Topping TP20 tripath 2020 amplifier (versus NAD C320BEE)

[srikarkav]

Hi Guys,

The TP20 Tripath 2020 was shipped from Hongkong to me yesterday.Think it may take at least a week for it to arrive here.Since Tropic has already mentioned here that his friend is quite happy using it with aiwa book shelves i am looking forward to use it with my aiwa speakers on my PC.

I don't know if the seller has marked it a as a gift.So keeping my fingers crossed regarding the customs duty.

cheers,
sri

 

[vivek.saikia]

Hi Guys,

The TP20 Tripath 2020 was shipped from Hongkong to me yesterday.Think it may take at least a week for it to arrive here.Since Tropic has already mentioned here that his friend is quite happy using it with aiwa book shelves i am looking forward to use it with my aiwa speakers on my PC.

I don't know if the seller has marked it a as a gift.So keeping my fingers crossed regarding the customs duty.

cheers,
sri

Hey Srikarkav, Please keep us posted about your experience with the amp. As I can see, lots of curousity has been attracted by this amp in this forum. And now even I am getting interested towards it looking at the price advantage. Could you please tell me how much is the total damage (including freight and shipping)?
Cheers!
Vivek

 

[srikarkav]

Hi Vivek,

It cost me INR 3700/- including shipping.Hoping i may not have to pay any customs duty.

cheers,
sri

 

[srikarkav]

Hi Guys,

Got the Topping today.Set me back by 3.7k It is the same as Tropic got.As i told before i got it for my PC.I have got the Logitech
Z4 speakers with the fronts replaced with my old aiwa bookshelves.The sound card is Creative XFI. I connected the stereo out from the center unit of the Logitech(woofer+amp).The woofer's out put is the same as the Topping ie 23W.

The first impression seemed that the treble is little high.After an hour of playing the amp, it seems to be settling down.Surprisingly online listen of songs sound better than the flac on my PC.The separation of instruments is excellent and the mids are sweet.Absolutely no fatigue.Yet to hear ACDs. I think i should give this little guy some more time to settle down. Will keep you guys posted about my impressions.Right now hearing a song from VTV and it is sounding pretty nice.

cheers,
sri

 

[murali_n]

Hi Guys,

Got the Topping today.Set me back by 3.7k It is the same as Tropic got.As i told before i got it for my PC.I have got the Logitech
Z4 speakers with the fronts replaced with my old aiwa bookshelves.The sound card is Creative XFI. I connected the stereo out from the center unit of the Logitech(woofer+amp).The woofer's out put is the same as the Topping ie 23W.

The first impression seemed that the treble is little high.After an hour of playing the amp, it seems to be settling down.Surprisingly online listen of songs sound better than the flac on my PC.The separation of instruments is excellent and the mids are sweet.Absolutely no fatigue.Yet to hear ACDs. I think i should give this little guy some more time to settle down. Will keep you guys posted about my impressions.Right now hearing a song from VTV and it is sounding pretty nice.

cheers,
sri

Hai

Congrats Sri on your purchase.

Some pics will be welcome and last but not least , you owe me an audition at your convenience.

Sri also give your impressions with Wharfedale 9.2, it may pave way for a new budget system I suppose.


N.Murali

 

[srikarkav]

Hi murali,

Thanks.Yes i will try to post some pics soon. Yes i am thinking of trying this with 9.2s.Will keep you posted.And you are always welcome home for audition.

cheers,
sri

 

[ajinkya]

Hi Srikarkav,

Thanks for the fast initial review. I also would be very keen to hear how the Topping sounds with the 9.2s and the overall impressions. If it can drive the 9.2s well, I think someone might find it worth looking into as a desktop solution.
Impatiently waiting for your review and pics.

Thanks,

 

[psychotropic]

hey srikarkav, waiting for your impressions with your CDP and the 9.2s . Great to see so many tripath users on the forum now.

 

[sqvare]

Hey guys, all your experiences with the TP-20 has inspired me to consider trying this out: tri-amp a pair of old floorstanders using one HLLY TAMP-90 for the 12" woofers (DCR=4.7), one Topping TP-21 for the 5" midranges (DCR=6) and one Topping TP-21 for the tweeters, which are a worse-for-wear cone+horn+cone config, planned to be replaced with single Vifa XT25 RR's (DCR=3).

