Review :Topping T22 Amplifier

[Audio_Freek]

I think these are some of the questions that one can expect if there is a suggestion to newbie for Topping (or) SMSL

- Where can i get it?
- Where can i audition it?
- Who is the dealer in the city?
- How is the reliability compared to established brands?
- Will it pair with xx brand of speaker?
- What abt warranty if purchased online?

Hence the suggestion for established brands..

- Where can i get it?
Its in Ebay\Parts Express
- Where can i audition it?
If we take our Forum, Then Sure Some FM's would be ready to give a Demo (Including me)
- Who is the dealer in the city?
There is no Dealer and that's the reason the Prices are cheap .
- How is the reliability compared to established brands?
Let me try answering,I cant say they would work for decades, same time cant say these gamble too. Just go with the online reviews about it reliability.
- Will it pair with xx brand of speaker?
I tried with JBL L20 (Best), Technics (Was bit Bright) and Yamaha ns 1000 (Best) and they are decent enough to give good music. Fm's who using Class D amps could share the Pairing information for the benefit of other Fm's,who are interested.
- What abt warranty if purchased online?
The Product needs to be spent to the seller for repair\replacement.

Above points are applicable within our Forum.hyeah:

 

[elangoas]

Think again sir!
The class D boards cost less than a dinner & drink for two so I guess reliability and warranty can easily take a back seat ..although they are very reliable given the low # of parts and the fact that there is a lot of protection built into the core chip (incl overvoltage/shorts/DC on output etc)

If they could be auditioned locally in a store, they wouldn't be so cheap!

Having said that, they are not meant for the faint-hearted who just want to plug in 2 wires and/or expect the dealer to send an installer to handle the connections that go beyond more than a pair of wires!
If you think about it, one of the reasons white goods/TVs are still expensive in India is because it is almost a given that the dealer/manufacturer needs to send an engineer (?) to install the product and give a so called demo - a cost that needs to be baked into the cost of sale

Am not sure if any of my post sounded that am not for these amplifiers...

I own two of the SMSL products SMS Q5 pro and SMSL IDOL USB DAC.. They are very much affordable and am extremely happy with them for the price i paid & the performance they offer..

Let me tell you, my next purchase will also be a SMSL product..

The Questions that i posted was what a newbie would ask and their hesitation in adopting a product like this..

- Where can i get it?
Its in Ebay\Parts Express
- Where can i audition it?
If we take our Forum, Then Sure Some FM's would be ready to give a Demo (Including me)
- Who is the dealer in the city?
There is no Dealer and that's the reason the Prices are cheap .
- How is the reliability compared to established brands?
Let me try answering,I cant say they would work for decades, same time cant say these gamble too. Just go with the online reviews about it reliability.
- Will it pair with xx brand of speaker?
I tried with JBL L20 (Best), Technics (Was bit Bright) and Yamaha ns 1000 (Best) and they are decent enough to give good music. Fm's who using Class D amps could share the Pairing information for the benefit of other Fm's,who are interested.
- What abt warranty if purchased online?
The Product needs to be spent to the seller for repair\replacement.

Above points are applicable within our Forum.hyeah:

Perfect Audio_Freek...I was only presenting the Questions from a newbie point of view and not as "Debate"..

Am all for these "Affordable" products :thumbsup:

 

[Kushanava]

There are many users who use a T amp with Full rangers/single driver setups for near field listening. It could be a great way to start the journey.

 

[mahaaprasaad]

When searching for tpa3116 amp I came across this site.....

https://www.tanotis.com/products/50w-50w-tpa3116d2-digital-power-amplifier-board-official-version

This site is listing lot of diy boards. Prices are in Rs. and looks very competitive.
Any FM having experience with this supplier can share the same which will help others.

To my surprise, the contact address is Bangalore, which is less than 2 KM distance from my House(I am at Rajajinagar). It seems I can go and visit once and find out whether he is a reliable supplier.

 

[superczar]

^^ I have ordered from them and they are quite reliable
Only thing to keep in mind is that they source parts on orders from HK so actual delivery takes 10-15 days

 

[rpanand25]

I was also looking at low cost Class D amps upto say $150 dollars from US but finally settled for Emotiva TA 100 at $340 dollars on Labour Day sale. I may get it in a month or so. I was little concerned about reliability, longevity and serviceability of these products as generally good intergated,even entry levels, last long if normally used.

