Nice.
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Topping PA5 Review (Amplifier)
- Thread starter amirm
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Nice small amp, congratulations to Topping for this!
As an active-speaker builder, I wish there was something that I could use to power 2 and 3-way speakers, had DSP, bunch of useful management features and costed less than a FusionAmp. That's where we should go from here.
I notice many are asking if they should bi-amp and use this for highs. No. Use it for mids and bass (if it meets your power requirements), but not to high frequencies. The reason is rising distortion. It's presented in the measurements, the last image should be self-explanatory.
As an active-speaker builder, I wish there was something that I could use to power 2 and 3-way speakers, had DSP, bunch of useful management features and costed less than a FusionAmp. That's where we should go from here.
I notice many are asking if they should bi-amp and use this for highs. No. Use it for mids and bass (if it meets your power requirements), but not to high frequencies. The reason is rising distortion. It's presented in the measurements, the last image should be self-explanatory.
MarkWinston
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Just because it is a labeled as a desktop amp doesnt mean it cant serve well in a living room or any other room for that matter. My living room is 9 meters x 7 meters x 4 meters high and the PA5 can easily power the R200/12.2 covering every square inch of that place. 90db average at the listening position @ 3 meters, with no problems handling peaks at all. I can even do that with the DA9, so unless you are driving crazy 80db speakers and sitting miles away expecting 100+db average in a 100 square meter room, its not underpowered as you claim.
Tweeters only use a few watts so it going to work fine.
It's pretty wild how prevalent meaningless stuff like this
It all depends on the sensitivity of your speakers. Mine are 98Db/w/m...
Well, other types of amps with more distortion have an artificially larger soundstage. it is a matter of perspective.
Not sure if you are joking or not - but if someone did, all you would hear would be the characteristics of the testers speakers, room and microphone.Anyone willing to make a soundclip of how Topping PA5 sounds
All of which would swamp any difference you might hear between amps.
…. And get something similar to the original file, if no mistake is done. I always wonder why these childish requests to make a recording with a microphone in someone’s room.Or one can record it at the speaker terminals
Arashi_Tsunade
Member
Perdonate l'ignoranza, ma vorrei acquistare il Topping PA5 insieme al DAC E50. Non ho un computer, quindi vorrei iniziare a riprodurre musica tramite il mio smartphone Google Pixel 4a, è possibile? Al momento lo uso con un Sanskrith mk2 SMSL... La connessione tra Dac e telefono avviene tramite micro usb e type c, ma vedo che l'E50 non ha micro usb
It has a USB B connector, you could use a cable such as:
Alternatively you could consider a DAC with built in bluetooth such as the D50S (But that doesn't have balanced outputs)
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Here's PA5 playing a 2 minute music file, recorded at the speakers terminals into an 8ohm resistor. At DAC input 0dBFS the output was 5w. Blue is the original file, white is PC->USB->DAC->PA5 chain output, recorded using E1DA ADC:
When the DAC output is measured directly, bypassing PA5, the RMS null is -54dBFS. With PA5 in the chain, the null is -50dBFS, which is still very respectable for a DAC, and doubly so for an amp.
PK Metric showing the error signal adjusted for audibility:
Spectrum of the delta (null) file:
Linearity, in bits:
Delta Spectrogram:
Arashi_Tsunade
Member
I am really grateful to you, regarding the Topping D50s I don't take it into consideration because I wanted to use the Pa5 in balanced
BoredErica
Addicted to Fun and Learning
It's not.
I agree on 3rd one - A07 stomps all over PA5. And the bottome line - save a little more money and get a Purifi or nCore, or don't save - get A07.1) Compare to my Purifi 1ET400A EVAL1 kit: Not even close. The Purifi sounds miles better, the bass is more powerful and more defined. The mids and highs are more clear and soundstage is more open. Anyone saying that this amp competes with the Purifi doesn't know what they are talking about, sorry
3) Worse offender: compare to my Aiyima 07 (stock, no opamp mods or PSU mods, using the stock 32V PSU): The Aiyima sounds better, unfortunately... It is not as silent for sure, but, the difference in the articulation on the bass to mid region is very obvious. I honestly would trade the perfect SNR and zero noise of the PA5 to the more vivid bass sound on the Aiyima any day. Very sad this one
PA5 works fine for my speakers JBL A170.
Perhaps you should consider matching your components properly instead of mismatching them and then complaining about bad performance...
It is safer to go with the E50 since it is the recommended DAC for the unit from the manufacturer. If you want Bluetooth you can easily add any Bluetooth receiver that has SPDIF or COAX output and connect to the E50 later.
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