• Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Topping B200 Monoblock Amplifier Review

Rate this amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 9 2.3%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 12 3.1%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 49 12.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 316 81.9%

  • Total voters
    386
Extremely few……
And very few speakers have such loads. Perhaps some Hypex/purify amps and Benchmark can handle these loads which do completely not make any sense today.
Weren’t it some 989 Quad Electrostats and Beveridge Speakers in the 70s and 80s with these capacitive Amp Killing loads, even down to 0.5 Ohms at 20 kHz?
The owners have known wich Amps only they could use.

The (wrong) thinking in these days was: If it can handle even this speaker - it must be a good amp. Even for my 10 times less demanding speakers.
It’s wrong thinking because: If your speaker is not extremely demanding, you don’t have to have this expensive Mark Levinson stuff. Every amp with accurate amplification would have done the job even as good as the amps which can handle 1 Ohm!
Amps that are (claimed) stable down to 2 Ohms without catching fire are audiophile bragging rights gear. I admit I like the idea of an amp that has that juice on tap. I have no doubts I could happily live with the Topping amps with the speakers and size of the room I have.
 
Amps that are (claimed) stable down to 2 Ohms without catching fire are audiophile bragging rights gear.
What about a speaker load that goes down to 3 Ohms and the operator wants/requires linearity of frequency response? What about a operator that requires lots of bass and loud output levels? What about future proofing for any speaker the operator wants to select?
 
What about a speaker load that goes down to 3 Ohms and the operator wants/requires linearity of frequency response? What about a operator that requires lots of bass and loud output levels? What about future proofing for any speaker the operator wants to select?
What about where I said "I admit I like the idea of an amp that has that juice on tap" following the edited quote? Given the choice, I want an amp that can do 1 Ohm load and a toroidal transformer the size of a small car. That would make me happy whether my speakers require or not.
 
What got me going was the statement that using a speaker as a load for amp testing screwed up the measurements. Does this mean the AP was screwing up or the amp? If its the amp dont we want to know how much?
The reason for not testing with speakers is you have how many possible speaker loads? Hundreds, thousands? The test with inductive and capacitive loads go a long way toward showing what the amp will work with. Stereophile has a representative speaker load they test with for mostly showing variations of frequency response. This amp has a .005 ohm output impedance and is going to be a straight line with it. Another factor would be speakers are nearly always the bottleneck for distortion. I think you are asking for a whole lot of useless testing. You can test with sweeps at the speaker to find amps that have significant distortion if you wish. Doing that with this amp is going to be pushing many speakers to the edge of destruction even though some seem unreasonably concerned about its power capabilities.
 
What about where I said "I admit I like the idea of an amp that has that juice on tap" following the edited quote? Given the choice, I want an amp that can do 1 Ohm load and a toroidal transformer the size of a small car. That would make me happy whether my speakers require or not.
Interior of a Classe 25. Suitable for 1 ohm Apogee Scintilla speakers. Yes a big heavy amp with a toroidal transformer. Not the size of a car. This is stereo btw. Could be bridged for 1000 wpc mono @ 8 ohms. Not sure if it would work with the Apogee that way, but I can confirm it was good on Soundlabs bridged.
1741212217633.png
 
Last edited:
The reason for not testing with speakers is you have how many possible speaker loads? Hundreds, thousands? The test with inductive and capacitive loads go a long way toward showing what the amp will work with. Stereophile has a representative speaker load they test with for mostly showing variations of frequency response. This amp has a .005 ohm output impedance and is going to be a straight line with it. Another factor would be speakers are nearly always the bottleneck for distortion. I think you are asking for a whole lot of useless testing. You can test with sweeps at the speaker to find amps that have significant distortion if you wish. Doing that with this amp is going to be pushing many speakers to the edge of destruction even though some seem unreasonably concerned about its power capabilities.
Erin also tests with speaker-like loads consistently.
They look like this:

1741212238558.png

In Wiim amp's case for example they produce this:


1741212312500.png
(link)

Which is interesting nevertheless.
 
Might have actually saved money doing this strange thing because they likely retooled LA90D manufacturing lines to produce the B200s. Would need extra retooling for the simpler design you outlined versus the current design which uses the same switchgear and number of inputs as the LA90D. Figured they'd tout the extra bits as features.

-Ed
I meant saved the consumers money.

Eliminating the extra inputs and switching functionality would drive the BOM down a little which in turn would allow the product to be sold for a lower price.
 
Nice everything but that 60VDC 240 Watts power supply is the limiting factor here.
Well said! 60V and just 4A? It lacks balance between voltage and current. Forget those power bricks, put some decent PSU in the case, otherwise nice job Topping!
 
Well said! 60V and just 4A? It lacks balance between voltage and current. Forget those power bricks, put some decent PSU in the case, otherwise nice job Topping!
Would a PSU with a higher current capability increase the amp’s power output into lower impedances? Or is it possible that the amplifier design would not be able to take advantage of such a PSU?
 
This has been a godsend for me and one the reasons I bought them. My HT room is acoustically treated and has turned into my 2 channel room as well. After having been called while doing 80MPH with the top down and trying listening to my wife explain what she cant get to work while talking(screaming) over ten 7 year old girls and me screaming over my fabspeed cat back what to do... That is something I do not need to relive, ever! This way no changing profile in the AVM70. Just hit the only button on the front of the amps. Keep It Simple!
 
There will be more malcontents from the US who will find new reasons for negation, such as the lack of slanted radiators. In reality, they will have new tariffs on products from China. Ladies and Gentlemen, it was already cheap for B200
 
Back
Top Bottom