Topping B100 Amplifier Review

[Deleted member 72219]

Thanks for replying. I get that they have a 12v trigger to switch them on. However, if I stop playing music then do I need to go and manually switch both B100s to standby? It doesn't go in to standby automatically after 20 mins like the Fosi Audio V3 Mono? It would seem like a backwards step if they don't.

They do not.

-Ed

 

[Music1969]

Is this amp safe and reliable? None of the drama of some other Topping amps? @solderdude ?

Good thermal management?

 

[C0mbat]

They do not.

-Ed

Sorry, maybe I asked the wrong question as I've no idea how 12v triggers work. My understanding is that the WiiM Ultra 12v trigger provide power through that connection while music is playing. The Topping should therefore always be on while being fed through the 12v trigger. When the WiiM stops playing music my understanding that it also stops sending current through the 12v. New question. Does the Topping return to standby if it isn't receiving current through the 12v trigger? Or will it just stay on until you switch it off manually?

 

[solderdude]

Is this amp safe and reliable? None of the drama of some other Topping amps? @solderdude ?

Good thermal management?

Only time will tell.

 

[Deleted member 72219]

Sorry, maybe I asked the wrong question as I've no idea how 12v triggers work. My understanding is that the WiiM Ultra 12v trigger provide power through that connection while music is playing. The Topping should therefore always be on while being fed through the 12v trigger. When the WiiM stops playing music my understanding that it also stops sending current through the 12v. New question. Does the Topping return to standby if it isn't receiving current through the 12v trigger? Or will it just stay on until you switch it off manually?

No, that is not how 12V trigger works. The way the WiiM works also can cause confusion, so let me clarify…

The WiiM has two states, on, and standby (no true off). There is a setting in the WiiM Home App to control the automatic standby timer for how long the unit waits with no music playing before it goes into standby. The power button on the remote will force it into standby without relying on the timer. The same button also wakes the unit from standby when you want to listen to stuff. The 12V trigger changes the power status every time you flip it on or off or the automatic standby does so. You can test this with the remote control.

Let me know if this clarifies it for you.

-Ed

 

[Deleted member 72219]

Is this amp safe and reliable? None of the drama of some other Topping amps? @solderdude ?

Good thermal management?

Thermal management was never an issue for me when I had them.

They have a very limited input voltage acceptance and the safety cutoff kicked in on me several times. That might be somewhat okay if it didn’t do any damage to the amps, but I had a bigger issue (perhaps incompatibility, if you like) where my Geshelli JNOG3 DAC, which has a 3/6Vrms rating for its RCA/XLR outputs would occasionally send a maximum-voltage pop (pop as in split second length of time) to the amps, and after this fried 3 B100s, I decided to sell off the (brand new-in-box) warranty replacement units.

-Ed

 

[C0mbat]

No, that is not how 12V trigger works. The way the WiiM works also can cause confusion, so let me clarify…

The WiiM has two states, on, and standby (no true off). There is a setting in the WiiM Home App to control the automatic standby timer for how long the unit waits with no music playing before it goes into standby. The power button on the remote will force it into standby without relying on the timer. The same button also wakes the unit from standby when you want to listen to stuff. The 12V trigger always sends a signal out when the WiiM is on and not in standby. The 12V signal is always cut/off when the WiiM is in standby. If you disable automatic standby by disabling the timer, and you never touch the remote’s red button, then the WiiM will perpetually send a 12V signal out and the B100s never shut off, regardless whether music is playing or not.

Let me know if this clarifies it for you.

-Ed

Thanks Ed. But I'm more interested in whether that 12v trigger is used by the Topping to go back in to stand by when it's not receiving a signal? Or once the Topping has been woken by the 12v trigger is the only way back in to stand by to manually put it in to stand by?

 

[Burns]

Thanks Ed. But I'm more interested in whether that 12v trigger is used by the Topping to go back in to stand by when it's not receiving a signal? Or once the Topping has been woken by the 12v trigger is the only way back in to stand by to manually put it in to stand by?

12V trigger to only one time 12V current pulse. There is a 12V pulse that can be turned on. When something sends another 12V pulse, the device turns off.

