Topping B100 Amplifier Review

[Mnyb]

Not saying it’s what you mean, but to me that reads a bit like “can we only talk about the good things”

Nah i just thought the power argument was done by now ...

 

[somebodyelse]

Maybe not there?

Maybe what not where?

 

[amirm]

What stands out like a sore thumb is that this amp powers down at 70 to 86 PEAK Watts.

That's not correct. Its peak, continuous and max powers are the same due to enforcement of protection circuit. Actually, in testing, it seemed to allow a bit more peak power before shutting down. But wasn't worth capturing and including in the review.

 

[shuppatsu]

can we just cap the discussion with thats its just a bit small on power , find a suitable application . The quietness with very low noise is in favor of a desktop use case , arms length is close enough to hear hiss from some actives .

I was racking my brain trying to come up with such an application, and it was difficult, because so many new field speakers are actives.

But then it hit me, the GR Research Little Giant Killers would be perfect for these! They’re the rare passive near field speaker. They’re expensive enough to justify spending $600 on amplification. And they need very little power since you need to high pass them anyway to prevent distortion!

 

[billou5767]

EU laws strictly state that stand-by power must be 0.5W or below.
And they also describe what "stand-by" is.

Same for bricks plugged and doing nothing.

europe its 1W , the briks alone its 0,1 w

 

[welwynnick]

Nah i just thought the power argument was done by now ...

I agree. What's the point of criticising a relatively low power amplifier for having relatively low power? As with all Toppings (and SMSL, Benchmark, Hypex, Purifi), it broadly does what they say it does.

If you want more power, move on, and buy a more powerful amp instead. Like the Topping B200.

What? The quality isn't as good? The B200 has an inferior dynamic range, I hear you say? Well, let's have a closer look. The B100 only achieves 151dB DNR at low gain - no voltage gain, in fact. Interesting.

Short of buying a $$$ BAT preamp with 30 or 40V output, there are no reasonable options for driving the B100 at low gain (though I'm sure Topping will fix that soon). The medium setting has 10.4dB gain - comparable with many other low gain power amps. That works. Topping don't quote the SNR for medium gain, but the noise increases from 0.7 to 1.2 microvolts. That corresponds to an SNR reduction from 151 to 146 dB.

The B200 has 145dB at 11.6dB low gain. It also has 0.00008% THD+N, the same as the B100. So just buy the B200, and please, stop complaining about low power.

Nick

 

[somebodyelse]

The low power measurements are not going to be accurate.

In that case the measurement needs qualification with an error bound, or removing entirely as misleading. I suppose it may depend on input voltage too.

 

[DanielT]

We're talking about a basic design element of this particular 'class B' amp reviewed here. I think that's 100% reasonable.
Or is this a subjective review?

@rongon Just start a separate thread on the subject huh?

https://linearaudio.net/sites/linearaudio.nl/files/2022-12/Hawksford_Part2.pdf

You are asking questions related to basics of power amplifier design. I agree with @restorer-john that such debate should not be a part of the review thread.

Sounds reasonable:

Class B amplifier with SINAD of 120, how is that possible?

I thought that class B based amplifiers advantage were a lot of power in combination with the disadvantage of high distortion. To solve the negative aspect class A design was integrated, creating the classic combination: Class AB amplifier. BUT why bother with this AB combination if it can be...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[somebodyelse]

europe its 1W , the briks alone its 0,1 w

Please cite a reference. As I understand it 1W is only allowed if there is an information display active shown in standby. See reference in post #260.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

Please cite a reference. As I understand it 1W is only allowed if there is an information display active shown in standby. See reference in post #260.

Standby, networked standby and Off mode

Off mode, standby and networked standby mode. Energy efficiency of products.

energy-efficient-products.ec.europa.eu

 

[Sokel]

europe its 1W , the briks alone its 0,1 w

(Regulation link)

It's 0.5 W.
It's 1 W in case there is displayed information on it which is not our case here.

Edit:Off-mode is also interesting with some bricks,there's a thread with info here.

 

[TNT]

Why not the reactive (L/C) measuremnts... pretty please?

