Audiophile snobs will love its less than minuscule 0.00007% Total Harmonic Distortion at a 32 Ohm load (0.00006% into a 300 Ohm load), it’s almost nothing output impedance of less than 0.1 (identical to the E30/L30 combo) and plenty of power. Damage due to user negligence, accidents, disassembly, waterlog, misuse, abuse, alterations or vandalism. Any item returned must be complete with all accessories, hardware, manuals, or instructions, and in the same "new" condition as when it was when shipped to you. Please send us photos or videos of it.

I switched to Sennheiser HD-650 using 1/4 out (too lazy to dig up my balanced cable). Power here was just enough to slightly resonate my ear lobes. If you wanted to have more enjoyment at the cost of reducing your hearing lifetime, you may want to use a balanced capable with it. That will give you 4X the power which should be plenty to drive the headphones themselves to distortion. The other not-so-obvious reason is that Topping products are known to have QC issues and I’d rather you feel great about spending your money on a reliable product from an extremely reputable company. Apos Audio graciously sent me another round of review units, this time the Topping A50s headphone amplifier being one of them. Apos made no attempt to influence my opinion, asking only that I do a fair review. What you are about to read is therefore my opinion and mine alone. The A50s is Topping’s newest entry to their measurement-focused line of headphone amps. It’s causing quite a stir. Is the stir worth it? Read on to find out… If you weren’t aware, VRMS (Root mean square) is the actual power that the device is capable of handling for long periods of time. Verdict –The A50s remains an easy recommendation for its well-rounded design, ultra clean and linear sound and very reasonable price.”The unbalanced RCA analog input initially puzzled me. At first it seemed like providing only unbalanced connections completely defeats the purpose of having a balanced amp, at least insofar as eliminating things like ground loop noise. And at this price point, eliminating ground loop noise is about the only advantage to having a balanced amp or DAC. However, credit where credit is due, the A50s still eliminates ground loop noise. My desktop computer has a rather annoying ground loop with USB DACs using unbalanced connections. I intentionally confirmed that a DAC was sending the ground loop noise out of is unbalanced output and ran it into the A50s. The A50s took it out. So, it does appear the A50s is in fact a fully balanced amp, with the lone true benefit of being balanced at this price, that uses single ended connectors for its inputs. The A50s also features a ultra wide frequency response, which exceeds the CD and Hi-Res Audio standard, which can be sent to the three outputs 6.35mm single ended and 4.4mm balanced headphone outputs and RCA pre outs. As I said earlier, with hindsight, I didn't really need that much power for the Dan Clark headphones. DACs: Audiobyte HydraVox + HydraZap, Matrix Audio Element X, Flux Lab Acoustics FCN-10, Soncoz SGD1, Burson Conductor 3X Performance Both of these are good amps; when set to full volume, both have enough power to get the HiFiMan HE6se’s cranking nicely with most material. The differences I heard were that the Magnius seemed to sound a little brighter in the treble, while the A50s sounded subtly softer—and that the bass of the A50s was slightly fatter sounding.

This is the thing about topping; they never go too far with their design and build in unnecessary embellishments. They focus on clean design and excellent build quality. This warranty extends only to personal use & does not extend to any product that has been used for commercial use, rental use, or use that is not intended. There are no warranties other than expressly set forth herein. Despite having only single-ended RCA inputs, the Topping A50s headphone amplifier’s internal circuitry is internally balanced. The front panel features a 6.35mm single-ended output and a 4.4mm balanced output, separately powered. You must return an item in the same condition as it was received. You must also include, in the same condition as it was received:

Topping A50s

The DragonFly Red has probably the best portrayal of Soundstage width and depth out of any Amp/DAC I’ve tried and is one of the main reasons I tend to recommend it the world over. If you’re familiar with my blog and channel, I tend to really dump on Amps and DACS in general because they mostly sound the same with very marginal differences. The DF Red (and I’ve always said this) does stand out in terms of it really presenting the music well, with loads of openness and fantastic spacing between the instruments. It’s like opening your window and letting a cool breeze in. These sentiments were only re-inforced with this latest demo. Office Chain: Dan Clark Aeon X Open -> Nitsch Magni Piety -> Bifrost 2 OG Absolute Phase inverted -> AK SP2000 (local) The TOPPING A50s swings for the fences with its output power, driving a whopping 3,500W x2 @32Ω (more than 1,000mW more powerful than the A50). With that sort of power, you can drive anything from sensitive IEMs to power demanding headphones. As always I start with my inefficient and low impedance Ether CX headphone. The A50s had no trouble handling it with unbalanced 1/4 out. For grins though, I switched to balanced output from it and now we are talking! Incredible and tight bass followed which is evidence of high power with exceptionally low distortion. Besides being a headphone amplifier, the A50s is also a preamplifier. A pair of single-ended RCA outputs on the rear panel provides a preamp output connection to a power amplifier or powered speakers.

