Topping PA5 Review (Amplifier)

[DanielT]

. It also performed very different (subjectively listening) from speaker to speaker. Maybe I had a dud but my impression of it wasn't that great.

I had an Aiyima A07 TPA 3255. Experienced the same thing so I sold it. It seemed to be very sensitive in terms of different loads from different speakers. I do not know if I imagined it but that's how I experienced it anyway.

At 20 W it also seems to have quite a lot of distortion in the higher registers.

faktiskt.io • Visa tråd - Aiyma A07 mätningar. Är Kejsaren naken?

Incidentally, here is a test that confirms what I experienced. I read this AFTER I sold mine:

So I can say that even the sonic result with AIYIMA A07 will strongly depend on the speaker connected. This is certainly not a good news. A speaker with impedance close to resistive in midrange and high frequency area is recommended.

AIYIMA A07 TPA3255 Amplifier Measurements and Review - LM4562 (and OPA2134) option

AIYIMA A07 TPA3255 Amplifier Measurements LM4562 option I received my A07 yesterday, on January 6, 2021, shipped from Italy. Purchased at Amazon.de and as stated on their website, it arrived without a power supply. I am testing the A07 with 2 different power supplies. One of them is a linear...

audiosciencereview.com

If Topping PA5 is better in that respect, it would be really interesting to know. Handle loads from speakers better that is to say.

 

[dr0ss]

I see 83 Watts in 4 ohms, 48 in 8. it’s not “in excess of 100 Watts per channels.”

We should all simply agree that "watts per channel" should always mean into 8 ohms.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

If a $70 amp stops working a month after the warranty expires, I'll be irritated but figure I took a chance and it didn't work out. If a $350 amplifier fails in under 5 years and either can't be repaired or has to be sent back to China, I'm going to be quite upset.

That's a big part of the A07's appeal -- it's an extremely low-risk purchase for a direct import because it's just so danged inexpensive. The PA5 is an entirely different animal in that respect -- it's got far better numbers, but costs many more $$$ and is therefore a much riskier purchase, especially if it's going to function as the sole amplification in a conventional L+R stereo system. There's a reason I keep two spare A07s "in stock" -- but so far, all is well...

 

[PeteL]

Yes, you need a balanced preamp or a single ended one that puts out at least 2.6V, but so do most Hypex and Purifi builds. Same for subs and remotes--the PA5 at least has a volume knob and two inputs, neither of which will be the case with a "pure" power amp. Plus, having a sub, if you can high pass your mains, means that the PA5 will be powerful enough for even more rooms. It seems as if you are "criticizing" (not exactly, but not sure of a better word to use) it for not having a built in subwoofer out and remote like, say, an SMSL AO200, which a Purifi/nCore also will not have, while also not having the power of the latter despite being priced much less. Pretty much a no win scenario

No, Stock Purifi Build has 27 dB of Gain so with most Hypex build, that's what I have and i find it slightly on the low side. I personally have a balanced preamp, The Schiit Freya+ that measures very well but don't have much gain. It's just OK, some of my sources don't reach full output for my Hypex NC500 amps. This here couldn't be used with it, It has 19 dB of Gain.t's actually a trend to sacrifice gain for better numbers, balanced preamps with much gain are few. At least that I know, it's already not common to be balanced. If you are talking bufferless, that's not a proper way to implement a Purifi/Hypex module and it's certainly not "most builds". The buffer is not only a gain stage, it's also a high impedance front end. and do the duty of impedance bridging. The module themselves has lowish impedance.

Now, to me to have value I can't classify this other than a power amp. It simply don't have the feature set of a modern integrated, at any price, even 350$ ones from Yamaha or such. If you want subs you'll want a preamp. The balanced DAC will not give you that. and the compatible balanced pre is not an easy find. You can recommend one for this?

As I said, good little amp but very limited use case.

 

[Billy Budapest]

I see 83 Watts in 4 ohms, 48 in 8. it’s not “in excess of 100 Watts per channels.” Close enough but again you need a strong 2.5 Volts to get there. It’s really tought off as a desktop amp, I wouldn’t say “most listening scenario” but for a very specific scenario where you have a balance dac, no need for subs or remote and relatively low power requirement.

Relatively low power requirement? At around 100 watts per channel?

The amplifier in my main system is 26 watts per channel and it has no problems whatsoever powering Triangle Celius tower speakers to extreny loud volume levels—granted, I don’t usually listen to them at extremely loud levels.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

At 20 W it also seems to have quite a lot of distortion in the higher registers.

Given that the THD number still has a zero after the decimal point, that increase is probably inaudible since most of us can hear anything above 15kHz.

 

[PeteL]

Relatively low power requirement? At almost 100 watts per channel?

The amplifier in my main system is 26 watts per channel and it has no problems whatsoever powering Triangle Celius tower speakers to extreny loud volume levels—granted, I don’t usually listen to them at extremely loud levels.

Amps with High gain will always give you loud levels, do you know for sure that the peaks are not clipped or compressed when driving your speakers loud? Sometimes it's just short transient dynamics that are affected it doesn't really is obvious clipping, just less dynamic. You also know that the difference between 25W and 100W is just 6 dB more headroom, it's not a huge difference, both are what I call "relatively low power"

 

[capslock]

Again, these notebook connectors are all based on japanese regulation, all are voltage and current limited, has nothing to do with the issue IEC 60320, those are EIAJ plugs for notebooks and no way such a connector will handle 152W we were talking about.

