Should I send Topping EX5 to repair? Broken Topping device sending back to china for repair previous experiences and is it worth it.

[tyanlion]

Just want to ask if anyone had previous experience sending back a Topping device to China and was it worth the cost.

My EX5 just broke and it is out of warranty, it simply cannot start up, from what I can see it will cost 35USD to send it back, then 25 USD to ship it back and if Topping should need to replace the motherboard USD 178 which is around 51% of the cost of the unit(just the motherboard replacement alone) that I bought it from. If they don't need to replace the motherboard totally and just components they will fix it for free. in total in the worse scenario it looks to be around 70% of the original cost of the device, at best maybe 25% of the cost of the device. Is it worth it to repair? Have other people sent their Topping devices back and did they replace components or the entire motherboard?

 

[Old_School_Brad]

Why are they willing to repair individual components for free but not replace the entire main board?

 

[tyanlion]

Why are they willing to repair individual components for free but not replace the entire main board?

I am not sure on the reason but that was what the service person wrote, I have to admit on retrospect it doesn't make much sense.

 

[threni]

I am not sure on the reason but that was what the service person wrote, I have to admit on retrospect it doesn't make much sense.

Some manufacturers charge a minimum repair fee. I had this with a mobile once. If, while they've got the bonnet up they can swap out a cheap faulty part they'll just do it for free but a replacement motherboard is essentially a new phone and they'll charge (extra) for it.

Whether it's worth it isn't really an audio question; just maths/luck! Is it possible to have them tell you the cost before proceeding and if it's the board write it off/ask for a discount towards a new device (they can presumably harvest non-faulty components from it for repairs/spares).

 

[bahamot]

Just want to ask if anyone had previous experience sending back a Topping device to China and was it worth the cost.

My EX5 just broke, it simply cannot start up, from what I can see it will cost 35USD to send it back, then 25 USD to ship it back and if Topping should need to replace the motherboard USD 178 which is around 51% of the cost of the unit(just the motherboard replacement alone) that I bought it from. If they don't need to replace the motherboard totally and just components they will fix it for free. in total in the worse scenario it looks to be around 70% of the original cost of the device, at best maybe 25% of the cost of the device. Is it worth it to repair? Have other people sent their Topping devices back and did they replace components or the entire motherboard?

Personally I would just use this as an excuse for an upgrade. But I would buy from local distributor/reseller so that I won't deal with all the hassle dealing with international shipment and custom.

 

[tyanlion]

Personally I would just use this as an excuse for an upgrade. But I would buy from local distributor/reseller so that I won't deal with all the hassle dealing with international shipment and custom.

Actually my current plan is to send the digital signal from my toslink with a new toslink to coxial converter i just bought to my Neuman Kh750s and skip a dac altogether. If these lesser than 1000 dollar dacs can't last like less than 4 years and I can skip buying a dac althogether, well I would save a ton of money. The only problem maybe a digital volume knob but I think I can live with that. It's just a shame that I have to throw the dac into the bin.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

I am not sure on the reason but that was what the service person wrote, I have to admit on retrospect it doesn't make much sense.

Exactly. And, being somewhat skeptical in these situations, why wouldn’t they simply claim, as standard practice, when they have your device, that the board needs replacement?

 

[tyanlion]

Exactly. And, being somewhat skeptical in these situations, why wouldn’t they simply claim, as standard practice, when they have your device, that the board needs replacement?

I guess if you want to play devil's advocate is that they want me to spend the cash to air freight it in, and then catch me by making me pay for the replacement. If I don't pay for it then they can just fix the ex5 and resell it as B stock or a refurbished unit. It would be quite a smart plan if you think about it.

 

[threni]

I guess if you want to play devil's advocate is that they want me to spend the cash to air freight it in, and then catch me by making me pay for the replacement. If I don't pay for it then they can just fix the ex5 and resell it as B stock or a refurbished unit. It would be quite a smart plan if you think about it.

It would be a smart plan were it not for the fact that it would be fraud and therefore illegal, and if found out (disgruntled ex-employee whistleblower; a pattern emerging of people sending in non-faulty boards) it would destroy their reputation.

Is it not possible that the scenario I posted earlier in this thread is more likely?

 

[tyanlion]

It would be a smart plan were it not for the fact that it would be fraud and therefore illegal, and if found out (disgruntled ex-employee whistleblower; a pattern emerging of people sending in non-faulty boards) it would destroy their reputation.