But i would not mind having another amp D class around Rs 6000-10000 keeping in view the smooth vocals they are supposed to deliver. Sub out is also needed. I know they would be delivering lot less watts than claimed if measured at 20-20000HZ at 8 ohm at below 0.1 % distortion but i will go by the ear.But I donot know if any FM in delhi region has Topping,SMSl etc so that i can listen with my Infinity speakers.

I have an iball music boat small speakers and i like the vocals which are very good for the price point and was looking at extension of the vocal quality in Class D amps. I am not aware whether iball use similar chips.

 

[sree0320]

@ ssf (may be off topic)
Have you noticed any similarity in tonal quality between Marantz sr7010 (in pure direct mode) and Denon pma720 as both are from higher end and many other FMs(other forums) draw the similarities between pm7008 and Pam 620.

Sent from my Lenovo K50a40 using Tapatalk

 

[Jith77]

Elangoas earlier thread on the smsl and a couple of misfortunes with amps made me to purchase the fx audio d802 via Aliexpress for 7k odd.


Just received recently. It is currently able to run my ms902i effortlessly. I will have to get a coin cell for the remote before I can set it up properly though.

 

[ssf]

@ ssf (may be off topic)
Have you noticed any similarity in tonal quality between Marantz sr7010 (in pure direct mode) and Denon pma720 as both are from higher end and many other FMs(other forums) draw the similarities between pm7008 and Pam 620.

Sent from my Lenovo K50a40 using Tapatalk

It is going to be difficult for me to recall the minute tonal differences between the Marantz and the denon as i have heard the denon at home quite some time back but i would say that i dont recall neither standing out as one superior over the other as in night and day.

 

[elangoas]

Elangoas earlier thread on the smsl and a couple of misfortunes with amps made me to purchase the fx audio d802 via Aliexpress for 7k odd.

Great.. 7K is too good a price.. Did you pay any duty?

Just received recently. It is currently able to run my ms902i effortlessly. I will have to get a coin cell for the remote before I can set it up properly though.

Doesn't the remote come with coin battery?

 

[elangoas]

Just received recently. It is currently able to run my ms902i effortlessly. I will have to get a coin cell for the remote before I can set it up properly though.

Please share your hands on experience..

Both work on FFX, but D802 has more power output than Q5 Pro.. After using the Q5 pro for close to 2 months time, can't believe am using an 25w amplifier ONLY @ 8 ohms..

 

[elangoas]

@Audio_Freek, sorry to deviate from the discussion.. Saw few products, thought to share here..

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/FX-AUDIO-M-200E-MINI-HIFI-high-fidelity-amplifier-support-U-disk-SD-card-lossless-Bluetooth/32566236516.html?spm=2114.12010108.1000013.16.krkbia&scm=1007.13339.33317.0&pvid=0699a59c-3910-4315-8253-5ba0625da7c2&tpp=1 This is interesting as it adds USB playback of FAT32 and ExFAT and Sub-out..

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/FX-Audio-M-160E-Bluetooth-4-0-Digital-Audio-Amplifier-Input-USB-SD-AUX-PC-USB/32713031635.html?spm=2114.10010108.1000023.4.8vZIgd&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_0,searchweb201602_4_10057_10056_10055_10049_10059_9986_10058_10017_10060_10061_10062_10063_412_10064,searchweb201603_8&btsid=c6ceb37c-6eb8-48e8-90ac-154581ed2986 This doesn't have sub-out, but has more power..

 

[Appys]

Pretty interesting thread this one, I was wondering if someone could advise on an el cheapo decent sounding setup with bluetooth so that I can put my spare NS-P20 satellites to use in the bedroom. I was inclined to order one of these :

1)TPA3116 based Nobsound

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/201..._3&btsid=16208132-a46e-4ca4-994b-9b15acd84ecb



vs

2) Kentiger v10

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Ken..._3&btsid=16208132-a46e-4ca4-994b-9b15acd84ecb

Can these damage the speakers ? Should I avoid or go for it if I just want a spare kaam chalau setup with BT on board. Esp people with the ebay india boards at 1400-1500 range might have an advice I suppose.A cash crunch is blocking me for going beyond 2k and I dont need any hifi quality but a safe one, as many such devices have an inbuilt flaw(https://www.reddit.com/r/ZReviews/comments/3vn161/nobsound_mini_amp_i_own_it_i_love_it_is_it/) .

The Kentiger one says it has some LC filter is it the same as the output filter thingy and does that mean it is safer than the nobsound one?

