This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping B200 "monoblock" (single channel) audio amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $599.
I don't think it is possible to make the unit more solid and high-quality feeling in this form factor. The amp is heavy for its size (although you can still easily pick it up). The single push button power the unit on/off and selects one of three combo balanced XLR/TRS inputs:
I like the spaced out speaker terminals and high contrast labeling. Topping has made trigger automation standard on their products which is much appreciated.
Two gain settings are provided unlike the three on B100.
If you are not familiar with my amplifier measurements, please watch this tutorial:
[And subscribe to the channel
]
Topping B200 Amplifier Measurements
Let's start with low gain testing into 4 ohm load:
I must say, as much as Topping always produces state of the art products, I am always pleasantly surprised the moment on turn on the analyzer and see such superlative results! Distortion is vanishingly small at -140 dB so our SINAD is dominated by noise. It lands the B200 at top of the graph, edging out the B100 by a faction of dB:
There is still of course some penalty in using the higher gain, but still excellent results:
As much as noise sets SINAD, it is still state of the art, especially in low gain:
Being a conventional design, frequency response has no load dependency and shows wide bandwidth:
Multitone and 19+20 kHz intermodulation distortion tests show very little rise in distortion with frequency:
Topping amplifiers until now have had average levels of power. That is changed with B200 landing in "high power" category now while still maintaining its superb noise and distortion:
By now, the amp was fairly warm and it seemed that it was pulling back a bit in available power:
The above test pushes the amplifier into clipping repeatedly to find the 1% point and it seemed to rob the amplifier of some power. Later reactive tests with the amplifier being cooler showed the full power rating coming back.
Here is our new 40 Hz power rating while the unit was warm:
And "FTC like" full bandwidth power which lasted about a minute while again repeatedly pushing the amplifier beyond clipping to achieve 1% THD:
The "transfer function" is extremely clean, showing just a slight degradation with frequency as noted earlier:
No class D is able to achieve this level of performance at this time (although they can be a lot more powerful).
I had dinner and then ran the reactive load tests:
I was pleased to see it produce power even at 2 ohm although past 0 degrees, the protection circuit was interfering with the measurements so I show that as zero. Max power is available at 4 ohm. But healthy power is available at 8 ohm as well.
Speaking of protection circuit, it was the kind I like where it a) allows the amplifier to go into clipping and b) self recover without shutting down. This made it possible to run the above tests with ease.
The amplifier is exceptionally quiet coming out of, and going into standby mode:
And the unit is stable on power up:
Conclusions
One or more designers at Topping have figured out how to nail noise and distortion in any products they design. No matter how difficult it is to "port" that to other product categories such as this higher power amplifier, they deliver on that. As such, Topping owns the category when it comes to medium to medium high power amplification when it comes to performance. Try as I might, I cannot find any faults here. The product itself is also attractive, feels high quality and has proper features, sans a VU meter.
It is my pleasure to recommend the Topping B200 amplifier.
Edit: video review also posted:
------------
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/
I don't think it is possible to make the unit more solid and high-quality feeling in this form factor. The amp is heavy for its size (although you can still easily pick it up). The single push button power the unit on/off and selects one of three combo balanced XLR/TRS inputs:
I like the spaced out speaker terminals and high contrast labeling. Topping has made trigger automation standard on their products which is much appreciated.
Two gain settings are provided unlike the three on B100.
If you are not familiar with my amplifier measurements, please watch this tutorial:
[And subscribe to the channel
]Topping B200 Amplifier Measurements
Let's start with low gain testing into 4 ohm load:
I must say, as much as Topping always produces state of the art products, I am always pleasantly surprised the moment on turn on the analyzer and see such superlative results! Distortion is vanishingly small at -140 dB so our SINAD is dominated by noise. It lands the B200 at top of the graph, edging out the B100 by a faction of dB:
There is still of course some penalty in using the higher gain, but still excellent results:
As much as noise sets SINAD, it is still state of the art, especially in low gain:
Being a conventional design, frequency response has no load dependency and shows wide bandwidth:
Multitone and 19+20 kHz intermodulation distortion tests show very little rise in distortion with frequency:
Topping amplifiers until now have had average levels of power. That is changed with B200 landing in "high power" category now while still maintaining its superb noise and distortion:
By now, the amp was fairly warm and it seemed that it was pulling back a bit in available power:
The above test pushes the amplifier into clipping repeatedly to find the 1% point and it seemed to rob the amplifier of some power. Later reactive tests with the amplifier being cooler showed the full power rating coming back.
Here is our new 40 Hz power rating while the unit was warm:
And "FTC like" full bandwidth power which lasted about a minute while again repeatedly pushing the amplifier beyond clipping to achieve 1% THD:
The "transfer function" is extremely clean, showing just a slight degradation with frequency as noted earlier:
No class D is able to achieve this level of performance at this time (although they can be a lot more powerful).
I had dinner and then ran the reactive load tests:
I was pleased to see it produce power even at 2 ohm although past 0 degrees, the protection circuit was interfering with the measurements so I show that as zero. Max power is available at 4 ohm. But healthy power is available at 8 ohm as well.
Speaking of protection circuit, it was the kind I like where it a) allows the amplifier to go into clipping and b) self recover without shutting down. This made it possible to run the above tests with ease.
The amplifier is exceptionally quiet coming out of, and going into standby mode:
And the unit is stable on power up:
Conclusions
One or more designers at Topping have figured out how to nail noise and distortion in any products they design. No matter how difficult it is to "port" that to other product categories such as this higher power amplifier, they deliver on that. As such, Topping owns the category when it comes to medium to medium high power amplification when it comes to performance. Try as I might, I cannot find any faults here. The product itself is also attractive, feels high quality and has proper features, sans a VU meter.
It is my pleasure to recommend the Topping B200 amplifier.
Edit: video review also posted:
------------
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/
Last edited:
