Poll for Topping PA5 owners only please.

[terrys999]

Got it! We're lucky to have support for Bryston in the USA. I love their gear. What a great company.

I do love these little dinky HiFi pieces. It just seems that Topping is missing out on the customer experience.
And for what I spent on the A30/D30 pro stack, an RME DAC from Sweetwater would have been the way to go...

I have the adi 2 dac fs
Yes your correct that’s should have been the way to go.
Mines akm4493 v
Never had problems and if you do their support site is spot on.
Guysl like kais. And Ramses excellent tech advice .
Regular firmware updates 10/10.

 

[MAB]

I shipped mine back to Apos, their customer support has been good. The rep I've been primarily communicating with indicated that the newer ones than the one I set back have issues resolved, so that is promising. Apos provides a prepaid shipping label, no refunds after 45 days, but they do honor the warranty work for Topping, so new one is coming, I had to pay shipping for the new one. Will report on it when it arrives.

Had to pay shipping? How much was that? Argh!!!

 

[terrys999]

I will never ever buy another topping, I don’t care how good they sound
Without proper customer service. They are useless.

They try to stall you. Make things up.
Example Chinese mobile comp.... tried to get me to try different methods of getting them to work.
They were crap calls would show “phone software error”
Then on restarting pass code didn’t work.

Then the blackmail. “Give us 5 star rating. Or I would have to wait for refund.

Amazon refunded me within 10 mins. Of me threatening them with exposure.

Nope learned my lesson with 2 faulty pa5 s.
Never again.
As for dacs you cannot go wrong with with rme ADI . Absolutely brilliant
Accurate
Lots of settings
Sounds amazing.
All thanks to Mathias and developers. German tech at its best.

Shame they don’t make amps. Dam.

As for people like MAB. They should pay shipping for you period, don’t let them mess you around.
Iam still seething to how I was treated
I still set my alarm to wake at 3am just so I can seeth a little longer ha

 

[airbornimal]

The good news is I bought it from Aoshida-USA through Amazon. I hear they are great. And thus should be different than shenzhenaudio... So a brief explanation from me stating the amp is broken should have gotten me a return shipping label and either a refund or some replacement/repair pathway.
The not so good news is, Aoshida seem to have the same playbook as shenzhenaudio.
I am now in a loop with them, and they want me to start sending videos and redoing stuff and inventing new angles. Plus getting me to cooperate.

Don't worry, we will help you solve the problem together. Our products support one year warranty We need your help, let's find out the reason together, if the TOPPING factory says it needs to be returned for repair, we will also support it. 1. In both RCA and XLR input modes, is there no sound from the left channel in both RCA and XLR output modes? 2. In the two input modes of RCA and XLR, in the three headphone output modes of XLR, 4.4mm and 6.35mm, there is no sound from the left channel? 3. We know that you have changed cables and audio sources. If the left and right RCA cables are switched, is there no sound from the left channel? Please try a different headset. 4. Do you have other amps with the same connection and environment? If I replace the A30pro with other amps, will the left and right channels work normally? 5. Please take a video to us, and we will provide it to the TOPPING factory for judgment. Please send it to the mailbox of the attached picture, not Amazon because Amazon will block the video and we can't see it. Please answer the above questions and provide the video, thank you for your understanding and cooperation. waiting for a reply,

Does product support one year warranty mean they do this for the rest of the year?

Same for me. My first was from SZ and second Aoshida/Amazon. For the first, SZ ghosted me. Aoshida ended up telling me to ship it (me paying for it) to China with a bunch of bologna about declaring with fraud values. Please let me know how it works out for you. I am considering bugging Amazon about it.

I won't ever buy anything from these vendors or any Topping products.

 

[MAB]

Same for me. My first was from SZ and second Aoshida/Amazon. For the first, SZ ghosted me. Aoshida ended up telling me to ship it (me paying for it) to China with a bunch of bologna about declaring with fraud values. Please let me know how it works out for you. I am considering bugging Amazon about it.

I won't ever buy anything from these vendors or any Topping products.