This can be easily checked if the impulse turns on the device after disconnecting the trigger wire the device does not turn off. Current does not flow in the mono jack trigger wire all the time

it works the same way as a touch switch on the housing B200 that does not change position, based on a relay (like a joystick for a computer and console)

 

[C0mbat]

The 12V trigger is an automation function. The B100 will always be on when there is a signal and it will always be off when there is no signal.

If you decided to get spicy with it to test it, you can keep turning the WiiM on and off and on and off with the red button on its remote and the B100s will dance with its partner quite willingly.

-Ed

Thanks @EddNog and @Burns. This is exactly what I was looking for. And it works the way I hoped it would. Sorry it took so many questions to arrive at my destination.

Two B100s purchased from Aliexpress in their 15th Anniversary sale. Using a £100 discount code and 10% cashback it comes to £150 each before VAT. Hopefully they don't sting me for VAT at the border but it's still a bargain if they do.

 

[FERCSA]

Thermal management was never an issue for me when I had them.

They have a very limited input voltage acceptance and the safety cutoff kicked in on me several times. That might be somewhat okay if it didn’t do any damage to the amps, but I had a bigger issue (perhaps incompatibility, if you like) where my Geshelli JNOG3 DAC, which has a 3/6Vrms rating for its RCA/XLR outputs would occasionally send a maximum-voltage pop (pop as in split second length of time) to the amps, and after this fried 3 B100s, I decided to sell off the (brand new-in-box) warranty replacement units.

-Ed

Once I had similar short pops, but they would repeat themselves every few minutes or so. It was not B100 related! At first I thought it's my DAC because these pops remained whatever I put on it's output but turned out it was a wrongly wired XLR cable.

Is this amp safe and reliable? None of the drama of some other Topping amps? @solderdude ?

Good thermal management?

As I stated in this thread before. I have my units since last black friday. Never had a problem but I have to tell you I'm using them in an active XO setup with a studio interface which can give out 6.9V on XLR. Probably this is one reason why I don't push them so hard as others. Also my speaker drivers are 6 or 8 ohm each so there is zero chance to hit a super low impedance load with a correct XO setup.

 

[Deleted member 72219]

Once I had similar short pops, but they would repeat themselves every few minutes or so. It was not B100 related! At first I thought it's my DAC because these pops remained whatever I put on it's output but turned out it was a wrongly wired XLR cable...

The pops occurred for me when I went to change the LED color on the DAC (yes, seriously. pressing the power button while it is on changes the LED color. you have to press and hold it to shut the DAC off. changing color set a pop off that burnt out the amps).

Geno's advice when I asked him about it was to put a preamp or attenuator between the DAC and the amps due to the high output voltage not being meant to go straight to an amp.

My action was sell the amps and also sell the DAC, and use something else, because I'm not inserting anything between my DAC and amps if I already have digital volume control upstream.

-Ed

 

[Music1969]

Only time will tell.

From design (internal pics) does it looks good?
At least there is heat sink, not the potting stuff we saw with their headphone amps ?

 

[solderdude]

No electrolytics near the heatsink, temp monitoring is a good thing. What can't be seen is how well components are soldered on the PCB etc.
So ... only time will tell.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

Heat sinks need unrestricted airflow, but this one is enclosed. However, it does have temperature monitoring, which will likely prevent many warranty issues. Consumers will probably experience their amplifier shutting down rather than breaking down.

 

[Sokel]

, temp monitoring is a good thing

I'm afraid that this is a bimetal switch we see here, these are notoriously inaccurate and quite sharp (like instant sharp)

 

[BeeKay]

At least a vertical arrangement of the cooling fins should be noted. This alone should be a real reassurance for some.

 

[Gringoaudio1]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping B100 "monoblock" amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $299.
View attachment 392530
I was surprised by the desktop/low profile of the amplifier. I expected something a lot taller/chunkier especially since this is a class B amplifier and not class D. Power supply is of course external:
View attachment 392531
Nice to see balanced input, three gain settings and trigger input.

The front panel power button is touch sensitive. You have to learn to just touch and remove your finger for it to power on. When it goes into protection, you have to hold it until error codes disappear and then touch again for powering up.

