Topping B200 Monoblock Amplifier Review

[babadono]

I'm not very technical so not sure if I would spot it if it's done incorrectly.

Would this cable work or be a risk? They also have it in TRS to RCA. (https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B0BX5WQHYM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A11WL42X61W6HW&th=1)

Otherwise I'll just get the Topping cable for 4x the price to be safe..

Sorry..I looked at the cable you linked. It does not state or show how it is constructed so who knows. Oops looked again it is in fact wired INCORRECTLY. So it may work or may not.
Can you order from Monoprice? Their cables are constructed properly and are inexpensive.

 

[misterdog]

You will run out of system gain running the Topping dac with the B100 in low gain mode. If I understand, the gain is one. So with a dac that can output 5 volts, that is output of 5 volts from the B100’s. With a four ohm speaker that is 6 watts. Eight ohm is 3 watts.

Sorry my post was a little misleading, I intend to use the Topping Pre90 preamp to feed the B100's which has a maximum output voltage of 17V.

 

[misterdog]

Hi all,

I want to get the Topping B200 but I want to use it with my Wiim Ultra. Can I use XLR to RCA cable from the Topping B200 to the Wiim Ultra without damaging anything? And then put the Wiim at 2v?

Thanks in advance.

I would check with Topping themselves, they have a very responsive technical department.
Someone tried something similar with B100, only to find that it shouldn't be wired that way after asking Topping.
IIRC the B100 is a bridged design, and I think the B200 is not though.

 

[Ajaxlegends]

Sorry..I looked at the cable you linked. It does not state or show how it is constructed so who knows. Oops looked again it is in fact wired INCORRECTLY. So it may work or may not.
Can you order from Monoprice? Their cables are constructed properly and are inexpensive.

I checked and found this cable: https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/Monopric...757088466&sprefix=monoprice+xlr,aps,85&sr=8-5

That one would work?

 

[misterdog]

That one would work?

Ask Topping, only way to be sure.

[email protected]

 

[babadono]

I checked and found this cable: https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/Monoprice-104777-XLR-RCA-Cable/dp/B001VLW398/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3CZCNYEROUSHH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.vgcDTYK02SShMm8U6Vft08QQWgAHFvkbkDPAC7EY0VzQrYyL5c37JdtZv43eW0vP3YDHj5li_IVljifsLFo5-e4RPgYGEj-ebdWrB5l3Cv0a13-mjr9HpOs1Ea6GlrxH6_zaa5KXh8BzaEVjNPoTAV3ZoMNLAZd9g0-x6DXg-tGgIuxD7yiLCfeEcT2OvXn1TkiRV4Nu2e9xNZvLr7_citDGPnB8CLE53tTJ5nehFGz1GUyXilkSnE0-8c-Ol1UuKS3jqLdcz76YGJ88cJfzCmruID2uuv9OY8eshmapbEE.1a-4u7cqFz3PqROCeJa-6xFnV-P4NDddSD36JgT4E1Y&dib_tag=se&keywords=monoprice+xlr&qid=1757088466&sprefix=monoprice+xlr,aps,85&sr=8-5

That one would work?

I checked and found this cable: https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/Monopric...757088466&sprefix=monoprice+xlr,aps,85&sr=8-5

That one would work?

yes that is the Monoprice cable type I was referring to....many different lengths are available...don't know why i can't remove the double post

 

[peteradiola]

I noticed a few comments about heat. My experience with these amps reflects on this. Of the two amps I bought, one was overheating. It would get almost impossible to touch near the heatsinks when reproducing loud passages, or just loud music over a long time. Returning it to the importer and waiting for a replacement looked like it would be a 3 to 4 week wait. So after clearing it with the seller, I bought a third amp and returned the hot one to the dealer and they issued me a refund. So these still get hot when playing loud music into a 4 ohm, Magneplanar load which, btw, gets near two ohms at 20khz. @0khz. I can't hear that and I doubt much of that is in my recordings. Also someone said it has two ouput devices. Looks like four to me, Two on each side of the amp. I can guess that the circuit design is probably balanced all the way through, Most manufactorers are skimpy with their real technical information, as if they have deep secrets to protect!

 

[jmdesignz2]

Too bad it gets gutted into 2ohms

I’m curious where is the drop off start? 3.99 ohms?

At $1200 a pair they don’t compete well with a hypex ncx500 if your speakers dip below 4ohms

 

[pma]

It is bridged, and thermal design is poor. It is not a “serious” amplifier design, not designed for longevity and reliability. Like all those similar ones (B100 etc.). Designed to reach high Amir’s SINAD score.

