Topping PA5 Review (Amplifier)

[gvl]

Maybe.

I also believe John's design can be sold at a premium with a greater GP. Until someone else catches up or copies it, they can make good money out of the product. And right now, if people want the best in a desktop amplifier- that is the one to buy.

Would they get so much publicity if not for ASR? I suspect not. In a sense ASR is a free (I hope) advertising platform if you can hit your sinads, and John can, so they can anticipate demand an set the price accordingly.

 

[restorer-john]

Would they get so much publicity if not for ASR? I suspect not.

I cannot comment on how "big" Topping is in China. Where does most of their business come from?

If I had to guess, I'd say 90% would be home market (China) sales.

 

[gvl]

I cannot comment on how "big" Topping is in China. Where does most of their business come from?

If I had to guess, I'd say 90% would be home market (China) sales.

Their manuals include English translation, so maybe not?

 

[genfreeciv]

The speaker binding posts are small (as you’d expect). It took quite a lot of work to get my 1.5mm2 cable into the drilled horizontal hole. Also, the depth of the 6mm plug hole appears pretty shallow. One pair of posts became a bit loose while I was trying to install cables - it feels very much like loose internal locking nuts. No complaints, but I’m going to open the amp up to tighten the nuts on the inside and have a look at other things while I’m doing it.

Dear all,

Here is how to open the case of PA5.

0. Do not remove the screw in the middle of the TRS terminal.
It is not necessary to remove this screw when opening the case.
If you remove it, the nut inside the case will fall off and you will have to open the case to repair it.

1. remove the volume knob on the front panel and you will find a nut (M8, metric), which fixes the potentiometer to the front panel.
You will need to use a lot of force if you try removing the knob by your hands, but you can easily do that by inserting a flathead screwdriver into the gap.
Remove the M8 nut.

2. Remove the two screws on both sides of the rear panel and the two screws on the bottom of the case by 2mm Metric HEX key.

3. Push the volume shaft on the front panel and the board will come out from the rear side.

 

[typericey]

Need advise on a theoretical setup: if I plug an RCA output of a phono preamp (i.e. ART DJ Pre II) to the TRS input of the PA5, will there be issues? I would just need an RCA to TRS cable right? (No, I don't need the signal to become balanced).

 

[gvl]

Need advise on a theoretical setup: if I plug an RCA output of a phono preamp (i.e. ART DJ Pre II) to the TRS input of the PA5, will there be issues? I would just need an RCA to TRS cable right? (No, I don't need the signal to become balanced).

This will work with a proper cable adapter but will yield lower input voltage, and the amp may not have enough gain to be able produce the power it technically can if fed with real balanced signal, theoretically. This may or may not be an issue depending how sensitive your speakers are.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

I’ve had to open $1500 amplifiers to tighten the internal speaker post mounting nuts. It’s a common point of failure. Not even failure, really—it’s almost just maintenance.

I ran an audio repair shop for eight years back in the 1970s and I don't recall even one instance of this sort of defect in the literally thousands of amps and receivers from the 50+ brands of gear for which we were factory-authorized.

It's a failure. Period. The fact that it's an easily-correctable failure doesn't make it anything close to "just maintenance" in my book, but of course YMMV.

 

[ceausuc]

Would they get so much publicity if not for ASR? I suspect not. In a sense ASR is a free (I hope) advertising platform if you can hit your sinads, and John can, so they can anticipate demand an set the price accordingly.

You are right and I hope everyone here understood that already.
But it's.. business. Topping is here for your $$$, not to make charity.
I would do the same
And don't forget that the initial price of this amp was 400

High sinad gives the new "flavor of the day". Until now it was some "subjective" listening test made by some audio "guru"...
So, nothing new under the Sun, we just need reasons to keep spending

 

[BoredErica]

You are right and I hope everyone here understood that already.
But it's.. business. Topping is here for your $$$, not to make charity.
I would do the same
And don't forget that the initial price of this amp was 400

High sinad gives the new "flavor of the day". Until now it was some "subjective" listening test made by some audio "guru"...
So, nothing new under the Sun, we just need reasons to keep spending

You can make that argument for anything that measures well. I don't need much power but I want very, very low noise. pa5 delivers that just fine. I dunno what 'keep spending' means, it's kind of hard to drive passive speakers with no amp in my house.

Nobody here is saying Topping is a charity, I don't even know who you're talking to at this point. Initial price was 400, now it's lower. Is that a bad thing? What universe are we in where we're using a price drop as an example of something bad?

