Topping B100 Amplifier Review

[antcollinet]

I’m not sure I’d call that a bodge. There is no evidence this was to repair a design mistake or to fix an issue introduced by the production run.

It's glued to the top of the caps FFS. How much of a bodge does it have to be?

 

[Count Arthur]

Are monoblocks a fad?

They've been around a long time. For many of the "big amp" manufacturers, Bryston, Krell, Mark Levinson, McIntosh, etc. their most expensive and powerful models would typically be a pair of mono amplifiers.

 

[Sokel]

I'm curious about the wires coupled on the heatshink.
Is it a thermal sensor?Can't be grounding as heatshinks must be,that should be underneath.

(if it's a bimetal thermal switch I'll sue them for stolen IP,I suggested that at fosi thread )

 

[DSJR]

Great review, Amir. This amp is for someone looking for perfection in a desktop system, I think, and it will surely provide it. Interesting how it's pure Class B, and achieves its performance through generous application of negative feedback. I'm old enough to remember the old audiophile canard from the 1970's that negative feedback was anathema because it introduced "transient intermodulation distortion (TIM)." That was so much the case that a few amplifiers were marketed back then with no negative feedback applied at all. The one that comes immediately to mind was the Mark Levinson ML-2 which was a pure class A design the size of a Krell monoblock which output 25 WPC and sold for a cool $2800 each in 1977, equivalent to $14,500 in 2024 purchasing power, or $29,000 for a pair.

Of course what was not realized at the time was that the solution to TIM in those early transistor designs employing negative feedback was to use even more negative feedback to kill the TIM as well. Now we know better, so much so that Topping can introduce an amp with twice the power of that Levinson and 120 db Sinad levels, while costing only $600 a pair, and being small enough to fit on a desktop. Progress!

I'm not knocking the performance achieved here, but as said in a post earlier, I can't help but feel it's been designed for an ASR-based audience with passive speakers on a desktop system, rather than a music lover out there with greater demands on power

 

[Bleib]

I don't think there's anyone who needs 2x80w on the desktop. I doubt there are any speakers that are that inefficient.

 

[VMAT4]

I don't think there's anyone who needs 2x80w on the desktop. I doubt there are any speakers that are that inefficient.

I don't think anyone needs 80 wpc on the desktop either. Near field monitors are the solution there. Those are almost all powered.

 

[Bleib]

I don't think anyone needs 80 wpc on the desktop either. Near field monitors are the solution there. Those are almost all powered.

And often contain amps which are hissing, which makes them a no-go for me.

 

[Mort]

I don't think there's anyone who needs 2x80w on the desktop. I doubt there are any speakers that are that inefficient.

Buy only what I need?

Didn't get that memo...

 

[pma]

I don't think there's anyone who needs 2x80w on the desktop. I doubt there are any speakers that are that inefficient.

This speaker together with bass EQ needs such power at least.

Building a 2-way small active speaker with software crossover

On-axis frequency response with the bass extension. The sound is the sound of a typical mini-monitor, neutral, detailed, non-coloured. Still, it would need a subwoofer. I will not bother with drilling a port hole. The vented box has different drawbacks, like port midrange leakage resulting in...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[delta76]

Two of my least favorite things in an amplifier combined: monoblock and external PSU
And it barely has enough power to drive some bookshelves. Well, one. Not exactly sure who this product is aimed at.

50w is enough to drive most of the bookshelves except for some insensitive one. people are still listening with tube amp with 20-40w of power, max. I do agree I'd prefer a 2x100w amp of this level of cleanliness at around 399$, but, well.
with that said, this is another product to fill the market, a common tactic used by Topping and other Chinese manufacturers. "Something for everyone" and "let's throw it at the wall to see it sticks" strategy. This is aimed to be obsolete in 6 months by a different, same same but different amp.

 

[Negatywny]

Mother of god, my v3 monos are obsolete after two month

 

[VMAT4]

And often contain amps which are hissing, which makes them a no-go for me.

Too bad for you. I haven't heard of that problem with the Kali LP6 or Focal Alph 80 Evo. I have had first hand experience with both. You're not getting top performance for your dollar. Don't rule them!

