Topping TP20 tripath 2020 amplifier (versus NAD C320BEE)

[avidyarthy]

Just like Teja, I too have both .... Norge as well as Topping.

Norge is paired with Sony SSS440 FS, while Topping is with JBL C1s. Both combinations have different sound signatures.

For people going after laid back, mellow, soft, sweet .... absolutely fatigue-free sound, the Norge-Sony would be preferred. This also goes very well with TTs. The treble is a bit low, soft mid-range and a bit higher bass. This is fantastic for Indian/western classical - vocals, Bollywood flics, FM radio ....

The Topping - JBL on the other hand, has adequate treble, very good midrange, but a bit low on bass. This is perfect for instrumentals, both Western as well as Indian .... also, depending on the performers ... sounds very good on vocals too, Pop, Rock .... This combi 'might' .... just might be a little fatiguing over a 4 hour listening at full volume.

The above two paras cannot be generalized ...... eardrums of each individual is of different "construction".........

BTW, my close to 300 sq ft living room gets engulfed with music, if the knob position is at 2'O clock on the Topping combi.

 

[Teja]

Hi Teja,
Can you tell me whether the topping was able to drive the ms floorstander effortlessly?

The topping drove the speakers just fine. But the low-end seemed weak & not very accurate, the bass was boomy in several bollywood songs. The mids & vocals were perfect while the highs seemed a tad bright in some songs. The volume was quite loud - I couldn't hear my cell phone ringing with the knob at 3' O-clock.

 

[madhu_7]

THanks Tej....
That was helpful.....

 

[sdasgupta]

Just like Teja, I too have both .... Norge as well as Topping.

Well, I too have both - Norge and Topping.

Anyway, I had promised a listening impression after I got my CA S-30s, so here goes, especially since there are not too many posts talking about the Topping/S-30 combo...

Firstly, I will just repeat - amazing value for money! This combo (I use a a sony mp3 player and an Ipod as sources, a panasonic Y cable with gold plated ends, 0.5mm sq. [20AWG] bandridge speaker cable) has a tiny footprint, much smaller than even a decent mini-component system, but the SQ is in a completely different league altogether.
Coming to the details - as many have pointed out, the lack of power is definitely felt, and the S-30s are not "driven" hard (maybe I should try a lower gauge speaker cable...?), but the loudness is enough to fill a room between the 12 and 2'oclock position on the topping's volume control. The highs are sweet (actually someone mentioned "beguiling" and I think that is the best description), the mids are completely "live" and I find that the bass is extremely adequate for my bedroom listening. The bass is nice and tight, and I think the deep S-30 boxes are responsible for this. I notice that the sound from these speakers seem to roll around the whole house at louder volumes, unlike my Wharf 9.1s. Must be the result of the rear ports, and also partly from the fact that I have placed the S-30s on a large wooden dresser. I can see that with more power, the S-30s would be even more amazing, but I am definitely getting what I need from a bedroom setup.

As to comparing with my other setup, I think it would not be an apples to apples comparison, since that has a dedicated CDP, a 60W integrated amp and larger speakers, and better cables and interconnects. And, I am too lazy to swap things around to do a A/B.

I must thank TO pshy.. and avid.. for their excellent reviews - I am sure I would never have thought of trying this setup but for their detailed analysis. And I must also say that every minute spent on this forum has been worth it. I have built both my setups using info and tips from here, and they are both exceeding my expectations.

-Sandeep.

 

[nandac]

i hooked up the topping to a pair of b&w lm1s. they sound great. but bass is still weak. wonder if a dac will improve things ...

 

[avidyarthy]

i hooked up the topping to a pair of b&w lm1s. they sound great. but bass is still weak. wonder if a dac will improve things ...

Someone here in the thread had suggested use of a graphic equaliser to increase bass levels.

 

[ark]

Someone here in the thread had suggested use of a graphic equaliser to increase bass levels.

Wouldn't it be at the cost of sacrificing clarify. I mean if you boost the low frequency , it might start sounding like a boom box.

 

[mazumdar.akash]

I paired my Topping with MS Carnival 6 floor standers, initially was using my mobile phone as the source, the mid range was very augmented with no bass at all, on increasing the bass settings in the PowerAmp player equaliser, it became very boomy and lacked clarity, all this while the topping knob was at 2'O clock position, could not go higher, due to the loudness.

Later this saturday got my Panasonic X30 installed, took the audio out (RCA) from the Plasma and connected to my Topping, played MP3's through the USB in the Plasma, with Sound settings to "Audio out", the topping knob is set at 3'O clock position. The plasma volume control works with this setup, the sound is lovely, Bass adequate, tight not at all "Boomy". I listen to music at volume level at 45%, tried going upto 70%, was really loud. Very happy with the current setup for the time being
I am using some generic wire to connect the speakers with the Topping.

