So just got the Soloist 3xp on Monday. Have been using the Topping A90 for a while and wanted to try the soloist since I ve read so many good reviews. Using the amp on my daily driver, Abyss diana tc. Honestly was disappointed in the first 2.5 days. The two amps sound very different, with the soloist being warmer, particularly in the mids, and slightly elevated bass. However the biggest difference is that vocals sound recessed, honestly even dark for me, with most sibilance gone. I honestly didn't enjoy it and thought I will listen to it more but will likely return it. However last night someone on reddit told me about using the soloist in its power amp mode. I did that and am very surprised by how much of a difference it is.
First the power level is much higher. On normal mode, I had to turn the knob past 90 on medium gain, so I switched to high gain and rested at 53 for my comfortable listening level. When I switched to power amp mode, I first tried low gain, which was low as expected, so then switched to mid gain. Cautiously I set volume on the computer to be around 45% just to be safe and the volume was ULTRA loud. Fortunately only played for half a second... I ended up using peace eq to apply a -13db preamp to reach my comfortable listening volume. The important thing is that not only the power, but also sonic character has changed as well. Vocals no longer sound recessed, and there are some other changes that are harder to tell at this point since I only listened for a couple hours in this new mode. But I think I like it. The main issue I have with the A90 is that sometimes things sound a bit too bright, maybe a little shouty, to be somewhat fatiguing. I think based on the couple hours I have heard so far, the soloist improves on that. Also the vocal timber sounds a bit more pleasant on the higher frequency end. I will be listening a lot more over the next few days to get a better feel. One possible negative is that bass is definitely stronger (not boomy at all, still very tight, defined, but strong). This may be good in most circumstances, but the DTC already has very powerful bass (more punch than Focal Clear OG), so I need a little bit getting used to on that - like feels it's getting on the edge of being too strong.
Overall quite surprised by how much difference a mode makes on the amp... Any thoughts on how/why it has such big power and even sonic differences?