Topping B100 Monoblock Amp

[Cos]

I was reading the review of this tiny AMP and it seems to measure well. 100 watts @ ohms is no slouch, but it is Class B. 83w at 8ohms.

• Every amp I have owned up until the ATI Class D has been class AB. (Anthem, Parasound)
• This amp is only class B, is there any disadvantage to this? At $299.00 the Topping B100 seems like an insane deal?

 

[Verdinut]

A Class B amp is typically known to generate output crossover distortion. That is the main reason why the Class AB topology was designed.

Edit: But contrarily to what Amir says, IMO this Topping B100 monoblock power amp does not operate as a true Class B amplifier. It was tested by him and it had an outstanding performance:

Topping B100 Amplifier Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping B100 "monoblock" amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $299. I was surprised by the desktop/low profile of the amplifier. I expected something a lot taller/chunkier especially since this is a class B amplifier and not...

www.audiosciencereview.com

It would be good to have @PENG to chime in with his opinion.

 

[TLS Guy]

I was reading the review of this tiny AMP and it seems to measure well. 100 watts @ ohms is no slouch, but it is Class B. 83w at 8ohms.

• Every amp I have owned up until the ATI Class D has been class AB. (Anthem, Parasound)
• This amp is only class B, is there any disadvantage to this? At $299.00 the Topping B100 seems like an insane deal?

At one watt it won't be pretty unless it uses Peter Walker's current dumping topology, which uses a small class A amp in a feed forward mode to correct the dumpers. I doubt it does as they would be too stupid to figure it out. That amp is junk. Avoid.

 

[lovinthehd]

For $300 and only 100w into 8ohm, what is the attraction to this amp?

 

[ski2xblack]

Amir's measured performance of the amp is rather Impressive. Incredible, even. How much negative feedback does it take for class b to actually do that? I wouldn't have thought it possible, but I'm educated in the lowly biological sciences. Where's @PENG ?

What jumps out at me as obvious flaws would be a)the modest power and b)hair trigger protection circuitry. That seems to severely limit it's utility. On the value front, there are lots of more proven class d alternatives for similar cost to choose from that don't have the power limits and load compatibility compromises.

I would wait and see how reliable they are before calling it junk, though. If it's reliable and offers such SOTA distortion performance, that's pretty cool. That being said, I would let the SINAD obsessives be the guinea pigs with it.

 

[ban25]

This is a pretty unimpressive product for the price when you consider that it's only putting out 50W @ 8Ohms, and it's a monoblock, so you need two of them, alongside their giant outboard wall wart transformers.

And that's before you get into Topping's questionable reliability. Likely over half of all Topping PA5 amplifiers ever made have failed:

Poll for Topping PA5 owners only please.

Poll for PA5 owners to report product defects. Discussion for any solutions. I think it would be useful to get a handle on some numbers to estimate just how wide spread the issues are. Addendum: Here is Topping's response to the PA5 issues...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Possibly more given that some users are on their 3rd unit. The shoddy cooling and encapsulation was not solved by Topping on the PA5 II. It was left to the community to devise a fix:

Topping PA5 fix - D01 Module Replacement for everyone

Ive been working on the PA5 for a while now after mine died suddently, like many others https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/poll-for-topping-pa5-owners-only-please.33293/ Most of the PA5 units develop a crackling, hissing or just go a little silent or completely dead on...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Keep in mind the PA5 still has Amir's top rating (golfing panther). There is no testing for reliability or longevity in ASR reviews.