I think noise is a real issue and I don't want to even hear it when my ear is next to the tweeter. But even if people want to chase paper specs with no improvement in audio quality, what is the problem with that if people aren't deluding themselves into thinking it sounds better?

If $340 is too expensive an amp, then show me another amp significantly below that price which delivers similar amounts of power and noise as low as this. Because if there truly is an option that blows pa5 out the water I'd like to know.

The 'pa5 is garbage' crowd have a lot more stamina than the 'omg pa5 is an incredible amp' crowd it seems. If you have a problem with chasing sinad go make a separate thread about it. If people have actual problems with the product they bought then it's worth discussing, but we don't need people chiming in with 'btw this amp sucks' and 'btw this amp is a toy' ad naseum. We get it. You don't like the amp.

 

[MarkWinston]

I won't because I don't need one. For $250 I'd buy one even if I didn't need one. That's the difference.

Dont buy it then and stop sulkin. Stop talkin like it matters to you now because it doesnt, since its 350 and not 250.

 

[gvl]

Dont buy it then and stop sulkin. Stop talkin like it matters to you now because it doesnt, since its 350 and not 250.

The price creep in general does matter to me, that’s my beef with PA5 pricing. If you want to overpay for the while impressive but rather meaningless 10-15dB Sinad bump all power to you.

 

[DanielT]

PA5 seems good but I do not really see why I would choose in front of Aiyima A07 TPA 3255? They seem to have quite the same effect (depending on the choice of power supply). Measures more or less equal. But difference in price.

 

[bahamot]

You are right and I hope everyone here understood that already.
But it's.. business. Topping is here for your $$$, not to make charity.
I would do the same
And don't forget that the initial price of this amp was 400

High sinad gives the new "flavor of the day". Until now it was some "subjective" listening test made by some audio "guru"...
So, nothing new under the Sun, we just need reasons to keep spending

The 399USD price is actually what was guessed by @WolfX-700. Topping and JohnYang never stated it as 400USD.

 

[BoredErica]

The 399USD price is actually what was guessed by @WolfX-700. Topping and JohnYang never stated it as 400USD.

So now they're using imaginary price points to try to dunk on the amp.
Nice.

 

[gvl]

PA5 seems good but I do not really see why I would choose in front of Aiyima A07 TPA 3255? They seem to have quite the same effect (depending on the choice of power supply). Measures more or less equal. But difference in price.

Allo Volt D+ is another contender.

 

[MarkWinston]

The price creep in general does matter to me, that’s my beef with PA5 pricing. If you want to overpay for while impressive but rather meaningless 10-15dB Sinad bump all power to you.

So you think all this hoo haa will bring the price down now? It wont and it will go down when it goes down. Till then, its 350 or a bit less, nothing will bring it down. We get it, you are not willing to spend 350 on something that measures near perfect. Others are willing to spend triple for such performance and they are not foolish to even do something like that, even more so in the audio world.

 

[ceausuc]

You can make that argument for anything that measures well. I don't need much power but I want very, very low noise. pa5 delivers that just fine. I dunno what 'keep spending' means, it's kind of hard to drive passive speakers with no amp in my house.

Nobody here is saying Topping is a charity, I don't even know who you're talking to at this point. Initial price was 400, now it's lower. Is that a bad thing? What universe are we in where we're using a price drop as an example of something bad?

The initial price shows Topping's intentions to "milk the cow" as much as possible since they knew that the sinad was good.
If the sinad of this amp was 90 how much do you think it would cost?

I never said it was crap. Could be fantastic, could be crap could sound the same as Aiyma You buy it and tell us what you think.
PS:
there are also other amps that could drive your speakers

 

[BoredErica]

You guys are psychotic. I dunno what compels you people to post over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over about how you don't like the amp when there are far worse amps out there.

Also, it won't sound the same if I can hear the hiss.

 

[gvl]

So you think all this hoo haa will bring the price down now? It wont and it will go down when it goes down. Till then, its 350 or a bit less, nothing will bring it down. We get it, you are not willing to spend 350 on something that measures near perfect. Others are willing to spend triple for such performance and they are not foolish to even do something like that, even more so in the audio world.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

PA5 seems good but I do not really see why I would choose in front of Aiyima A07 TPA 3255? They seem to have quite the same effect (depending on the choice of power supply). Measures more or less equal. But difference in price.

The fact is that the PA5 is vastly quieter, so the measurements really aren't "more or less equal." Whether that difference is worth the extra $$$ is both highly subjective and very application dependent. I use A07s to drive my ambience/surround speakers -- my main L+R speakers and subwoofer are active -- and don't see spending $700USD for what would amount to little or no audible improvement as making a lick of sense in my particular situation.