The three T-amps could be fed from my PC's Xonar DX analog line-outs, using the foo_dsp_xover active crossover and foobar-2000, which I understand will allow me to tweak xover settings and compensate for box/room issues.

If bought from eBay with delivery in the US, total cost would come to ~$450, for tweeters and T-amps. Then I'd just need to find an obliging BOB to lug it all back to Bombay.


Any thoughts, audiophiles? Is this practical? Be brutal

Thanks.

 

[gobble]

Hey guys, all your experiences with the TP-20 has inspired me to consider trying this out: tri-amp a pair of old floorstanders using one HLLY TAMP-90 for the 12" woofers (DCR=4.7), one Topping TP-21 for the 5" midranges (DCR=6) and one Topping TP-21 for the tweeters, which are a worse-for-wear cone+horn+cone config, planned to be replaced with single Vifa XT25 RR's (DCR=3).

The three T-amps could be fed from my PC's Xonar DX analog line-outs, using the foo_dsp_xover active crossover and foobar-2000, which I understand will allow me to tweak xover settings and compensate for box/room issues.

If bought from eBay with delivery in the US, total cost would come to ~$450, for tweeters and T-amps. Then I'd just need to find an obliging BOB to lug it all back to Bombay.


Any thoughts, audiophiles? Is this practical? Be brutal

Thanks.

More components means more money on ICs. You may need to spend 15K just on ICs so the low cost of Topping is offset by high IC cost.

You may want to try a high gain preamp before a single Topping.

Regards
Regards

 

[sqvare]

More components means more money on ICs. You may need to spend 15K just on ICs so the low cost of Topping is offset by high IC cost.

You may want to try a high gain preamp before a single Topping.

Regards
Regards

Oh, you mean the Xonar DX 's analog line-outs (2 Vrms) wouldn't be sufficient to drive the T-amps properly?

I thought that since foo-dsp-xover splits the sound card's 8 channels - 1&2 to Sub, 3&4 to LF, 5&6 to MF, 7&8 to HF - that I wouldn't need additional pre-amps.

Well, that's a kick in the head :sad: and the wallet too

But thanks for the heads-up, Gobble

 

[thevortex]

Oh, you mean the Xonar DX 's analog line-outs (2 Vrms) wouldn't be sufficient to drive the T-amps properly?

I thought that since foo-dsp-xover splits the sound card's 8 channels - 1&2 to Sub, 3&4 to LF, 5&6 to MF, 7&8 to HF - that I wouldn't need additional pre-amps.

Well, that's a kick in the head :sad: and the wallet too

But thanks for the heads-up, Gobble

Oh, no, the last thing you would have to worry about is the Xonar's gain level. That is fantastic. I can hardly have my Windows master volume at 3 or 4 (out of a 100) when I connect my NAD C372 as a power amplifier and my PC as pre-amp.

I think a lot of it would depend on your old floorstander's sensitivity and other related factors.

And yes, using that dsp for crossover and the foobar player is very much possible. However, please do some heavy duty reading before getting into all this. There are many chances of damaging the speaker drivers with improper settings.

 

[sqvare]

Oh, no, the last thing you would have to worry about is the Xonar's gain level. That is fantastic. I can hardly have my Windows master volume at 3 or 4 (out of a 100) when I connect my NAD C372 as a power amplifier and my PC as pre-amp.

I think a lot of it would depend on your old floorstander's sensitivity and other related factors.

And yes, using that dsp for crossover and the foobar player is very much possible. However, please do some heavy duty reading before getting into all this. There are many chances of damaging the speaker drivers with improper settings.

Thanks, Vortex! I posted because I wanted to know if there were technical/practical holes in my plot.

The speakers are 40+ year-old and all 6 tweeters are gone anyway; so I want to replace them with 2 Vifa XT-25 RR's. According to what I could find online, sensitivity's >92db, the mids are OK and the woofers have Alnico mags with those old cloth surrounds that supposedly last forever I figured entropy's had its evil way with the crossover bits and tri-amping might let new life into those babies especially since fiddling component-level is beyond my ken.

