Poll for Topping PA5 owners only please.

[tiramisu]

All else being equal I prefer better measurements BUT not all else is equal and once the noise is inaudible, features, quality

Idk. My kid already stole my Grado headphones. I always keep one eye open when I sleep now.

My wife stole my obusforme office chair and works from the dining room on a wooden chair.
One day death will come.

 

[airbornimal]

I love products I can hand down to my kids.

At this point I will take a product that will last more than 6 months.

 

[Holmz]

I like SINAD. I love products I can hand down to my kids.

I am sure that they’ll feel touched.

 

[Canuck57]

For those with issues with their PA5 has Topping been addressing your concerns since their statement recently in this thread?

 

[Slotenpiloot]

For those with issues with their PA5 has Topping been addressing your concerns since their statement recently in this thread?

Indirectly, my dealer (hifistudio79) emailed topping. He got a reply back the next day and he told me he will exchange the unit for a new one.

He did not show me their email, but as he is offering to exchange it for a new one i assume it was a positive answer.

 

[airbornimal]

For those with issues with their PA5 has Topping been addressing your concerns since their statement recently in this thread?

Doesn't matter what Topping does or says when Shenzhenaudio doesn't respond to emails.

 

[Canuck57]

Doesn't matter what Topping does or says when Shenzhenaudio doesn't respond to emails.

One would hope they would work with Shenzhenaudio to resolve your issue; try contacting the Topping representative that posted here and ask for them to intervene.

 

[MAB]

For those with issues with their PA5 has Topping been addressing your concerns since their statement recently in this thread?

They haven't reached out, nor have they responded.

 

[Canuck57]

Topping Service are you reading this thread and proactively contacting members that have issues to ensure they are resolved?

 

[MAB]

Topping Service are you reading this thread and proactively contacting members that have issues to ensure they are resolved?

@TOPPING-Service, I have been asking for specific help and you haven't replied or reached out to me.
At this time, I am looking to you to build confidence that you can support product under normal warranty.

Extraordinarily, I have a second unit gone bad with an intermittent problem (A30 Pro in this case).
Aoshida is doing the same customer service as Shenzhen did, round after round of emails with an agent who doesn't understand the problem. I gotta ship it back, my own expense, marked as a $20 piece. And I hope you appreciate that the problem is intermittent, and from the emails the plan is to check the unit and repair if necessary. And, as I posted to you in this thread it is difficult to even get a response from Aoshida, let alone service. I am pretty sure you know all of this... But your silence is confusing...

Since you joined this thread offering help:
I would like a full refund on this second defective Topping device I bought, the A30 Pro. I am happy to ship the defective unit back, but it should be at Aoshida or Topping's expense, not my expense. I recommend Topping getting it back, might be useful to see what is really wrong - could be me!!!

 

[Canuck57]

Topping the ball and your reputation is in your court!

 

[ampguy]

replacement unit came today, so far so good, no hiss at all with ears to tweeter at full volume, with inputs in 1, nothing on 2. No pops or anything either. But until this weekend, I'm using unbalanced DAC to T/S. I have 2 balanced DACs, and I will swap one of those in this weekend and test in balanced mode. I hope they got it right. Service from Apos on a new replacement, was excellent. Crossing my fingers, listening to some 24/192 Dexter Gordon. This weekend balanced DAC audio.

 

[Kael]

Hey folks, sorry for posting with a fresh account in such a negative thread (I actually thought I already made an account a while back). But I have to report that my Topping PA5 is also defective in the right channel, exhibiting the same crackling and popping noises. Also if I draw close to the speaker the right channel has an audible noise floor, whereas the left is silent.
I bought my unit in January off the back of Amir’s review (I need to check but I hope he’s got some kind of update on the main post that follows up on these issues with Topping)

Actually had the problem for a couple of months at this point, just haven’t done anything about it because it’s intermittent. It’s not an end of the world issue but it’s certainly audible when playing music. Time to get in contact with my dealer, I think they’re based in Hong Kong. I had a great buying experience with them, hopefully the warranty is just as painless.

 

[Frank Sol]

@Kael Best of Luck !

As well as the other guys with problems

 

[jjmanda]

Service from Apos on a new replacement, was excellent.

I will say that I purchased from Apos 3 times and I have no complaints - nothing like I'm reading about other resellers and distributors.

First time I purchased from Apos, I paid for express shipping. Without any prompting from me, they refunded the shipping cost and did express shipping for free.

Second time went smooth and uneventful.

Third time is when I purchased the LA90 and when I told them about the power button issue, they were very quick to send me an RMA with prepaid shipping back to them.
I did not end up using the RMA since a firmware update took care of the issue, so I can't speak for any follow through on a return.

Good luck on your replacement, hope it goes well.

 

[ampguy]

I will say that I purchased from Apos 3 times and I have no complaints - nothing like I'm reading about other resellers and distributors.

First time I purchased from Apos, I paid for express shipping. Without any prompting from me, they refunded the shipping cost and did express shipping for free.

Second time went smooth and uneventful.

Third time is when I purchased the LA90 and when I told them about the power button issue, they were very quick to send me an RMA with prepaid shipping back to them.
I did not end up using the RMA since a firmware update took care of the issue, so I can't speak for any follow through on a return.

