Topping PA5 Review (Amplifier)

[nawfal07]

If you put a blindfold on you will with 99% certainty not hear any difference at all. These two amps will sound exactly the same with all expectations removed. If you want to upgrade your sound the best choice is to either get even better speakers, work with your room acoustics, and/or apply EQ/DSP.

EDIT: As long as the PA5 works as it should. There are reports in this thread of the amp misbehaving and making noise etc, and there seems to be flaws in the engineering. Then you may hear a difference, but not in the PA5's favor. I would not buy it at this point

Thank you so much. I’ll keep this on hold then. Cheers.

 

[nawfal07]

By the way, off topic but just sharing. Topping has been teasing a new integrated amp, launching on April 26th.

- Class AB
- 3 inputs
- Volume control / Bypass
- Stereo / High power mono modes
- 2-step gain
- 12V trigger in

Apologies if this has been posted.

 

[ModDIY]

However, if there is one thing that ASR has taught me well, it is that MANY Times of metrically inferior performances are absolutely inaudible, and therefore at this moment I prefer to have the serenity of a less performing but more reliable product. I don't feel like being a beta tester anymore

Exactly, so much the better if some buyers have no problem with the PA5, for my part I pass my turn.

I suspect that the noises on some units come from the famous black box.. I don't know, but what I do know, the TPA325X chip amps from Texas Instruments are very reliable and several companies use them without problems.

 

[IPunchCholla]

Actually no, you're right, attending audio forums at various latitudes I got this idea, perhaps wrong. But on the fallibility of Topping products we have unfortunately many documented cases on the forum, and I say this as an owner (in many ways satisfied) of their products, it seems that on many new releases, after a few months / week some problems arise. It seems clear to me that the testing phase is in many cases up to the first end users, and perhaps it is the price to pay for such a high level of performance in low cost products.
However, if there is one thing that ASR has taught me well, it is that MANY Times of metrically inferior performances are absolutely inaudible, and therefore at this moment I prefer to have the serenity of a less performing but more reliable product. I don't feel like being a beta tester anymore.

I agree with you on all that. Hopefully they can up the reliability without sacrificing performance or increasing cost, which is not an easy task.

 

[AudioArchitech]

@amirm
How is your amp holding up?

 

[mckirk]

Just as another data point, I got my PA5 at the end of January and it started having the "crackling on left channel, getting progressively worse over time" issue about two weeks ago. I've sent it in for a refund for now, which I hope will go through.

I originally had planned to just order another PA5, but seeing how many people here have the same issue (and considering Topping themselves seem to say "we're working on it, just send it back for now"), I'm not so sure about that anymore. It'd be really interesting to see the actual failure rate... the distributor I bought the amp from doesn't even seem to be carrying it anymore, maybe because of the returns.

 

[jjmanda]

It's been 5 months since I bought my PA5 immediately after its release. I use it every day until today, but I haven't experienced any of the reported abnormalities. The power supply has remained almost ON since I purchased it. My PA5 serial No is 2110 *****.
From the recorded information reported, I suspect that parts such as OP amplifiers and capacitors are defective. Probably it occurs only in a specific production lot.

I've had mine for 4 months now and used everyday as well up until a couple of days ago. No issues at all with mine and it shares same 2110****** serial number as Toku's. Curious if others who have issues is with a different serial number range or maybe that has nothing to do with anything?

Only reason I stopped using it is I missed my old amps

 

[Nzama]

I've had mine for 4 months now and used everyday as well up until a couple of days ago. No issues at all with mine and it shares same 2110****** serial number as Toku's. Curious if others who have issues is with a different serial number range or maybe that has nothing to do with anything?

Only reason I stopped using it is I missed my old amps

I'll verify mine tomorrow as I am shipping it back... Will let you know

 

[antcollinet]

Timing of this PA5 issue is very bad news for Topping with the release of the new amp in 4 days. Gonna put a serious damper on sales of the new one.

 

[wlgreg]

I'll verify mine tomorrow as I am shipping it back... Will let you know

The serial number of my most recent defective PA5 begins with 2112. Unfortunately, I didn't get the SN off of the first defective one.