And of course, like you said, I'll need to tread carefully (cue Pink Panther theme)...

But, OTOH, this is just a DIY thing. I was thinking of buying a new amp & speakers anyway, until I was subverted by HFV into actually thinking about interesting alternatives! :lol:

 

[sups]

Hi Guys,

The TP20 Tripath 2020 was shipped from Hongkong to me yesterday.Think it may take at least a week for it to arrive here.Since Tropic has already mentioned here that his friend is quite happy using it with aiwa book shelves i am looking forward to use it with my aiwa speakers on my PC.


cheers,
sri

Can you please provide me the ebay link which sells now TP20 with a power supply?

 

[thevortex]

Thanks, Vortex! I posted because I wanted to know if there were technical/practical holes in my plot.

The speakers are 40+ year-old and all 6 tweeters are gone anyway; so I want to replace them with 2 Vifa XT-25 RR's. According to what I could find online, sensitivity's >92db, the mids are OK and the woofers have Alnico mags with those old cloth surrounds that supposedly last forever I figured entropy's had its evil way with the crossover bits and tri-amping might let new life into those babies especially since fiddling component-level is beyond my ken.

And of course, like you said, I'll need to tread carefully (cue Pink Panther theme)...

But, OTOH, this is just a DIY thing. I was thinking of buying a new amp & speakers anyway, until I was subverted by HFV into actually thinking about interesting alternatives! :lol:

Makes perfect sense sqvare! Good luck then. Do keep us posted in this or in a separate thread.

 

[srikarkav]

Can you please provide me the ebay link which sells now TP20 with a power supply?

Hi,
Sorry i saw the post late. The link is,

eBay.com.sg: Topping TP20 Mark2 Class T Amp TA2020 25W Amplifier (item 370369160641 end time Apr 29, 2010 20:58:02 SGT)

cheers,
sri

 

[psychotropic]

you're ripping out the passive crossover? in that case i am told you need to be very careful while switching on the amps, there's some DC that the amp sends out that can damage tweeters and all that......or you need to leave capacitor in the tweeter path to handle this DC this or something like that...this is what flanker was telling me.

Thanks, Vortex! I posted because I wanted to know if there were technical/practical holes in my plot.

The speakers are 40+ year-old and all 6 tweeters are gone anyway; so I want to replace them with 2 Vifa XT-25 RR's. According to what I could find online, sensitivity's >92db, the mids are OK and the woofers have Alnico mags with those old cloth surrounds that supposedly last forever I figured entropy's had its evil way with the crossover bits and tri-amping might let new life into those babies especially since fiddling component-level is beyond my ken.

And of course, like you said, I'll need to tread carefully (cue Pink Panther theme)...

But, OTOH, this is just a DIY thing. I was thinking of buying a new amp & speakers anyway, until I was subverted by HFV into actually thinking about interesting alternatives! :lol:

 

[Raghav]

Is there a model that has support for 2 zones i.e. 2 pairs of speakers.

 

[thevortex]

you're ripping out the passive crossover? in that case i am told you need to be very careful while switching on the amps, there's some DC that the amp sends out that can damage tweeters and all that......or you need to leave capacitor in the tweeter path to handle this DC this or something like that...this is what flanker was telling me.

He's probably only looking to remove those links his speakers has on its binding posts and bi or tri-amp. Thats OK in as far as I know.

 

[sqvare]

you're ripping out the passive crossover? in that case i am told you need to be very careful while switching on the amps, there's some DC that the amp sends out that can damage tweeters and all that......or you need to leave capacitor in the tweeter path to handle this DC this or something like that...this is what flanker was telling me.

He's probably only looking to remove those links his speakers has on its binding posts and bi or tri-amp. Thats OK in as far as I know.

Because of the age of the passive xovers, I was actually thinking of bypassing them and wiring direct to the drivers, because I'd seen the specs on the Topping TP21 mentioned "pop" suppression. So I could get one each for the tweeters & mids.

For the woofers I was considering the HLLY TAMP-90 for its extra power, but they say nothing about delayed on/off, and I found one mention in a forum about pop at turn-off not at switch-on! So if I decide to get it and it is poppy, I might have to add a couple of caps? Hmmm...