Topping MA4 Review

[Fidji]

Maybe I do miss some context e.g. this speaker is free giveaway, accompanying DAC or it costs 49 USD.

It measures terribly, woofer distortion is probably one of the worst I have seen. This is objectively not a good speaker.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

Seems like it'd make a decent monitor for professional use as long as they can get that air leak issue sorted.

Professionals tend to need too big an SPL number for a 4 inch woofer to deliver without audible bass distortion.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

Decent speaker. Hugely deep though...

An enclosure that deep seems to be typical for speakers with small woofers and narrow baffles -- it's about the same as the popular Kali Audio IN-5 monitor.

 

[markk]

This is fairly typical for a 4" driver. This has less swept area than the average midrange. It seems to have a nicely controlled tweeter in terms of directivity, but like every other 2 way that has a 4 inch driver, it has no meaningful bass at any realistic SPL. Nice try, but not sure why, with the overall size and depth, they didn't try to shoot for a mid woofer with a larger Sd or stick a sub in there. That wouldn't be my favorite option, but better than low SPL bass or high SPL somewhat distorted bass. Take your pick...

 

[Music1969]

Compression Test

As you play louder, you get more bass?

I thought you get less?

Also is this short term or long term, as Erin does

 

[PatentLawyer]

Sorry, but this review qualifies as stupid and is way below ASR's usual standards. Is this a powered loudspeaker? No mention. No mention of what amplification is in the box anything about the configuration etc. That's ridiculous. In fact the entire review reads as though it is a passive loudspeaker until you see the image on the videos.

Sorry you didn’t get your money’s worth. ???

What a gratuitously nasty comment. You can do better.

 

[kemmler3D]

Looks like a really decent speaker if it's sold at $330 per pair as I saw on some random Facebook post about it. Pretty much an "Edifier killer"? But the bass distortion is pretty disappointing especially in light of how well the tweeter does. I'm interested to see what Topping can do at ~$1K per pair.... (edit: my comment would be pretty different if these are actually more like $450/ea...)

As always thanks @Nuyes for the thorough review!

 

[Curvature]

It measures terribly, woofer distortion is probably one of the worst I have seen. This is objectively not a good speaker.

It's not all that bad. See the above. We know @Nuyes' technique is accurate.

It's a small speaker meant for short distances. If you add a high pass filter and a subwoofer you gain 5-10dB of distortion-free range. There aren't many small speakers with this kind of excellent directivity, which is far more important. Competing small Edifier speakers allow too many compromises. And the recent Aiyima S600 speaker (another review by @Nuyes) showed it to be just terrible, although the distortion was lower.

 

[Curvature]

As you play louder, you get more bass?

I thought you get less?

Also is this short term or long term, as Erin does

Compression is represented by positive numbers in this chart. Negative numbers represent expansion.

 

[LordxNohman]

Only two pages in and this feels like a Reddit thread
From the comments about a terrible review to comments about how terrible the speaker is.
Can we have a bit of normal discourse and conversation, this speaker isn't a Kii Audio or Bucharth active or in that price range but yet every measurement must be perfect by some comments on here. Audio like everything is not black and white but somewhere in the middle (mostly some speakers are just poor) let's be objective and also take into consideration price, size, newness to market etc.

Not the first time either recent reviews by this author of the Kef Blade 2 Meta have had similar comments

 

[LordxNohman]

Separate comments to say thank you Nuyes some great reviews recently to encourage discussion of the right sort. Appreciated as have fed into my decisions on next speakers

 

[Curvature]

I also recommend visiting @Nuyes' Korean language website for many more speaker reviews: https://audiore.kr/category/스피커-리뷰/

There is an artefact in the negative angles of in the MA4's vertical directivity at the crossover that is similar to Ascilab's. Although the latter's waveguide is superior, there is evidently some convergence in technique. Something similar is also evident with the KH80.

 

[Bleib]

Well, I'm glad it's tested. I hope Topping doesn't give up on speakers and have plenty to come over the years

 

[LordxNohman]

Well, I'm glad it's tested. I hope Topping doesn't give up on speakers and have plenty to come over the years

For a first attempt looks to be pretty solid let's hope for then to build on this and hopefully fix the outstanding leakage issue...given their quality of dac and amps I'd be pretty confident

Currently 620e for two from Ali express

 

[Grooved]

The AliExpress says "1 piece" so it is a single speaker for $450, but it is an active. So $900 for an active that plays this low. Would love to see what they could do with a "big brother" version with a 6.5" woofer, maybe for l.t. $1500? Bet the distortion numbers would be much improved.

We're now seeing speaker releases from some providers like Aiyima and Topping who revolutionized pricing in high end audio electronics. I think this bodes exceedingly well for the price of highly performant bookshelf speakers over the next couple of years. I can imagine that the producers of $3-10k high end speakers have to be getting kinda nervous about now.

It's $450 for one with "free shipping", which is actually "shipping included" because if you enter a country where they can't send it to at this moment, it shows the unit at $350.

Regarding "revolutionized pricing", Topping has done some fantastic job on other pieces, but for this one (I know, it's their first speaker), I'm not sure if it's revolutionizing any pricing when something like the iLoud MTM is at the same price but with calibration and mic.

 

[Hart]

Thanks Nuyes! Too bad about the air leak, seems very "Un-Topping" as most of their stuff seems well thought out from beginning to end. I wonder if they could have gotten speaker cabinet volume from making the overall speaker larger and less long? The length makes it awkward for a lot of installations. It looks like they are expanding into speakers, very curious to see where this goes from a company like Topping. The bookshelf market at this price point has a lot of great players right now including the AsciLab offerings.

​

 

[raif71]

The air leak is to have an airy type of sound that could attribute to a sense of bigger spatial and open effect.

 

[Nuyes]

A few things; first is there a listed price for these speakers and second would a little bit of silicone caulk around the switch box solve the problems (and void the warranty.) Finally would a subwoofer which most small speakers benefit from reduce this problem along with reducing the distortion.

I don’t think a bit of silicone caulk around the switch box would be enough to solve the issue.

As you can see, Topping has already built the switch box using EVA foam.


2.Yes, I agree — using a subwoofer would definitely help in many ways.

 

[Hart]

I don’t think a bit of silicone caulk around the switch box would be enough to solve the issue.


View attachment 468250
As you can see, Topping has already built the switch box using EVA foam.


2.Yes, I agree — using a subwoofer would definitely help in many ways.

I think the back panel needs a rubber gasket and a track for it. Switch enclosure should be solid, not foam.

 

[Hart]