Endgame headphones amp

[Roland68]

My DCA E3 headphones are balanced.

I see the SA-1 v2 can ship to Canada from Amazon.com without any taxes and duties, that’s probably what I’ll choose.

I’m nervous to see if the A70 Pro has damaged the headphones as well… need a new amp to confirm.

I hope not, it has the protection circuit for that.

 

[Music1969]

What is the song?

pls read the thread I linked, the last couple pages of the last couple weeks

 

[Golf]

Less than a month later, the amp is dead.

I’m not surprised at all – since this is ought to be an endgame scenario.

 

[Brian Hall]

Schiit Midguard.

 

[MAB]

They speak to me from the soul.

I'm actually a really big topping fan because the products sound really great, and not just for the price. For me, the L70 and the A70 Pro in particular are among the best headphone amplifiers in terms of sound.

But Topping's devices with these modules are ruining the hobby for me, my friends, and so many people that I can't even find the words to describe how despicable I find Topping's behavior.

I understand you. I wanted to like them.
I want them to turn the corner on reliability, and after-sales service, and professionality.
I think ASR should limit reviews of their products until the demonstrate quality, and address the after-sales disasters they force on customers with broken gear.
They dipped their toe in this during the PA5 debacle, saying they were going to honor warranties for an additional year, etc. Saying they were doing extended life testing on 20 units... Using ASR forums like the PA5-defect thread and the Ask Me Questions thread to promote their quality. But they answered very few meaningful questions in the Ask Me thread. But they never followed through, just a few posts on the PA5-defect thread, but zero action. And of course never weighed in on the PA5 D01 module fix thread, would be nice of them to acknowledge that their efforts to hide IP actually caused someone to actually reverse-engineer part of the amp in order to make it work properly, or whatever. a And still sell systematically unreliable kit. So yeah, probably too much to ask them to fix their broken business model and broken reliability. They keep encapsulating their boards to prevent IP theft, according to one of the few answers they did give on Ask Me.

 

[Aud99]

Topping A90D has a much better reliability. The A70 is a powerful turd.

You may want to take a look at the new Fiio K19, it is a dac-amp with a very powerful amp, not yet released but soon, already showing up in CanJam.

The Singxer SA-1 is an already tried and true option.

Thanks!

I have ordered the Singxer SA-1 v2. Read whole threads on this amp and there were no issues with reliability that were reported, ans the specs looked similar to that of the Topping.

 

[MAB]

If your music has DC, which is what that error is about

No, the DC Output Abnormal error is DC offset protection. It can be tripped by certain tracks, but it is typically fault-protection to keep from blowing your drivers when the amp dies.

FAQ - TOPPING

www.toppingaudio.com

OP's amp is either dead, or an upstream device is producing DC offset. Yes, tracks with erroneous bass content can also cause the DC protection circuit to trip and protecting the amp and cans, but if so the amp will reset after the fault, not remain dead.

Blown devices producing DC is a common fail mode, and in fact is one of the symptoms of the PA5 defect, and the L30 headphone-blowing defect. My bet is the Amp blew. But before @Aud99 moves forward, make sure the Eversolo is not broken and producing a DC offset to the amp's inputs. That would cause the DC offset protection to trip. You can check this by power cycling the Topping without the Eversolo hooked up to the inputs. If the amp is still non-working, it is the amp not the streamer. Even better if you can measure the Eversolo's DC offset directly.

 

[Bleib]

Does Topping L70 also have this DC problem?

 

[MAB]

Does Topping L70 also have this DC problem?

L70 also has DC Offset protection. It's not a problem, it's a protection feature.

FAQ - TOPPING

www.toppingaudio.com

They call it 'HP DC abnormal'.

Presumably this is a lesson-learned from the L30 defects which blew many headphones when the amp went bad (the L30 had no DC offset protection according to their documentation.)

