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Topping LA90 Review (Integrated Amplifier)

Rate this amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 35 4.4%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 50 6.2%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 193 24.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 524 65.3%

  • Total voters
    802

ObjectiveSubjectivist

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A direct connection from DAC.



I personally think the LA90's volume control is its weak link (based purely on subjective listening). For practical reasons, I use Roon's digital volume control, with the LA90 in direct mode; otherwise I'd be happy to use the DAC's vol control. I've also tried the LA90 (in direct mode) with my Pass Labs X1 preamp, and it sounded great.

I haven't kept an eye on things closely, but to date, I've not heard of a single LA90 failure/issue. FWIW, a couple of months ago, I actually bought a further two LA90s to use as monos in my second system. I haven't gotten around to setting them up yet, but am hoping to do so by the end of this week. Just an indication of how pleased I am with the LA90 :).

Mani.
I'm using LA90 with Stealth for the couple of last days and I'm pleased.
What I was not expecting is how smooth LA90 sounds on top.
There is zero harshness zero sibilance. And no matter how loud I listen the sound never gets distorted/collapsed or hard.

Out of curiosity have you tried using LA90 as monoblocks with your headphones?
 

manisandher

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Out of curiosity have you tried using LA90 as monoblocks with your headphones?

With headphones? No. There's more than enough power in stereo mode for my K1000s.

In another system, I have a couple of LA90s in mono mode driving full range speakers:

20230113_154842[1].jpg

Here, the speakers have a mid-90s sensitivity and are an easy load, so a single LA90 in stereo mode would actually be sufficient. But I went for two in mono mode in case I ever end up with harder-to-drive speakers in this system.

Incidentally, you can put your ear right next to the mouth of the treble horns, and there is zero noise at idle.... absolutely nothing, irrespective of the LA90's gain setting. The only other 'amp' I've tried that has managed this is the First Watt F4... but that has 0dB gain ;-).

Mani.
 

ObjectiveSubjectivist

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With headphones? No. There's more than enough power in stereo mode for my K1000s.

In another system, I have a couple of LA90s in mono mode driving full range speakers:

View attachment 257435

Here, the speakers have a mid-90s sensitivity and are an easy load, so a single LA90 in stereo mode would actually be sufficient. But I went for two in mono mode in case I ever end up with harder-to-drive speakers in this system.

Incidentally, you can put your ear right next to the mouth of the treble horns, and there is zero noise at idle.... absolutely nothing, irrespective of the LA90's gain setting. The only other 'amp' I've tried that has managed this is the First Watt F4... but that has 0dB gain ;-).

Mani.
Yes exactly that would be an overkill but why not just for fun ;)
I'm also thinking about ordering second one as in the future I'll be moving to 2.0 channel system (more serious one, as my current is nothing to rave about)
 

Hckd

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With headphones? No. There's more than enough power in stereo mode for my K1000s.

In another system, I have a couple of LA90s in mono mode driving full range speakers:

View attachment 257435

Here, the speakers have a mid-90s sensitivity and are an easy load, so a single LA90 in stereo mode would actually be sufficient. But I went for two in mono mode in case I ever end up with harder-to-drive speakers in this system.

Incidentally, you can put your ear right next to the mouth of the treble horns, and there is zero noise at idle.... absolutely nothing, irrespective of the LA90's gain setting. The only other 'amp' I've tried that has managed this is the First Watt F4... but that has 0dB gain ;-).

Mani.

That's some very aesthetically pleasing setup.
 

manisandher

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With headphones? No. There's more than enough power in stereo mode for my K1000s.

In another system, I have a couple of LA90s in mono mode driving full range speakers:

View attachment 257435

Here, the speakers have a mid-90s sensitivity and are an easy load, so a single LA90 in stereo mode would actually be sufficient. But I went for two in mono mode in case I ever end up with harder-to-drive speakers in this system.

Incidentally, you can put your ear right next to the mouth of the treble horns, and there is zero noise at idle.... absolutely nothing, irrespective of the LA90's gain setting. The only other 'amp' I've tried that has managed this is the First Watt F4... but that has 0dB gain ;-).

Mani.
Just registered to hear if anyone had experience running this amp with high sensitivity speakers, and lo and behold.

I have a pair of avantgarde trios at 107db. I'm considering buying a LA90 as well as a pre-90 to run with a turntable and DAC/streamer setup.
I'm assuming one should suffice plenty given the sensitivity. Currently running these speakers with a tube amp with 8 watts pr channel, and anything above 50% on the volume knob and the police will show up at my door.

Anyone else have experience running this amp with a high sensitivity speaker? i know many insist on tube amps for high sensitivity horns, but at this price with those measurements I'm more than intrigued.
 

antcollinet

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Well those speakers are 20db more sensitive than mine, so itll be like me running a 900W amp. You should, at least, have no shortage of power.


EDITED to add : Just checked, and the speakers are 27 ohm. So the LA90 will only output about 14.8W into them. Equivalent of 148W with my speakers. So still perfectly adequate.
 
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manisandher

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Anyone else have experience running this amp with a high sensitivity speaker? i know many insist on tube amps for high sensitivity horns, but at this price with those measurements I'm more than intrigued.

