[Topping EHA-5]

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...

[Topping EHA-5]

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...

[Topping EHA-5]

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.

[The Headcase Stax thread]

So did anyone end up getting the DCA Corina yet... Keen to hear some listening impressions from a quiet environment...

[Topping EHA-5]

1 hour ago, Pirx said:

Omron relays you are talking about are small ones designed for small signals, small voltages, small currents.

They are there for many reasons but protection delicate electrostatic drivers from overloading ...

Size has very little meaning… They can be used to shut down earlier driver stages in the amplifier that are lower current, crowbar the outputs just before the OTs or used to drive large switching transistors that can handle far more current.

My point is, without context and knowing the entire amplifier topology, we cannot make claims on this. I agree it is nice to have overload protection right at the output but since the amplifier modules ultimately deliver that power, it can be tackled elsewhere also with active feedback and monitoring.

I understand the hate for China products but this seems like to create a very jaded and aggressive attitude towards any product.

To be clear I don’t have a horse in this race lol, EHA5 doesn’t interest me, but I prefer to keep an open mind as to why design decisions are made…

[Topping EHA-5]

5 hours ago, spritzer said:

That doesn't make any sense, why would protection on the low voltage side matter?  How can the low voltage side know of a short or anything like that on the other side of the transformer short of a basic overload?  There is nothing that connects the two, except the transformer.  There are no large relays on the amplifier side to turn off the output in the event of something bad happening so I very much doubt there is any protection at all.  Certainly not on the main, large PCB.  Another factor are the large impedance swings of electrostatics which will mimic a dead short at times. 

The build quality is terrible, it's better than the Monoprice or Drop Cavalli units but yeah, these will not last for long. 

The main thing though is this sounds absolutely horrid.  I had a SRM-1 Mk2 and a SRM-252S I needed to test yesterday so I connected them all together to the same source and matched the output voltage of them.  The difference in sound quality is rather stark, even driving a set of SR-207's (so very light load) the Stax units walk all over it.  The EHA-5 sounds just like the squarewave, it is under immense strain so very bright and broken sound. 

I’m confused… there is at least 6 Omron relays in your pictures and probably more protection inside the NCFA modules.

Im just pointing out that claiming this unit has no protection seems highly unlikely as many things can be mitigated upstream where voltages are lower and you can implement thermal / current protection.

I look forward to hearing one sometime anyway and hear how bad or good it is but there are reviews already out there comparing it to a blue hawaii with the corina that are more favourable so I'm unsure where these stark differences are coming from…

[Topping EHA-5]

20 hours ago, Pars said:

Oh god, ASR. I can't stand that site. Known Topping shill as well.

Everyone is a shill for something… Topping does have some good products and the LA90 is highly regarded by most aside from its limited power.

I cannot speak for the EHA5 as it seems much cheaper build with sheet metal but still following this. I guess my only criticism is why are you focusing on the output side of the OTs exclusively rather than looking at the topology as a whole and if the unit already has protection on the low voltage side like the LA90 does?

You may be trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.

I must say it is definitely confusing why they would choose an electrostatic amp at a cheap price point rather than doing it at a price point similar to their higher end gear…

[Topping EHA-5]

I just copied an existing picture, wasn’t highlighting anything.

The new version is a discrete design, the older one used ICs which I have. Dunno but its been heavily tested on ASR and performs very well. The build quality certainly impressed me and was ideal for a desk setup so I don’t need a massive power amp…

[Topping EHA-5]

Thanks for the teardown as I was going to order one of these just to mess around with but I'm now glad I kept working on building my own Lundahl converter now...

The hilarious part about this I power my Lundahl converter with a Topping LA90 which is a stunning desk amplifier and If you open the chassis, you could actually fit 2 Lundahl transformers in there I reckon... This unit seems to use some LA90 parts...