If you are referring to the amp self-protecting when fed a DC signal due to a track with significant DC content, yes it will do that as well, but it isn't a problem.
Tracks like this should engage DC protection on any device with a moderately aggressive DC Offset protection, since the circuit wont be able to tell the difference between the music and a defect. Other amps may filter the DC, Topping decided to clamp the amp as a safeguard. I don't think this is a bad feature. I think there is some misdirection as to what this protection circuit is, it's not the problem, it's the amp's response to a problem. And the OP's amp appears to be dead, not because they played the music with DC content, but because the amp is defective.

 

[Bleib]

L70 also has DC Offset protection. It's not a problem, it's a protection feature.

FAQ - TOPPING

www.toppingaudio.com

They call it 'HP DC abnormal'.

Presumably this is a lesson-learned from the L30 defects which blew many headphones when the amp went bad (the L30 had no DC offset protection according to their documentation.)

If you are referring to the amp self-protecting when fed a DC signal due to a track with significant DC content, yes it will do that as well, but it isn't a problem.
Tracks like this should engage DC protection on any device with a moderately aggressive DC Offset protection, since the circuit wont be able to tell the difference between the music and a defect. Other amps may filter the DC, Topping decided to clamp the amp as a safeguard. I don't think this is a bad feature. I think there is some misdirection as to what this protection circuit is, it's not the problem, it's the amp's response to a problem. And the OP's amp appears to be dead, not because they played the music with DC content, but because the amp is defective.

OK, so reading the FAQ seems to make it clear that it's only a temporary problem most of the time. So far haven't encountered it myself. Should try some industrial music if something I have triggers it.. thanks

 

[MAB]

OK, so reading the FAQ seems to make it clear that it's only a temporary problem most of the time. So far haven't encountered it myself. Should try some industrial music if something I have triggers it.. thanks

Yes, some oddly recorded tracks with massive DC appears to send the amp into protection. Like this:

It was linked earlier in this thread, and will trip protection on any amp with a DC Offset detection scheme at sufficient volume.
But it isn't the problem here.

 

[Mr Swing King]

Humans have been making amps for a very very long time. It is not that hard finding a transparent headphone amp with low OI. What can be a little more difficult is finding something that is well-built and designed…and to find something like that, I’d stay clear of most Chinese makes and all the pricy boutique looking stuff out there. You’re paying for make-up and the flavour of the month. Chances are once you get that new fantastic looking amp with the gold finish and enormous volume pot, it’ll sound identical to your old once you hide the two from view and volumematch the buggers.

Lake People and Violectric (basically the same) make great amps. They’re very well made and I have never experienced any problems with them. Those are always my recs when it comes to amps. The folks I’ve recommended them to are also extremely happy with their purchases.

Endgame? That’s a mentality, not a piece of gear.

 

[Kaligogrrrrr]

Presumably this is a lesson-learned from the L30 defects which blew many headphones when the amp went bad (the L30 had no DC offset protection according to their documentation.)

 

[Roland68]

L70 also has DC Offset protection. It's not a problem, it's a protection feature.

FAQ - TOPPING

www.toppingaudio.com

They call it 'HP DC abnormal'.

Presumably this is a lesson-learned from the L30 defects which blew many headphones when the amp went bad (the L30 had no DC offset protection according to their documentation.)

If you are referring to the amp self-protecting when fed a DC signal due to a track with significant DC content, yes it will do that as well, but it isn't a problem.
Tracks like this should engage DC protection on any device with a moderately aggressive DC Offset protection, since the circuit wont be able to tell the difference between the music and a defect. Other amps may filter the DC, Topping decided to clamp the amp as a safeguard. I don't think this is a bad feature. I think there is some misdirection as to what this protection circuit is, it's not the problem, it's the amp's response to a problem. And the OP's amp appears to be dead, not because they played the music with DC content, but because the amp is defective.

That's not entirely true, so I have to defend Topping a little.
With the L30, a maximum of 3-5 cases are known where headphones were damaged.
This initially had nothing to do with DC in the music signal, but only with the ESD sensitivity of the devices.
DC protection was actually installed, but it was discovered at the time that the DC protection did not respond quickly enough. There were also coupling capacitors at the input.

