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Topping L30 Headphone Amplifier Review

anmpr1

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Loudness perception also seems to depend highly on what you've gotten your ears accustomed to during any given listening session. I have to force myself to set the volume at what I know is a reasonable level and try very hard not to let myself creep that knob up and up because as soon as I let things get loud, that becomes the new normal and I want it louder and louder...
I don't know about headphones/distortion since headphones are an afterthought for me. Headphones are their own little world, and my guess is that most people listen at louder than 'normal' levels.

With free standing loudspeakers distortion is one of the biggest factors in listening levels. If your loudspeakers didn't distort (i.e., if they were as clean as the amplifier driving it) you'd probably never turn it down. A quote from the late Drew Daniels, JBL applications engineer, on his low distortion loudspeaker project:

First, play music at no more than realistic levels. I assume that if you choose to build these things, you've done so because you're interested in fidelity of the reproduced sound to the originally recorded sound. You will get the best representation of the original sound if you play the reproduction at the original sound level. Playing too loud is as detrimental to fidelity as playing too softly.

If you play predominantly rock music, there is no such thing as an original sound level-since all the recorded material comes out of a little electronic box or was derived by sticking a microphone somewhere you would never purposely put your ears.

In either case, you need to keep a sound level meter handy. You can get a perfectly adequate SLM at your local Radio Shack store for around fifty bucks, and for your ears sake, don't ignore this advice.

These speakers make so little distortion that you will be tempted to believe that the 120 dB sound you are listening to is only playing at 90 dB. This is not good. You will lose your hearing.
 

Sgt. Ear Ache

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Yeah just to be clear, the gain settings and power of the L30 are absolutely fine. Anyone looking for a great headphone amp need look no further than the L30. The only question for those of us with several great amps already is whether we need to add another one to the collection, lol...
 

Sgt. Ear Ache

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I don't know about headphones/distortion since headphones are an afterthought for me. Headphones are their own little world, and my guess is that most people listen at louder than 'normal' levels.

With free standing loudspeakers distortion is one of the biggest factors in listening levels. If your loudspeakers didn't distort (i.e., if they were as clean as the amplifier driving it) you'd probably never turn it down. A quote from the late Drew Daniels, JBL applications engineer, on his low distortion loudspeaker project:

First, play music at no more than realistic levels. I assume that if you choose to build these things, you've done so because you're interested in fidelity of the reproduced sound to the originally recorded sound. You will get the best representation of the original sound if you play the reproduction at the original sound level. Playing too loud is as detrimental to fidelity as playing too softly.

If you play predominantly rock music, there is no such thing as an original sound level-since all the recorded material comes out of a little electronic box or was derived by sticking a microphone somewhere you would never purposely put your ears.

In either case, you need to keep a sound level meter handy. You can get a perfectly adequate SLM at your local Radio Shack store for around fifty bucks, and for your ears sake, don't ignore this advice.

These speakers make so little distortion that you will be tempted to believe that the 120 dB sound you are listening to is only playing at 90 dB. This is not good. You will lose your hearing.

Absolutely true. True of headphones for sure. With the Heresy the noise/distortion is so low, the signal so clean...I can listen at incredibly high volume and feel like it's not that high at all. It's a bit dangerous really.

With speakers, I can't turn the volume up beyond about 75dbs at my listening position (measured with a simple SPL meter on my iphone) before I worry about bothering my neighbors in my apartment block. 75dbs is pretty darn loud!
 

Racheski

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Yeah just to be clear, the gain settings and power of the L30 are absolutely fine. Anyone looking for a great headphone amp need look no further than the L30. The only question for those of us with several great amps already is whether we need to add another one to the collection, lol...
It’s new, it’s shiny, it’s a JY design, and comes in speed red. You buy first and ask questions later ;)
 

Jimbob54

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Yeah just to be clear, the gain settings and power of the L30 are absolutely fine. Anyone looking for a great headphone amp need look no further than the L30. The only question for those of us with several great amps already is whether we need to add another one to the collection, lol...