I have seen barrel type connectors on 230 W laptop supplies.

edited: yes, I meant Watts, such es Dell Precision or XPS with hefty CPUs and Graphics

 

[Billy Budapest]

Amps with High gain will always give you loud levels, do you know for sure that the peaks are not clipped or compress when driving your speakers loud. Sometimes it's just short transient dynamics that are affected it doesn't really is obvious clipping, just less dynamic. You also know that the difference between 25W and 100W is just 6 dB more headroom, it's not a huge difference both are what I call "relatively low power"

My point is that what you call “relatively low power” is what most people need.

 

[DanielT]

Given that the THD number still has a zero after the decimal point, that increase is probably inaudible since most of us can hear anything above 15kHz.

No, but it may be of interest to a younger person than me, because of what you mention. It did not bother me, however, that it was so fundamentally different between different speakers surprised me. Some managed it to drive well, others not at all so. Observe, I experienced it. Do not know if it was imagination or not.

Power supply, Meanwell 36 V, 5.56 A.

Edit:
It should be added that I tested, among other speakers, with a pair that are recognized as needing a lot of power to "bloom" out.
So then it is perhaps not so strange that Aiyima did not manage them in a sensible way. But with other speakers, as I said, it went ok anyway.

QLN One begagnade stativhögtalare från Rehifi

QLN One begagnade stativhögtalare från Rehifi

www.rehifi.se

 

[PeteL]

My point is that what you call “relatively low power” is what most people need.

Most is too much of an arbitrary term to worth debating about. 50%+1? This amp has too low a gain and too little power for me. I'll leave it at that.

 

[Walter]

No, Stock Purifi Build has 27 dB of Gain so with most Hypex build, that's what I have and i find it slightly on the low side. I personally have a balanced preamp, The Schiit Freya+ that measures very well but don't have much gain. It's just OK, some of my sources don't reach full output for my Hypex NC500 amps. This here couldn't be used with it, It has 19 dB of Gain.t's actually a trend to sacrifice gain for better numbers, balanced preamps with much gain are few. At least that I know, it's already not common to be balanced. If you are talking bufferless, that's not a proper way to implement a Purifi/Hypex module and it's certainly not "most builds". The buffer is not only a gain stage, it's also a high impedance front end. and do the duty of impedance bridging. The module themselves has lowish impedance.

Now, to me to have value I can't classify this other than a power amp. It simply don't have the feature set of a modern integrated, at any price, even 350$ ones from Yamaha or such. If you want subs you'll want a preamp. The balanced DAC will not give you that. and the compatible balanced pre is not an easy find. You can recommend one for this?

As I said, good little amp but very limited use case.

Yes, I should not have generalized "most Hypex and Purifi builds" as most of my knowledge is related to the NC252MP and NC502MP, which do not need input buffers and which do require similar levels to reach max power. And I agree that the PA5 is best thought of as a power amp, that happens to be able to do double duty as an integrated desktop amp. That was actually the point I was making--that saying it has a much larger area of applicability than only a desktop amp.

 

[Georgrig]

I have seen barrel type connectors on 230 V laptop supplies.

That should be Watt

 

[PeteL]

Yes, I should not have generalized "most Hypex and Purifi builds" as most of my knowledge is related to the NC252MP and NC502MP, which do not need input buffers and which do require similar levels to reach max power. And I agree that the PA5 is best thought of as a power amp, that happens to be able to do double duty as an integrated desktop amp. That was actually the point I was making--that saying it has a much larger area of applicability than only a desktop amp.

Those two include a 13.5 dB buffer built in that is active by default. You have to want to remove it from the chain. Which known built leave it unbuffered?

 

[Walter]

Most is too much of an arbitrary term to worth debating about. 50%+1? This amp has too low a gain and too little power for me. I'll leave it at that.

That is a statement nobody should argue against! For me, it is 50/50--it has plenty of power and gain for the rooms I would use it in, which range from 25 cubic meters to 35 cubic meters, with listening distances of 3 meters or less. However, in my living room, which is about 4m x 6m x 4m, it would be woefully inadequate. However, the living room is also usually occupied by my kids, so preventing them from playing too loud would be a plus! Critical listening for them just means turning up the bass until it distorts!

 

[Walter]

Those two include a 13.5 dB buffer built in that is active by default. You have to want to remove it from the chain. Which known built leave it unbuffered?

None, and that has no relevance to anything I said so I'm not sure why you ask.

 

[PeteL]

None, and that has no relevance to anything I said so I'm not sure why you ask.

Because the input voltage needed is directly relevant to the applied gain. A stock NC series buffered has 26 dB of gain, this amp here has 19 dB. You won't need as much voltage to drive the Hypex to full power. For the NC252MP it's 1.6V compared to 2.5V for this one.

 

[Hiten]

General question regarding this amplifier and other similar amplifiers. Do these amplifiers have speaker protection ?

 

[gvl]

And the input impedance is?

 

[DanielT]

That is a statement nobody should argue against! For me, it is 50/50--it has plenty of power and gain for the rooms I would use it in, which range from 25 cubic meters to 35 cubic meters, with listening distances of 3 meters or less. However, in my living room, which is about 4m x 6m x 4m, it would be woefully inadequate. However, the living room is also usually occupied by my kids, so preventing them from playing too loud would be a plus! Critical listening for them just means turning up the bass until it distorts!

I have received these two tips in terms of how much power is needed:
1. Be sure to have Hedaroom
2. More Hedaroom
Written with a bit of a twinkle in the eye, but I wonder if it still does not lie a bit of truth in that statement.
Unnecessarily too much, the wallet itself does not like though.This with effect, what is appropriate. The classic question on many Hifi fofum. That question and: When does distortion become audible.