Also, this ESD problem came together due to several unfortunate technical circumstances and in reality only a few units were even affected under unfortunate circumstances. Among other things, it was the perfection of Topping that caused the problem in the first place.

 

[Kaligogrrrrr]

That's not entirely true, so I have to defend Topping a little.
With the L30, a maximum of 3-5 cases are known where headphones were damaged.
This initially had nothing to do with DC in the music signal, but only with the ESD sensitivity of the devices.
DC protection was actually installed, but it was discovered at the time that the DC protection did not respond quickly enough. There were also coupling capacitors at the input.

Also, this ESD problem came together due to several unfortunate technical circumstances and in reality only a few units were even affected under unfortunate circumstances. Among other things, it was the perfection of Topping that caused the problem in the first place.

Since my L30ii arrived yesterday - I am currently, no pun, working through this thread now https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...t-connected-to-power-still-works.38979/page-4

 

[Roland68]

Since my L30ii arrived yesterday - I am currently, no pun, working through this thread now https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...t-connected-to-power-still-works.38979/page-4

You should just ignore this thread, the L30 II had nothing to do with it, pure hysteria.

 

[solderdude]

Indeed L30-II is fine...

 

[Count Arthur]

Yes, some oddly recorded tracks with massive DC appears to send the amp into protection. Like this:

It was linked earlier in this thread, and will trip protection on any amp with a DC Offset detection scheme at sufficient volume.
But it isn't the problem here.

There's a news podcast series I listen to, that plays a short piece of music between segments.

Every time they play that piece of music my DAC cuts out for a short time and I see a message:

 

[Kaligogrrrrr]

Indeed L30-II is fine...

I was confident this was LIKELY the case but obviously it's always a concern reading such things the day after receiving it - I absolutely love my L30ii and I'm really enjoying using it - all the power I could want in middle gain even with a very aggressive EQ APO pre-amp deficit.

One day I may go balanced but other than that I see no other direction to go, everything sounds tremendous to me and I have the confidence that other than my headphones everything measures tremendously also, compared to human ears anyway.

I am a very happy Topping customer and unless something goes wrong will probably soon disappear for a while, enjoying music and games!

I hate reading the customer service stories though.... I mean whhhhhhy would they drop the ball since word of mouth is SEEMINGLY really what drives the Topping brand.

I have always been an advocate of Topping ever since Amir showed the great performance for such sensible prices, and I got my E30, this was 2-3 years back though.

Amir debunked my dream of £2000 DACS (something I would NEVER have) being of really any use at all.

Thank you Amir!

I've literally ended up in debt years before due to my obsessive nature and marketing lies stinging me. Folk should appreciate Amir IMO wether he is perfect or not.

 

[Roland68]

I was confident this was LIKELY the case but obviously it's always a concern reading such things the day after receiving it - I absolutely love my L30ii and I'm really enjoying using it - all the power I could want in middle gain even with a very aggressive EQ APO pre-amp deficit.

One day I may go balanced but other than that I see no other direction to go, everything sounds tremendous to me and I have the confidence that other than my headphones everything measures tremendously also, compared to human ears anyway.

I am a very happy Topping customer and unless something goes wrong will probably soon disappear for a while, enjoying music and games!

I hate reading the customer service stories though.... I mean whhhhhhy would they drop the ball since word of mouth is SEEMINGLY really what drives the Topping brand.

I have always been an advocate of Topping ever since Amir showed the great performance for such sensible prices, and I got my E30, this was 2-3 years back though.

Amir debunked my dream of £2000 DACS (something I would NEVER have) being of really any use at all.

Thank you Amir!

I've literally ended up in debt years before due to my obsessive nature and marketing lies stinging me. Folk should appreciate Amir IMO wether he is perfect or not.

Driving a car is dangerous, riding a bike is dangerous, walking across the street is even more dangerous, you can read it everywhere.
When was the last time you left the house? The written word is patient, no matter the medium.

Every device in this world can break, no matter what it costs.
But if you want service you have to pay significantly more, that doesn't work for these prices.
Or would you have spent €300 with the service?