just get it and compare it with your Atom+. Most likely you wouldn't notice any difference as the HD650s are not power hungry but the A90 is a great amp. I'm very happy owning the A90 + A30Pro. Best two headphone amps from Topping and maybe two of the best currently in the market.
 

alto

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Do we expect to see a successor to A90 any time soon? I'm thinking about how the D90 has now been followed by D90se, and whether the A90 is still a current purchase, or if there is something like an A90/se/Pro/+/whatever around the corner?
 

frogmeat69

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The D90se was released because of the switch to ES9038 pro DAC chip due to AKM chip shortage, but it basically performs the same, not really an upgrade. Don't see a reason for an SE model amp.
 

enricoclaudio

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Can’t think on anything that can be improved in the A90 other than more power on SE outs which for that you have the A30Pro. Also, increasing power on SE outs would make the A90 running warmer than the A30Pro. In terms of performance, the A90 beats almost every HP amp bellow $3000, including the Benchmark HPA4.
 
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