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Topping L70 Headphone Amp Review

Rate this headphone amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 14 4.4%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 2 0.6%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 29 9.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 272 85.8%

  • Total voters
    317

Ahmonge

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Thank for replying. the both of them I mean A30pro and L70.

I was using the Teac ud-501 many years. Now I have the thought to upgrade it.

I try to search but I can't clear understand the related calculate. (something like the impedance matching between dac and hp amp, the amp output power and hp impedance, ........)

My thought was if I use the low impedance hp connect to the amp. Because the low impedance, and the amp output power should be huge. I am not sure the headphone/in-ear will be destroy? I think the power output should be linear, control by the volume. But I am not sure it has the safe point before it reach the headphone maximum power. Or the loud volume I can't endure before it reach the maximum?
Sorry, my fault.

You can use the ATH-EW9 with both amps, nothing wrong will happen as long as you keep the perceived volume not too high. These amps have more power than needed to drive your headphones fully, but as long as this extra power is not used, no damage will be done to them.
 

Ugo Ruffini

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Feb 21, 2022
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Hi Guys. Could anybody please clarify for me if I can use L70 as pure preamp with volume control? I don't use headphones but I need to connect two sources E70 dac + analog output from phono preamp to my hypex nc252mp power amp. I see two inputs on l70 RCA + xlr. Could I connect e70 to xlr and analog from phono to rca and switch inputs on l70 plus control volume from remote? Output will go to power amp via xlr. Will it degrade sound quality and i should buy some preamp twice expensive like topping pre90 or schiit frea s? Thanks
I tested the topping-l70 between my sabaj a20d dac and hypex power amp.... Unfortunately in my configuration the highs are acidic and annoying unfortunately the compatibility with class D is not advisable I will fall back on the Gustard H16
 

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Leva

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I tested the topping-l70 between my sabaj a20d dac and hypex power amp.... Unfortunately in my configuration the highs are acidic and annoying unfortunately the compatibility with class D is not advisable I will fall back on the Gustard H16
Thanks for your feedback. I already get one more negative feedback for L70 as preamp so I ordered Schiit Freya S - they have a couple in B-stock with discount currently.
 

sambol

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When I hit the mute button, the left channel has a very, very quiet sound, while the right channel is dead silent. Nothing to worry about, but is this normal?
PS E30 II is connected to the input via RCA cables.
 

Ugo Ruffini

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Feb 21, 2022
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I just wanted to give some advice I am currently doing tests with L70 testing silver-free cables like the ones I had and it improves considerably I have been lent balanced transparent ultra mm2 I also replaced the power cables with pure copper now the high range is more correct and less acidic and is no longer X-ray! I await a few days of running in to evaluate further improvements.
 

Ugo Ruffini

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I fully agree the expense must be right the cables were lent to me by friends who spare no expense I have limited budgets in fact I would like to wire the mogami quads with silver tin and gold neutrik connectors otherwise the van den hul quad hybrids.
 
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Ugo Ruffini

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My cable
 

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Veri

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I just wanted to give some advice I am currently doing tests with L70 testing silver-free cables like the ones I had and it improves considerably I have been lent balanced transparent ultra mm2 I also replaced the power cables with pure copper now the high range is more correct and less acidic and is no longer X-ray! I await a few days of running in to evaluate further improvements.
I thought this was a great satiric post. Less acidic, no longer X-ray! Haha. Awesome stuff very funny~!

BUT YOU WERE SERIOUS
 

PieterHenk

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I just purchased a L70/E70 Velvet combo and am kind of surprised at the volume levels needed for relatively low-impedance headphones. Currently i'm using a headphone that apparently has an impedance of 28 ohms, having the DAC turned to -0 dB the amp still needs to go to roughly around -16 dB to get a good (semi loud) volume, leaving 16 dB to play with. These are not the exact numbers but from what I can remember it's pretty close.

Does that sound normal? Although I can't test it right now, I have the feeling my schiit heresy / epos gsx 300 (don't judge me ;)) get the same levels or can go louder.
 

ObjectiveSubjectivist

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I just purchased a L70/E70 Velvet combo and am kind of surprised at the volume levels needed for relatively low-impedance headphones. Currently i'm using a headphone that apparently has an impedance of 28 ohms, having the DAC turned to -0 dB the amp still needs to go to roughly around -16 dB to get a good (semi loud) volume, leaving 16 dB to play with. These are not the exact numbers but from what I can remember it's pretty close.

Does that sound normal? Although I can't test it right now, I have the feeling my schiit heresy / epos gsx 300 (don't judge me ;)) get the same levels or can go louder.
Are you using high gain?
 

ObjectiveSubjectivist

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Apologies, forgot to mention that. This is on low gain on all devices that supported a gain setting.
There you have it.
If you find perceived loudness as not being sufficient just switch to high gain.

You should always use lowest gain (lowest noise, not that high gain is noisy or something but you always want the noise to be the lowest) and only if you find 'volume' to be too quiet then use high gain.

ps. you mentioned that you still have like 16db left, so I'm sure you are fine, it's just your head play tricks on you ;)
 

jdan1457

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I can see in Topping's marketing materials it outputs 4.7w at 64 ohms. What is the power at 50 ohms? Has anyone measured that yet?

@amirm measured the A90d at 3.7w, and the A30pro at 3.4w. would like to compare the L70 at 50 ohms since I'm running the He6se.
 
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staticV3

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would like to compare the L70 at 50 ohms since I'm running the He6se
50Ω is HiFiMan's official spec. In reality, the HE6se is 64Ω:
Hifiman HE6Se impedance measurements.png

I guess the other question would be, how much of a difference will that extra 1.5w-2w make comparing the A30pro to the L70 at 50 ohm?
At 64Ω, the L70 gets 1.36dB louder than the A30Pro before clipping.
That translates to 10% higher perceived loudness.
 

BenF

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Does anyone know what code r3 means? Couldn't find error codes in the manual.
I've seen no Topping amp without a fault so far... they should establish at least any kind of QA
 
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