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In Reply to: RE: Help me scratch this preamp itch.... posted by ABliss on October 28, 2024 at 10:11:38
I bought a Topping Pre90 and I couldn't happier. It's the best sounding line-stage preamp that I've ever heard regardless of price. I also own a Pass Labs X1, but I like the sound of my Topping Pre90 even better. I think this will be the last preamp I'll ever buy.
Good luck in your search and happy listening!
Stereophile has a review of the Topping Pre90. It was compared favorably to the $18,000 Pass Labs XP-32 Preamp.
Follow Ups:
Well I tried it, and I think my little Parasound Zpre3 sounds better than it, and the clicking sound the volume control makes to adjust the volume if you can aim the remote accurately didn't help.
The Topping Pre90 has a relay activated resistive volume control. That's what causes the clicks, but that's also why the preamp sounds so good. Each relay click adjusts the volume attenuator by 0.5-dB from -99-dB to +16-dB.
I don't have a problem aiming my remote control. I've heard others complain about that, but I haven't experienced any significant problems with mine.
Mine works flawlessly and it sounds better than any other preamp I've ever heard.
YMMV
...and the but one pair of single-ended input jacks. It's the impedance issues of the Pre90 which steered me away. Rather than continue to debate the issue with those here who were uncertain of the answer, I emailed Apos, the US distributor of Topping.
Here's the reply from the Topping engineers, through Peter at Apos, in answer to my inquiry:
"Sorry for the delay, I just heard back from Topping. I explained your entire situation, as well as the specs you provided. All they responded with was that the Pre90 does not work with a phono stage. They did not go into any further detail. I personally did not know that, so I'm glad I asked them."
Surprised by that, I asked Apos if perhaps it could have been a translation issue, them thinking that I was asking if the Pre90 had a phono stage. Here's Peter's reply to that point:
"You're welcome! As for translating, they're usually very good about understanding my questions and answering them. I fully explained your previous message, so there shouldn't have been confusion."
As much as I normally admire him, I feel that John Atkinson's Stereophile assessment was inadequate at addressing this impedance issue. He wrote:
"The balanced input impedance was low, at 2k ohms from 20Hz to 20kHz, which might give a bass-light balance with source components that have a tubed output stage."
Saying "A tubed output stage" without giving us impedance numbers tells us very little, especially in the objective measurements portion of a review. My PS Audio Stellar phono is clearly a solid state device, and yet the Topping engineers say that it (or any phono stage) is a poor match for the Pre90.
I normally scoff at the "I don't have to listen to it, I can see from the measurements that I won't like it" guys over at Audio Science Review, but many of them raised the same impedance concerns about the Pre90 that I have, and I'm glad that they did.
John, I'm happy that the Pre90 works so well for you, but there were too many doubts for it to be a unequivocal choice of a preamp for some of us.
In my case it wasn't just a matter of precisely aiming the remote within the Pre90's very narrow sweet spot. The Pre90 didn't always respond on the first button press on the remote. It might respond on the 2nd press but subsequent presses of another button immediately following might not work. Had to wait, then go through some button gymnastics again for the Pre90 to respond. It became very frustrating.ONE of the purposes of a preamp (for me) is to offer the convenience of source switching and volume control via REMOTE. If that fundamental requirement is flawed it becomes an annoyance too great to be tolerated and the preamp gets booted out of my system regardless of how nice it might sound. I wanted to like the Pre90 but it wasn't worth the frustration.
Edits: 11/01/24 11/01/24
...that a shitty performing remote would be no big deal, only that for me, the frustration might be tolerable if this thing sounds as good as is claimed.
But given its questionable impedance specifications (at least for those of us still using either vintage or phono sources) I had to take it off the table of consideration.
There's another inmate here who has no issue at all with the remote. He listens 'near field' and can reach the volume knob w/o the remote ;-)
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