Topping L30 Headphone Amplifier Review

[boXem]

you do realize makers of `serious` hifi equipment invest a lot of time actually listening to their designs right? ..and adjust accordingly. and then the idea is for the end user to just skip that component, as it is clearly beneath us

There is somewhere on the web an interview from @Bruno Putzeys where he explains that they spent 40k in production tooling for the Kii 3 without having listened the speaker one single second...

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

Inside Pics .
Well , 3 days so far , I'm impressed . It needs burn in , say 20 hours .
does better in "dc mode" , really detailed , sound stage kinda expand , deepness too , or better UnVeils (quite a lot) ... nichi green NP are usually quite good But...
can do (does) lil better with mkp bypass on nichi golds .
delta T (over ambient) ~15 C , outside case ... power consumption ~7 W.
power brick warms up too .
look at volpot . channel unbalance and low level usability , Top Notch , very smart adding three different levels !
As a preamp , well : very nice , detailed and dynamic like class a , very clean!
Sounds better , paired with E30 , on -9db... maybe I'll try 10k series resistors , dale , lowest Johnson noise

Did you say burn in?

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

you do realize makers of `serious` hifi equipment invest a lot of time actually listening to their designs right? ..and adjust accordingly. and then the idea is for the end user to just skip that component, as it is clearly beneath us

Sure. And yet there's a constant stream of new models being released 100 years into this whole recorded music adventure with no real consensus from golden-eared speaker designers as far as what makes the perfect speaker. The makers of "serious" hifi equipment fail miserably just as often as they succeed...such that it appears almost random chance that they ever get it right.

 

[w1000i]

it affect transparency

Can you demonstrate it you you short it . Let's burn some fingers.

 

[1roger]

Sure. And yet there's a constant stream of new models being released 100 years into this whole recorded music adventure with no real consensus from golden-eared speaker designers as far as what makes the perfect speaker. The makers of "serious" hifi equipment fail miserably just as often as they succeed...such that it appears almost random chance that they ever get it right.

im not sure what your goal is here..speakers like tools are made for different tasks. rooms..music..tastes..and every maker of speakers have their own ideals. in any case.. im fairly sure the vast majority of speakers would fail if designers quit listening to their creations^^

 

[JohnYang1997]

im not sure what your goal is here..speakers like tools are made for different tasks. rooms..music..tastes..and every maker of speakers have their own ideals. in any case.. im fairly sure the vast majority of speakers would fail if designers quit listening to their creations^^

That doesn't stop that most designs still fail.

 

[1roger]

well most designs are built to budget. and what is considered a fail is subjective

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

well most designs are built to budget. and what is considered a fail is subjective

it doesn't have to be so subjective. I mean wouldn't it be nice if there was a well-researched, more reliable and less subjective way to determine if a speaker was doing it's job properly? "You there! Toole! Any thoughts?? And what about you off in the corner there Olive? What can you contribute to the discussion?" lol

And it's been proven time and time again that there isn't any correlation between great sound and $. There's as many high end speakers that sound bad as low end.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

im not sure what your goal is here..speakers like tools are made for different tasks. rooms..music..tastes..and every maker of speakers have their own ideals. in any case.. im fairly sure the vast majority of speakers would fail if designers quit listening to their creations^^

My goal is to assemble a sound system that accurately (as much as I can achieve) reproduces the information contained in the source recording without adding information that isn't in the recording or subtracting information that is. Given that, I don't agree with your suggestion that speakers (in the context of home audio systems of course) are made for different tasks.

 

[1roger]

And it's been proven time and time again that there isn't any correlation between great sound and $. There's as many high end speakers that sound bad as low end.

neither one of those sentences are true.. now had you said for example `an expensive speaker is not necessarily likely to be great` then we could agree

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

neither one of those sentences are true.. now had you said for example `an expensive speaker is not necessarily likely to be great` then we could agree

Well, by "low end" I'm talking about speakers that still have some semblance of quality. And there are lots and lots of very (VERY) expensive speakers that aren't actually any better-sounding than more moderately priced speakers. Your point seemed to be that the reason designer's ears fail them is due to budgetary constraints. That, I don't agree with.

 

[1roger]

My goal is to assemble a sound system that accurately (as much as I can achieve) reproduces the information contained in the source recording without adding information that isn't in the recording or subtracting information that is. Given that, I don't agree with your suggestion that speakers (in the context of home audio systems of course) are made for different tasks.

so filling 20 square meters with adequate dynamics and bass levels is not different from 100m2. and you don`t believe a die hard fan of rock might have different needs then someone who listen to acoustic. fidelity...was the goal here right? to accurately as possible recreate an band or artists live performance

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

so filling 20 square meters with adequate dynamics and bass levels is not different from 100m2. and you don`t believe a die hard fan of rock might have different needs then someone who listen to acoustic

Of course different rooms require different considerations. But the task of the speaker remains the same - accurately reproduce sound. I may want a speaker that can pump out higher spl for a huge room, but that doesn't mean I want one that has a messed up tonal balance. And no, I don't really believe different genre require different speakers. I believe a speaker that does it's job well will be suitable for any genre.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

fidelity...was the goal here right? to accurately as possible recreate an band or artists live performance

I didn't say anything about accurately reproducing a live performance.

 

[1roger]

well the tonal balance will change if you put the exact same audio system in different rooms so..

performance..live performance it doesn`t really matter

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

well the tonal balance will change if you put the exact same audio system in different rooms so..

Yep, that's why we have EQ.

 

[Vini darko]

Why are we talking about speakers in a headphone amplifer thread?

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

Why are we talking about speakers in a headphone amplifer thread?

Hmmmm...intriguing observation!

 

[1roger]

the other boy made me do it sir!

 

[solderdude]

well... active speakers can be driven quite well from a headphone amp ..