Poll for Topping PA5 owners only please.

[airbornimal]

Hi all, been lurking for a while but wanted to share my experience. I have two PA5s... The first one has been generating random hissing in the right channel about a month ago. Topping told me to go bother shenzhenaudio and shenzhenaudio just ignores me. I have given up hope on that.

The other started doing the same hissing about 2 weeks ago, though not as severe as the first one. I have started using a fan to cool this machine and it seems to have stopped the hissing (fingers crossed). So maybe it's heat related?

edit: first one bought in January and the second in February.

 

[restorer-john]

Hi all, been lurking for a while but wanted to share my experience. I have two PA5s... The first one has been generating random hissing in the right channel about a month ago. Topping told me to go bother shenzhenaudio and shenzhenaudio just ignores me. I have given hope on that.

The other started doing the same hissing about 2 weeks ago, though not as severe as the first one. I have started using a fan to cool this machine and it seems to have stopped the hissing (fingers crossed). So maybe it's heat related?

edit: first one bought in January and the second in February.

And...another person signs up on ASR just to share his dissatisfaction with not only one, but two of these things...

It just keeps getting worse doesn't it?

 

[Slayer]

Hi all, been lurking for a while but wanted to share my experience. I have two PA5s... The first one has been generating random hissing in the right channel about a month ago. Topping told me to go bother shenzhenaudio and shenzhenaudio just ignores me. I have given hope on that.

The other started doing the same hissing about 2 weeks ago, though not as severe as the first one. I have started using a fan to cool this machine and it seems to have stopped the hissing (fingers crossed). So maybe it's heat related?

edit: first one bought in January and the second in February.

Welcome to the forum @airbornimal.
Sorry to hear you are having this same bad experience as some others are having with your Topping.
Thank you for joining and posting as you have. What some here have not realized is, most people aren't going to join a forum just to post their bad product as you have done. I would suspect the average consumer to be fed up after dealing with Topping and their vendor to the point, they just want to be done with it.
We also know from some posters and being consumers ourselves, that some sites only publish good reviews and discard the bad ones. Which is why the failure rate could be higher than what the polling numbers showing here. At the very least, the polling numbers give a good idea what a potential consumer may expect in regard to this product and Topping.

Regarding the heat issue, it's entirely possible you are correct, but like this product and several avr's some people seem keen on, I would never own an audio product where I had to put a fan on it or take extra precautions because of the possibility of overheating. I like to be able to run my gear day in and out without fear of shutting down because of poor design.

Edit; looks like John beat me to part of it.

 

[iamsms]

Topping told me to go bother shenzhenaudio and shenzhenaudio just ignores me.

This is very alarming, even more so than PA5 issues to be honest.

 

[RandomEar]

Hi all, been lurking for a while but wanted to share my experience. I have two PA5s... The first one has been generating random hissing in the right channel about a month ago. Topping told me to go bother shenzhenaudio and shenzhenaudio just ignores me. I have given up hope on that.

The other started doing the same hissing about 2 weeks ago, though not as severe as the first one. I have started using a fan to cool this machine and it seems to have stopped the hissing (fingers crossed). So maybe it's heat related?

edit: first one bought in January and the second in February.

Honestly: That's just not acceptable. Maybe your credit card company (or PayPal, in case you used that) can help and build up some pressure to get this resolved? After all, ShenzenAudio does have warranty terms that should cover this and they don't seem to be honoring those terms in your case.

 

[Sokel]

Topping told me to go bother shenzhenaudio and shenzhenaudio just ignores me. I have given up hope on that.

I just looked at the diary,yep it's 2022 and things like this still happening

 

[jjmanda]

This is very alarming, even more so than PA5 issues to be honest.

I bought Topping products before.

But after how I see they are handling this situation from a public forum that they market to, I will not be purchasing Topping anymore no matter how well their products measure.

Topping probably doesn't care about a single consumer like me dropping out of their client list, but still, they won't be getting my dollar anymore.

 

[Sokel]

I bought Topping products before.

But after how I see they are handling this situation from a public forum that they market to, I will not be purchasing Topping anymore no matter how well their products measure.

Topping probably doesn't care about a single consumer like me dropping out of their client list, but still, they won't be getting my dollar anymore.

Seems to me that Topping is not the main problem.Ok,they may had a fail somewhere,that can happen.

The main problem is the sales network,resellers,etc who they don't exactly seem hustle free as any modern company already is.
It's a 50-50 thing more or less.

 

[bboris77]

Using a common sense approach, the sheer fact that there is more than a few units that have failed in the exactly same fashion indicates that this is not an isolated problem. It is becoming clear that these units either have a serious design or component failure issue. The real problem though is the lack of communication from Topping on this matter. By this time, they should have identified the issue, informed their customers and recalled/replaced the affected units. Most of their competitors would have done so. I just look at Schiit with their Bifrost 2 launch unit issue or, more recently, JDS labs with their Element 3 pot shaft issue.

