Topping PA5 Review (Amplifier)

[bahamot]

And the input impedance is?

John said about 10k

 

[gvl]

John said about 10k

That's much better than we've seen before from John

 

[gvl]

@JohnYang1997 any plans for monoblocks with more power and maybe integrated PSU?

 

[antcollinet]

Would you object to a member posting a detailed teardown of an amp they obtained themselves?

Even if they disclose the secret sauce Topping has tried obfuscating?

Even if Topping objected?

I think once a member has an amp, then all the competitors do too. So not much is being given away.

 

[Walter]

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.

The NC252MP requires 2.34V to drive it to full peak power, while the NC502MP requires 3.32V, per the datasheets. If the 2.6V required for the PA5 is only for continuous power, and the peaks require more, I have not seen that stated. Looking up the formula and computing that for myself would take more time than I'm willing to put into this at the moment. I totally agree with most of the facts you have presented, I just felt as if you were drawing a too-limited conclusion and wanted to give examples of where this amp might have more usefulness than you realized. I wasn't in any way trying to imply that you were wrong in concluding that it was underpowered for your particular use case.

 

[antcollinet]

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.

Topping (like most of the competitors) are specifying the power as clipping power (IE at 1%THD) - then it is outputting 116W, with peak power of 128 according to Amir's measurements.

 

[DanielT]

I think once a member has an amp, then all the competitors do too. So not much is being given away.

If there is a gadget on the market, does not only apply to Hifi stuff, then anyone can, at any time, take it apart and publish pictures.Isn't that pretty obvious?

If it is not on the market, prototype and so on, it is a completely different thing.

 

[Upped]

Would this amp be enough for Elac DBR62s?

I power my DBR62s with a Loxjie a30 and a Topping e30 dac. I usually am nowhere near maxing the volume and just keep it at 35(60 max) and adjust on pc. Though I'm usually at nearfield/10ft away in my bed. seeing as this has double the power of the a30, I think it would have no problems this is my upgrade path.

 

[maty]

View attachment 168661

Well as an example, Spotify will ask you to master your music at -14 LUFS, Itune at -16 LUFS. I know it's a bit different than dynamic range, it means that the general volume will be at -14 or -16 dBFS. It means that in these cases, if you only give 10 dB headroom for your listening level. A peak at -3 dBFS would be clipped if there is some in the track you listen to. Y think that 80 dB SPL is not very loud.

80 dBSPL outside is not the same as between four walls not too far apart. The calculations are for exterior.

Nearfield, about 1m, I do not exceed 65 dBSPL continuous.

 

[daniboun]

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.

The Purifi 1ET400A has a gain of 12.8db .
27DB = when you add buffer gain + Purifi module gain but depends on the buffer manufacturer

 

[antcollinet]

If there is a gadget on the market, does not only apply to Hifi stuff, then anyone can, at any time, take it apart and publish pictures.Isn't that pretty obvious?
...

I think that is what I was saying...

 

[DanielT]

I think that is what I was saying...

I understand that. Not directed at you. A general reflection only.

 

[aj625]

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"

Speakers don't know if they are connected to a 100w amp or 25wamp if you are using below 25w power most of the time. It's the current delivery which matters for dynamics not the power rating. For current delivery output impedance of amp is key. Amps which nearly double the power on halving the impedance even if they are only 25w at 8ohms are better than amps having 200w in 8ohms and 320w in 4 ohms as most of the time you are not using even 25w in 8ohms.

 

[urfaust]

This truely deserves a game changer title. Curious about an in depth typology review.

 

[misterdog]

$350 inc. delivery to the UK from Shenzhenaudio. But you roll the dice when it comes to import VAT

TOPPING PA5 Desktop High Performance Digital Amplifier Fully Balanced Class D Power Amplifier

Specifications: Output power: 140W x2 @4Ω THD+N <10% 125W x2 @4Ω THD+N <1% 85W x2 @8Ω THD+N <10% 65W x2 @8Ω THD+N <1% THD+N @1kHz (A-wt): <0.0005% @4Ω 5W <0.0004% @8Ω 5W THD @No-wt (20kBW): <0.0015% @4Ω 5W <0.0006% @8Ω 5W SNR @A-wt: 124dB Dynamic Range @A-wt: 124dB Output level 65Vpp@4Ω...

shenzhenaudio.com

£ 260 delivered from HiFiGo inc. delivery and taxes to the UK , ask not how, but I've had 2 DAC's from them with no problem.
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[PeteL]

The NC252MP requires 2.34V to drive it to full peak power, while the NC502MP requires 3.32V, per the datasheets. If the 2.6V required for the PA5 is only for continuous power, and the peaks require more, I have not seen that stated. Looking up the formula and computing that for myself would take more time than I'm willing to put into this at the moment. I totally agree with most of the facts you have presented, I just felt as if you were drawing a too-limited conclusion and wanted to give examples of where this amp might have more usefulness than you realized. I wasn't in any way trying to imply that you were wrong in concluding that it was underpowered for your particular use case.

Don't confuse RMS with Continuous, and Vpeak and Power required for "peaks" in class D continuous and momentary dynamic headroom is tipically the same. But we talk RMS because it's what we can mesure. The 2.5V is per Amir measurment.

 

[Kegemusha]

and you will need the L50 for headphones out I guess.

 

[PeteL]

Speakers don't know if they are connected to a 100w amp or 25wamp if you are using below 25w power most of the time. It's the current delivery which matters for dynamics not the power rating. For current delivery output impedance of amp is key. Amps which nearly double the power on halving the impedance even if they are only 25w at 8ohms are better than amps having 200w in 8ohms and 320w in 4 ohms as most of the time you are not using even 25w in 8ohms.

? Sorry but current delivery and power rating is the same thing... does ohm law tells you something? If what you mean is that the rated power at 8 ohm is not the only important rated power, yes I agree with that, but from rated power at X ohms, we can derive the current.

 

[Calleberg]

Open it up! There is new technology inside hat measures way better than TPA3255.

Marketing mumbojumbo from Shenzenaudio

"PA5 has The newly developed Class D amplification circuit which uses multiple novel optimization techniques to fully push the performance and output power to the maximum. The new circuit provides crisp, clean and deep sound with completely inaudible noise floor. The fully balanced structure makes PA5 no more hum, no more noise, no more ground loop."

 

[PeteL]

The Purifi 1ET400A has a gain of 12.8db .
27DB = when you add buffer gain + Purifi module gain but depends on the buffer manufacturer

I know that, (I actually said that...) but the reference built comes with a buffer which default at these values, of course the manufacturer can make the buffer thy want.