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Topping L30 Headphone Amplifier Review

MrGash

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@JohnYang1997 Just tell people who want the +18db gain to buy an A30! ;) I just ordered my d90mqa and a90 which should arrive today!

.... and as it happens I'll likely be selling my beloved D30/A30 stack with the acrylic stand and Burson v5i op amps swapped after some A/B testing. That said, I'm afraid the E30/L30 combo just drastically hit my resale value! lol, such is life :)
 

peng

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Amir, with such great specs and measurements, and has a preamp mode and selectable gain including 0 dB, I wonder if it can be used as a buffer amp for someone who has a well measured AVR or AVP such as the Denon 3600 and who needs clean (SINAD>90) for the center channel pre-out at 2 V or higher? I know it would be an expensive buffer amp but technically speaking it can be done right?
 

gorman

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I had been waiting for this review. Wow... L30+E30, what a combo.

Is there an estimate for widespread availability in Europe (meaning I can order it on Amazon with no weeks of waiting)?

One question as this is not clear to me: with line out is signal ok for powered speakers, correct?
Bump for questions without answers . :)
(normally I wouldn't do this, but with the rate this discussion is going, these are gonna be forgotten forever in half an hour)
 

MadMan

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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.

I am going to have to agree with this. The power specs are, at best, misleading marketing, and at worst, intentionally deceptive. I brought up the same issue of input voltage in Wolf's preview thread, the answer was 'well this is the maximum performance it's capable of'....ok, but that's quite meaningless and not real-world at all, who is going to pair this with a 9Vrms single-ended source ? The input power at least needs to be noted on the spec sheet, but to be a useful and honest comparison to other amplifiers the spec should should be at 'standard' input voltage of 2Vrms single-ended and 4Vrms balanced.

Have you measured transient power draw into real headphones @JohnYang1997 I know there is info about speakers with 'normal' 85dB-ish listening levels and thus not high average power draw having very high instantaneous power draw. In other words...maybe it's about headroom.

I have an L30 on the way which will replace an Atom, and no real regrets even though I ordered it before seeing proper 2Vrms input power...except that I didn't know it would come out in sexy blue :)
 

JohnYang1997

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I am going to have to agree with this. The power specs are, at best, misleading marketing, and at worst, intentionally deceptive. I brought up the same issue of input voltage in Wolf's preview thread, the answer was 'well this is the maximum performance it's capable of'....ok, but that's quite meaningless and not real-world at all, who is going to pair this with a 9Vrms single-ended source ? The input power at least needs to be noted on the spec sheet, but to be a useful and honest comparison to other amplifiers the spec should should be at 'standard' input voltage of 2Vrms single-ended and 4Vrms balanced.

Have you measured transient power draw into real headphones @JohnYang1997 I know there is info about speakers with 'normal' 85dB-ish listening levels and thus not high average power draw having very high instantaneous power draw. In other words...maybe it's about headroom.

I have an L30 on the way which will replace an Atom, and no real regrets even though I ordered it before seeing proper 2Vrms input power...except that I didn't know it would come out in sexy blue :)
All the specs are measured individually and separately. It won't mean anything if you don't max out the volume at high gain.
 

JohnYang1997

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Bump for questions without answers . :)
(normally I wouldn't do this, but with the rate this discussion is going, these are gonna be forgotten forever in half an hour)
Before the end of the month hopefully.
 

Matias

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How come -9dB gain has higher noise floor than 0 and +9dB gains? I thought adding gain always increased noise floor, I guess I was wrong.
 

MadMan

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All the specs are measured individually and separately. It won't mean anything if you don't max out the volume at high gain.

I know you're not the marketing person, but I guess you're ok with marketing posting misleading specs. Notice how even Amir was confused when you replied with the voltages used, probably because it makes no sense to spec power with those single-ended input voltages...there will be backlash from end-users about it for sure, at the very least some bad p.r.
 

JohnYang1997

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How come -9dB gain has higher noise floor than 0 and +9dB gains? I thought adding gain always increased noise floor, I guess I was wrong.
Max volume at low gain is not the designed use case. There's a resistor in series. The equivalent resistance is 5k and 2.5k in parallel. In mid gain, there's no resistor in the signal forward path, hence lowest noise.
In 50mV test, there's no difference.
 

JohnYang1997

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I know you're not the marketing person, but I guess you're ok with marketing posting misleading specs. Notice how even Amir was confused when you replied with the voltages used, probably because it makes no sense to spec power with those single-ended input voltages...there will be backlash from end-users about it for sure, at the very least some bad p.r.
Well. It makes all the sense. I don't care about backlash anymore because I have asked people if there's any issue with gain settings. And don't touch on p.r.
 

3125b

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It's a preamp out and yes, it works perfectly for powered speakers (it's unbalanced though, you might run into problems with a ground loop with grounded speakers if you have the DAC connected via USB to a computer).
 

SimpleTheater

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Lack of distortion in this unit is a big mistake. It's going to sound dry and precise. This product should only be used with a turntable to add warmth.
 

Kouioui

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you might run into problems with a ground loop with grounded speakers if you have the DAC connected via USB to a computer
That gets eliminated if you use a phone charger on the E30 instead of PC USB power with the E30/L30 stack..at least in my setup.
 
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Xulonn

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The L30 is yet another stunning achievement from Topping. Amir, thanks for the review.

What could make hi-fi sound lovers happier that ultra-low cost, high-performance equipment? Clearly it's possible to do; pity it isn't done in AV receivers.

I am hoping the Topping soon comes up with a 200 wpc power amp for, say, <US$500.

My two otherwise excellent Topping PA3 amplifiers with external SMPS died within months of purchase, and Amir's review of the Tripath-based TP60 with an internal toroid transformer-based LPS that found it to be of more use as a power supply than an amplifier due to unremarkable performance. I am intrigued by the fact that a transformer provides simple plus and minus voltages vs the complex circuitry of SMPS designs. (The MX3 is a multifunction amp with featured I don't want or need.)

My DX7s DAC/HA is excellent and reliable, but now back in its box - and for sale - since I don't use headphnes, and switched to a 3.0 (L/R/C) configuration with an AVP to add a center channel for movies.

So Topping currently offers no speaker amplifiers that appeal to me at the moment. Will that change soon now that Topping has a full and remarkable selection of DAC's and HA's?
 

Svperstar

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Dang I just got in an SMSL P200 this Saturday, debating sending it back to Amazon now and getting this lol.

Save over $100
 
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