Im asking exactly that. Hmm- its only £100 or so. Hmmmm. Actually, my biggest issue is what to feed it from. I cant justify ANOTHER DAC.
 

aHaidc

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@JohnYang1997
Hello John, is the L30 fully analog or digital through the analog volume? I dont mind whether it is digital or analog, just want to know more about the product :)
 

JohnYang1997

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Hey! The people who need more gain, here's the solution with +18dB gain! 300mW at 300Ohm!
IMG_20200810_215916.jpg

-3259f8e3eb355934.png
325dc7476b0ba939.png
 

Racheski

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haha, I have to admit...sporty red is very tempting! It's not yet available though is it?
Only the accent on the volume knob AFAIK. Speaking of which, they should make a special edition where the accent is RGB LEDs and market it towards gamers. The pot would go from 0 to 11 instead of min/max, and John Yang’s signature would be etched into the top of each unit.
 

9J7

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I don't mind the gain settings but I find the spec sheet quite misleading because the power on the spec sheet can't be achieved by pairing it with the E30 for example. In the promotional pictures the stack is also shown and it should have been stated somewhere that the advertised power can't be achieved with said stack.

Btw can the stack drive the Arya, although not high impedance in, it is quite inefficient. I heard people had trouble with it combined with DX3Pro
 

JohnYang1997

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I don't mind the gain settings but I find the spec sheet quite misleading because the power on the spec sheet can't be achieved by pairing it with the E30 for example. In the promotional pictures the stack is also shown and it should have been stated somewhere that the advertised power can't be achieved with said stack.

Btw can the stack drive the Arya, although not high impedance in, it is quite inefficient. I heard people had trouble with it combined with DX3Pro
Absolutely no issue. You don't need that amount of power. Basically the numbers are for the show for most use cases not practical. But it's true power that can be achieved. When you specify the performance specs of an opamp you don't limit your supply to +-6 even it's supposed to be a portable chip.
 

JohnYang1997

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The blue really pops! Almost 'electric blue' in that pic (unless it's due to my uncalibrated monitor haha). I really like the grey, though.
The camera on my end probably. Also the color will also be further tuned. These are just a prototypes made before the release.
 

levimax

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Oh no!....... it looks like the ultimate amplifier goal of "a wire with gain" has been achieved..... and for $130...... now what?
 

Veri

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Oh no!....... it looks like the ultimate amplifier goal of "a wire with gain" has been achieved..... and for $130...... now what?
L30 SE in SE out. L30+ with BAL out and SE passthrough (THX killer?). while the premium A90 does everything including se/bal preamp.
something like that? :D
 

Racheski

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I don't mind the gain settings but I find the spec sheet quite misleading because the power on the spec sheet can't be achieved by pairing it with the E30 for example. In the promotional pictures the stack is also shown and it should have been stated somewhere that the advertised power can't be achieved with said stack.

Btw can the stack drive the Arya, although not high impedance in, it is quite inefficient. I heard people had trouble with it combined with DX3Pro
If we are going to be completely unbiased I think this is a fair criticism. It’s not unreasonable to assume you would achieve these numbers with the E30 based on the promo pics.
 

bahamot

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L30 SE in SE out. L30+ SE in BAL out and SE passthrough (THX killer). while the premium A90 does everything including se/bal preamp.
something like that? :D
A30Pro?
Also A30pro is in the work. 789 price range with more power than 789's BAL out on just SE output, much lower noise and internal power supply.
 

Jimbob54

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L30 SE in SE out. L30+ SE in BAL out and SE passthrough (THX killer). while the premium A90 does everything including se/bal preamp.
something like that? :D

I'd probably actually rather have SE + BAL in, SE out- a la Archel 2.5- give more options for those of us with some spare DAC outputs . BAL- 6.35mm adapters easy top get and cheap.
 

JohnYang1997

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If we are going to be completely unbiased I think this is a fair criticism. It’s not unreasonable to assume you would achieve these numbers with the E30 based on the promo pics.
Ok. But all the other numbers would not be achieved with e30 either.
 
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