Poll for Topping PA5 owners only please.

[DanielT]

Interesting suggestions.

I would rather Topping fix their freakin' product and not have to think about this anymore though. I feel like I've moved on from audio for time being as I got other stuff to take care of than be in audio forums all day whining about Topping service.

Relax. Of course it's sad when things don't work. But that's not the whole world. It's still just a hobby. Buy some used amp, which is recognized durable, so you can listen to music. You can sell that amplifier when the problems with the PA5 are solved. You can buy and sell used amplifiers for about the same price.
Used, no warranties. The amp can break but I've never experienced that with a classic old class AB amp anyway. More a matter of luck than skill, I must add.

Why not listen to some good covers:

Great cover versions

As per the title, I would like to start a thread where the cover version of a song betters the original in performance and/or production quality. Here goes my entry: Meshell Ndegeocello, Ventriloquism (whole album, my favorites are waterfalls and I wonder if I take you home)

audiosciencereview.com

Or:

Songs that depict real events...Now also, playlist on Spotify

What tips do you have to give? It can be any type of event. I myself discovered this live version from the thread about Live Albums. Undoubtedly, it also fits into this thread: https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/live-albums.42/page-12 Edit: I'm creating a list now. Have...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[Ellisr63]

I returned my PA5s to Amazon...they developed a hiss during the first 30 days.

 

[billjacobs]

I have a bad left channel in my pa5. I see that it costs $70 to ship it back to china. Is this worth doing? Has anyone received one back from china? My other concern is whether the fix will last.

 

[JeremyFife]

Quick update from my experience, PA5 purchased from Shenzen Audio in China, I'm in the UK;

PA5 worked beautifully for over 3 months, then one channel cut-out completely. Dead, none of the noise noted by other posters.
Returned to Shenzen, I had to pay postage (£23 GBP UK Royal Mail). Out of the 30d refund period but still in warranty for repair. I wanted a refund, but those are the terms I agreed to ...

8 weeks later it arrived in Shenzen who sent it on to Topping who, 2 weeks after that, have repaired it. I asked for fault details ... "an internal component was broken and has been replaced ..." I've asked again for better details and I may still get a reply.

My repaired PA5 will now be sent back to me, at Shenzen's expense, and hopefully I'll get it back before old age overtakes me ...

After quoting this forum, Shenzen have refunded my initial shipping costs. I'm happy with that customer service. @SHENZHENAUDIO. I have corresponded with Cloris (referenced in this thread a few times) and with "YangYang Chai" who has handled my claim from the start and has been pretty good.

So: my fault for buying direct from Shenzen but I can't complain about the terms that I signed up to. Progress has been glacially slow which might be the UK Mail service. Communication from Shenzen has been pretty good throughout. I did not appreciate having to falsely declare the PA5 as a cheap DAC but in the end it was my choice to do that. I did appreciate having my postage costs refunded. I'm content that a broken component has been replaced. I remain very concerned that there may be design issues with the PA5 and that my repaired unit fails again, but I have no real evidence that this is a valid concern ... just a worry.

Lessons? I'll buy more locally next time (Audiofonics perhaps), I may be less keen to be an early adopter but Topping has a good reputation on this site (PA5 now excepted) and there were no warning signs at the time. With hindsight I'd have pushed my budget and gone for an Audiofonics NCore MPA-S250NC XLR ... but that's how hindsight works and a budget is a budget.

In all honesty I cannot fault Shenzen (apart from the customs declaration). If the repaired unit fails I will be less understanding, with Topping.

Waiting so long is painful - but at least I now have a decent headphone set-up

 

[JeremyFife]

Quick update from my experience, PA5 purchased from Shenzen Audio in China, I'm in the UK;

PA5 worked beautifully for over 3 months, then one channel cut-out completely. Dead, none of the noise noted by other posters.
Returned to Shenzen, I had to pay postage (£23 GBP UK Royal Mail). Out of the 30d refund period but still in warranty for repair. I wanted a refund, but those are the terms I agreed to ...

