Topping B200 Monoblock Amplifier Review

[Lambda]

To help me - are you saying rca on the source end and xlr or adapter into B200 is a good thing of necessary?

I’m saying if you only have a RCA source you can totally uses it with the b200. no problem.

Using Balanced Symmetrical XLR will be better. But RCA out to XLR in will do the Job.

 

[Burns]

so let's summarize the considerations about the lack of RCA for those that have XLR outputs, can you use a passive Y-type XLR splitter to connect 4x B200?

 

[xNORgate]

Thank you for the review.
Topping is really topping the ASR charts.

Not that I am an expert about thermal/mechanical designs...,

...yet, I find it a bit confusing that there are insulating washers and (what appears to be) insulating pads for mounting the power OpAmps onto the hefty heatsink.

OT: I am all in for 'separates' in audio hardware but find it difficult to justify using monoblock(s) for stereo applications.

 

[Sokel]

Thank you for the review.
Topping is really topping the ASR charts.

Not that I am an expert about thermal/mechanical designs...,
View attachment 435810
...yet, I find it a bit confusing that there are insulating washers and (what appears to be) insulating pads for mounting the power OpAmps onto the hefty heatsink.

OT: I am all in for 'separates' in audio hardware but find it difficult to justify using monoblock(s) for stereo applications.

These are probably thermal pads, they both insulate electrically and transfer heat no problem.

 

[Lambda]

can you use a passive Y-type XLR splitter to connect 4x B200

Why wouldn’t you be able to?
I haven’t seen a measurement of the input impedance, but as long as it's n

OT: I am all in for 'separates' in audio hardware but find it difficult to justify using monoblock(s) for stereo applications.

I’m all for modularity—economy of scale. If you sell more of the same, you can make it cheaper.

 

[Burns]

Thank you for the review.
Topping is really topping the ASR charts.

Not that I am an expert about thermal/mechanical designs...,
View attachment 435810
...yet, I find it a bit confusing that there are insulating washers and (what appears to be) insulating pads for mounting the power OpAmps onto the hefty heatsink.

OT: I am all in for 'separates' in audio hardware but find it difficult to justify using monoblock(s) for stereo applications.

they could always use hot glue

 

[amirm]

Our case may differ, by far depending the conditions.

??? That 200K impedance is in parallel with a 2/4/8 ohm dummy load. It is high so that it makes no impact on those load impedances. I don't ever measure amplifiers without such a load, i.e. with 200K load impedance.

 

[amirm]

..yet, I find it a bit confusing that there are insulating washers and (what appears to be) insulating pads for mounting the power OpAmps onto the hefty heatsink.

In discrete audio power electronics, complimentary parts are used. With the metal tab representing one of the leads (collector in bipolar transistors), you cannot allow electrical connection between these devices. So unlike something like a heatsink for a CPU, you must put some kind of isolation pad between the tab and heatsink. Typically these are mylar insulators with thermal grease on both sides of the insulator. You loose a bit of efficiency but there is no other choice.

 

[Lambda]

ypically these are mylar insulators with thermal grease on both sides of the insulator. You loose a bit of efficiency but there is no other choice.

Look at TO-220 Transistors... they uses totally different ("traditional" silicone) thermal based interface pads Compered to the TO-264 ones.
The pads under the TO264 package looks way thicker. and they are Clamped with an extra peace of FR4... i wonder why.

 

[Sokel]

??? That 200K impedance is in parallel with a 2/4/8 ohm dummy load. It is high so that it makes no impact on those load impedances. I don't ever measure amplifiers without such a load, i.e. with 200K load impedance.

Of course it would be, there's no other way.
The comment was a general one for watching charts.

In a DAC case for example it makes a huge difference to measure with the immune AP and the low input impedance E1DA.
Add some long cables too and DUT appears like a totally different device.

 

[antcollinet]

But with an active converter, you have:

• The unbalanced connection with no CMRR between the unbalanced source and the converter +
• Noise from the active converter +
• THD from the active converter +
• (Noise from the balanced connection - the improved CMRR)

There might be an extreme case with a very long balanced cable where the THD+N of this approach is lower… but I don’t see it being the case in general.
I would argue that in most cases, it's the worse-performing solution.

You make a good point.

