Impressive technicalities at very attractive price points resonates with Topping, as they showed so many times now. I liked this combo even more to the newest SMSL SU-8S and SH-8S combo that weren’t transmitting as many emotions, delivery a dead-flat neutrality. Considering their high price-performance ratio, I’m gladly bolting a Silver Award on top of their metallic bodies and I’m congratulating them for that! Hey folks. Another month is passing by and that’s music to my ears as finally, my seasonal allergy would fade away, but for the audiophile community around the world that resonates with one thing only: Topping is going to announce brand new products. Before you start lighting your torches and sharpening your pitchforks, Topping isn’t doing that on purpose, as again AKM’s factory fire left a dirty mark on everything related to digital audio, we felt broken-hearted and audio engineers around the world dismayed as there aren’t alternatives for that velvety sound goodnes s. AKM announced that their renowned AK4497 and 4499 reached end-of-life status, including lower tiered chipsets as AK4493 are no longer found on the biggest e-commerce platforms as Mouser and Farnell.

Let's switch to other extreme with 32 ohm load, emphasizing current delivery as opposed to voltage: While 3.5 Watts is 16 Ohms doesn’t sound like it’s over 9000 (over-powerful), it sounded impressive with most of my headphones, providing enough current and voltage gain, unleashing a higher engagement factor compared to its predecessor. It provided good dynamics, headphone drivers felt tightly controlled, all while sounding fast and nimble. As long as you don’t pair it with bright sounding headphones, L50 would deliver clean undistorted power to your precious headphones and that’s all you need to know. Besides a limited headroom and a weaker bass slam that I’ve experienced with difficult loads, the left to right soundstage did also take a hit and let me explain you why. If I would use a balanced TRS to TRS interconnect cable, then I would be unleashing the maximum potential of both units, increasing the left to right soundstage as I’ve experienced many times before. With a single-ended connection as RCA, E50 is increasing the channel crosstalk by around ~10 dB, decreasing the void space between the most far right and far left sound. Imaging/Soundstage​I usually say staging and Imaging are more headphone dependent. This is very much the case here. I heard no added benefit to the stage or imaging. I usually like when an amp adds a little of its own flavor for staging but I just couldn’t tell a difference like I do with the main competitor from S.M.S.L. On the Topping L50 headphone amp, the volume knob is not as firm as it could be when adjusted. This makes it feel a bit on the inexpensive side. Adding a slightly more expensive knob would give the amp more of a premium look and feel.

At the rear of the device, the left side contains the balanced outputs of the device. On the left of those outputs are the single-ended RCA outputs, then there are the standard digital input options, and a 5V power inlet which can be plugged into any 5V USB power supply. L50 The rear of the device on the other hand is made of matte-finished plastic that houses both the input and output options. Let’s talk about the layout. On the front of the device, we see the color-matched volume pot, two nostalgic level-style switches, a single-ended 6.35mm headphone out, and a balanced XLR out. The far-left switch acts as a power switch and output selector at the same time. The other switch is purely for controlling the gain. There are 3 gain options, low, medium and, high. The layout is simple and easy to use. The switches are very practical and they seem pretty durable. With the help of NFCA, L50 easily reaches the top of the industry, and it has almost perfect performance regardless of distortion, dynamic range, and multi-tone testing. This is what great SINAD does for you at the top of the class: incredibly low noise where you need it with sensitive IEMs:

Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. This will go into the menu, and touching and holding it will either advance the menu or make a selection within the menu. The menu itself is made mostly of symbols, so those who are uninitiated will have a hard time deciphering the alpha-numeric code in Topping’s DACs.When shut off, the L50 automatically outputs the signal to RCA or TRS without amplification, so you can keep the L50 in your audio chain even while using active speakers and/or a DAC’s preamp function. DACs: Audiobyte HydraVox & HydraZap, Matrix Audio Element X, Gold Note DS-10 Plus & PSU-10 Evo, Musician Aquarius, Topping D90SE, E50, SMSL D1SE On the other hand, the accessories that came with the L50 are what I expect from any amplifier, which is just the power adaptor and a 3.5mm to ¼” adaptor. While this is what I typically expect at this price point. However, it would have been nice to be provided with a TRS to XLR converter.

Although the E50 cannot create the most expansive soundstage presentation, it manages to not get in the way of presenting the width of the soundstage. Imaging is well defined, while most images can be located accurately within the soundscape while staying away from being artificially being sharpened. E50 and L50 have fully matched design languages and styles, and signals can transmit in balanced by TRS. E50 uses ES9068AS sub-flagship chip, supports PCM, DSD, MQA decoding.

Accessories and unboxing​

With a small footprint and a 30dB gain range, the TOPPING L50 is a desktop amp that fits practically anywhere and powers just about anything. Generally, the E50 does not editorialize on the music, instead, it stays away from injecting its own coloration. This allows the soundstage presentation to be accurate and natural while making details easily accessible, only stumbling in more complicated passages. Timbre Simply put, L50 and E50 are following the same footprints paved by their predecessors, borrowing design cues from the L30 and E30 units. Topping used similar aluminum enclosures, you can spot the same rubber feet underneath them, the same front panels that are protected by a layer of glass. They are slightly longer, wider and heavier now and that is perfectly fine, since both units are more advanced to their predecessors. The only thing I dislike about E50 is that it doesn’t come with a volume wheel or volume buttons, so I’m glued to its remote when I want to use it as a DAC + Preamplifier. Thanks to Shenzhen Audio for hooking me up with both review units. While I always appreciate stuff being sent in to test and review, It never affects the rating of my review. Despite looking much like its smaller brother, the E30, the E50’s internals is very different. Firstly, it’s equipped with an ES9068AS DAC chip, with an XMOS XU216 USB controller. This combination allows the E50 to decode PCM streams up to 32bit/768kHz, DSD 512, and even MQA.