Is it not possible that the scenario I posted earlier in this thread is more likely?

Thats why I was saying I was playing devil's advocate, as I said I want some info from people who have sent their devices in for repair. Did topping actually replace the components on the board for free or just did a replacement of the motherboard.

 

[tyanlion]

Well what do you know I was doing some searching in the forums one person has indeed sent it back and it was repaired for free thought his was an SMSL unit but sent back to Shenzhen audio which should be the same place as where the Toppings are built

What's been your experience with SMSL/Topping reliability & warranty support?

I got both the Topping L30 and E30 when they first came out and there were issues with the L30 blowing out headphones. I doubted that I would have trouble - seems like this problem appeared in dry climates, the climate in my town is consistently humid, but I contacted Amazon, who directed me to...

audiosciencereview.com

"My SMSL SU-9N also just died. No sound anymore. Just hints of "pop" sounds no matter what I change in the settings, on windows, reinstall the driver or unplug the device. It's about 21 months old. I'll contact the seller over Amazon and I'm gonna be really interested in the response they are giving me. A low power device dying after less than two years under low usage is absolutely unacceptable and it would be the last of ChiFi for me."

"Update to this. Device was fixed. Shenzhenaudio via Amazon Germany was super forthcoming and kept the shipping to a minimum. At the end it was just 17 € for the shipping. Repair was completely free and uncomplicated. Props to all involved."

 

[unpluggged]

Broken Topping device sending back to china for repair previous experiences and is it worth it

Of course it's not. You will just expend your money and all you will get in return is another (or the same) unreliable, unsafe and uncertified Topping. Get rid of it and be happy it has not led to a greater damage to your property or health.

Shenzhen audio which should be the same place as where the Toppings are built

Shenzhenaudio is a retailer based in the city of Shenzhen. They do not build any devices, only sell them.

And Topping is not even based in Shenzhen, it's located in Guangzhou. I know, for a westerner all of China and even all of Asia might look like a single place and a single entity, but it isn't.

 

[tyanlion]

Ok update. I sent the

Of course it's not. You will just expend your money and all you will get in return is another (or the same) unreliable, unsafe and uncertified Topping. Get rid of it and be happy it has not led to a greater damage to your property or health.




Shenzhenaudio is a retailer based in the city of Shenzhen. They do not build any devices, only sell them.

And Topping is not even based in Shenzhen, it's located in Guangzhou. I know, for a westerner all of China and even all of Asia might look like a single place and a single entity, but it isn't.

Your incredibly condescending tone is unwanted in this thread.

 

[tyanlion]

Update to people who are looking to repair your topping DACs. I decided to try to send my dac to repair and it was successful.

I originally contacted the official reseller in my country, Singapore, about repairing the dac and he basically told me that it was not worth it. That it cost 70 usd to ship it to china and ship it back another 70 usd plus they would charge 40% the price of the dac. I didn't believe him as he had a monetary incentive for me to buy a new dac to replace my old one so I decided to email topping and topping told me that I just had to pay a the shipping to China fee and pay a fixed 25 usd back to Singapore, and they would only make me pay if the board was really badly danaged but if its something they can easily fix they wouldn't charge me. Emailing Topping took some time as they would always reply my emails the next day and not on the same day.

Natually, I decided to chance it to see if I could get it repaired for only the shipping cost. When I was sending this dac in the post office, I learnt that it was not that expensive because the Topping was less than 1kg, had it been more than 1kg it would have cost 2x more to send.

I sent it on the first of Jan and received it in the end of the month. Most of the time was spent in shipping, topping took only 2 days to fix the item. It was also Chinese new year, thankfully the repair was done before but the shipping was done during the chinese new year so it got stuck in the airport for a few days.
I sent the item in its original box(I had no other box to send it with) and left a note in chinese for the repair guy to return the dac with my original box, I also told the service guy in the email that I wanted my original box back.

I used registered economy mail from my post office, in Singapore, so if you live elsewhere your postage maybe much more expensive and this may not be worth it.

My total cost of sending the item was 15 USD, and I had to pay for the 25 USD to ship it back from topping. all in all it was 40 usd which I think is well worth repairing it for.

Topping fixed the broken fuse in the board of my EX5 for free. So if your topping dac is broken I think you should send it if the price is under 50 USD.

I was lucky nothing serious was broken on the board, if something more serious was wrong Topping said they would have to charge me the fee of replacing the board which is ~50% the original price of the DAC.