 

[mk1classic]

Perfect for active horn systems. (Not a very large market though.)

Mani

Oh... for those of us with DSP crossovers and horns will need a few of them. I could use a minimum four for tweeters and mid horn. Maybe a set of B200 for the midbass.
Too bad we would need a wall rack of power supplies.

 

[Sokel]

I don't think anyone needs 80 wpc on the desktop either. Near field monitors are the solution there. Those are almost all powered.

Tiny 8341A contains 250 W for Bass (Class D) +150 W for Midrange (Class D) +150 W for Treble (Class D) amps and it's intended use is 1-1.5 meters listening distance.
Also note that those are active so way more efficient thatn something like the 84dB sens Kefs for example.

One would think that Genelec could get away for a lot less if such power is not needed.

 

[Haskil]

A magnificent style exercise succeeded by Topping...

But the price is way too high for the actually useful performance it offers due to relatively little power (although in 1975 it would have been considered a powerful amp...). And external power supplies are a pain.

If reliability is there (we hope that lessons have been learned from a previous catastrophic amp model from this point of view), this amp would be the perfect companion for a high-efficiency horn-mounted speaker: transparency, absence of breath and noise in the bass...
And even, let's face it, with a pair of 90 dB sensitivity speakers, whose impedance does not fall below 4 ohms, installed in a 30 m2 living room, listened to at a distance of 3 m from listen...


PS. There are still six voters who rated this amp poorly: we wonder on what measurement bases...

PS2 I use a small FDA Fx-Audio of 30 watts per channel powering BW CM1 placed on each side of my television... speakers with 84 dB efficiency announced by the manufacturer. I sometimes listen to/watch concerts on Arte or Mezzo: the volume is sufficient... 1.5 m from the TV.

 

[JeremyFife]

Thanks for the review Amirm.

Very, very clean and very, very quiet. If those are your priorities then these are lovely amps.

Usual early adoption caveats, let's see how these behave 'out in the wild '.

 

[Bleib]

Too bad for you. I haven't heard of that problem with the Kali LP6 or Focal Alph 80 Evo. I have had first hand experience with both. You're not getting top performance for your dollar. Don't rule them!

Nothing bad, my Topping MX3s is perfectly quiet, provides a remote, EQ etc as well. And I can connect whatever I want to it.

 

[Mort]

50w is enough to drive most of the bookshelves except for some insensitive one. people are still listening with tube amp with 20-40w of power, max. I do agree I'd prefer a 2x100w amp of this level of cleanliness at around 399$, but, well.
with that said, this is another product to fill the market, a common tactic used by Topping and other Chinese manufacturers. "Something for everyone" and "let's throw it at the wall to see it sticks" strategy. This is aimed to be obsolete in 6 months by a different, same same but different amp.

I think there will be a lot of cheap clean monoblocks on eBay in a few years.

 

[Bleib]

This speaker together with bass EQ needs such power at least.

Building a 2-way small active speaker with software crossover

On-axis frequency response with the bass extension. The sound is the sound of a typical mini-monitor, neutral, detailed, non-coloured. Still, it would need a subwoofer. I will not bother with drilling a port hole. The vented box has different drawbacks, like port midrange leakage resulting in...

www.audiosciencereview.com

On desktop? I still doubt it, most desktop speakers are not far away.

 

[renaudrenaud]

A magnificent style exercise succeeded by Topping...

But the price is way too high for the actually useful performance it offers due to relatively little power (although in 1975 it would have been considered a powerful amp...). And external power supplies are a pain.

If reliability is there (we hope that lessons have been learned from a previous catastrophic amp model from this point of view), this amp would be the perfect companion for a high-efficiency horn-mounted speaker: transparency, absence of breath and noise in the bass...
And even, let's face it, with a pair of 90 dB sensitivity speakers, whose impedance does not fall below 4 ohms, installed in a 30 m2 living room, listened to at a distance of 3 m from listen...


PS. There are still six voters who rated this amp poorly: we wonder on what measurement bases...

At the moment you live in Paris or London, you are happy with a 30m2 living room. So I guess there is a large number of people interested in stellar performance for low price and living in 80m2.