 

[misterdog]

Too bad it gets gutted into 2ohms

Which is why the manufacturer states >4 Ohm.

When in doubt read the small print.

If your loudspeakers need the power of an Arc welder then these amplifiers may not be for you.

B200 - - Topping audio

TOPPING, born in 2008, has evolved into a beloved global HIFI brand favored by users worldwide. We firmly believe that higher-quality music playback devices are essential for truly showcasing the allure of music. By investing extensively in professional technology and exceptional industrial...

www.toppingaudio.com

 

[misterdog]

It is bridged, and thermal design is poor. It is not a “serious” amplifier design, not designed for longevity and reliability. Like all those similar ones (B100 etc.). Designed to reach high Amir’s SINAD score.

Or designed to be tested with a single ended to balanced converter cable against the manufacturers reccomendations (B100) as you tested it.

Have you tested the B200/B100 over a long period, and under the conditions of the manufacturers recommendations ie. over 4 Ohm to prove your allegations?

Running my B200 into Quad 989 ESL's * low gain, @90dB SPL @2M, using a balanced Van Damme Star Quad balnced signal cable, they get no warmer than my skin.

Using B100 with Low gain (0 dB) as above they also get barely above ambient room temp @80 dB SPL.

*

I can take digital temperature measurements, over a time frame of your choosing, if it would please you, the B200 have been in use since last November and never tripped out.

The B100 are new arrivals, so long term comments are unavailable.

 

[MINOR WHITE]

Been spending a fair bit of time reading thru this thread after watching Darko's recent livestream with his colleague friend, where he mentioned loving the B200 mono blocks.
I have been trying to find an amp to properly drive a pair of Legacy Audio Studio HD speakers, which I love.
In reading a Stereophile review (link below), I noted that the author mentioned that the speakers sounded their best, when driven by a pair of Bel Canto Class D mono blocks (e.One REF600M amps). The tests done showed that the speakers are a nominal 6ohm, with dips to 2-3ohm at what I think is a critical 80ishHz.
Those amps tout the ability to drive and be stable at 2ohm, with significant power output.

I am not married to or feel the need for mono-blocks, but wondered if for the money, would these Topping B200 be stable and powerful enough to properly drive these speakers to their actual potential?
Current amps I use are a fully rebuilt Adcom GFA-555 (Hoppes Brain), and a Rega Elex-R integrated.
The Rega tends to make the speakers sound and perform more authoritative, but the details are a bit compressed compared to the Adcom..which is very clean sounding, but sterile and doesn't present music as 'viscerally'.

Thanks for any advice or ideas, and thanks for your time reading.

Stereophile Legacy Audio Studio HD Monitors
Stereophile e.One REF 600M monoblocks

 

[jmdesignz2]

Been spending a fair bit of time reading thru this thread after watching Darko's recent livestream with his colleague friend, where he mentioned loving the B200 mono blocks.
I have been trying to find an amp to properly drive a pair of Legacy Audio Studio HD speakers, which I love.
In reading a Stereophile review (link below), I noted that the author mentioned that the speakers sounded their best, when driven by a pair of Bel Canto Class D mono blocks (e.One REF600M amps). The tests done showed that the speakers are a nominal 6ohm, with dips to 2-3ohm at what I think is a critical 80ishHz.
Those amps tout the ability to drive and be stable at 2ohm, with significant power output.

I am not married to or feel the need for mono-blocks, but wondered if for the money, would these Topping B200 be stable and powerful enough to properly drive these speakers to their actual potential?
Current amps I use are a fully rebuilt Adcom GFA-555 (Hoppes Brain), and a Rega Elex-R integrated.
The Rega tends to make the speakers sound and perform more authoritative, but the details are a bit compressed compared to the Adcom..which is very clean sounding, but sterile and doesn't present music as 'viscerally'.

Thanks for any advice or ideas, and thanks for your time reading.

Stereophile Legacy Audio Studio HD Monitors
Stereophile e.One REF 600M monoblocks

The review specifically calls out the mfg says for 4 ohms or higher. And measures badly at 2ohms

 

[jmdesignz2]

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.
View attachment 432842
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:
View attachment 432843

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:
View attachment 432844
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:
View attachment 432845
View attachment 432846

There is still of course some penalty in using the higher gain, but still excellent results:
View attachment 432847

As much as noise sets SINAD, it is still state of the art, especially in low gain:
View attachment 432848
View attachment 432849

Being a conventional design, frequency response has no load dependency and shows wide bandwidth:
View attachment 432850

Multitone and 19+20 kHz intermodulation distortion tests show very little rise in distortion with frequency:
View attachment 432851
View attachment 432852