8 weeks later it arrived in Shenzen who sent it on to Topping who, 2 weeks after that, have repaired it. I asked for fault details ... "an internal component was broken and has been replaced ..." I've asked again for better details and I may still get a reply.

My repaired PA5 will now be sent back to me, at Shenzen's expense, and hopefully I'll get it back before old age overtakes me ...

After quoting this forum, Shenzen have refunded my initial shipping costs. I'm happy with that customer service. @SHENZHENAUDIO. I have corresponded with Cloris (referenced in this thread a few times) and with "YangYang Chai" who has handled my claim from the start and has been pretty good.

So: my fault for buying direct from Shenzen but I can't complain about the terms that I signed up to. Progress has been glacially slow which might be the UK Mail service. Communication from Shenzen has been pretty good throughout. I did not appreciate having to falsely declare the PA5 as a cheap DAC but in the end it was my choice to do that. I did appreciate having my postage costs refunded. I'm content that a broken component has been replaced. I remain very concerned that there may be design issues with the PA5 and that my repaired unit fails again, but I have no real evidence that this is a valid concern ... just a worry.

Lessons? I'll buy more locally next time (Audiofonics perhaps), I may be less keen to be an early adopter but Topping has a good reputation on this site (PA5 now excepted) and there were no warning signs at the time. With hindsight I'd have pushed my budget and gone for an Audiofonics NCore MPA-S250NC XLR ... but that's how hindsight works and a budget is a budget.

In all honesty I cannot fault Shenzen (apart from the customs declaration). If the repaired unit fails I will be less understanding, with Topping.

Waiting so long is painful - but at least I now have a decent headphone set-up

Update - not impressed;
" the technician replied that what is the internal part of your PA5 that is broken, because it was not recorded at the time, so I have forgotten it, sorry I can't tell you what went wrong"

@SHENZHENAUDIO

 

[jevchance]

My PA5 has been in transit 10 days and just passed through Tokyo. I anticipate this process taking about 6 weeks. Yikes.

 

[Calleberg]

Update - not impressed;
" the technician replied that what is the internal part of your PA5 that is broken, because it was not recorded at the time, so I have forgotten it, sorry I can't tell you what went wrong"

@SHENZHENAUDIO

This is exactly what not to do with warranty returns, repair and then NOT document the cause.
Dear Shenzenaudio you're supposed to use the repair stat's to see what the major issues are and use that to improve your current AND future products.

 

[Talisman]

This is exactly what not to do with warranty returns, repair and then NOT document the cause.
Dear Shenzenaudio you're supposed to use the repair stat's to see what the major issues are and use that to improve your current AND future products.

But why does anyone really believe the "I don't remember" tale?
whatever the problem they have a very very clear idea, but obviously they don't want it to be known.
The reasons can be various, but all easily imaginable

 

[IPunchCholla]

This is exactly what not to do with warranty returns, repair and then NOT document the cause.
Dear Shenzenaudio you're supposed to use the repair stat's to see what the major issues are and use that to improve your current AND future products.

Are Shenzenaudio and Topping the same company?

 

[Laserjock]

Update - not impressed;
" the technician replied that what is the internal part of your PA5 that is broken, because it was not recorded at the time, so I have forgotten it, sorry I can't tell you what went wrong"

@SHENZHENAUDIO

I know you’re in the UK but would be interested in seeing a “repaired” PA5 measures here.

 

[Calleberg]

Are Shenzenaudio and Topping the same company?

I don't think so but I do not know. Do you?

 

[delta76]

I don't think so but I do not know. Do you?

No they aren't. Shenzhen audio is the dealer of topping (and smsl etc.) products. I would not be surprised if they have close connections (like their founders are friends or family), but on a legal level they are not the same company

 

[IPunchCholla]

No they aren't. Shenzhen audio is the dealer of topping (and smsl etc.) products. I would not be surprised if they have close connections (like their founders are friends or family), but on a legal level they are not the same company

Thank you. I was wondering if it was a similar arrangement as Amazon Basics. In which case I would expect much better service from Shenzhen Audio relative to Topping products at least.