 

[stereorules]

I paired my Topping with MS Carnival 6

Thats a new combination.

 

[psychotropic]

Just a note on the bass performance of the Topping. To get the best bass performance from it, you need to connect it to speakers that present a steady and high impedance load (around or above 6 ohms). In such a case, the bass is deep, tuneful, and controlled. But there are not a lot of speakers that present such an impedance load, which is why the Usher S520 makes for a superb match with the Topping. But even with speakers like the S30, which are a poor match in this regard, demonstrate very satisfying performance on an absolute scale, and when you consider the price, it's really a no-brainer. Have fun with your Toppings gentlemen , there seems to be a pretty sizeable club no.

 

[raul]

Thanks to psychotropic's playitclear blog post, my infrequent visits to this forum and my phenomenal ability to convince myself to buy things I don't need I now find myself the owner of a Cambridge Audio S30 and waiting eagerly for the Topping amp from Indeed. For a tinkerer psychotropic's post is a temptation too difficult to resist.

i somehow got wind of this when I was contemplating getting some sort of audio setup for my computer and tv and considering Audioengine A2 and A5. I am not going to get the udac, there seems to be a bit of controversy around the efficacy of udacs in general and some specific bits on the nuforce on head-fi.

Psychotropic you must be aware of this, is there a lot of discernible difference between some of the new onboard audio solutions and nuforce udac? I don't consider myself an audiophile though I do value good sound and quality.

Will definitely update this thread once I get the amp. I have found this forum exceedingly useful with tremendous amounts of localised knowledge shared and plan to be more active like in the other India centric forums for technology and autos. Cheers!

 

[sdasgupta]

Just a note on the bass performance of the Topping. To get the best bass performance from it, you need to connect it to speakers that present a steady and high impedance load (around or above 6 ohms). In such a case, the bass is deep, tuneful, and controlled. But there are not a lot of speakers that present such an impedance load, which is why the Usher S520 makes for a superb match with the Topping. But even with speakers like the S30, which are a poor match in this regard, demonstrate very satisfying performance on an absolute scale, and when you consider the price, it's really a no-brainer. Have fun with your Toppings gentlemen , there seems to be a pretty sizeable club no.

Well, as I said earlier, I am very happy with the bass performance with the S30s. The whathifi review (Cambridge Audio S30 review from the experts at whathifi.com) has this to say about the bass of the S-30
"Winning punch and detail
These are highly accomplished speakers, with a winning mix of punch and detail. The bass isn't seismic, even if extension down to 59Hz is impressive, but entertains by being fast and precise, powering music along whether with crashy rock or dramatic classical pieces.
Basslines are easy to follow, and drums sound reasonably substantial and are well defined."
...And I find them to be exactly as the review describes them. Also, most other speakers in this range do not go down as low as 59Hz, and that was one parameter which made me choose the S-30 over the C1.

 

[raul]

Hi All, I am happy to report I received my Topping TA2020 in Mumbai yesterday. It was ordered on 18th June from Indeed-hifi at ebay and reached India on 22nd June. However it was at Mumbai Airport till July 15th and given my office is next to the international airport at Marol that's just poor, an anxious wait. The customs duty was Rs 235.

I had sourced the Cambridge S30 speakers on 15th June itself so they were lying in wait. Finally got to try them yesterday but barely for 15min. I had to change the power socket location and when I reconnected the amp it didn't switch on. It seems the power adapter has blown, the led light does not turn out, hope the amp is ok. An anticlimax.

Regarding audio quality I do not have any benchmark hifi to compare it and please take my feedback with a huge pinch of salt because I am not any kind of audio expert at all and without reference comparisons and only 15 min of use my comments really are very preliminary.

- The sound is loud enough for home use so that should not be a concern and this is from my iphone 4 source, a better source should be better.
Edit - the sound is loud from a laptop or tv source in a pretty large room - I don't think output for home use will be a problem - if you want to have a party it will be loud but not ear shattering.

- I tried mainly trance and some songs from Fashion and Delly Belly - the sound separation was not there compared to my Soundmagic PL30 headphones, in some of the trance numbers the instruments were merging though the sound remained crisp
Edit - there is a problem with my sources, some mp3s sound outstanding, others not so much. After a couple of hours of listening I think the sound is really crisp and separation is clinical. This is one hell of an efficient amp.

