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Topping A30Pro Review (Balanced Headphone Amp)

max1236

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Wow a30 pro has got my he6se v2 singing! very noticeable vs the a50s but i haven't done any formal tests. Even with my d50 rca as a source with some flacs im getting to 2 and even 3 oclock so I think the balanced dac is a good idea. For some reason spotify plays much louder and is fine at 12 oclock or less. This is a great end game for around 1000$-1400 depending on your dac.
 

3kweave

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@JohnYang1997 Wow! The A30 Pro is an amazing piece of gear. It's endgame hardware or $350. I have a hard time imagining a better amplifier. It has so much power on tap. The biggest compliment is that the amp doesn't really sound like anything. I just turn the dial and the music gets louder. I really have a hard time imagining an amplifier that sounds better. If one exists, I'd love to know what it is.
 

Yorkshire Mouth

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Regarding balanced outs (which I know this doesn’t have).

I understand balanced outs would bring more power, though that’s clearly not necessary here. But wouldn’t it also bring greater dynamic range?

Sorry, probably a stupid question.
 

raif71

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@JohnYang1997 Wow! The A30 Pro is an amazing piece of gear. It's endgame hardware or $350. I have a hard time imagining a better amplifier. It has so much power on tap. The biggest compliment is that the amp doesn't really sound like anything. I just turn the dial and the music gets louder. I really have a hard time imagining an amplifier that sounds better. If one exists, I'd love to know what it is.
I have both a30pro and Ifi zen can... For me with hd600, ifi zen can is loud already on it's 2nd gain setting and it has 4 gain settings. So, for me it is louder than a30pro but does not necessarily sound better.
 

3kweave

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Regarding balanced outs (which I know this doesn’t have).

I understand balanced outs would bring more power, though that’s clearly not necessary here. But wouldn’t it also bring greater dynamic range?

Sorry, probably a stupid question.
Balanced xlr out for speakers or “balanced” headphone out? The balanced headphone out is a non issue. I like the fact that you get equal power out of all of the headphone connections. The a30pro has so much power that is super clean.Even if the power was cleaner then you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. This amp can get painfully loud with very inefficient headphones and you still have plenty of head room.
 

Yorkshire Mouth

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Balanced xlr out for speakers or “balanced” headphone out? The balanced headphone out is a non issue. I like the fact that you get equal power out of all of the headphone connections. The a30pro has so much power that is super clean.Even if the power was cleaner then you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. This amp can get painfully loud with very inefficient headphones and you still have plenty of head room.

Thanks.
 

3kweave

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I have noticed that with my Aeon 2 Closed that especially on bass heavy tracks the A30 pro with cut the volume and switch off temporarily. This is in high gain and it happens around 1-2 o'clock on the dial. I am running eq through my RME ADI to Pro. I am using eq on the RME and XLR out. I have my output level set to 11dbu which is 2.75VRMS. I am noticing that I am not clipping digitally as the meter on the RME is not reading as OVR in the digital output stage. If I turn the volume down the headphone amp will turn back on. While the music is loud, its not insanely loud. Is this a function of the low impedance of the phones (13ohm) or the amp getting too hot?
 

JohnYang1997

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I have noticed that with my Aeon 2 Closed that especially on bass heavy tracks the A30 pro with cut the volume and switch off temporarily. This is in high gain and it happens around 1-2 o'clock on the dial. I am running eq through my RME ADI to Pro. I am using eq on the RME and XLR out. I have my output level set to 11dbu which is 2.75VRMS. I am noticing that I am not clipping digitally as the meter on the RME is not reading as OVR in the digital output stage. If I turn the volume down the headphone amp will turn back on. While the music is loud, its not insanely loud. Is this a function of the low impedance of the phones (13ohm) or the amp getting too hot?
Play the music without headphones plugged in.

If the music plays without a hiccup, check the eq setting.

If the a30pro still turns off, then check if there's DC in the track. You can either do that or play sine wave tones which you know there's no dc component. https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
 

3kweave

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Thanks for responding! I love the a30 so i appreciate the help. Forgive my ignorance. So I should play the track that is causing the a30 pro to go into protection mode with the headphones not plugged in? How would I know if the music plays normally if the headphones aren't plugged in?
 

JohnYang1997

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Thanks for responding! I love the a30 so i appreciate the help. Forgive my ignorance. So I should play the track that is causing the a30 pro to go into protection mode with the headphones not plugged in? How would I know if the music plays normally if the headphones aren't plugged in?
Or maybe first plug in but don't wear it. You should hear relay clicking when it goes protection. Once confirmed, unplug and see if the same behavior.
 

