Topping EHA-5

[ktm]

I guess a square wave test using a srd7 and a decent amp

Is in order. Add a srm1 mkIi just for reference. These two 

Setups are pretty much the rivals for this amp.

 

[Knuckledragger]

3 hours ago, thebrunx said:

Topping wants to take over hifi audio, monopoly style.

  

From the sound of things, Topping ate Monopoly and has proceeded to shit out Connect Four.

Spoiler

I apologize deeply to anyone who got that reference.  I reject and denounce myself for making it.

[spritzer]

8 hours ago, ktm said:

I guess a square wave test using a srd7 and a decent amp

Is in order. Add a srm1 mkIi just for reference. These two 

Setups are pretty much the rivals for this amp.

 

That wouldn't be a problem to do but they measure far better as the Topping is about as bad as it comes.  The Woo 3ES is probably worse in this regard given its vanishingly low power output and Class C operation but yeah, this is bottom of the barrel stuff. 

 

[aokman]

On 5/1/2023 at 5:19 PM, spritzer said:

We do know the entire amp topology and those relays are to switch signals, nothing else.  You can accuse me of hating Chinese products but yet I buy everything I can from China to test out... weird that...  I have every electrostatic amp or headphones I can get from China.  It can't be that you are just a retarded Topping fanboy, is it?  Have you tried this thing or even measured it? 

I just wonder what anybody at Topping was thinking about when designing this thing, how was a roughly 1W+1W amp supposed to drive electrostatics?  I mean they could have put in a simple Class D unit (while not ideal) with far more power and get a better result.  You only need to understand the basics with regards to electrostatics to know you just need more power for them to behave. 

Now that is far more interesting though I'll have to call into question any specs they publish... or even think they can reach.  The parts are available to make a fully discrete amp with excellent specs, hell it is possible to make it all SMD if you can figure out the heatsinking issues. 

Also reading ASR's evaluation of R2R dacs just hurts my brain.  There is so much stupidity there it is simply painful...

I didn’t accuse you of anything but I will say most posts I see from you come across as condescending and negative just because…China but whatever, free world lol.

What I hope for is more accessibility and affordability in the estat space and an end to the elitist bullshit that keeps this segment so isolated and unapproachable for new customers which will eventually lead to more development as manufacturers enter the segment and gain experience as they go.

That always starts with cheap price points as gateway drugs and I think we need to keep these products in context of their price points and remember the shit STAX got away with in the SRDs.

[grawk]

The question is are you a shill for topping for free, or do they pay you?

[spritzer]

You just don't get the point, this is the worst product money can buy so how is this a gateway drug?  Anybody who listens to it will think it is pure trash and electrostatics by extension if they don't know any better.  Topping is a doing a great disservice to the electrostatic community by releasing this utter turd.  Why couldn't they have put a proper power amp in there so it would have a hope in hell of driving the headphones?  Fuck it, charge 600$ for it but make it at least serviceable.  I'm not expecting the Chinese to put in any safety at all... that's just not in their culture, but at least make it sound better than the garbage Hifiman, Woo and King Sound were peddling. 

One thing I wanted to say and it is kinda odd, I believe the Stax socket on the EHA-5 is a genuine Stax article.  It's not the classic Sato Japan made unit, but the new made in China as first found on the D10 and D50.  The finish is identical and so are the pins.  I know these sockets are available on the Chinese market but Edifer might be supplying these as an OEM. 

Now the real travesty here though is that the Stax SRM-252S appears to be finally out of production.   It was a wonder that is stuck it out for so long, all through hole in a world cheap SMD assembly. 

[aokman]

On 5/3/2023 at 8:00 AM, ktm said:

I guess a square wave test using a srd7 and a decent amp

Is in order. Add a srm1 mkIi just for reference. These two 

Setups are pretty much the rivals for this amp.

 

I have a recently restored SRM-1 mk2 / SRD-7 converted to pro bias / Lundahl LL1630s with many amplifiers including the Topping LA90 that I'm happy to test if wanted but I have never done so as I know there are many forum arguments around how to accurately benchmark OT based setups with a typical STAX load correctly.

7 hours ago, grawk said:

The question is are you a shill for topping for free, or do they pay you?

Like I said, I have a Topping LA90 that serves as my desktop amp for STAX adapter setups, and it's the cleanest and most compact amp in my collection but far from the most powerful... It's the only topping product I have experience with and would endorse but I'm happy to give them the benefit of the doubt on other products until proven otherwise based on the build quality I found in the LA90 teardown...

[mikeymad]

[spritzer]

So you have no experience of the item we are talking about but own something completely different and you like that... ok...    You do realize how stupid that it is, right?  It would be comparable to defending the Stax X9000 staunchly as you bought a SR-007 in 1999. 

[skullguise]

12 hours ago, aokman said:

....I'm happy to give them the benefit of the doubt on other products until proven otherwise based on the build quality I found in the LA90 teardown...