Good luck on your replacement, hope it goes well.

Thanks! I'm looking at adding an L50 to the PA5, once I get more time on this 2nd PA5. I haven't heard of many alternatives to the L50 with balanced in, and pass through, as well as great specs for the HP amp section.

 

[Lräk]

Now I'm a little worried my PA5 (started using June 1st) has died. I had recently noticed it was getting a bit warm even when not playing any music as I was experimenting with my Aiyima A07 and switching speaker cables back and forth. Well 2 days ago, I accidently left it turned on. When I tried to use it last night, I realized I left the power switch on and it was quite warm. I'm now not getting anything out. I switched the balanced input from my E50 to the 2nd input and nothing. I switched the speakers to the Aiyima and everything works just fine.

I left it off all night and will try it again tonight, but I fear it's dead. I bought it off Amazon so I dread the return process. Maybe I'll open it up and see if I can find any bad components. Capacitors would be easy to change for me.

 

[delta76]

Now I'm a little worried my PA5 (started using June 1st) has died. I had recently noticed it was getting a bit warm even when not playing any music as I was experimenting with my Aiyima A07 and switching speaker cables back and forth. Well 2 days ago, I accidently left it turned on. When I tried to use it last night, I realized I left the power switch on and it was quite warm. I'm now not getting anything out. I switched the balanced input from my E50 to the 2nd input and nothing. I switched the speakers to the Aiyima and everything works just fine.

I left it off all night and will try it again tonight, but I fear it's dead. I bought it off Amazon so I dread the return process. Maybe I'll open it up and see if I can find any bad components. Capacitors would be easy to change for me.

What, of all sellers, Amazon is probably the easiest one to handle return and warranty. If it is a 3rd seller they will ask you to contact the seller first. After a certain amount of time, if the seller does not reply, they will intervene. If you are unhappy with the seller handling of warranty you can take it up with amazon CS. Your odd is good, mate

 

[MAB]

Now I'm a little worried my PA5 (started using June 1st) has died. I had recently noticed it was getting a bit warm even when not playing any music as I was experimenting with my Aiyima A07 and switching speaker cables back and forth. Well 2 days ago, I accidently left it turned on. When I tried to use it last night, I realized I left the power switch on and it was quite warm. I'm now not getting anything out. I switched the balanced input from my E50 to the 2nd input and nothing. I switched the speakers to the Aiyima and everything works just fine.

I left it off all night and will try it again tonight, but I fear it's dead. I bought it off Amazon so I dread the return process. Maybe I'll open it up and see if I can find any bad components. Capacitors would be easy to change for me.

Did you just purchase the PA5 around June 1?

Accidentally leaving it on should not be a problem, even for years.
Amazon may be the only chance you have for a reasonable warranty service so don't despair quite yet!
I wouldn't open it up for now, likely you will create even more problems for yourself! And, with @TOPPING-Service acknowledging there are customer returns on the PA5 and monitoring this thread, you should enjoy first class customer service!!!

Hi every one, in the future, I will provide technical support and after-sales assistance for TOPPING products at ASR.

We are very aware of your anxiety and understand the inconvenience of users who experience product failures. I think we need to make the following clarification: From our statistics and complaints received, the PA5 failure rate is slightly higher than our PA3s, LA90, MX5. But since the failure rate is still within the normal range, and even if the product fails, it won't cause more harm, so we didn't stop selling. But we knew it would affect the user experience, so we took action and researched.

From the analysis of our recurring situation and the faulty products returned by users, the reason is that very few internal components will fail under long-term heating, and the faulty unit can be repaired after replacing the components. Our solution to this is to adjust the manufacturing process of the components for improvement.

Based on the fact that the vast majority of users who experience failures experience problems after a long period of use (1-3 months), we think it will take some time for us to see improvements. At the same time, we have decided to increase the warranty period of the current power amplifier products (including PA3s, PA5, MX5, LA90) to two years. Details are still being discussed and will be announced soon.

As a responsible manufacturer, TOPPING will not sell products to the market knowing that there is a problem with them. TOPPING will also respond to user needs in a timely manner and solve problems for users.

Or we'll see!

 

[Lräk]

Did you just purchase the PA5 around June 1?

Accidentally leaving it on should not be a problem, even for years.
Amazon may be the only chance you have for a reasonable warranty service so don't despair quite yet!
I wouldn't open it up for now, likely you will create even more problems for yourself! And, with @TOPPING-Service acknowledging there are customer returns on the PA5 and monitoring this thread, you should enjoy first class customer service!!!

Or we'll see!

According to Amazon, I bought it April 10th, but I started building some speakers so I didn't use it till June 1st. I did bring it to my friends house just to make sure it worked so I was quite confident I had it paired up to the E50 nicely. My friend has some huge speaker so we pushed the PA5 to the max and the case didn't ever get hot. Once I got my speakers built, it was working great for 6 weeks and I still didn't feel the case getting warm at all. It was just the past 2 weeks that it just seemed a bit warmer than I remembered.

OK, if I can't get it to work tonight, I'll contact Amazon and the seller. Hope for the best since it matches my E50 so well, I'd rather have another PA5. Besides, it really sounds good.