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Topping LA90 Review (Integrated Amplifier)
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Bleib
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I'm absolutely certain this would have worked well with the Canton LE490 speakers I used to own. If it had a remote.
That’s at 1 K , or A-weighted. 95 dBs in the bass region is not so loud. and if you like to listen at 85 dB you’ll have short peaks at 100 dB SPL easily.
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Doesn’t that depend on nature of “the art” though? Is “the art” chasing a metric none of us who aren’t EE’s had even heard of prior to Amir’s adoption of it here, or is it audible improvements to the fidelity of audio reproduction?
Let’s take a step back. Using the latter definition of “the art,” a SOTA home audio system in this age is probably defined by 2 things: multiple subwoofers and advanced room correction to clean up room response up to the “statistical” frequency region in that room. Let’s set the former aside, as most people seem to use closed-system (amp/cabinet/driver) subs. Room correction, at its core, is a trade of system headroom for response linearity. The less headroom available, the more constrained that trade must be. So power requirements for a SOTA system are higher than they are in a lower fidelity system. Is 36W/8 Ohms enough? For a desktop system, probably. For 86dB/2.83V speakers 4m away? Personally I’d want 6+dBW more amp headroom (and speakers that can handle it). Note you can have big power with sky high SNR. The ATI Signature line, for instance. It costs, in money and mass, alas.
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It's a combination TRS/XLR female receptacle. Want RCA inputs? Easy -- get some RCA female to1/4-inch TS (not TRS!) male adapters and you're golden. Of course if you were just taking an opportunity to register a trivial complaint with Topping...well, never mind.
I’m typically a Class D fan due to the efficiency, but I’m tempted by this. I also favor high efficiency loudspeakers, so the power isn’t a concern at all.
...And with 90 dB sensitivity, some roomgain and two loudspeakers the acoustic output will be higher than 100 dB.
Most loudspeakers cant reproduce 100 dB without very high levels of distortion.I think its nice to be able to buy the worlds best amplifier ( highest SINAD ) for 1000 dollars.
But:
To be a realist - two Aiyima a07 and a two-way active loudspeaker with a dsp crossover such as t racks 4x4 will probably play the music much better overall compared to an average passive bookshelf loudspeaker with this topping amplifier. Its the passive crossovers in most loudspeakers thats to badly engineered to give a really good result, even if the amplifier is the worlds best.
For that I have subwoofers with their own amps, which can also be placed at the locations best for the room (almost certainly not at the same locations as the main speakers).
Eh, bit of an officious post boss. Disdain for the chart duly noted.
Underpowered I’ll give you if we call it modest and not low. However cheesy that power supply may be to your aesthetic it’s sure doing its job and keeping the amp itself a tidy size for its intended purpose. And I don’t know about you but I usually put those things under my desk.
Expensive? Maybe it’s a bit overpriced compared to more powerful existing options that are close enough to its performance, but It’s $899 retail and it’ll go on sale. I’m all for the cost-conscious principles of this forum and I’m highly deferential to the range of budgets on here, but I think we’re getting a bit carried away when we’re expecting gear of this quality to cost less than TOTL RadioShack. There’s slick catalogs full of junk flying off shelves at 10 times this price with a fraction of the ingenuity and craftsmanship at work here, and I think Topping at least deserves credit for striving to outdo themselves, no?
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Performance seems excellent , but the lack of power and weird ergonomics , made me vote not terrible .
An integrated amp should have an built in power supply ( not a computer brick ) and more power .
A mix of rca and xlr inputs . In this case just 3 inputs in total . An option slot for phono input.
If one can dream , tone controls , mono button , loudness control . But in today’s world this can be digital.
So built in DAC with eq and DRC and subwoofer xover and output .
Or make the product more powerful and just a power amp with adjustable gain . Then the customers can drive it with a mini DSP or a RME ADI , or a topping DAC with volume control .
I would be a potential customer if it was a power amp with more power.
An integrated amp should have an built in power supply ( not a computer brick ) and more power .
A mix of rca and xlr inputs . In this case just 3 inputs in total . An option slot for phono input.
If one can dream , tone controls , mono button , loudness control . But in today’s world this can be digital.
So built in DAC with eq and DRC and subwoofer xover and output .
Or make the product more powerful and just a power amp with adjustable gain . Then the customers can drive it with a mini DSP or a RME ADI , or a topping DAC with volume control .
I would be a potential customer if it was a power amp with more power.
Would like to see measurements with headphones like loads (50,23 ohms for susvara and stealth and others).
As it seems perfect especially for that kind of use cases.
For speakers not so sure.
As it seems perfect especially for that kind of use cases.
For speakers not so sure.
GeekyBastard
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You can already tell some competing companies were anxious... Also I bet you if a western company developed this, it would be praised like no others.
I agree with you on the conclusion, but wanted to point out that 50W would really only get you to 85dB listening level if you account for 10dB peaks. And while loud, 80-85dB is not an uncommon listening level.
Why is some calling it an 60 watt amp ?
It’s 36 at 8 ohm and 56 at 4 ohm. You usually go with the 8 ohm spec.
So you round it to a 35 watt amplifiers for 800$
With excellent performance and it’s true that far worse products for much more money is being sold .
But the most important spec for an amp is power .
The THD part of the SINAD may not be audible to humans , but noise can be in some circumstances , so this would be a very quiet amp .
It’s 36 at 8 ohm and 56 at 4 ohm. You usually go with the 8 ohm spec.
So you round it to a 35 watt amplifiers for 800$
With excellent performance and it’s true that far worse products for much more money is being sold .
But the most important spec for an amp is power .
The THD part of the SINAD may not be audible to humans , but noise can be in some circumstances , so this would be a very quiet amp .
But you must count for some roomgain and that fact that you also always use two loudspeakers , thats +10 dB or more in bass frequencies.
Are you sure that the country of this amplifiers has something to do how it's seen by potential customers?
I think that its weird design choices could have something to it. But what I know.
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I think some folks are getting fussy with the run of positive reviews of late and have begun throwing their silverware at random.
Me too but no place to plug those cans in that I can see
Not in my case . I’m a happy owner of a topping DAC which I could praise all day long.
But this amps simply is underpowered for the task of driving today’s typical low sensitivity loudspeakers in midsized rooms , which is my use case . Add some room eq and it to wants some headroom.
If I powered nearfield speakers on my desktop? Bu then I would by a nice pair of active speakers .
So this product is more of an engineering excercise than something I can use . The Engineering is remarkable but for what purpose , what’s the use case .
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