//

 

[Sokel]

Why not the reactive (L/C) measuremnts... pretty please?

//

A simulated speaker one would be better for the specific.
There's no value in torturing it at lower impedance as its spec clearly state that load must be above 4 Ohm.

(last line) :

 

[Sokel]

Short of buying a $$$ BAT preamp with 30 or 40V output, there are no reasonable options for driving the B100 at low gain (though I'm sure Topping will fix that soon)

The day that Topping will built a tube pre like the BAT will be the day that ASR will have the most responses,ever

(I want the small BAT pre but with no signal and with the cover off,just to look at,they are gorgeous inside)

 

[billou5767]

View attachment 392769

(Regulation link)

It's 0.5 W.
It's 1 W in case there is displayed information on it which is not our case here.

Edit:Off-mode is also interesting with some bricks,there's a thread with info here.

thank i know it wa under 1W , 0,1 its commun mesure on product sale

all change in january 2025 : 0,3 max

Commission presents new ecodesign rules for electrical appliances in “standby” mode

Following a consultation exercise and scrutiny, a number of amendments to the ecodesign regulation on standby, off mode and networked standby electrical appliances have been adopted by the European Commission today.

energy.ec.europa.eu

 

[daniboun]

let's be honest, almost identical performance

Topping LA90D (Stereo) : 2x70W / 4R @ $799
Topping B100 (Stereo) : 2x86W / 4R @ $300x2 = $600

Up to you )

 

[DSJR]

No, it has been designed for fidelity lovers .. majority of people want to listen to fidelity tracks ... Not a soup of modified tones ... This item is not for gear lovers that spend 98% time in admiration of the gear and 2% Time listenting music

I'm going to kind-of disagree, as the threshold for our ears' perception of high fidelity is WAY lower than the high standards set by this amp. I'm not knocking the performance achieved, but I very much doubt it's 'audibly better,' so a 'soup of modified tones' is arguably where its superiority would really lie, so awful is our hearing in the animal world (and audiophile hearing especially it appears - runs for cover...).

I listen to well recorded music and bemoan less well produced music with the best of them. My gear is orders of magnitude *worse* than this, yet production differences are easily reproduced if I feel that analytical about it and I can dip in and out of a mix quite easily should I desire. I'm really not sure a dinky pair of boxes like this would increase my music enjoyment to be honest, as my varied sources (UK FM is 13 bit digital brick-walled at 15kHz, not sure on the online data rates), I play the odd vinyl LP still an dof course I have eighteen year old passive speakers which intentionally do all sorts (admittedly flattering) to the response and inevitably add distortions of their own.

 

[welwynnick]

let's be honest, almost identical performance

Topping LA90D (Stereo) : 2x70W / 4R @ $799
Topping B100 (Stereo) : 2x86W / 4R @ $300x2 = $600

Up to you )

I agree, I was just comparing the same specs. There's not that much difference between the premium Topping amps. For the most part it's just Topping playing games with gain.

HOWEVER, the B100 does move fowards with high frequency distortion. They're all below -125dB THD+N at low frequencies. The LA90 starts to rise at 500Hz, the B200 starts to rise at 2kHz, but the B100 is flat across the audio band. It also has lower THD+N across 20-20k than at 1kHz, which is very unusual.

 

[audio_tony]

Class B amps are only used in RF due to crossover distortion. So the common version is a hybrid Class AB, not class B. Here, feedback is used so much as to nullify crossover distortion in class B. Much like the way Hypex amps use a lot of feedback to deal with all sorts of non-linearities in class D.

RF typically uses Class C not Class B.

 

[JeremyFife]

I was racking my brain trying to come up with such an application, and it was difficult, because so many new field speakers are actives.

But then it hit me, the GR Research Little Giant Killers would be perfect for these! They’re the rare passive near field speaker. They’re expensive enough to justify spending $600 on amplification. And they need very little power since you need to high pass them anyway to prevent distortion!

or, perhaps not (this version didn't come off very well) https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...research-lgk-2-0-speaker-review-a-joke.34783/