Yeah, they are clearly trying to defraud the customs system.
Here is the note from the hacks at Shenzhenaudio:
"Pls help us to declare the shippment under US$30. And ship it with postal service like USPS/EMS/Postal service. Shipping fees not included. And you don't have to clarify the detail of the product, you could just fill it as "earphone" without the Brand name and product name when you return it back."
If I had it to do all over, I would have shipped it marked "Military Spec 300 Watt Laser" with declared value or $30,000,000 USD.

My own PA5 situation is irritating, but others are experiencing the same. To be honest, after reading the fact that Topping's resellers are all playing from the same corrupt playbook, I am beyond pissed.
I will update this thread as the fiasco continues to unfold.
I actually think it may be useful to start a new thread devoted to these resellers and their absolutely broken customer service model. But it needs to have some support from Topping, otherwise we will all just be cribbing to ourselves. That being said, the rep needs to be prepared to get lit up since Topping have let this fester too long, and there seems to be a foul pattern of behavior from the resellers.

 

[delta76]

Educate me please, they asked you to do that so they can easily claim the package was lost? and in worst case you will receive less than 30$ in compensation? Or because of less than $30 they don't have to pay for import taxes?

 

[MAB]

Educate me please, they asked you to do that so they can easily claim the package was lost? and in worst case you will receive less than 30$ in compensation? Or because of less than $30 they don't have to pay for import taxes?

Import tax evasion.

 

[MAB]

So, posting about this PA5 debacle on ASR got me all worked up about the ordeal and the 80% refund, so in anger I wrote a final email to Shenzhenaudio:

And, after that I get a response:

This is just wrong all the way around; the amount of customer service I get is directly proportional to how irate my emails are... In a way, it's worse than if they told me to get lost, or went back to ghosting me.
Since my A30 Pro also just broke and Aoshida appears to be using the same withering approach to customer service, I guess I just go nuclear right away and save myself the suspense and irritation.

 

[terrys999]

These experiences should be a warning.
DONT BUY TOPPING period.
We have seen that a guy responsible for pa5 has vanished from the forum.

Obviously he’s ducking .

Screw topping and any other Chinese components
Stuff em.

There’s plenty of other manufacturers.
Imagine having top of the range topping dac and after say 6 months there’s a fault good luck with getting repaired without ****** emails.
It’s an eye opener for sure.
Iam still seething with anger. Ohh I need to chill.

 

[Anthony T]

So, posting about this PA5 debacle on ASR got me all worked up about the ordeal and the 80% refund, so in anger I wrote a final email to Shenzhenaudio:

View attachment 217511

And, after that I get a response:
View attachment 217512

This is just wrong all the way around; the amount of customer service I get is directly proportional to how irate my emails are... In a way, it's worse than if they told me to get lost, or went back to ghosting me.
Since my A30 Pro also just broke and Aoshida appears to be using the same withering approach to customer service, I guess I just go nuclear right away and save myself the suspense and irritation.

This is totally unprofessional behaviour from a supposedly reputable distributor and Topping should block further sales via them immediately, no one should be required to break the law to get satisfaction.

Is the membership (or Amir) generally aware of this behaviour?

It would seem prudent to stop taking product for review from Shenzhenaudio and mentioning them in general as reviewing product supplied by them could be misconstrued as a endorsement to purchase from them and anyone else partaking in this distasteful behaviour.

Vote with your wallets, that’ll make them sit up and readjust their attitude.

 

[tvih]

The silence is definitely concerning, especially as they (Topping) told Amir they'd say something about it here? Sure it's weekend right now, but they already apparently told Amir this on Wednesday (in their own time zone).

I did just order a PA3s on Friday to stack with my DX3 Pro+, but if they keep this nonsensical radio silence up about PA5 (that I almost ordered) that'll most likely be the last of it despite having a domestic retailer who is bound by law to handle warranty cases. I still like my Topping TP30 from 2010 too, but indeed there are other brands with similar products these days if they fail to own up to their messes.

