HiFiRuss71
Distinguished Member
I'm not laughing now.
I currently run a system of old world tech (turntable and valve monoblocks) blended with a pre/pro/streamer that delivers the best room EQ available for mere mortal money - Dirac Live 3.0. I can forgive a system a few things, but an uneven frequency response is not one of those things.
On a side note, the NAD C658 that is the modern component in question, got slagged by the website that gave the Topping PA5 such a glowing recommendation. This is not lost on me. I may yet spring for MiniDSP SHD and separate Bluesound Node, but the point of trying the PA5 was, in no small part to see if it's performance was backed up by the purely objective measurements and if it was, then capital would be released for other changes
I might have imbibed purified grape juice, but I pressed 'buy' on Dec 24th on Shenzhen Audio's shop on AliExpress. £267 delivered. I may yet get clouted for import duty and VAT bringing it back to the more widely touted £348 or so. We shall see, but I had budgeted for that worse case, so no loss.
On the 29th, I'm looking at it. I know that globally it's not Xmas everywhere, but that is quick.
It's tiny. I mean, you expect it to be, but I'm reading a paperback that weighs more and you kinda want it to be bigger than its own PSU! It does feel solid and well finished. The gain control is smooth, the speaker binding posts a really tight, snug fit for my home-brew 4mm connectors. There is only balanced connection (no single ended RCA phono) and due to the space limitations, these are balanced 1/4" (6.25mm) TRS plugs AKA jack-plugs - Something you may not have unless you messed around in the early days of subwoofer EQ and Behringer Feedback Destroyers. I did and I'm a cable whore who holds on to a pair of anything not duplicated, just in case...
Three photos and ten minutes later, we're all plugged in and running. At this point I still shaking my head that this 2/3kg paperback sized box could replace the 56kg of valve monoblocks either side of it.
The first thing I notice is nothing. It is on, but pressing an ear to mid horns reveals absolute silence. I turn the preamp gain up to 'stupid' and still silence. I flick the two position source selector on the PA5 to input 2 and still, inky black silence. Even the mighty ATi Amp 3007 from my reviewing days did not manage that and at 96dB/W sensitivity, my speakers are a magnifying glass for hiss and noise of any sort.
In part this is a slight trick of the PA5's 19dB gain (with the gain control set to max, or effectively pass-through) as most power amps will offer 23-29dB of gain, so you will find your preamp gain set higher for a given SPL level. Indeed, the pre gain being higher means it's internal baseline noise is lower, so this is a non issue unless you have something else in the system with a weird gain structure
Enough! To listening..
Literally nothing to tell. It sounds entirely transparent and thus, boring if you want character. My valve amps are not very valvey by the standards of the breed, but switching the Klipsch Fortes between full range and bass managed always made for a softer bottom end.
With the PA5 in control, it was only specific music with sub 30Hz content that let you immediately know the subs weren't in. The PA5 grip like the proverbial vice.
The Forte's mid driver covers the mother load from 560Hz to near 5kHz so they don't suffer fools when it comes to vocals, but this is clean. Really clean. Possibly not as colourful as the valves, but certainly not less accurate. You don't run valves because they're better, but because they're more fun. You decide
The top end is crisp and clean, vocal sibilance only present when it's in the recording. Cymbals seem slightly more polished and bright. Again, the valves are more forgiving of crap recordings, which doesn't make it right, but it does mean your music collection doesn't hinge around audiophool recordings.
And here's the rub, I could, with a slight adjustment to the Dirac target response dial in that extra 1/2dB droop 9-14kHz to get that lack of offensiveness back.As it stands and after 5 days of listening, I'm struggling with finding a reason to power my pair of secondary room heaters back up.
I appreciate that for some stuck with 6" woofers and mid 80s something dB/W sensitivity and no subwoofers, that sub 100W of power may leave them a tad short on dynamic peaks. In my camp I still have about 60W left that would literally deafen me. Thinking about it, all but the largest AVRs fail to produce more than 85W all channels driven at worse distortion figures into 4 Ohms, so the PA5 is no toy and cleaner t'boot.
Having had back breaking valve and transistor amps in my life in the past, some at 10x the price, the PA5 has been a genuine revelation. This is real hi-fi and whilst you can laugh at the size and price, it is no joke.