Although the unbalanced connection could (and should) be kept extremely short (a few cm). Short enough such that common mode noise shouldn't be a thing.

And there are dedicated conversion IC's that have very low THD+N figures. It would be interesting to measure a converter using them.

 

[antcollinet]

if the B200 could accept an unbalanced RCA interconnect (like the B100 can) and had the required electronics (such as complementary input circuit/electronics) inside the B200 to receive unbalanced RCA interconnect/signal (like the B100), would the CMRR be >30 dB? Would there even be a CMRR reading/measurement, perhaps, at the completion of the inside electronics?.... apologys for any confusion :=)

No. An RCA connector has only two contacts. There is no way to have two signals plus ground connected through it. If you want to have CMMR - you need a full balanced input - there is no way around this.

 

[babadono]

Look at TO-220 Transistors... they uses totally different ("traditional" silicone) thermal based interface pads Compered to the TO-264 ones.
The pads under the TO264 package looks way thicker. and they are Clamped with an extra peace of FR4... i wonder why.

Didn't we go through all this on the LA90 D?

 

[dlaloum]

Not sure about that being good at most speakers will be fine stuff. Pick a 4 Ohm speaker with a dip in impedance and voila the power is lacking, the nanny minder kicks in and the power supply droops.

Yes, it ain't a powerhouse @ 2ohm...

But I have speakers that dip down to 1.6ohm, and my vintage Quad 606 handles them fine.... it's power into 2ohm dips in a fairly similar way to the B200...

In reality, listening is done at levels where the continuous power use is mostly below 1.5W (the old adage of the first watt being the most critical continues to be true!) - and my own rough measurements indicate that even at its absolute loudest I never run my setup at more than 16W peak....

I also have Crown XLS2500 amps, which can feed 1200W continuous into 2 ohm - and they sound no different to the 606 which drops down to low double digit output @ 2ohm....

So for most users and most use cases - this is a fine, even SOTA amp.

But yeah there could be cases where more power is required at low impedances and high phase angles.

 

[dlaloum]

WoW!

Waiting for these people to make a Prepro PrePro or AVR complete with Full Range DRC, AUdyssey, Dirac or better and all the codecs and features that have come to AVRs (Spotify or Roon connect, Atmos, etc)..


Peace.

The chinese manufacturers have yet to seriously engage in the AVR/AVP realm ...

 

[dlaloum]

Voted not terrible. max power with a 4 ohm load must be double than max power with an 8 ohm load. Voltage source with zero output resistance. This Topping is not providing enough current.

Typically amps are constrained first by the power supply, and then by heat and other design issues...

Some external PSU designs, provide optional higher power/current external amps as options.

One does wonder whether the B200 would have greater 2ohm capabilities given a more beefy PSU? (or perhaps a large, rack size PSU, designed to handle multiple B200's, and matching the B200 aesthetic)

 

[Burns]

someone asked if the B200 has a balanced output stage. The answer was that it doesn't. In this case, can an active subwoofer with a speakOn connector be connected according to this diagram that I'm attaching or can't the black wire be connected to the speaker terminal and do I need to look for ground on the housing?

 

[Burns]

The chinese manufacturers have yet to seriously engage in the AVR/AVP realm ...

for $1200 you can buy yourself a Japanese AVR. There is plenty to choose from

 

[Lambda]

The answer was that it doesn't. In this case, can an active subwoofer with a speakOn connector be connected according to this diagram that I'm attaching or can't the black wire be connected to the speaker terminal and do I need to look for ground on the housing?

Why would an active sub have speakon input?
Why would you connect the output of a power amp to an Active speaker?
How should we know the color code

 

[dlaloum]

In my opinion, that would be a significant downgrade. The B200 doesn’t seem to handle complex loads at lower impedances very well, and your 801s present just that. Specifically, in the bass to mid-bass range, where the impedance is low and the phase is inductive, the B200 might not perform optimally, as seen in Amir’s test. -And this is exactly where you want as much power as possible.
The B200 is not a high-current amplifier.

View attachment 433163
View attachment 433166

One 4 amp PSU per channel... total 8A ... that's quite reasonable current - I wouldn't call them low current! - And I have seen high current claims from amps that were in this same ballpark.