Evening all,
I have been hearing good things about T class amps, the temple audio bantam comes in for particular praise but I think is not strictly t class. But any one tried any of the Topping amps?
Printable View
Evening all,
I have been hearing good things about T class amps, the temple audio bantam comes in for particular praise but I think is not strictly t class. But any one tried any of the Topping amps?
I've used one of the larger ones (TP60? or TP90? can't remember), anyway it was pleasant enough, but not exactly revealing!Quote:
Originally Posted by Ned664
Agree with Geoff The Bantam Gold a lot better
The Gold works in exactly the same way as the Tripath amps, but uses a more up to date Analogue Devices chip.
The company that made the Tripath chip went out of business years ago. All the T amps made now use NOS chips.
I've heard a few different switching amps and the Gold is the best I've heard so far.
I've had both a Topping TP30 'T' amp and now a Bantam Gold 'D' Class amp
I would say that the Topping was super for the miserly £50'odd I paid for it but the Bantam Gold is another step up and a more 'grown-up' sort of sound
I'm really not very good at describing what I hear but that's about the best I can do. The Topping needs fairly sensitive speakers, which at the time I didn't have; trying to run a very insensitive pair of LS 3/5a's with the 10w on offer was asking a bit much really !! :doh::doh:
The Bantam Gold gives 25w and I now run them with the Heresy's at about 95dB so no problem there, I have put the Gold up against some very good amps and it always holds its own..
Both amps are digital, but the Topping uses a Tripath chip so would correctly be called a 'T' amp. The Bantam Gold is much the same but does not use a Tripath chip so cannot be called a 'T' amp, so the correct way to describe it is a 'D' Class amp, ie Digital :)
I'm really enjoying a Topping TP20 mk2 here driving a pair of Rogers LS4a.
I would suggest a speaker with a nice warm tone and not overly bright. The sound has great depth and layering and separation, great clarity, plenty of drive and boogie factor and is a joy to listen to. But it isn't thunderous in the bass department. The bass is there and it is tight and well defined but you might need to reposition your speakers for a little more bass reinforcement than you would with a big integrated. For what it cost (£52 delivered) it is amazing. It's good for 5 Watts into 8 ohms if you want the highest fidelity and as that is enough for my present needs I would take this over any of the full-size budget integrateds south of £500 or so.
The TP20 mk2 also worked very well with Celestion DL6, Mission 751 and Jamo Cornet 145 (in spite of the slight tendency to brightness in the latter).
An old friend of mine has one of the Topping amps (sorry, don't know which one) into various speakers and for general listening as long as it's not pushed, he rates it very highly indeed. I found the same with the Amptastic Mini-T of Alex's, which sounds delightful until it's pushed a bit, upon which it complains harshly in a thin and rather tinny kind of way.
I had a TP30 (still have in fact but only the headphone amp works now after I plugged in a linear psu that was just a bit too much for it and seems to have fried something). It was superb driving some old Mission speakers and Frugal Horns (both sensitive) but pretty awful with some Rogers LS4a's (kinda weird because they're 89db and should have been ok). So I'd agree with David's friend entirely. As a headphone amp it's much better than a Beresford TC510, a heavily modded Caiman and a Behringer UCA202 - granted that the Behringer's not really regarded as a headphone amp.
The best thing about it is the USB interface and the DAC - great for just plugging the laptop in or for using it as a more permanent computer set up.