3kweave

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Or maybe first plug in but don't wear it. You should hear relay clicking when it goes protection. Once confirmed, unplug and see if the same behavior.
That makes much more sense. Thank you. So I am able to induce the relay clicking. It tends to happen at about 2-3 o clock on the volume dial. I understand this is incredibly loud these sorts of levels would lead to problems with hearing loss. It only happens in High gain. I tried various different music sources. Anything with a lot of bass content would trigger it. I then went to the website that you posted. I can induce the relay protection only below 40hz. The lower I go on the frequency the sooner it happens. For my own knowledge, what is the ideal voltage input for high gain? Thanks
 

JohnYang1997

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That makes much more sense. Thank you. So I am able to induce the relay clicking. It tends to happen at about 2-3 o clock on the volume dial. I understand this is incredibly loud these sorts of levels would lead to problems with hearing loss. It only happens in High gain. I tried various different music sources. Anything with a lot of bass content would trigger it. I then went to the website that you posted. I can induce the relay protection only below 40hz. The lower I go on the frequency the sooner it happens. For my own knowledge, what is the ideal voltage input for high gain? Thanks
Input sensitivity for high gain is 2.7V. It might be DC protection circuit being a little too sensitive. But Amir didn't catch it as he listened very loud with hd650. So I would think this isn't a big issue.
 

Sundara

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Hi guys, new to the forum!
I have an A30 Pro which I use with my Hifiman Sundara and HD650. A question regarding input sensitivity. Official specs say input sensitivity in high gain is 2.7 vrms. So what happens when fed with an higher input? The d30 pro itself puts out 4 vrms in balanced mode, so more than what the A30pro could take in high mode.
 
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Sundara

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(I currently use the amp with a Clarett interface which would put out no less than 6 vrms from its balanced outs, bur for now I'm converting the outs to unbalanced with a trs to RCA adapter, so the vrms is halved.)
 

JohnYang1997

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Hi guys, new to the forum!
I have a A30 Pro which I use with my Hifiman Sundara and HD650. A question regarding input sensitivity. Official specs says input sensitivity in high gain is 2.7 vrms. So what happens when fed with an higher input? The d30 pro itself puts out 4 vrms in balanced mode, so more than what the A30pro could take in high mode.
There's no issue. Because the gain stage is after volume control.
 

Sundara

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There's no issue. Because the gain stage is after volume control.

Thanks for clarifying! So this remains true even if I use a full balanced connection from my focusrite clarett (6 vrms) to the a30's balanced inputs, and hypothetically use it in high gain?
 

JohnYang1997

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Thanks for clarifying! So this remains true even if I use a full balanced connection from my focusrite clarett (6 vrms) to the a30's balanced inputs, and hypothetically use it in high gain?
The input stage can handle over 12Vrms. So sure you can.
 

3kweave

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I use my A30 pro with an RME over xlr. The RME can output 19dBu over xlr (~6.9 volts). I typically I have my volume set to 11dBu (2.75Vrms). However I have left it running at 6.9volts before. Nothing really happens except that it seems a little bit louder. It doesn't shut off or go into protection mode. Also, I would imagine the engineers when designing this amp have to account for all the different types of input voltage this unit would be seeing. If they made a device that could only funciton within a very narrow window. I am sure we would have heard about already! @JohnYang1997 are Amir's measurements for power output taken at 4V input? However, I am guessing since the listed sensitivity is 2.7 that maximum power is seen at this point.
 

3kweave

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@Sundara I think the a30 pro is a no brainer. The only exception would be if you needed more robust pre-amp functionality or you wanted something like a remote for the amp. The great thing about the a30 pro is that it is SOTA performance with all the power you will ever need. I like that you get the same amount of power over 4.4/xlr/6.35. This means I don't have to spend extra money on different headphone cables. It is easy to agonize over purchasing decisions especially when you have all this objective data at hand. Put another way, what advantages do the other headphone amps that you are considering have over the a30 pro?
 

Sundara

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@Sundara I think the a30 pro is a no brainer. The only exception would be if you needed more robust pre-amp functionality or you wanted something like a remote for the amp. The great thing about the a30 pro is that it is SOTA performance with all the power you will ever need. I like that you get the same amount of power over 4.4/xlr/6.35. This means I don't have to spend extra money on different headphone cables. It is easy to agonize over purchasing decisions especially when you have all this objective data at hand. Put another way, what advantages do the other headphone amps that you are considering have over the a30 pro?

I actually own the A30 pro already! I didn't consider any other option for the same reason, I didn't want to have to change cables to my headphones to benefit from the added power in balanced mode from other amps. This one gives me all the power needed to play with EQ (I have to set the EQ for my hd650 to almost -10 dB in preamp to cover for all the tweaking) without having to go fully balanced.
 
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