My Topping L30 II just "explode" being off, but connected to power (still works)

[Cars-N-Cans]

I taked photos (L30 itself, power brick and RCA cable) in order to fullfill the petition of HiFiGO, but it's irrelevant since I haven't opened it to avoid problems with the warranty and everything is perfectly on the outside, so little interesting to see.

Not much to see other than its the usual 50/60 Hz AC output transformer. At this point probably just send it back for another one or a refund, but still not likely to get an answer as to what failed which is somewhat unsatisfying. At least it didn't take anything out with it, but the fact that things cycled off when it went bang means it was a substantial failure, but that could also be due to the iron-core transformer in the wall wart saturating from excessive power draw by the amp.

But, these budget amps are sometimes light on the design. I know my Schiit Magni Heresy caused all kinds of RF issues. Turning it on would cause my monitor to just turn off from the switch contacts closing and arcing. Had to add a snubber to stop the switch from sending RF spikes back into the power strip, not to mention decoupling so I didn't have to listen to digital noise and other junk in the audio. Oh, and the relay is fake AF since it has no DC offset compensation. No servo loop to settle or capacitors to charge. It just pisses away 10 seconds of my life each time I turn it on. Almost nuked a set of headphones the first time I used it.

 

[Merkurio]

Can you hear any small parts loose if you shake it?

Definitely not, everything is in perfect condition (at least on the outside and feeling-wise).

 

[restorer-john]

Just open the thing up, take a few pictures of both sides of the board and we can easily spot the issue/s.

None of this is rocket science. The thread is three pages long at this point with no useful progression.

 

[Cuprajake]

This has me worried now as I have the l30ii and e30ii. The power brick does have a smell to it.

Should I be concerned.

 

[JSmith]

This has me worried now as I have the l30ii and e30ii. The power brick does have a smell to it.

Should I be concerned.

So I gather the devices are quite new? It's not unusual for a new PSU to have a slight chemical or plasticy smell for the first few weeks or so of operation due to flux residue.


JSmith

 

[restorer-john]

This has me worried now as I have the l30ii and e30ii. The power brick does have a smell to it.

Should I be concerned.

If those external PSUs are running unusually hot, absolutely be concerned.

 

[Cars-N-Cans]

This has me worried now as I have the l30ii and e30ii. The power brick does have a smell to it.

Should I be concerned.

With the L30ii since it looks to use a conventional wall-wart with just a mains transformer in it probably not. Those seldom go bad unless they are shorted at the output. With the E30ii, it looks to use an SMPS style one, so those can and sometimes do go bad. If you are worried, they look pretty standard at 5V like the types used for USB power so another one can be easily ordered. But, check who makes the one you have, first. The DAC doesn't exactly suck tons of power so a competent one should work without issue. And they all have an electronics smell to them due to gradual outgassing of the PCB and other components inside. They just shouldn't smell burnt.

 

[Cars-N-Cans]

This has me worried now as I have the l30ii and e30ii. The power brick does have a smell to it.

Should I be concerned.

Also, you can check how warm they are in operation. The wall-wart for the L30ii should be warm to the touch, and slightly warmer in operation. NOT hot, obviously. If its hot odds are something is amiss in the amp. The one for the E30ii is a bit different. It should be mostly cool with a warm spot on the case where the flyback transformer is with the DAC on. If one part of the case is really hot or the case is discolored/melted in one spot then either its bad, or the DAC is overloading it.

 

[Cuprajake]

I think when you hear reports like this it just makes you worry. The amp is warm after a hour of use, I will check the supplies. They are stacked

 

[Cuprajake]

For the cost £300 I don't know what other options there are really

 

[Roland68]

I think when you hear reports like this it just makes you worry. The amp is warm after a hour of use, I will check the supplies. They are stacked

Of course it gets warm.
The TPA6120A2 is a biased AB amplifier that constantly consumes and dissipates current. In the relatively small closed housing, 2 pieces of the TPA6120A2 are installed, which run in a prestressed AB operation.
Where should the waste heat go?

 

[Cuprajake]

wtf - why is everyone so aggressive, its the same on the facebook groups, i posted a pic of £300 headphones to be told i should of spent £3000 instead

the amp gets warm - as apposed to being hot, i dont expect it to be ice cold, that would be stupid

 

[Cars-N-Cans]

wtf - why is everyone so aggressive, its the same on the facebook groups, i posted a pic of £300 headphones to be told i should of spent £3000 instead

the amp gets warm - as apposed to being hot, i dont expect it to be ice cold, that would be stupid

That's normal for the amp. We just don't want hot and smelly. That's indicative of something being wrong. Personally I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, but as with any Chinese product counterfeit or lower-tier components possibly being in the actual product can sometimes lead to failure. However there are probably literally dozens and dozens of such products tucked away behind TV stands and inside electronics in our homes that we blithely ignore every day, and few generally fail.

 

[KellenVancouver]

wtf - why is everyone so aggressive, its the same on the facebook groups, i posted a pic of £300 headphones to be told i should of spent £3000 instead

Indeed. It certainly is interesting to observe the internet from the perspective of character analysis. You're being polite -- "aggressive" is understating the behavior by some when they get to hide behind their anonymity. Fortunately, this forum is better than most, but of course not immune to base behaviors. Reminds me of the move "12 Angry Men" when Juror 10 asks in a huff, “What are you so polite about?” and Juror 11 responds, “For the same reason you are not, it’s the way I was brought up.”

