Topping’s First Speaker
Topping — a brand well known for its DACs and amplifiers — has finally released a loudspeaker.
Given their strong track record of staying ahead of audio trends, I had high hopes for this one.
Interestingly, despite being designed for small spaces, the speaker has quite a deep enclosure.
This appears to be a deliberate choice, most likely to accommodate port tuning.
Frequcney Response
The overall tonal balance is quite flat.
For a 4-inch speaker, the low-end extension is impressive — reaching down to about 48.9 Hz (-6 dB) with a roll-off slope of roughly 32 dB/oct.
With the increased cabinet depth, I’m hoping for strong low-frequency performance.
Nearfield Measurements
One of the most impressive aspects is the 'port'.
Port noise is extremely well controlled and doesn’t stand out at all.
The woofer response is also very clean — nicely done!
CEA-2034
The smooth, upward-sloping directivity index (DI) is perhaps the most striking feature here.
Directivity
The radiation pattern narrows smoothly and uniformly — exactly what you’d hope for.
Topping has clearly done their homework.
Vertical directivity is also well controlled.
The lower edge of the tweeter’s waveguide appears to have been slightly shaved down to reduce the physical gap between the drivers — a small but meaningful design choice that pays off.
Beamwidth
From around 2 kHz upward, the beamwidth narrows consistently and evenly — a desirable trait for controlled directivity.
Polar Plot
The polar plot really helps visualize the speaker’s radiation behavior.
With the exception of the 10 kHz band, the speaker maintains fairly uniform energy up to ±30° off-axis.
Vertical radiation is also well-focused around the primary listening angles.
THD
The distortion pattern is quite interesting.
Across most of the woofer’s operating range, the 2nd harmonic is dominant — which is perfectly reasonable given the driver quality at this price point.
Even so, low-frequency distortion remains relatively low for a speaker of this size and class.
The tweeter, on the other hand, appears to be extremely capable.
It seems to operate well within its limits, leaving plenty of headroom.
Multitone Test
If you're hoping for a small woofer that can deliver deep bass and remain clean under complex intermodulation — that might be asking too much.
The tweeter is impressive, but the woofer still shows room for improvement.
Even after limiting the low-frequency range for retesting, the overall trend remained unchanged.
No particular anomalies were observed.
Compression Test
The original plot exceeded the standard ±3 dB range, so I re-adjusted the scale accordingly.
Overall, woofer performance is reasonable for the price — and again, the tweeter stands out as exceptionally strong.
Deviation between 2 samples
Sample-to-sample consistency looked solid.
Especially considering this is Topping’s first mass-produced loudspeaker, the results are quite respectable.
Final Thoughts
Given Topping’s proven track record in affordable DACs and power amps, I was genuinely excited to see their take on a loudspeaker.
As expected, the design prioritizes objective performance rather than compromising for convenience — and that’s a good sign for the market.
Controlled and uniform radiation, smooth tonal balance, and impressive bass extension all add up to make this a compelling package, especially at its price point.
You can tell this speaker was developed with the CEA-2034 standard firmly in mind — which earns it extra points in my book.
However, I did notice one unfortunate issue during testing.
Because this kind of leakage creates random noise, it doesn't easily show up in typical THD measurements — yet it can be quite noticeable depending on the situation.
To confirm the source, I tracked down the location of the leak and placed a thin tissue over it to visually identify the airflow.
The leak was coming from the rear switch box.
With the owner’s permission, I opened up the speaker and found that the manufacturer had attempted to seal this area —
but likely due to the strong internal air pressure around the port’s resonant frequency, the solution wasn’t fully effective.
I believe Topping is well aware of this kind of problem.
But in mass production, extra costs are always a consideration — and I hope they find a reliable and cost-effective fix moving forward.
If their handling of the PA5 amplifier is any indication, I trust they’ll find a smart solution again.
After all, it’s Topping.
That’s all.
