Topping PA5 Review (Amplifier)

[Talisman]

On your A07, stop the music and turn up the volume on A07, any static at all? I start to hear it on mine at around 10 o'clock then it gets noisier and noisier as it gets turned up.

I use it as a power amplifier, it always remains at 12 and the volume is managed by a multi-channel Yamaha, at 12 from the listening position I have no hum

 

[AudioArchitech]

If you ever feel like running the test and cranking it up, let me know. Have seen other complaints of static from A07 online.

 

[brandonhall]

The A07 is bound to have some noise when it's turned up. It won't be dead silent like the PA5 should be. My first amp was the A07 and it's noisy when turned up but completely within the bounds of normal and expected.

 

[ModDIY]

I have one Breeze TPA3116 that is at least 7-8 years old. I also have several TPA311X in PCB and no problem.

Also I have 3 TPA3255 and never but never had whistling and problem, except 2-3 very low quality TPA311X pcb including Bluetooth.

My opinion is that the problem comes from the famous black box which contributes to a very low SINAD, but unfortunately there seems to be a problem. So for me the TI TPA325X are extremely reliable.

 

[Bleib]

The A07 is bound to have some noise when it's turned up. It won't be dead silent like the PA5 should be. My first amp was the A07 and it's noisy when turned up but completely within the bounds of normal and expected.

Gotta wonder if people could pick the best sounding one in a blind test

 

[brandonhall]

Gotta wonder if people could pick the best sounding one in a blind test

I did a level matched test between both and couldn't tell the difference.

 

[anphex]

I have this amp for a while now. I remembered that I liked it better than my NC400 monoblocks for the fronts after I plugged it in. When I tried it on a loud movie with LFE effects mixed into my front channels it didn't take long to go into protection mode, so I plugged my NC400 back in and used the PA5 for the surrounds.

Since I had some time and boredom on my hand I tried the PA5 again on my fronts and - after checking that the gain and dynamic eq of my denon avr is on the same levels as the nc400 prior - I still like the PA5 way better. It sounds kind of smoother and clearer.

But why?
Is it the elevated level of the denon pre outs due to the lower gain and thus less noise+thd? Do my Hypex amp have problems? I am running them unbalanced but so does the PA5.
One other reason could be that the NC400 and the Denon have a ground loop that I could remedy by cutting a wire inside the RCA-XLR cables and using a ground cable between the SGN GROUND pin on the case of the AVR and the case of one of the NC400 amps where the latter has a proper grounding in the power port. Could it be that this ground noise is somehow "still in there" and modulating/distorting the signal the NC400 output?

Edit: After all, it just seems like the PA5 currently produces brighter highs. I will do some REW measurements later.
Edit 2: Nope, frequency response is the same in all configurations so it's something else.
Edit 3: My hunch so far is just the higher output (about +9 dB) from the receiver needed for the same volume as before. So maybe increased bit depth since the Denon probably just uses bit depth reducation for it's volume management.
Edit 4: I remembered the PA5 has a volume knob lol! It#s tugged away in such a dark corner you can't see anything with its black finish. Anyway, I turned the volume way down and ramped up my denon preamp volume. Jup, it seems to be really the increased bit depth granted by the higher preamp volume.

 

[anphex]

Ok, I carried out an experiment with a passive volume knob between AVR and between my Hypex NC400 amps to simulate reduced gain and increased pre out volume, similar to the PA5 basically.
The result was: no change, it was just quieter. The expected result for a brighter/clearer sound didn't come up.

My last remaining guesses for this different sound:
- the overall power difference (80 Watt vs. 400 per channel).
- input sensivity/impedance
- frequency dependent distortion



Weird.

 

[MidnightCarouselRider]

well, seems like mine has developed the issue after a month. serial 2201

being a relatively new dad, my patience for dealing with this kind of bs is really low, and time even lower, so this has soured me quite a bit when it comes to Topping products. i will try my very hardest to try and return these obviously very poorly engineered products (yes, chasing sinad while making such huge sacrifices to reliability is extremely poor engineering) for a refund (considering my luck with these kinds of things, i'm probably looking at months of back and forth with no refund), and will avoid any and all Topping products in the future, because it has become extremely obvious the company is focused on "gaming the SINAD game" to get as many customers as possible from this website, in spite of everything else, making it only marginally better than the snake oil salesmen so prevalent in high end audio

EDIT: just want to add that until today, i was very happy (if not outright delighted) with how this little thing sounded with my KEF R7s, and made me rethink my preconceptions about amps, and i will be very sad to return it 'cause there's nothing on the market approaching this thing when it comes to sound quality/size/price. a pity nearly everything beats it when it comes to reliability

Many people say the Aiyima A07 sounds better and it is way cheaper. I love mine.