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:
View attachment 432853
View attachment 432854

By now, the amp was fairly warm and it seemed that it was pulling back a bit in available power:
View attachment 432855
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:
View attachment 432856

And "FTC like" full bandwidth power which lasted about a minute while again repeatedly pushing the amplifier beyond clipping to achieve 1% THD:
View attachment 432857

The "transfer function" is extremely clean, showing just a slight degradation with frequency as noted earlier:
View attachment 432858

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:
View attachment 432859
View attachment 432860
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:
View attachment 432861

And the unit is stable on power up:
View attachment 432862

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/

Topping needs to do an amp with this SINAD that does 8ihms 200, 4ohms 380, 2ohms 500-600w. $899

 

[jmdesignz2]

Been spending a fair bit of time reading thru this thread after watching Darko's recent livestream with his colleague friend, where he mentioned loving the B200 mono blocks.
I have been trying to find an amp to properly drive a pair of Legacy Audio Studio HD speakers, which I love.
In reading a Stereophile review (link below), I noted that the author mentioned that the speakers sounded their best, when driven by a pair of Bel Canto Class D mono blocks (e.One REF600M amps). The tests done showed that the speakers are a nominal 6ohm, with dips to 2-3ohm at what I think is a critical 80ishHz.
Those amps tout the ability to drive and be stable at 2ohm, with significant power output.

I am not married to or feel the need for mono-blocks, but wondered if for the money, would these Topping B200 be stable and powerful enough to properly drive these speakers to their actual potential?
Current amps I use are a fully rebuilt Adcom GFA-555 (Hoppes Brain), and a Rega Elex-R integrated.
The Rega tends to make the speakers sound and perform more authoritative, but the details are a bit compressed compared to the Adcom..which is very clean sounding, but sterile and doesn't present music as 'viscerally'.

Thanks for any advice or ideas, and thanks for your time reading.

Stereophile Legacy Audio Studio HD Monitors
Stereophile e.One REF 600M monoblocks

Correction it goes into protection mode and the output collapses into 2ohms

 

[MINOR WHITE]

Correction it goes into protection mode and the output collapses into 2ohms

Thanks for these, and yea I am seeing the 2ohm issues as well. I genuinely don't know how much a speaker (my speakers) are driving 2ohms in lenth of time, intensity, volume etc. I know its not constant, but frequently enough can't be healthy.

 

[jmdesignz2]

I considered the Topping B200, Benchmark AHB2 and decided they would not have the power I’d want for my listening materials and speakers.

I decided on Buckeye NCX500 and am extremely happy with the results. I did get a Topping DX5 II and Pro A70 preamp and those are insanely good

Actually the best change occurred when I put the A70 Pro between the DAC and amps. Transformational differences due to the increased voltage into the amps. Incredible

Full credit to the Philharmonic BMR Towers, curved cabinets and outriggers. 7AWG OFC 8ft speaker cables.

Listening to a live performance of Donna Lee in 24/96kHz. It sounds amazing and such accurate tonality in every detail with incredible snap, attack, decay.

 

[RoA]

Which is why the manufacturer states >4 Ohm.

When in doubt read the small print.

If your loudspeakers need the power of an Arc welder then these amplifiers may not be for you.

B200 - - Topping audio

TOPPING, born in 2008, has evolved into a beloved global HIFI brand favored by users worldwide. We firmly believe that higher-quality music playback devices are essential for truly showcasing the allure of music. By investing extensively in professional technology and exceptional industrial...

www.toppingaudio.com

Buy a NAD 316BEE v2 (or original) instead. They can sustain 2ohm loads for short periods. Cheaper, better.

 

[misterdog]

Buy a NAD 316BEE v2 Cheaper, better.

Cheaper - for sure.
Better ???? How.

Noise and distortion likely not that much better than the NAD 3020 I owned some 50 years ago.

Having been impressed the B200, I bought B100 to try with zero gain(low) setting.
My Quad ESL 989's dont go below 4 Ohm. Well only at 10 Hz but there is no music down there (church organ pipe fans excepted)

Using zero gain is interesting.

 

[Jcrow]

Would these be overkill for a desktop setup? At the moment, my listening space is confined to my study which is quite small. As such I'd be using bookshelf speakers (don't which ones yet), but would there be any downsides to using the B200s other than not utilising their full power? I know I should probably get something like a Pa7, but I just really prefer the look of these. Also I am irrationally drawn to using mono-blocks because they look cooler and cognitvely I prefer the idea of over-complicating my setup. Interested to hear people's advice.