I've not tried it with the horns in my main system (also around 107dB/W@1m), as I now run these as 4-way actives. The LA90 should work well with such speakers though, given its very low noise. I doubt you'd hear anything from the horns at idle, which has always been a bit of a bugbear of mine.

I've compared the LA90 with a 300b valve amp (10x its cost!), driving my AKG headphones. It sounded far cleaner and better in every way, making the 300b sound muddy in comparison. I sold the 300b.

Mani.
 
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I've not tried it with the horns in my main system (also around 107dB/W@1m), as I now run these as 4-way actives. The LA90 should work well with such speakers though, given its very low noise. I doubt you'd hear anything from the horns at idle, which has always been a bit of a bugbear of mine.

I've compared the LA90 with a 300b valve amp (10x its cost!), driving my AKG headphones. It sounded far cleaner and better in every way, making the 300b sound muddy in comparison. I sold the 300b.

Mani.
Update:
I purchased the whole 90 stack:
LA-90, D90SE DAC, as well as a PRE90.
Picking it up later today. Will report my impressions later when i get everything hooked up.
 
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I just wanted to comment with some observations from playing around with the setup for about 7 hours.

Not running the PRE-90 now because I'm missing a set of XLR cables. However i have been running the D90 and LA-90 together quite a bit.
Something which is a bit of a mystery to me, but very noticeable, is that my subwoofers and bass is much more engaged when i use the dac in pre-mode and use LA-90 in bypass. If i switch this around, the bass is changed significantly for some reason. Crystal clear and sharp in either configuration, but balance is clearly different.
 

antcollinet

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I just wanted to comment with some observations from playing around with the setup for about 7 hours.

Not running the PRE-90 now because I'm missing a set of XLR cables. However i have been running the D90 and LA-90 together quite a bit.
Something which is a bit of a mystery to me, but very noticeable, is that my subwoofers and bass is much more engaged when i use the dac in pre-mode and use LA-90 in bypass. If i switch this around, the bass is changed significantly for some reason. Crystal clear and sharp in either configuration, but balance is clearly different

Difficult to see how this could be the case. Most likely a result of listening at different levels.
Or if listening sighted could be cognitive bias at play.

How do you bypass the LA90 by the way?
 
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Difficult to see how this could be the case. Most likely a result of listening at different levels.
Or if listening sighted could be cognitive bias at play.

How do you bypass the LA90 by the way?

I totally get what you are saying here, and I'm allergic to anecdotes for those exact suspicions you list. But these differences were so dramatically noticeable that I'm sure it will come through crystal clear even in a iphone video/audio recording. I'll see if I have time to test more today.


The back of the LA90 has a switch which puts it in either mode. See attached file.

I also have to add that coming from tube amps to this thing feels like some kind of voodoo magic in terms of how noise free it is. If i turn the volume knob to the max, I still can't hear the faintest hint of life through the horns, even if i put my ear into the tweeter horn. It's undistinguishable from unplugged.
 

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manisandher

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Something which is a bit of a mystery to me, but very noticeable, is that my subwoofers and bass is much more engaged when i use the dac in pre-mode and use LA-90 in bypass.

As I said earlier, I don't think the LA90's vol pot is of the same standard as the rest of the amp - I don't think it's totally transparent. It's functional, and a nice-to-have until you can use something better. It might also be helpful in a multi-amp setup for level matching. In any event, I suspect your PRE90 will fix this.

If i turn the volume knob to the max, I still can't hear the faintest hint of life through the horns, even if i put my ear into the tweeter horn. It's undistinguishable from unplugged.

Yep. I think most horn users would love this amp... if they could just bring themselves to try it. I can't think of a better-suited amp for horns.

Mani.
 
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Finally got the whole setup as I intended, with the D90 in DAC only mode and LA-90 in bypass mode, with the PRE90 regulating everything including the input from my phono preamp.
Both turntable and dac as a source sound absolutely phenomenal. I'm very pleased. Also kind of cool is that the stack with the rack fits neatly into a typical cube shelf, saving a lot of space while also looking very nice.
 

manisandher

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ObjectiveSubjectivist

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Anyone having strange trigger behavior with LA90?

By strange I mean when I use trigger input on LA90 and turn off my dac the LA90 indeed turns off but just half second later it seems like it's turning on and 100ms later again turning off. hard to explain but it feels like unit turns off twice in a second.

I know that trigger on my dac is working just fine as with previous amplifier everything was ok.

edit. Actually it might be something with my dac and its software. Because I see different behaviour using different turning off approaches (remote, button on unit, phone app)
 
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radeon

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Finally got the whole setup as I intended, with the D90 in DAC only mode and LA-90 in bypass mode, with the PRE90 regulating everything including the input from my phono preamp.
Both turntable and dac as a source sound absolutely phenomenal. I'm very pleased. Also kind of cool is that the stack with the rack fits neatly into a typical cube shelf, saving a lot of space while also looking very nice.
@snakeoilsalesman
Do you run your amps in bridged mode for to the trios?

I have the same speakers as you and I was honestly a few minutes away from ordering a set of 8x Purifi 1ET400A. I had always assumed that the LA90 would not have enough power for the trios, but you are finding that it's enough? Do you think a Purifi would be overkill, or could it be a bit better?

I'm doing custom dsp crossovers there are three speakers on each trio, plus an added pair of ESS Heil Air Motion Transformers. So I would need 8 channels of amplification in total.
 
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