 

[Doodski]

Troubling.
As mentioned, do not plug back in. It's actually a safety hazard. I am trying to imagine what would have happened if it was near a flammable object.
HiFiGo and Topping need wake-up emails. You need either full replacement or full refund. I would be pushing for the full refund, but I leave that to you. When and if you hear from HiFiGo, they will likely follow a playbook that will drag this out ad-infinitum.
Do not allow them to ask you to do extended diagnostics. Insist that the unit is demonstratively broken and it is on them to do the diagnostics. And emphasize it's a safety hazard.
Do not allow them to drag this out with dozens of emails. If you get into a loop of more than one or two responses on this simple warranty return then you know they are going to try to stall. There are very few questions they need to ask.
Do not accept that you have to send it back with your own funds. Make sure they pay for it or (preferably) provide an RMA with paid return postage. They may also play a game with declared value to avoid paying duties too, not sure how to handle this aspect. Hopefully HiFiGo does the right thing and makes this irrelevant.

I typically equate high performance with reliability. This obviously naïve. I bought three Topping pieces, A30Pro, D30Pro, and a PA5 from three different resellers. The PA5 died within days and took most of a year to get my money back from Shenzhen, only after I sent a series of nuclear emails to the customer service rep. See this thread for similar miserable PA5 experiences. The A30 had a channel go flakey within warranty. I informed the poor customer service agent at Aoshida that I was in no mood to do 30 or more polite emails, and got right to nuclear on the after about three emails when they made it clear they were using the same playbook as Shenzhen to try to deny me service. I also included John Yang in the blasts. Aoshida refunded my money a day later via PayPal and never asked me to send it back. The D30Pro was supposed to be a second DAC to my RME ADI DAC... But it has a volume control that sometimes increases volume when you push the decrease volume button on the remote... So it is in the bin of castaway parts and I really don't miss it, just the few hundred dollars I wasted on it...

These are cheap devices to manufacture. Seems simple protection is missing. And potentially questionable design. And possibly substandard manufacturing. When one does go bad, the sellers put a barrier to returns by taking your time, and costing you nearly as much as the price of the unit in return postage. I would say these products and this sales and support model is not worth visiting again. They seem to be running a half-baked scam.

Yet nearly every time a new peep comes to ASR looking for a DAC/DAC-Amp or a amp somebody starts recommending Topping. These peeps completely ignore that Topping has had the most abysmal service for the past year or so. I think it's time to let somebody else have a chance at being the DAC-DAC-Amp solution. Topping has had more than enough encouragement, enough chances and enough failures.

 

[Cuprajake]

i started the returns process for mine today,

im not sure what i can choose next, im actually temped to get a ka3 and keep the zen can

 

[KellenVancouver]

Yet nearly every time a new peep comes to ASR looking for a DAC/DAC-Amp or a amp somebody starts recommending Topping. These peeps completely ignore that Topping has had the most abysmal service for the past year or so. I think it's time to let somebody else have a chance at being the DAC-DAC-Amp solution. Topping has had more than enough encouragement, enough chances and enough failures.

I like your comment, and don't seek to challenge you, but feel compelled to ask: do we have access to objective data regarding abysmal service? It is clearly a massive benefit to all of us that Amir provides objective data regarding performance, so if that can be matched with objective data about service record/failures that would seem the best of all worlds. I just wonder if we can get that same quality of data to match Amir's good work.

 

[Doodski]

I like your comment, and don't seek to challenge you, but feel compelled to ask: do we have access to objective data regarding abysmal service? It is clearly a massive benefit to all of us that Amir provides objective data regarding performance, so if that can be matched with objective data about service record/failures that would seem the best of all worlds. I just wonder if we can get that same quality of data to match Amir's good work.

Well I suppose we could conduct a survey although that would encompass the peeps at ASR and not all the other peeps out there. The survey should include defective Topping product and the even more defective customer service.

 

[MAB]

Well I suppose we could conduct a survey although that would encompass the peeps at ASR and not all the other peeps out there. The survey should include defective Topping product and the even more defective customer service.

Yet nearly every time a new peep comes to ASR looking for a DAC/DAC-Amp or a amp somebody starts recommending Topping. These peeps completely ignore that Topping has had the most abysmal service for the past year or so. I think it's time to let somebody else have a chance at being the DAC-DAC-Amp solution. Topping has had more than enough encouragement, enough chances and enough failures.

Yes, I am as interested in the customer service defect as the physical defect. All of these resellers have the same horrible behavior, no matter the brand of kit they sell. Part of me feels Topping gets the rub because they are popular and recommended here... I'm not convinced Topping is any worse than the other products.

I am torn, I want to like this little minimalist kit but it is too broken and unsupported to be useful. And it doesn't feel very minimalist when it breaks, rather time consuming.

 

[Roland68]

wtf - why is everyone so aggressive, its the same on the facebook groups, i posted a pic of £300 headphones to be told i should of spent £3000 instead

the amp gets warm - as apposed to being hot, i dont expect it to be ice cold, that would be stupid

If you mean me, that wasn't meant to be aggressive or mean, but simply to clarify facts and get to the point, without frills.

The L30 and the L30 II now run in class AB operation. If you really challenge the amplifier and demand performance, the unventilated housing can get hot in summer, even 60°. After all, over 20 watts can be burned away.
But since all components are specified up to 85°, this is not a problem. The chip can even handle a lot more.