The A50s has balanced out. I have balanced IEM cables (no headphones though). I realize I don't need the extra power, but now I'll have an option. Will I ever have balanced headphones that would benefit? Cons –Small volume knob, No negative gain setting for IEMs, Could do with greater dynamics and soundstage depth Full-sized headphones: Hifiman Susvara, Hifiman Arya, Audeze LCD-4, Erzetich Phobos, Erzetich Mania, Kennerton Wodan, Magni & Gjallarhorn, Quad ERA-1, Ollo S4X Reference Any item returned incomplete or with physical damage such as scratches etc., excessive signs of use, or abuse will not be accepted for return. Headphone Amps: Topping A50S, SMSL SP400, SH-9, Benchmark HPA4, SparkoS Labs Aries, Flux Lab Acoustics FCN-10, LittleDot MKIII SEOf course, it can’t be considered as an end-game, delete your head-fi account kind of amplifier without some cons and quirks, here and there right? I find it having a somewhat limited soundstage on its 6.35mm output and a little bit of noise with ultra-sensitive IEMs, but more about that in the following chapters. Although there is only a single-ended input, A50s has a built-in balanced amp circuit. Therefore, it can drive single-ended headphones by 6.35mm output, and drive balanced headphones by 4.4mm balanced output. Speaking of the HE6se’s, my first test of an amp is to find out whether it can drive these notoriously (and intentionally) insensitive cans to loud levels. The A50s can, within the limitations noted above. Playing the wonderful album Faune, by the Raphaël Pannier Quartet (320kbps Ogg Vorbis, French Paradox / Spotify), the A50s was able to deliver a fairly loud (and to my ears, just right) listening level with the HE6se’s when the amp’s volume was set to max and the gain to +6. The fleet-fingered double bassist François Moutin’s tone sounded just as I’d imagine such a bassist would want to sound: clear but full-bodied, powerful, and grooving. I heard no strain whatsoever from the headphones or the amp, and the HE6se headphones’ slight tendency toward brightness wasn’t evident as it was with amps that struggle to drive them. The A50s family fits nicely in any situation the D50 Dac and the P50 upgraded power supply will give you hours of happy listening. I’ve approached the easiest chapter to write about, as in reality A50S is a very detailed and transparent sounding amplifier and it is very true to the source, slightly altering the frequency response which I’ll mention later on. It reminds me a lot about its brothers like A90 and L30 and I strongly believe that A50S performs pretty much the same. At full power, A50S has a THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) of 0.0007%, meaning that no matter how hard you try, you will be hearing the distortion of your headphone drivers and maybe of your DAC, but definitely not of the A50S. It doesn’t add anything in here, it’s a wire with gain amplifier that just disappears from your acoustic chain. Smallest nuances and micro-details have nowhere to hide, A50S will easily show them to you with a nicer pair of headphones. I’m personally extremely happy that we approached times like these, experiencing high-end sonics at a price that anyone could afford. It is a good feeling knowing that you aren’t limited by your amplifier or DAC, but only by your headphones.

A50s will deliver up to 3.5W of power into 32 ohms & 760mW in 300 ohm loads on its 4.4mm balanced output with both channels driven. When using a source that provides a signal level of 2Vrms, the A50s will output 1950mW into 32 ohms and 208mW into 300 ohms. Near-Zero-Ohm output impedance Portable Chain 1: CA Andromeda with Gold Plated OCC Silver wires + Gold Plated Silver Gold Alloy OCC Hybrid wires + OCC Silver wires -> AK SP2000 (Minimum Phase Apodizing) Accidents, abuse, misuse, improper installation, problems with electrical power, acts of third parties.Moving on to desktop headphones, both units are very capable of driving harder loads, but of course SH-9 was a higher output of 6W in 16 Ohms, meaning that it didn’t have issues driving headphones like Audeze LCD-4 and Hifiman Arya, which sounded great on A50S, but not spectacular. In its defense, A50S has a vaguely different tonality and instead on focusing on absolute linearity, it adds a pinch more bass and midrange making bright sources and headphones a lot more manageable. There are plenty of detail-oriented sources nowadays that are putting treble presence above anything else and A50S should work much nicer with such kinds of sources. With dynamic headphones that don’t require that much power to be moved, I wouldn’t be surprised if people would prefer the A50S in detriment of a more powerful SH-9. Beyerdynamics, most Sennheisers and all Grados should perform better on A50S and most planar-magnetics should perform better on SH-9.