 

[BoredErica]

I bought mine from Hifigo. Has anyone gotten a return with shipping mostly paid?

 

[JeremyFife]

Update - not impressed;
" the technician replied that what is the internal part of your PA5 that is broken, because it was not recorded at the time, so I have forgotten it, sorry I can't tell you what went wrong"

@SHENZHENAUDIO

Further update:
"just check with the manufacture again ,they inform that Amplifier control module is broken
please know"

Doesn't mean too much to me (not power related?) but may provide a clue.

Shenzhen are generally helpful, I can only assume that it's Topping holding back details - unless it's just a cultural reticence.

@SHENZHENAUDIO @TOPPING-Service

 

[Talisman]

Cultural reticence?
As I see it, it is going like this:
topping is receiving a large number of pa5s back for repair, obviously a company that works on large sales numbers carefully keeps track of the problems encountered, they don't just leave each pa5 in the hands of an employee saying "fix it".
having almost all the same symptoms and having already repaired them they know very well what the problem is, and the fact that they say that "it is not understood well" can mean only two things for me:

1) Topping has encountered a design problem that puts a particular component in crisis, regardless of quality, and therefore cannot be solved. Topping should withdraw each pa5 from the market and provide full refunds to any holder who requests it.

2) Topping has found the criticality in one of the components, perhaps a problematic batch of some component, should specify the batch, withdraw it from the market and repay all owners with component of that batch

Or topping he can pretend he doesn't understand, keep selling his amp, reimburse only those who complain about the problem or repair it under warranty and continue to ignore it.
What would a large company devoted to profit and minimize costs do?

 

[Sound86]

I received a second PA5 from Amazon Warehouse today, this one sold as "as new"... Weeeell... It arrived in a plastic bag without original packaging and without any documentation or warranty card, the power supply was actually inside the plastic bag with the amplifier (without any dampening around) resulting in scratches all over the amplifier. The power supply seems to have some lose items inside resulting in rattling noises when moving it around. The power cable insert on the amp is also lose, so you cant actually screw in the cable all the way. I did try to power it on (though in hindsight I probably shouldnt have) and the right channel was completely dead, while the left was rather quiet.
Now warehouse PA5s you can probably expect to be faulty, but this attempt to sell it off "as new" was rather hilarious.

 

[antcollinet]

You should read Amazon the riot act over that one. Believe it or not, Amazon actually do care how resellers antics damage their reputation.

Post pictures here, and copy the link to Amazon.

 

[Sound86]

You should read Amazon the riot act over that one. Believe it or not, Amazon actually do care how resellers antics damage their reputation.

Post pictures here, and copy the link to Amazon.

Well actually I dont want to get the seller into trouble and I suspect the error lies with Amazon directly, because the new items are sold via fulfillment by Amazon. If such an item gets returned without further information on defects and such, some minimum wage worker at the warehouse basically rolls a dice and assigns a random condition from "acceptable" (lowest possible) to "as new" (highest) and some random notes on the condition.
I have bought 50-100 items over the years from Amazon this way and what I can tell you from experience; the condition information is totally made up and 90% of the time you get either an unopened and brand new or maybe once opened item which is actually as new.

With the two PA5 I ordered it was hilariously bad however and the overall problems with the PA5 just made it possible in some way. But I ordered a warehouse X16, D90SE, L50, AO200 and MX5 from the same vendor, which were all perfect. So I am not even mad about the PA5s.

EDIT:
Alright for your entertainment

That is the actual complete packaging (notice the token paper strip at the bottom? ). The only odd thing is the Topping labels outside the Amazon box. Maybe it actually saw a repair shop, not that it made any positive difference...

 

[ryantanchan]

so far my issue with pa5 is that it cuts off while playing 100% volume.