A wish for a follow up version is a series of tall color LED bars going from left to right for visual enjoyment. Kind of like this:

If you are not familiar with my power amplifier audio measurements, please watch this tutorial:

Topping B100 Amplifier Measurements
Let's start with balanced input at low gain:
View attachment 392532
Distortion is vanishingly low at -141 dB. Power supply spikes are taller than it actually. So we are left with noise which is limited by the analyzer. Still, the B100 manages to grab the top spot in our rankings:
View attachment 392538
I know, there is no gain there so let's go up to medium gain:
View attachment 392539
Performance is essentially the same as we again, limited by analyzer inherent noise. This requires a bit higher than 4.5 volt to reach max power. So let's test high gain:
View attachment 392540
Now we see a bit more noise limiting SINAD. But even then, we are better than threshold of hearing.

I hope you are using this amplifier with balanced connection but in case you are not, here are the measurements using RCA at medium and high gains (latter needs less than 1 volt for full power):

View attachment 392541

Edit: this should say high gain, not low:
View attachment 392542

Check out this stunning performance in noise department at 5 watts and max power:
View attachment 392543
View attachment 392544

From here on I will stay with medium gain using XLR balanced input.
View attachment 392545

We can tell from above graph that there is no increase in distortion at higher frequencies. As a result, our 19+20 kHz result remains excellent as well:
View attachment 392546

Not being a class D amplifier, there is no concern regarding load dependency (an issue with some class D amps):
View attachment 392547

The protection circuit is aggressive with 4 ohm load, not allowing the amplifier to go into clipping:
View attachment 392548
This means that if you hear any distortion, it is somewhere else and not in the power amplifier. I tried to measure power at 1% THD but the protection circuit would not allow it. THD would remain incredibly low and then shut down if I increased input voltage. So 86 watts is what you get for max and peak power. Company spec is 83 watts which is an honest assessment. They do spec 100 watts at < 1% THD which I probably could achieve if I tried harder.

Let's not how the B100 blows the competition out of water with respect to noise level. It was so low that I had to move the graph up to see its results above! The analyzer noise actually takes over around 30 watts as it changes its gain to accommodate higher voltage (the step up).

8 Ohm measurement does allow clipping due to lower currents required:
View attachment 392549

Once again we see the massive gap in noise and distortion vs our reference blue line. We are talking 25 dB!

Even more amazing is the fact that B100 maintains its superlative performance at all frequencies, down to 20 Hz!
View attachment 392552

Amplifier is ready on power up although I did overserve a tiny improvement after a few minutes:
View attachment 392550

The amplifier only got modestly warm after the power testing:

View attachment 392551

P.S. I don't have PowerCube measurements for you due to aforementioned aggressive protection circuit, not allowing me to measure peak power.

Edit: forgot the power on/off noise:
View attachment 392594

EDIT 2: Power Consumption
Standby power consumption is around 1.5 watt. Powered on but not playing, 9.1 watt.

Conclusions
Topping is clearly its own competition, constantly pushing the envelop in noise and distortion. Even when you get used to them delivering on these fronts, they come up with this amplifier where test after test shows excellence in engineering and utmost dedication to highest levels of fidelity. All of this comes in a compact enclosure with a reasonable cost. I have no choice but to bow to their mission and abilities.

It is my absolute pleasure to recommend the Topping B100 monolock amplifier.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

You must’ve meant class AB? Class B is not suitable for audio.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

This is a test done by @pma

Topping B100 RCA amplifier test review

Note the comments.

2. Pre-conditioning
1 hour pre-conditioning at 1/8 rated output power (as per FTC) was not used as the amplifier runs hot with the longterm sine wave signal. Short pre-conditioning at 7W/8ohm was used instead.

3. Frequency response
Frequency response was measured at 9W output power into 4ohm load and it is flat, no need to show.

4. Power frequency response
Was impossible to measure, as the amplifier shuts down itself below reaching the rated power into 4ohm.

 

[somebodyelse]

At least a vertical arrangement of the cooling fins should be noted. This alone should be a real reassurance for some.

Not exactly. The desired vertical arrangement has a clear path at top and bottom for exit of warm air and entry of cool air. This one is 90 degrees from that ideal. The fin spacing looks wide enough for natural convection though.

 

[NTK]

At least a vertical arrangement of the cooling fins should be noted. This alone should be a real reassurance for some.

But the total lack of ventilation holes in the amplifier case does not.