Topping A30Pro Review (Balanced Headphone Amp)

[Ahmonge]

It's really nice amp as long as you don't have a cat, who will make it their new cat-warmer-upper.

Indeed, it is a cat magnet

 

[Lupin]

Well these units honestly haven't been out for very long considering how many people have reported that they have issues with the units failing even with a low number of hours used. That means there is some kind of issue with the design that is exceeding the tolerances of one or more of the components in the design. And as such it Cooks the units regardless.
If you go back and look in a thread like the topping D50 from back in the day there are basically zero reports of people claiming that it broke and it's been many more years. While the volume may not have been as high when there are no reports of failures then it basically means the design doesn't fail.
I personally have a topping DX7 first generation that still works fine other than me breaking the USB interface and it probably has 10,000 hours of use on it if not more. Since I used it basically all day every day during my biggest years of software development.

So I don't think it's unreasonable to point out a potential defect in a product that most of the posts over the last year have just been people complaining about failures.

People who have issues with any device are much more likely (and willing) to spend time and effort to make this known on the internet. At the same time people who do not have any issues don't nearly spend the same time and effort to make this known on the internet.

So "many" people have reported issues... how many people have NOT reported any issues?

Again, you cannot conclude anything (meaningful anyway) without knowing the actual numbers sold, which nobody here does.

 

[JoetheLion]

It's certainly the case that people with problems are more likely to speak up here than people without problems. But that should apply to all brands. My personal impression is that Topping is one of the brands for which there are an above-average number of reports about failures. The forum operators could evaluate this if they wanted to. But I think that's not the point of this forum here.

 

[IAtaman]

That would be catastrophic

I categorically refuse to comment on that.

My personal impression is that Topping is one of the brands for which there are an above-average number of reports about failures. .

My personal impression is that the source of that impression is the people, like you, who claim to have that impression about Topping.

 

[Phoney]

I categorically refuse to comment on that.


My personal impression is that the source of that impression is the people, like you, who claim to have that impression about Topping.

Would you say the same to people who complain about Hifiman, as if that's just an impression some people have, but it's not really like that in reality? I know it's not necessarily the same, but there has undeniably been some ongoing issues with with some of Toppings releases. Not all of them though.

 

[IAtaman]

Would you say the same to people who complain about Hifiman, as if that's just an impression some people have, but it's not really like that in reality? I know it's not necessarily the same, but there has undeniably been some ongoing issues with with some of Toppings releases. Not all of them though.

I don't know what is reality and I was not trying to say Topping has no issues. Like everyone else, my experiences are also anectodal in nature. I was just remarking upon the fact that offering an impression with no factual basis to support said impressions does nothing but perpetuate that impression, even though the impression might be incorrect.

 

[Phoney]

I don't know what is reality and I was not trying to say Topping has no issues. Like everyone else, my experiences are also anectodal in nature. I was just remarking upon the fact that offering an impression with no factual basis to support said impressions does nothing but perpetuate that impression, even though the impression might be incorrect.

Well, most people here are saying that Hifiman QC is really bad. Do we have any evidence or factual basis to support it? Not really, but it is pretty obvious.

 

[ampguy]

I wish this unit had preamp capabilities to the TRS outputs, as it could then be a low cost alternative to say a Schiit Freya preamp, but it appears the RCA and TRS outputs are pass though, which could still work as a switcher, but not as volume control. Looks like an incredible HP amp though.

 

[Ahmonge]

but it appears the RCA and TRS outputs are pass though

Yes, they are.

 

[Jimster480]

Well, most people here are saying that Hifiman QC is really bad. Do we have any evidence or factual basis to support it? Not really, but it is pretty obvious.

I personally haven't had issues but I know someone who did. With regards to hifiman. For topping; not yet. Nobody I know or have known has had issues with Topping stuff yet.
SMSL yes; in regards to screens burning out.

 

[Ahmonge]

When I bought the A30 Pro and D30 Pro combo last October, the latter came with no sound at the RCA outputs. The shop replaced it immediately and I have had no problems since then.

 

[Lupin]

Left way, right way it doesn't matter as long as we don't know all the numbers, which nobody here does, the best we can do is speculate.

This discussion reminds me of the IBM Deskstar harddrives early 2000.
IBM produced a bad serie with high failure rates and never really recovered from that.

There was really nothing wrong with series alter that and later from Hitachi.
But damage was done and you couldn't go to single website or store that wouldn't advise you to not touch a Hitachi harddrive with a ten-foot pole. This while Samsung harddrives were praised left right and center.

During that time I worked for an IT distributor which sold thousands and thousands of harddrives of all brands per month.
With some colleagues we went through the numbers and it actually turned out that Hitachi had one of the lowest failure rates, lower of that of Samsung. Counting the thousands of drives sold per month.

Of course this is still not the end all and be all but at least a sample pool of thousands of drives every month paints a more accurate picture than a consumer who buys 1 or 2 drives and post their opinion based on those 1 or 2 drives for anyone who wants to read it.

What I'm trying to say with my little story is that feeling, emotions, assumptions or speculations really don't mean anything as long as you don't know all the numbers.

 

[IAtaman]

Speaking of numbers, A30Pro is available again and is on sale at various online stores for $210.