And yet you argue the point about this E-Stat amp, despite the fact that someone with strong knowledge has actually done a tear-down and seen many issues....

[kevin gilmore]

so over at ASR, people have commented today that topping said that they used a step down transformer on the output of the step up transformer, an no capacitive load.

flat out fraud this is... and completely meaningless published specs.

if someone paid attention during the design process and actually used a real 120pf load, or even headphones, they would know how fucked up this is.

the topping a90d may be decent. but my testing in the past indicates that stuff with huge amounts of open loop gain, and then huge amounts of feedback to get those magic distortion numbers usually sound like crap.

this thing, and their power amp all use one switching power brick to make the positive voltage and then another switcher internally to make the negative voltage. so a switcher driving a switcher. not a great idea.

Edited May 4, 2023 by kevin gilmore

[spritzer]

So they didn't actually measure under real world situations?  What the fuck...  that is just pure fraud. 

We are at the distortion wars again as in the 1970's.  Fancy transistor amps with vanishingly low distortion sure sound much better than that old yucky tube stuff...  Yeah people knew this was a bad idea then but a new generation clearly has learnt nothing. 

[Iron_Dreamer]

I'll just say I interacted with one of these this week. Bias voltage circuit was completely dead after being turned on less than a handful of times. I didn't get to even try it before it was inoperable. The fake tube thing...WTF?

[aokman]

On 5/4/2023 at 3:38 PM, spritzer said:

So you have no experience of the item we are talking about but own something completely different and you like that... ok...    You do realize how stupid that it is, right?  It would be comparable to defending the Stax X9000 staunchly as you bought a SR-007 in 1999. 

EDIT: Not worth the effort lol...

[ktm]

5 hours ago, aokman said:

EDIT: Not worth the effort lol...

Never was. Don't argue nonsense in a technical

discussion. 

 

[Timb5881]

On 5/2/2023 at 4:00 PM, ktm said:

I guess a square wave test using a srd7 and a decent amp

Is in order. Add a srm1 mkIi just for reference. These two 

Setups are pretty much the rivals for this amp.

 

Look up online the owners manuals of Koss ESP7,8,9 and they have a oscope printout of a 400 hz square wave.  It looks as bad as the Topping.  These models of the ESP all use an external transformer box (the ESP6 had its transformers in headset, heavy and uncomfortable)

 

 

hfe_koss_esp-7_en 2.pdf

[spritzer]

Yup and here we have the extra issue of a crap amp driving the transformers so yeah... it's not good. 

[spritzer]

I was just sent this and I had to share it:

Now we all know Z reviews is trash but this is just pure shilling. 

Edited June 7, 2023 by spritzer

[skullguise]

I couldn't get past 2 minutes....holy shit that guy is an ass!  And I DON'T need that head POV camera and all its motions....

[spritzer]

He's fucking retarded and more of a shill than Jude... which says quite a bit. 

I feel really sorry for anybody who watches garbage like this and thinks he's getting anything else than a sales pitch. 

[capetownwatches]

I doubt he gives the slightest shit what anybody thinks of him...he has his shtick and it works for him.

The guy has made bank by doing just this for years and by this stage anybody watching him and thinking there's any objective value there is more retarded than he is.

I would hope most watch him purely for entertainment value.

Me? Don't have the time or inclination.

(Just realised this is my first post...and it's about Zeos...not terribly auspicious but I'll try do better).

[Iron_Dreamer]

So I've had my hands on one of these that works for the last week or so. It's definitely not an amp you'd use to show off a flagship electrostatic headphone. That said, it doesn't sound as bad as I might have expected going in.  For the person who's new to electrostatics, or not that knowledgeable about the particular headphone they are using, they'd probably be perfectly happy with the sound. I know empirically that I'm not hearing all the headphone is capable of, but subjectively, it can still be quite an enjoyable sound, particularly depending on the complexity and challenge of the audio being played back.

[mikeymad]

13 hours ago, capetownwatches said:

I doubt he gives the slightest shit what anybody thinks of him...he has his shtick and it works for him.

The guy has made bank by doing just this for years and by this stage anybody watching him and thinking there's any objective value there is more retarded than he is.

I would hope most watch him purely for entertainment value.

Me? Don't have the time or inclination.

(Just realised this is my first post...and it's about Zeos...not terribly auspicious but I'll try do better).

Good first post. 

Show up, shit on someone, and walk out. 

Welcome.

[penmarker]

This thing is comparable to one of those OBD throttle controller that you plug into your car so you'll only need to press half the pedal to get full throttle and tell your friends you got 20+hp.

[justin]

This amp is already costing us money  ...but it's not what you think.

People are buying entry level STAX headphones, thinking they've got a hot new affordable amp to use them with. Then it turns out to be a piece of garbage and we get a returned headphone to deal with.

My recommendation would be to look for a used STAX amp in a similar price range. They work great for many decades.

Edited June 15, 2023 by justin