 

[Frank Sol]

@bboris77

Unfortunately some people here and elsewhere are using Topping's utter foolish lack of communication & C/S to paint the whole Chi-Fi audio market

 

[mlee]

I didn't just sign up to report a problem . I purchased an E30 about 4 months back. Things have been fine with that unit. I then decided to order 2 PA5 because of the low noise to use with higher sensitivity speakers, 1 black unit and 1 silver unit. All good for about 1.5 months. Then crackling and some white noise hiss in only 1 speaker for both units. They had roughly the same amount of ON time. Seems a deep power cycle and some off time restores proper function (maybe cooling?)......until the units have been powered ON for a time, then crackling and noise begin again. Seems to happen only to 1 channel at a time, the other channel is dead silent. These PA5 are fed with balanced DACs and not the E30.

Hope they figure it out as the units do sound good. But I'd be scared to leave them unattended.

 

[terrys999]

My mate rang I said he’s fixed the problem by placing a fan at the side of the unit. Blowing in to grill at one side.
He said he left the unit on all day without any speaker problems.
Hrmmm over heating problem?

I did notice that when I had mine, the lower the volume temp rose it got quite hot.
Could it be a thermal design fault?

Shame that I didn’t test this on mine.

 

[Maciekw]

My amplifier has been working fine since Dec 2021. Many posts mention amplifiers heating up. In my case the amplifier is always cold. Therefore, the failures are perhaps related to a thermal problem.
On the other hand, the load of my amplifier is 12-ohm speakers. Which could also influence the thermal stability of the amplifier.
Something is on the line.

 

[terrys999]

I will never ever buy anything from China ever again.
Topping or mobile phones Ect.
Iam spitting feathers hooooooooo

Please excuse this post.

As you know I returned my 2 pa5. Because of faults

I also mentions in earlier post that I sent 2 mobile phones back as they didn’t work.
I have just received an email hrmm BLACKMAIL...

This is part of email I just got. 3weeks after sending them back

Is this legal???????

Thank you for your reply and I am sorry for the inconvenience.
We take your feedback very seriously and are already improving our products.
You want to opt for a full refund, right?
OK, I'll make arrangements for you as soon as possible.
Also, are you satisfied with my service? Would you like to support my work by lighting your review to five stars? Your support is very important to me so I can request a refund faster.



Once your review has been successfully changed, I will refund the refund to your account within 24 hours. And for your convenience, you don't need to return your original A55Pro phone to us.
Your support and understanding will be greatly appreciated!

Iam taking legal action against amazon .

 

[MAB]

The seller seems to be asking you to revise your review in order to get an expedited refund.

Also, are you satisfied with my service? Would you like to support my work by lighting your review to five stars? Your support is very important to me so I can request a refund faster.



Once your review has been successfully changed, I will refund the refund to your account within 24 hours. And for your convenience, you don't need to return your original A55Pro phone to us.
Your support and understanding will be greatly appreciated!

You should certainly submit to Amazon.

My PA5 broke too. Shenzhenaudio lost my PA5 5 months ago, then ghosted me. Miraculously, they started replying to my emails again!
So, I spent another week or so going round in circles on the details of my case (since they have no Return Authorization process and clearly have no complete record of anything). And none of the stuff I had (invoice, tracking number, email chain, etc.) seemed to crack the code with them. Then out of nowhere, they offer me 30% refund. After three rounds of negotiation, I get the 80% offer and accepted (or more likely tap-out):

They PayPal'ed me the next day.

Gosh.

 

[airbornimal]

Still nothing from Shenzenaudio for me. At this point I almost hope they won't respond so I won't have to keep on dealing with them.

 

[kcc]

Mine worked flawlessly for three months driving a pair of KEF R3. Never touched the volume knob (always at max). Never ran the unit to more than luke warm temperature. Always turned off the unit using the front switch after use. Went on vacation for a week and now funny noise is coming out of the left channel.

 

[terrys999]

I received an email this morning from amazon it say refund as been given. now fully refunded, ha

Will check to make sure.
It seems amazon gave the refund not the seller.

My language on phone to amazon. Made em sit-up.

 

[MAB]

Still nothing from Shenzenaudio for me. At this point I almost hope they won't respond so I won't have to keep on dealing with them.

Yeah, emailing with them was absolutely maddening, going in circles endlessly. I finally went completely rude and condescending with them, which seemed to have an effect.

 

[REK2575]

And...another person signs up on ASR just to share his dissatisfaction with not only one, but two of these things...

It just keeps getting worse doesn't it?

I don't know how you can say that! Do a Google search and you will see that ASR is the only place people are registering complaints about the PA-5's reliability. Also, most of the Amazon reviews are extremely positive! Also, Topping / @JohnWang have never publicly acknowledged any problems with the PA-5! Also, the 'PA-5 Owner's Poll' thread is not scientific and so can be dismissed out of hand.

Ergo, this is clearly a very minor "problem" only being reported by an unrepresentative number of malcontents on this forum. Per Amir's review, "It is my absolute pleasure to recommend the Topping PA5. The dynamics of stereo amplifier market just changed folks!" It must be an excellent product!

By the way, have you seen the new Topping LA90? AMAZING SINAD! Not sure why we're even discussing the PA-5 any more. Topping has moved on to bigger and better and pricier things, and so should you. Go buy one today!