 

[anphex]

Ok, I carried out an experiment with a passive volume knob between AVR and between my Hypex NC400 amps to simulate reduced gain and increased pre out volume, similar to the PA5 basically.
The result was: no change, it was just quieter. The expected result for a brighter/clearer sound didn't come up.

My last remaining guesses for this different sound:
- the overall power difference (80 Watt vs. 400 per channel).
- input sensivity/impedance
- frequency dependent distortion



Weird.

Oh god guys, as in 99% of those cases the error is in front of the gear. I used the same calibration and just switched the wiring of the AVR and amps. The Topping PA5 has about 10dB gain less than NC400. Because of this the volume has to be turned up at the AVR, thus lowering the effect or Dynamic EQ. It's like setting the XT32 DynEQ offset from 0 to 10, resulting in perceived less bass boost and a overall brighter/clearer sound because of the reduced low end range.


So, mystery solved. No ghost in the wires.

 

[somebodyelse]

Many people say the Aiyima A07 sounds better and it is way cheaper. I love mine.

The A07 has load dependent frequency response variations in the audio band, so may well sound different for better or worse.

 

[nawfal07]

I wonder how it would work as mono? It doesn’t have a switch to do it specifically like the LA90, would this mean using a single speaker will still output the same power?

 

[antcollinet]

I wonder how it would work as mono? It doesn’t have a switch to do it specifically like the LA90, would this mean using a single speaker will still output the same power?

A07 doesn't have a bridged/mono mode.

Anyway - this thread is PA5 review topic - we should take any A07 discussions to the appropriate thread.

 

[nawfal07]

A07 doesn't have a bridged/mono mode.

Anyway - this thread is PA5 review topic - we should take any A07 discussions to the appropriate thread.

Thanks, but I was talking about PA5, where did you see A07 in my post?

So I guess the answer is the same for PA5, right?

 

[antcollinet]

Thanks, but I was talking about PA5, where did you see A07 in my post?

So I guess the answer is the same for PA5, right?

Sorry - thought you were replying to the post above.

No, PA5 also has no bridged mode.

 

[nawfal07]

Sorry - thought you were replying to the post above.

No, PA5 also has no bridged mode.

Thanks!

 

[Rottmannash]

I found the ideal use case for the PA5. I have a pair of old Polk towers that each have 2-8 inch powered subs in the lower half of the enclosure. With the powered subs the volume can get quite loud. I compared the PA5 with my old Onkyo RZ810 which had been powering those towers and the difference was fairly obvious. Not sure but the Onkyo never impressed me with its 2 channel prowess. Almost like all the midrange is sucked out on the AVR, even in Direct mode. PC/Aurdirvana/Qobuz>D10B>PA5>Polk T2000P.

 

[Laserjock]

I found the ideal use case for the PA5. I have a pair of old Polk towers that each have 2-8 inch powered subs in the lower half of the enclosure. With the powered subs the volume can get quite loud. I compared the PA5 with my old Onkyo RZ810 which had been powering those towers and the difference was fairly obvious. Not sure but the Onkyo never impressed me with its 2 channel prowess. Almost like all the midrange is sucked out on the AVR, even in Direct mode. PC/Aurdirvana/Qobuz>D10B>PA5>Polk T2000P.

Was just thinking one of the Goldenear towers would be a good match for these lower powered/high SINAD amps. Seem to have a high sensitivity as well.

 

[SCG]

The PA5 is a great use case for my setup ASUS MB>> E50>> PA5>> LS50Ms. Love how small, cool running, and absolutely dead silent it is!! For my desktop near-field application it's perfect and I like the versatility of being able to use it's volume control or set it to max and use the remote volume control on my DAC.

The only issue I'm concerned about is that some trusted forum members who also really like this amp have been having noise issue after 2-4 weeks into ownership. After 2 weeks I have zero issues but while still under my 30 day return window with Amazon I'm going to install & test a Purifi amp this weekend and report back, thou I won't compare as the Purifi cost 3x more.

I wish this PA5 had been around longer and had a proven track record like Topping's DACs because for me it checks off all the boxes.

 

[cfo92130]

After 3 months of great work, my PA5 has this issue since wednesday : Left channel started making noise... It s a pitty, i really enjoy it. I am not ready to buy any more Topping product ! The resealler (on amazon makertplace) is asking me to make a video of the issue ...