Russ
I currently run a system of old world tech (turntable and valve monoblocks) blended with a pre/pro/streamer that delivers the best room EQ available for mere mortal money - Dirac Live 3.0. I can forgive a system a few things, but an uneven frequency response is not one of those things.
On a side note, the NAD C658 that is the modern component in question, got slagged by the website that gave the Topping PA5 such a glowing recommendation. This is not lost on me. I may yet spring for MiniDSP SHD and separate Bluesound Node, but the point of trying the PA5 was, in no small part to see if it's performance was backed up by the purely objective measurements and if it was, then capital would be released for other changes
I might have imbibed purified grape juice, but I pressed 'buy' on Dec 24th on Shenzhen Audio's shop on AliExpress. £267 delivered. I may yet get clouted for import duty and VAT bringing it back to the more widely touted £348 or so. We shall see, but I had budgeted for that worse case, so no loss.
On the 29th, I'm looking at it. I know that globally it's not Xmas everywhere, but that is quick.
It's tiny. I mean, you expect it to be, but I'm reading a paperback that weighs more and you kinda want it to be bigger than its own PSU! It does feel solid and well finished. The gain control is smooth, the speaker binding posts a really tight, snug fit for my home-brew 4mm connectors. There is only balanced connection (no single ended RCA phono) and due to the space limitations, these are balanced 1/4" (6.25mm) TRS plugs AKA jack-plugs - Something you may not have unless you messed around in the early days of subwoofer EQ and Behringer Feedback Destroyers. I did and I'm a cable whore who holds on to a pair of anything not duplicated, just in case...
Three photos and ten minutes later, we're all plugged in and running. At this point I still shaking my head that this 2/3kg paperback sized box could replace the 56kg of valve monoblocks either side of it.
The first thing I notice is nothing. It is on, but pressing an ear to mid horns reveals absolute silence. I turn the preamp gain up to 'stupid' and still silence. I flick the two position source selector on the PA5 to input 2 and still, inky black silence. Even the mighty ATi Amp 3007 from my reviewing days did not manage that and at 96dB/W sensitivity, my speakers are a magnifying glass for hiss and noise of any sort.
In part this is a slight trick of the PA5's 19dB gain (with the gain control set to max, or effectively pass-through) as most power amps will offer 23-29dB of gain, so you will find your preamp gain set higher for a given SPL level. Indeed, the pre gain being higher means it's internal baseline noise is lower, so this is a non issue unless you have something else in the system with a weird gain structure
Enough! To listening..
Literally nothing to tell. It sounds entirely transparent and thus, boring if you want character. My valve amps are not very valvey by the standards of the breed, but switching the Klipsch Fortes between full range and bass managed always made for a softer bottom end.
With the PA5 in control, it was only specific music with sub 30Hz content that let you immediately know the subs weren't in. The PA5 grip like the proverbial vice.
The Forte's mid driver covers the mother load from 560Hz to near 5kHz so they don't suffer fools when it comes to vocals, but this is clean. Really clean. Possibly not as colourful as the valves, but certainly not less accurate. You don't run valves because they're better, but because they're more fun. You decide
The top end is crisp and clean, vocal sibilance only present when it's in the recording. Cymbals seem slightly more polished and bright. Again, the valves are more forgiving of crap recordings, which doesn't make it right, but it does mean your music collection doesn't hinge around audiophool recordings.
And here's the rub, I could, with a slight adjustment to the Dirac target response dial in that extra 1/2dB droop 9-14kHz to get that lack of offensiveness back.As it stands and after 5 days of listening, I'm struggling with finding a reason to power my pair of secondary room heaters back up.
I appreciate that for some stuck with 6" woofers and mid 80s something dB/W sensitivity and no subwoofers, that sub 100W of power may leave them a tad short on dynamic peaks. In my camp I still have about 60W left that would literally deafen me. Thinking about it, all but the largest AVRs fail to produce more than 85W all channels driven at worse distortion figures into 4 Ohms, so the PA5 is no toy and cleaner t'boot.
Having had back breaking valve and transistor amps in my life in the past, some at 10x the price, the PA5 has been a genuine revelation. This is real hi-fi and whilst you can laugh at the size and price, it is no joke.
Russ
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