Topping L30 HeadAMP

[ichonderoga]

Was considering the A90 for my SMSL 10th MKII - But this certainly changes that. If <€150 then it's a no-brainer for me. @JohnYang1997 really looking forward to the final product

 

[Trufunk]

Same here!!

 

[Illtrick]

@JohnYang1997 - Can you tell me what material the knob is made from? It looks like it might be aluminum body with a polycarbonate insert. (Just trying time get an idea of the feel / weight to the volume control). I really like having the pre out as selectable over the shunted jack, a lot of us leave an adapter in a 1/4” so having the pre function triggered by pulling out the headphones was annoying. Also really excited about 3 gain levels.

 

[JohnYang1997]

@JohnYang1997 - Can you tell me what material the knob is made from? It looks like it might be aluminum body with a polycarbonate insert. (Just trying time get an idea of the feel / weight to the volume control). I really like having the pre out as selectable over the shunted jack, a lot of us leave an adapter in a 1/4” so having the pre function triggered by pulling out the headphones was annoying. Also really excited about 3 gain levels.

Knob is made from aluminum. And the selectable function is specifically suggested in this forum by a few fellas here. 3 gain levels is my personal obsession/persistence.

 

[Illtrick]

Knob is made from aluminum. And the selectable function is specifically suggested in this forum by a few fellas here. 3 gain levels is my personal obsession/persistence.

Excellent! Thank you.

 

[o7_brother]

This is too good to be true... what about the output impedance?

inb4 10 ohms

 

[JohnYang1997]

This is too good to be true... what about the output impedance?

inb4 10 ohms

0.0001ohm theoretical 0.06ohm measured

 

[Human Bass]

This is too good to be true... what about the output impedance?

inb4 10 ohms

The era of high output impedance is fortunetaly over, people are very aware of this now.

 

[3125b]

People maybe, but Topping is not (universally at least), just look at the DX3 Pro V2.

 

[Yuno]

People maybe, but Topping is not (universally at least), just look at the DX3 Pro V2.

dx3 pro v2 is an odd one - originally released with 1Ohm, ended up getting bumped to 10Ohm in rework because Topping couldn't figure out why units were dying. I wouldn't use this one as an example.
But I agree that it's not over. I will consider era of high impedance over when sub 1Ohm becomes standard for common devices such as smartphones and motherboard integrated audio. It's simply that awareness has increased in audio enthusiast community, so companies now have to actually account for low output impedance in design.

 

[3125b]

Whatever the reason, upping the output impedance is not really a good solution.
And while 1 Ohm is the standard for mobile devices, it unfortunately isn't for motherboard audio solutions and home theatre devices (though Amir unfortunately doesn't usually test for that with AVRs and such).

 

[Yuno]

Whatever the reason, upping the output impedance is not really a good solution.
And while 1 Ohm is the standard for mobile devices, it unfortunately isn't for motherboard audio solutions and home theatre devices (though Amir unfortunately doesn't usually test for that with AVRs and such).

And you are basing this claim on what? We only had measurements of 2 Smartphones on ASR, Samsung S8+ (3.2Ohm) and LG G7 ThinQ (1Ohm). We know that LG ones with Sabre DAC are good, and that's it. I expect other smartphones to be closer to Samsung, than to LG.

Until I see it advertised as such and listed in specs - I don't believe smartphones are <1Ohm output impedance.

 

[3125b]

Apple iOS devices like iPod, iPhone and iPad measured 1-2 Ohms (back when they had headphone jacks) their adapter is about 1 Ohm - that alone makes up about half the smartphone and most of the tablet and mobile audio player market in the US. Amir measured the Smasung Dongle at 1.8 Ohms.
Most mobile devices should be ok in that regard, when are you really gonna use <16 Ohm headphones anyway.
The mainboard audio outputs measured here were all really bad if I remember right, even the expensive Gigabyte Z390 sat at like 78 Ohms or something.

 

[Yuno]

Apple iOS devices like iPod, iPhone and iPad measured 1-2 Ohms (back when they had headphone jacks) their adapter is about 1 Ohm - that alone makes up about half the smartphone and most of the tablet and mobile audio player market in the US. Amir measured the Smasung Dongle at 1.8 Ohms, no problem with 16 Ohm headphones ... and so on. Most mobile devices should be ok in that regard.
The mainboard audio outputs measured here were all really bad if I remember right, even the expensive Gigabyte Z390 sat at like 78 Ohms or something.

I don't care about dongles and I'm not talking about dongles. I'm talking about smartphones. Most of the world (which is not just US) is using Android devices, not Apple - which I will not believe are <1Ohm until there is legitimate reason to believe it - i.e. high percentage of devices measuring as such, or companies listing it as a spec.
Don't get me wrong - it would be amazing if what you claim is true. I just don't believe it is, and until measuring smartphones becomes a thing I will continue not believing it. There is no way companies are spending any significant amount of effort developing competent audio circuit when you can instead slap Dolby on it and people will but it. Average consumer uses garbage tier ear-buds that came with their phone and could not care less about stuff that we (that is: small group of audio enthusiasts) care about.

 

[Vini darko]

My power amp has 400ohm-ish output impedance. Should I be horrified about it? The amp has really enjoyable sound that's no problem for long sessions.
Edit this is out of the headphone socket through dropper resistors

 

[Veri]

Edit this is out of the headphone socket through dropper resistors

It could affect sound of certain headphones but, if you like it there's no problem you like what you like just use it and be happy.
Headphones like planar magnetics also don't respond to output impedance in case you're using one.

 

[chaotic_angel]

can it drive most hungry planar?

 

[Bob-23]

My power amp has 400ohm-ish output impedance. Should I be horrified about it? The amp has really enjoyable sound that's no problem for long sessions.
Edit this is out of the headphone socket through dropper resistors

If you like the sound, stay with it. There are headphones which react on high output impedance, others don't (e.g. some AKGs) by, mainly, elevating frequency response in the 100 hz region. But some people like that 'tube-like' equalization. And, btw, you could install a simple 'impedance changer' in order to reduce the 400 Ohm, say, to 35 Ohm by putting a 39 Ohm resistor between each channel and ground (at the output) - in case, you have a soldering iron. Output voltage is gonna fall quite a bit, as a consequence.

 

[Vini darko]

If you like the sound, stay with it. There are headphones which react on high output impedance, others don't (e.g. some AKGs) by, mainly, elevating frequency response in the 100 hz region. But some people like that 'tube-like' equalization. And, btw, you could install a simple 'impedance changer' in order to reduce the 400 Ohm, say, to 35 Ohm by putting a 39 Ohm resistor between each channel and ground (at the output) - in case, you have a soldering iron. Output voltage is gonna fall quite a bit, as a consequence.

Thanks for the diy tip. I may experiment with that one rainy afternoon.

 

[odyo]

Why no one doing headphone measurements with different amps to see if anything changes ?