 

[Audio_Freek]

@Audio_Freek, sorry to deviate from the discussion.. Saw few products, thought to share here]

Wow, Lot of Features ,But attracting thing is Supports WAV,FLAC via USB (Though we are not sure about DAC) and Sub-out.in Just 138USDhyeah:.

I could try after some months and post the review, But Looks good on Spec. How about the Sound? Only Experienced people could give that, and we could Wait.

The Forums is to share experience ,When I started with this Amp,I felt I need to spread a word of mouth to try Topping Amp before you go with Big-Brand Set-up.Any Inputs useful for FM is fine.

 

[Jith77]

Please share your hands on experience..

Both work on FFX, but D802 has more power output than Q5 Pro.. After using the Q5 pro for close to 2 months time, can't believe am using an 25w amplifier ONLY @ 8 ohms..

Couldn't find time for critical listening . Hence refrained from writing a review.

Why I choose fx d802?

I have been interested in the vfm amps ever since the tamp thread by psychotropic. However when I digged a little deeper was worried whether power would be a bottleneck to run my 8ohm speakers. (Though at 89db). It was a concern some low power amp buyers faced.

Recently my ca 504a v1 started to have clipping issues and was getting really old now. A second hand buy in the forum came with transit damages beyond repair. Around the same time the smsl q5 vs d802 theard caught my interest. Probbed a little deeper and got the following possible options:

1. breeze audio
2. Fx audio d802
3. I am v200
4. alientek d8
5. Smsl q5

Considering the price , breeze audio seemed the best bet for a blind buy. It has been around for some time and had good reviews. However was not sure whether it had the power required, as most reports referred to more efficient speakers.

The other amps had DAC. My current soundcard - esi juli@ - is a pci card. This is a limitation for any future motherboard purchases. Also the old reliable soundcard often pulled me back from considering any smaller footprint options like rpi instead of the htpc.

All of them seems good from online forums. Alientek seems to be latest fad though . Went with fx audio since it came with a higher power adapter than others (to minimize any possible risks.)

Unboxing

Got the amp at ~7k through Aliexpress. No customs duty charged.

It came with amp, power adapter, remote, USB connector. Very light in weight. Being small in foot print I slide it into the space above the htpc thereby freeing up a lot of space.

Initial impression

The holes for naked cable is smaller than usual amps or speakers, but is functionally ok.

Without accessing the settings on the remote the sound is quite disappointing. The manual controls are only power , volume and the source selection. The manual has only bare minimal info and isn't of any use.

Another drawback is that is that I cannot control the volume with htpc remote. And has to use the amp remote.

The remote is tiny and comes without it's coin battery due to some air transport restriction (as per Aliexpress site.) This is a major hastle. I couldn't find a source for a genuine cell. The local bought cell works. The remote range is however very low - around 6 feet. Not sure whether this is a due to the remote or the battery.

With the remote the amp eq was set to flat. The amp also has a eq setting for normal (along various others) which is not recommended. Treble and bass was reduced to neutral.

Once I got the settings right all the irritants diappeared (except the remote range). The sound is quite clean and i do not miss my CA amp at all for music. And it can go really loud even with low volume movie files.

All things considered, this is a great buy.
I would recommend that one can buy such amps, even if it is blind buy, instead of looking for a second hand entry level amps.

 

[keith_correa]

The FX-Audio D802 is supposed to be a giant killer. Good choice!

 

[Nags]

Topping used to be vfm, but now breeze tpa3116 is a good alternative.

Thanks to discussion in this thread, I purchased breeze audio tpa3116 from eBay, listed price was Rs 2799, after applying 10% discount coupon, landing cost become Rs 2519. Delivered yesterday, had small listening session, initial impression appears to be good, exactly as described by all..

Sent from my SM-J710F using Tapatalk

 

[Audio_Freek]

Thanks to discussion in this thread, I purchased breeze audio tpa3116 from eBay, listed price was Rs 2799, after applying 10% discount coupon, landing cost become Rs 2519. Delivered yesterday, had small listening session, initial impression appears to be good, exactly as described by all..

Sent from my SM-J710F using Tapatalk

Congrats , Keep the Amp on for some Hours. You will feel the Sound quality improving after few Days.

What is the Speaker Model you paring with Amp?

 

[Nags]

Planning to use along with small Magnat BS for desktop listening along with modi2 uber DAC. Will also try with Tannoy FS and whaferdale diamond 10.2 BS.

Sent from my SM-J710F using Tapatalk

 

[Audio_Freek]

Small BS Sound better with Topping 22. If you have any speaker with More than 89Db Sensitivity , then Amp can drive them above average volume easily.