Topping LA90 Review (Integrated Amplifier)

[srkbear]

Well, there are obvioulsy people buying this stuff for that price. I wouldn't, although I think it is beatifully designed. What i just wanted to point out it that there is a market with many options in all directions and for sure sure the LA90 will find his followers, mosty rightly so, just not him.

This isn’t Reverb or eBay. What is your motive for “helping” others locate pre-owned gear on here and how is it germane to the thread’s topic?

 

[Garrincha]

This isn’t Reverb or eBay. What is your motive for “helping” others locate pre-owned gear on here and how is it germane to the thread’s topic?

I just gave an example to invalided his argument, which in fact wasn't any, just an unjustified complaint.

 

[amirm]

@amirm can you tell us if the power supply is +/- 32V, or if they are doing something unusual with a +64V supply. Sorry if this info was already given.

It is a single 64 volt. The third pin doesn't show anything relative to the other two.

 

[TimF]

This thread is quite something. A great accomplishment, absolutely superb, with plenty of use cases you'd think would be blindingly obvious... and then all this. Quite a sad day for ASR.

Can't agree more. Seems people want Topping to deliver something equivalent to an F-35 for about $600; but that, I expect, wouldn't even be good enough for them. I tell you this, there are indeed problems that come with abundance.

 

[AndreaT]

The recently released Topping PA5 measured very well too. Really low noise floor… That didn’t last long, now a bunch of them are failing and getting warrantied for static noise and cackle pops. There are reports of some having their PA5 replaced numerous times and the same failures happening on those too. I’m just about to send mine back to HiFiGo in China, then wait for repair or replacement, and shipping.. And it seems like I may just have to do it all over again since it seems like Topping hasn’t solved the problems yet based on other people’s experiences so far. See the last dozen or so pages of Amir’s PA5 review thread for more info. Amir, I wonder if you could do bench testing for reliability as well and follow up on your reviews. Measurements don’t mean much if they don’t keep working.

I believe we the consumers, with myriad of different use modalities and listening habits, speakers and sources, music collections, listening loudness, and access to Amir's forum, are the reliability voice, indeed a very reliable one.

 

[DesertHawk]

Can't agree more. Seems people want Topping to deliver something equivalent to an F-35 for about $600; but that, I expect, wouldn't even be good enough for them. I tell you this, there are indeed problems that come with abundance.

I think it's fair to question the amp's usefulness given what it costs and it's power level.

 

[IPunchCholla]

I think it's fair to question the amp's usefulness given what it costs and it's power level.

What are the agreed upon parameters of usefulness?

 

[pjug]

It is a single 64 volt. The third pin doesn't show anything relative to the other two.

That is Interesting. Is the speaker neg terminal at ground or 32V when in stereo mode?

 

[amirm]

Just added 2 ohm (stereo mode) and 4 ohm bridged to the review. Dashboard is there for 2 ohm but here is the power output:

I combined my dummy loads to get this so only one channel was driven (again, in stereo mode, NOT bridged). Amplifier is quite stable but current limited and doesn't produce more power than 4 ohm.

Switching to bridged mode which utilizes both amplifiers produces double the power:

There were zero complaints from the amplifier during this abuse.

I ran the max and burst output but did not see more power.

Clearly the amplifier design is quite robust for short term usage like this.

 

[tmtomh]

This thread is quite something. A great accomplishment, absolutely superb, with plenty of use cases you'd think would be blindingly obvious... and then all this. Quite a sad day for ASR.

Agreed. This is a fascinating amp and quite an achievement - measured performance at a level that arguably can never be meaningfully surpassed given the limitations of human hearing acuity, and in bridged mode one can get just about 100wpc into 8 ohms for well under $1k/channel. That's not cheap, but it's not outrageous either.

Of course for many (most?) applications you want at least the 20dB of the High Gain mode, preferably a bit more. And of course you'd rather not have two giant external power bricks, and of course you'd ideally rather not have to pay for two monoblock integrated amps (as opposed to two mono power amps with a single preamp/input switcher) - so for use cases this is limited.

But it's still an impressive achievement and should be applauded as a basis for future iterations.

 

[TimF]

"If I'm a rational audiophile...." someone posts. That must be like those who are rational auto enthusiasts. Rationality is an ideal that is seldom achieved. Try to separate your impression of any automobile from the massive advertising we are enmeshed in like fish in water. Rationality is a less clear achievement when the consumer has multiple objectives of which some may be in conflict.

 

[SuicideSquid]

This is a 34 Watt amp that costs $800... It just makes no sense. The SINAD, whatever it is will go down the sewer when it attempts to produce anything resembling convincing bass, the distortion will bleed into the higher frequencies which will sound fatiguing. That makes this thing completely pointless for those of us who do not have high efficiency horn loaded speakers or the like. Forget about using this with inefficient 2 way speakers or Magnepans.