As for the lack of customer service, sadly I've found that it often seems that customer protection and customer service are truly afterthoughts if they exist at all for China/HK-based companies, at least in case of international customers/sales. One example is how I some years back bought an RC battery charger that suicided in... well I don't recall exactly, but at least less than six months, and it was considered "out of warranty" (I think they said it had a 3-month warranty? laughable) and thus had to be junked. Had I bought it domestically or otherwise from EU it would've had 1-2 years of warranty. After all it's a bloody charger, not a battery which usually have short warranties even here. Suffice to say the next charger was ordered from an EU country, and I don't order any electronic devices directly from Asia in general anymore. I can understand that overseas warranty cases are a pain for a company given shipping costs etc. involved, but if you sell overseas regardless then you bloody well should provide proper support too.

 

[MAB]

This is totally unprofessional behaviour from a supposedly reputable distributor and Topping should block further sales via them immediately, no one should be required to break the law to get satisfaction.

Is the membership (or Amir) generally aware of this behaviour?

Agreed. This is as much on the distributors as it is on Topping for making unreliable gear.
Amir has relayed the concerns about the product, since we have had good representation from Topping on the performance aspects of their stuff:

John is a designer for the company. He is not customer service. He has also pulled way back from forum participation in general.

Company will have an official support account here to respond to such things.

We all expect some sort of official Topping response. I respect they are working on it, but PA5's appear to have been breaking and customer service has been flailing since 6 months ago...

 

[tiramisu]

Agreed. This is as much on the distributors as it is on Topping for making unreliable gear.
Amir has relayed the concerns about the product, since we have had good representation from Topping on the performance aspects of their stuff:

We all expect some sort of official Topping response. I respect they are working on it, but PA5's appear to have been breaking and customer service has been flailing since 6 months ago...

This is the unsolved problem of buying something Good, Cheap, and Fast. Something always has to give. Quality and Service are the two expensive dials that you can turn to hit a price point or delivery date that doesn't immediately affect your sales and marketing. I hope Topping uses this as an opportunity to grow but maybe not. They might not be able to achieve the market price and provide the QA or Service people on this thread expect. State of the Art but disposable and poorly built may be the way you have to think of these devices. Companies like Schiit and JDSLabs provide a different model that people with different expectations might prefer.

 

[Canuck57]

Based on the issues members are having with their PA5 and the lack of response from Topping And John Yang I will not purchase any further Topping products. I might change my mind depending on their response and how they intend to remedy the situation with the customers impacted.

 

[Doodski]

Based on the issues members are having with their PA5 and the lack of response from Topping And John Yang I will not purchase any further Topping products. I might change my mind depending on their response and how they intend to remedy the situation with the customers impacted.

I'm of the same thought but I don't think I'll give up North American customer service advantages.

 

[airbornimal]

To me it's all price relative - with $350 the PA5 costs more than a Xbox Series S, or an Apple iPad. Obviously the scale is different and Topping is not Apple/Microsoft, but the fact is that I can't believe I spent $350+tax on something and this is the treatment I got.

Imagine someone spending $900 for a LA90 getting the same customer service (which I bet they will).

 

[ampguy]

Had to pay shipping? How much was that? Argh!!!

On purchase, the shipping from Apos (I'm in the US) was free. The return of the defective unit was fully paid by Apos (or Topping). The new one being shipped to me now, cost me $13.00. I'm not bothered by that fee. I'm hoping the replacement has no issues. We'll see.

 

[MAB]

On purchase, the shipping from Apos (I'm in the US) was free. The return of the defective unit was fully paid by Apos (or Topping). The new one being shipped to me now, cost me $13.00. I'm not bothered by that fee. I'm hoping the replacement has no issues. We'll see.

Yeah, fingers crossed.

 

[restorer-john]

These experiences should be a warning.
DONT BUY TOPPING period.
We have seen that a guy responsible for pa5 has vanished from the forum.

Obviously he’s ducking .

Screw topping and any other Chinese components
Stuff em.

Well said.

 

[Slotenpiloot]

Currently suffering from a similar problem, sound on the right speaker cuts out sometimes, and i get random plopping sounds on occasion, i just switched the cables.( Left/Right).. Lets see what happens