- The bass is on the lower side and the crispness and tightness of bass is completely missing, this could be an issue with the source - 320kpbs mp3 out of the iPhone 4. There is bass but that's the only thing that can be said, you can hear it but its lacking impact.
Edit - there seems to be a problem with my source, on the laptop the quality of some songs really come out, some out standing, the sound is crisp and the bass is nice and tight. I suspect I need to relook at my sources in terms of mp3 quality. I think the speakers and amps are pretty good all round.

Indeed-hifi is shipping a replacement adapter asap and their are very responsive, in the interim can anyone suggest any alternative power supplies widely available in Mumbai. I haven't tested the system completely and I will update/change this initial feedback after more comprehensive listening.
Edit - sourced an alternative power supply from a local electronic shop for 500 bucks and is working fine so far.

 

[asliarun]

...
Indeed-hifi is shipping a replacement adapter asap and their are very responsive, in the interim can anyone suggest any alternative power supplies widely available in Mumbai. I haven't tested the system completely and I will update/change this initial feedback after more comprehensive listening.
Edit - sourced an alternative power supply from a local electronic shop for 500 bucks and is working fine so far.

A stop gap arrangement that I used earlier was a TataSky adapter. The amp works fine - basically, any 12V adapter should work fine with the Topping, only the current supply will be lower, which probably means that the bass will be less (guessing).

 

[raul]

Hey all, I didn't see any reference to this. Just an FYI the Tripath TA 2020 was selected as one of the top 25 Microchips That Shook the World by ieee in May 2009 - see link below ; 25 Microchips That Shook the World - IEEE Spectrum

This is pretty big to make it into that esteemed list.

 

[vivek.saikia]

Hello All,
It is an irony that when I am trying to sell off my HiFi gears, I won this Sure Electronics tripath TA2024 based class t amp on eBay!
I received this tiny amp today and I was very pleasantly surprised as I had forgotten about even ordering it through eBay.
Apparantly, the seller shipped it on 23rd July and I received it today! I think that's blazing fast shipping. I got this amp for $50 (shipping free). The seller marked the parcel as of $3 item, with no commercial value and also as a gift item :lol:

The parcel arrived nicely packed along with the power adapter.
This tiny amp never failed to amaze me by it's tiny size, eventhough, I have seen it a couple of times before also.

I set it up after coming back from office and the sound truly surprised me again. It has some good amount of power to even drive my 86dB Wharfedale diamond 8.2 speakers. Though I haven't got the time to thoroughly listen to it but will do as and when I get the time and let you all know accordingly.

I even opened up the hood to see the innards. It's really a very tiny amp.
The pictures says it all.









Cheers!

 

[gobble]

Congrats Vivek!!

Can it also be used as a headphone amp? How is the A/B comparo with the NAD?

--G0bble

 

[vivek.saikia]

Congrats Vivek!!

Can it also be used as a headphone amp? How is the A/B comparo with the NAD?

--G0bble

Thanks Gobble.

As I have spent considerable amount of time listening to this amp, I can now provide a testimony for this amp.
The amp is very "musical". Having said that, the amp very obviously "colours" the sound but makes it quite pleasant to listen.
The lower frequencies are slightly bumped up but it just stops where it may start to sound muddy. The bass undertones and the texture is well preserved during music rendition. I must say the Tripath chip designer has very cleverly designed the chip to extract even the last bit of power and detail from this amp, very efficiently.

The mid frequencies are good but not great. The voices and other percussion instruments sounds pleasing to the ear. What I really liked is the way the electric guitar and the string instruments sound in this amp. They sound natural.

I felt the upper high frequencies slightly rolled off. Well, I will not say for sure as I have bad hearing (I hear till 14kHz only, in those online hearing test sites :sad. But the NAD sound is slightly different from it as it has a weight at high frequencies too.

I haven't done an extensive A-B between the NAD and this amp but as far as my memory goes, I feel both of these amps share almost the same sound signature. Though, NAD has more body to the sound and it can be driven to very high volumes without an indication of distortion. However, the T amp also plays loud till comfortable listening levels. The NAD has more "juice" in it

The T amp has it's share of limitations like:
1. No remote (can be big letdown for couch potatoes)
2. Only one input (doesn't bother me)
3. No tone control (some may need it for room correction)
4. No Headphone amp (specifically in my T amp)

But for the price you are paying, who cares!!

I am definitely gonna keep this amp with me and maybe use it as my second setup for background listening in future.

Only thing is that you would not want to be too critical about it's sound. After all it is a cute tiny amp only, trying to hold it's ground against the biggies.

Cheers!

 

[avidyarthy]

What I really liked is the way the electric guitar and the string instruments sound in this amp. They sound natural.
/QUOTE]

Absolutely true ........ the 'separation' is admirable.

 

[marantzcdfan]

amazing...its so small!!