I think you overestimate the power requirements of most systems. 34 watts is more than enough to drive average-efficiency speakers to louder volumes than I'd ever listen at.

 

[amirm]

That is Interesting. Is the speaker neg terminal at ground or 32V when in stereo mode?

Negative speaker terminal is at chassis potential.

 

[tmtomh]

This is a 34 Watt amp that costs $800... It just makes no sense. The SINAD, whatever it is will go down the sewer when it attempts to produce anything resembling convincing bass, the distortion will bleed into the higher frequencies which will sound fatiguing. That makes this thing completely pointless for those of us who do not have high efficiency horn loaded speakers or the like. Forget about using this with inefficient 2 way speakers or Magnepans.

"This is a 34-watt amp" is a misleading statement. And your claim about SINAD and "convincing" bass is not supported by the measurements. High-efficiency horn-loaded speakers work fine with amps that have a fraction of the power and current-handling capacity of this amp.

 

[amirm]

Agreed. This is a fascinating amp and quite an achievement - measured performance at a level that arguably can never be meaningfully surpassed given the limitations of human hearing acuity, and in bridged mode one can get just about 100wpc into 8 ohms for well under $1k/channel. That's not cheap, but it's not outrageous either.

Vast majority of speakers out there are 4 volts which produces 200 watts in bridged mode as I just showed.

 

[Enkay25]

I feel some of us are missing the point:

In addition to the exemplary engineering feat, Topping (or any company ) caters to consumer needs. Hence they have products in market influenced by consumer needs. (Yes company like Apple are also there which invents what consumer will want)

So the disappointments or the negative comments to this product should actually be useful feedbacks to the marketing dept of Topping. This product may sell in numbers.....but perhaps missed opportunity of fulfilling expectations of some of us.

The very enthusiasm for expectations from topping should be an indicator wherein it can cause further disruption in the industry.

Personally 2 years back, I wouldn't even think of buying a topping product. But now I expect much more game changer products from them. And the price/performance was a major attraction.

 

[mdsimon2]

Just added 2 ohm (stereo mode) and 4 ohm bridged to the review. Dashboard is there for 2 ohm but here is the power output:

I combined my dummy loads to get this so only one channel was driven (again, in stereo mode, NOT bridged). Amplifier is quite stable but current limited and doesn't produce more power than 4 ohm.

Switching to bridged mode which utilizes both amplifiers produces double the power:

There were zero complaints from the amplifier during this abuse.

I ran the max and burst output but did not see more power.

Clearly the amplifier design is quite robust for short term usage like this.

Thanks for sharing!

Isn't this a bit of an odd result? Wouldn't you expect 2 ohm x 2 and 4 ohm x 1 power output to be roughly the same like we see when comparing 4 ohm x 2 to 8 ohm x 1? Any theory why instead we are seeing double the power when bridged in to 4 ohms?

Michael

 

[Hugo9000]

Just added 2 ohm (stereo mode) and 4 ohm bridged to the review. Dashboard is there for 2 ohm but here is the power output:

I combined my dummy loads to get this so only one channel was driven (again, in stereo mode, NOT bridged). Amplifier is quite stable but current limited and doesn't produce more power than 4 ohm.

Switching to bridged mode which utilizes both amplifiers produces double the power:

There were zero complaints from the amplifier during this abuse.

I ran the max and burst output but did not see more power.

Clearly the amplifier design is quite robust for short term usage like this.

Thanks again for the testing and review, and for going above and beyond by running these additional tests!

 

[groot]

Congratulations @JohnYang1997 on a very impressive product.

If my wife ever lets me buy speakers that could do this thing justice, I'd definitely buy one of these to run them.
As it is, If my current (20 year old Yamaha) amp happens to give up the ghost, maybe I could get one proactively .

I personally appreciate the three inputs. Just the right number for me, and removes the need for a pre-amp.

Thanks for pushing the envelope & keep up the good work!

 

[aravena562]

Just added 2 ohm (stereo mode) and 4 ohm bridged to the review. Dashboard is there for 2 ohm but here is the power output:

I combined my dummy loads to get this so only one channel was driven (again, in stereo mode, NOT bridged). Amplifier is quite stable but current limited and doesn't produce more power than 4 ohm.

Switching to bridged mode which utilizes both amplifiers produces double the power:

There were zero complaints from the amplifier during this abuse.

I ran the max and burst output but did not see more power.

Clearly the amplifier design is quite robust for short term usage like this.

thanks for the measurements@amirm .
this is a very good result, using the la90 in bridged mode with 4ohm load it produces more power and less distortion than the benchmark ahb2 with a 40% lower price.