 

[Toku]

By the way, off topic but just sharing. Topping has been teasing a new integrated amp, launching on April 26th.

- Class AB
- 3 inputs
- Volume control / Bypass
- Stereo / High power mono modes
- 2-step gain
- 12V trigger in

Apologies if this has been posted.

I can't wait to announce this product.
But rumors say the price is around $ 1000. Considering the recent exchange rate of Japanese yen, it will be difficult to purchase.

 

[Nzama]

The serial number of my most recent defective PA5 begins with 2112. Unfortunately, I didn't get the SN off of the first defective one.

Verified mine is 2111. Will keep you updated on the return policy.

 

[antcollinet]

I can't wait to announce this product.
But rumors say the price is around $ 1000. Considering the recent exchange rate of Japanese yen, it will be difficult to purchase.

For that money, I can get a 400W hypex ncore from a local supplier.

 

[wlgreg]

After a couple of rounds of back and forth (including providing video of the problem and samples of responses directly from Topping confirming a known issue), Apos approved a refund.

After 5 months and 2 defective units, all's well that ends well, I guess. But in the future I certainly won't be an early adopter on any new Topping products.

 

[federico]

My PA5 just arrived in the mail.

Sadly the speaker output jacks are loose and flopping around as others have mentioned - and the manual makes it very clear that the warranty is "instantly" voided if you open it.

@JohnYang1997 Is it OK to open it up ourselves to repair this issue without voiding the warranty?

Hi i have the same issue, output jacks are loose, did you manage to open it ? I removed the screws but i didn't manage to open it, I don't want to use brute force and break something while opening it, so i decided to ask someone on this forum that already opened it. I think i have to remove the volume knob, but i can't seem to be able to do that, it has probabely been glued on or something like that. pls help me

 

[BoredErica]

Right channel is now exhibiting the noise issue. So far I haven't had both channels make noise at the same time yet. It's still intermittent.

 

[ModDIY]

Right channel is now exhibiting the noise issue. So far I haven't had both channels make noise at the same time yet. It's still intermittent.

SINAD is not everything, reliability is just as important if not more.

 

[Toku]

Right channel is now exhibiting the noise issue. So far I haven't had both channels make noise at the same time yet. It's still intermittent.

Does it happen with nothing connected to the input?

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

Steve, personal enjoyment is one thing, accuracy is another and that is the only thing that matters on this forum. Its all about hi fidelity, not my fidelity.

Surely the whole point is personal musical enjoyment, that's why we do it.

Two things can be true at the same time. On this form, our expectation is that there is a strong correlation between accuracy and personal musical enjoyment.

Before I joined ASR, believed there was probably a correlation, but I was also certain there is a lot more to enjoyment than objective performance. Then I dipped a toe into this world by purchasing a few high-SINAD products with Amir's stamp of approval. The first few included the original Khadas Toneboard DAC, S.M.S.L. Sanskrit 10th v2 DAC, and some stuff from Orchard Audio. It did not take long for me to discover that this gear sounded really good…better than more expensive components that I already owned. They were not just better; I actually enjoyed the listening experience more with them in the system.

I'm still not 100% convinced that SINAD and the other metrics tell the whole story. For example, when building a signal path from multiple components, the end-to-end result is the sum of noise and distortion contributed by each. If all components add 3rd order harmonic distortion, the net result will be worse than if distortion products are at the same level but distributed. What about impedance matching among components? The measurements here are focused on steady-state performance, but I'm curious about how we perceive sound from devices with different time-domain performance.

All of that said, I now own a dozen or so high-SINAD products. The composition of my systems has completely changed, and I've never enjoyed listening to music more. I'm hearing deeper in to the mix of tracks in my library than ever before and having a blast. I suppose it's possible that there are people out there who have become accustomed to high noise and distortion and miss it when it's gone. It could be the nostalgia factor. But I have to imagine that if they spent more time listening to their music without this gunk, many of them would become accustomed to higher fidelity and never want to go back. That's certainly been the case with me.

 

[Nzama]

Does it happen with nothing connected to the input?

On mine predominantly. When I switch off the DAC especially (if that is what you meant... I did not try disconnect the cables)