Overall, I am quite impressed with Topping and I am probably going to purchase another dac in the future from them.
My take away from this is to buy DACs that are below 1kg so its cheaper to ship and its better to buy the DAC and the AMP separate because the cost of the board repair will be half the price of the item. (this is assuming that your DAC + AMP combo is the same price and quality as the Integrated DAC + AMP solution e.g. d7 pro + vs a (E70 + L70))

 

[Old_School_Brad]

Update to people who are looking to repair your topping DACs. I decided to try to send my dac to repair and it was successful.

....
My take away from this is to buy DACs that are below 1kg so its cheaper to ship and its better to buy the DAC and the AMP separate because the cost of the board repair will be half the price of the item. ...

Wait, what?
You're basing your advice on how easily the components can be shipped -assuming they'll need repairs?

Sorry, that just seemed too unusual and amusing to ignore. If I expected a device to break down often and require shipping for repairs, I'd probably just choose something else entirely. But I guess that's a different perspective from yours.

 

[tyanlion]

Btw I forgot to mention this I would also dissuade anyone from trying to repair the item itself. It looks like topping puporsely made the EX5 very difficult to repair. To open it up you need an extremely long screw driver to open the screws at the front of the case. They made side channels at the inside sides of the case for the screw driver to go through to open a hex like screw from the back side. I originally opened the EX5 to see if maybe it was just a loose component and a layman like me could fix it (tldr no way a layman like me can fix it), and there was no way I could properly close the EX5 without the screwdriver. I am sure reviewers like amirm may have some special screw drivers to open these dacs to see the internal but if your a layman like me its best not to try to fix it yourself.

 

[tyanlion]

Wait, what?
You're basing your advice on how easily the components can be shipped -assuming they'll need repairs?

Sorry, that just seemed too unusual and amusing to ignore. If I expected a device to break down often and require shipping for repairs, I'd probably just choose something else entirely. But I guess that's a different perspective from yours.

Because shipping cost can be very expensive, i've read some ppl in other countries being quoted 100 usd + for 1kg+. Singapore is like only 6 hours from china so I mean if your in another country thats further away expect it to be very expensive. At a total of 40 usd my repair was worth it, if I had to incur a crazy 100 usd + fee for shipping back and forth I wouldn't try it. I also don't expect it to fail often but will update the thread to see if it fails. My EX5 was pretty much rock solid for its entire 3 year + life span. My hope is that this failure is a once in a blue moon type of thing and it won't be repeated. I paid around 350 usd for the EX5, although 350 usd not a big amount but its not a small amount either. Its in the category of I am not sure if i want to just throw away this thing and buy a new one because of its price, it somewhat makes financial sense to repair it if you can repair it at a good price.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

I understand the practicality and economic considerations behind your point.

However, if you're concerned that something might break down and require shipping, and you factor that into your purchasing decision, I personally wouldn’t choose that specific device if I lacked confidence in its durability.

I recognize that random faults can happen, but if I already factored in shipping costs for repairs during the initial buying process, I would likely consider a different product.

 

[johny_2000]

Topping fixed the broken fuse in the board of my EX5 for free. So if your topping dac is broken I think you should send it if the price is under 50 USD.

Thanks for sharing your experience! You might want to find a local electronics repair shop that can easily check and replace fuses on your board for less money and time.

 

[tyanlion]

Thanks for sharing your experience! You might want to find a local electronics repair shop that can easily check and replace fuses on your board for less money and time.

I wasn't able to find any that wanted to repair the dac. It took only minutes at the post office to post it to china. The only hard part was trying to find out what to do. I rather have the peace of mind that the manufacturer who designed the board look at it and find out if there are any faults.

This person had some electronics background and he couldn't fix his EX5.

Topping EX5 Failure

Well, it finally happened. After 3 years and 4 months of service, my Topping EX5 went black. I broke out the multimeter and checked the power supply as well as a few other critical paths in the circuit, but there's no apparent culprit. Manufacturer says it's out of warranty, and any shipping...

www.audiosciencereview.com

"Having recently looked inside the EX5, the number one thing that would have made this easier to deal with would be serviceability. Everything is tiny, almost nothing is practically desolderable and replaceable. Sure, if it had been the power supply, or a plug, or maybe one of the larger capacitors, I could have done it myself, but I checked all those parts and they were fine. The rest was micro surface mount and monolithic chips. Not much to do there in terms of (even experienced) user repair."