 

[Ahmonge]

What I'm trying to say with my little story is that feeling, emotions, assumptions or speculations really don't mean anything as long as you don't know all the numbers.

I totally agree with you.

 

[A Surfer]

And a further confound to gathering a true picture, people who experience issues are much, much more likely to publicly complain as compared with those who have no issues and will stay silent, more likely.

 

[imthetxman]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping A30Pro balanced input and output headphone amplifier and pre-amp. It was kindly sent to me by the company. I am sorry but I don't have release date or pricing. I usually only get finished products from Topping so expect release date to be soon (post Chinese new year).

EDIT: I just heard back from Topping. As of this writing (March 1, 2021), the cost is US $349.99.

The A30Pro is the heftiest and most serious looking enclosure from Topping with its manly venting holes on top:
View attachment 112407

Some of the weight is due to inclusion of mains power supply in the case which I appreciated:

View attachment 112408

We see some other changes here. Pre-amp balanced out is quarter inch jacks due to smaller enclosure. And there is a ground lift which should help people who run into nasty ground loops.

In use the unit got a bit warm but nothing remotely serious. Sitting there by itself, it warms up to a bit above ambient temperature.

NOTE: there is no pre-amp functionality here. The rear connectors are pass through for convenience. Also, the output is only unbalanced and connectors are there for convenience, not more power.

Topping A30Pro Measurements
As usual, we start with our dashboard of unity gain (4 volts in, 4 volts out) using XLR in and unbalanced 1/4 headphone out:

View attachment 112409

Performance is superb as one expects going into a test of Topping product. SINAD with is the sum of noise+distortion relative to our 1 kHz tone is essentially as good as it gets:

View attachment 112410

Signal to noise ration both at unity gain and 50 mv are exceptional:
View attachment 112424


The latter is now class leading:
View attachment 112412

Think about it: you are getting the full dynamic range of 16 bit music when outputting just 50 millivolts! This is one quiet headphone amp considering that some of this noise is from my analyzer! You can comfortably use the A30Pro with any sensitive IEM or headphone with zero worry about background hiss or noise.

Frequency response is excellent of course:
View attachment 112413

Let's measure power relative to noise+distortion with unbalanced load of 300 ohm:
View attachment 112425

Oh wow! 0.73 watts using such a high impedance? This is wonderful as it means you don't need to use balanced connections to get enough power to drive high impedance and inefficient headphones. Low and medium gains have identical performance and incredibly low noise floor with no clipping. So if you hear distortion there, it is in your music.

Switching to the other extreme of 32 ohm, we see the same picture:
View attachment 112415

This is 5.5 watts times two! This little box is producing 11 watts of power!!! I don't think we have ever measured an amplifier this powerful forgetting about how low noise and distortion it is.

Switching to balanced mode, we don't get much more power as there is no need for more:
View attachment 112418

For 50 ohm, I thought I show Topping A90 as a reference:

View attachment 112417

Notice how the noise level is even lower although A90 pulls ahead with a bit more power before clipping.

Finally, channel matching is quite good although as noted, there will be unit to unit variations:
View attachment 112419

The low gain mode though (which is less than 0 dB) should help keep the volume control in its more accurate range if you do run into a sample with worse performance.

Topping A30Pro Listening Tests
I started with my usual Ether CX 25 ohm headphone with balanced connection. The A30Pro had no trouble driving this headphone with incredible power and authority with zero sign of strain or distortion.

Switching to Sennheiser HD650 showed amazing detail, dynamic range and superb bass handling. I am usually brave enough to turn the volume to max for a second or two to see if the amp distorts or not. Not here. By the time I got to 3:00 o'clock, and staying there for half a second, I knew I had to back down and in a hurry! Wow, did that get loud! Even I couldn't handle that much power. There is so much extra headroom here for any headphone you want to throw at this amplifier.

Conclusions
Just when we thought we had reached a plateau with performance of headphone amps, Topping pushes a bit more in the form of lower noise and much more power in unbalanced mode. A solid and nice looking enclosure completes the picture for one of the most ideal headphone amplifiers I have laid may hands on. The medium sized enclosure with built-in power supply is definitely worth the extra cost to get rid of the dongle of the lower end products in view.

It goes without saying that it is my absolute pleasure to recommend Topping A30Pro headphone amplifier.

Note: this is a new headphone amplifier and while I have not found any issues in in my testing, there can be problems. If you are risk averse, you may want to let others buy and use it before jumping in to purchase one. My focus in these reviews is engineering performance, not reliability.

EDIT: Video review is also up now:

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Thank you Amir for another excellent review. I know this particular review is a couple years old but just wanted to say that your input has assisted me numerous times and I'm grateful. Just bought an open box A30 pro. Can't wait to try it out.

 

[Jbbanks]

Thank you Amir for another excellent review. I know this particular review is a couple years old but just wanted to say that your input has assisted me numerous times and I'm grateful. Just bought an open box A30 pro. Can't wait to try it out.

Iv enjoyed my stack now for over a year, coming from the Shiit Heresey it was a great improvement across the board.

 

[imthetxman]

Ok… received my A30 pro today and hooked it up to my Emotiva Basx-TA100 integrated amp. Didn’t work.

Not sure what the problem is??

I connected rca cables to the emotivas analog output jacks (main) to the topping rca inputs then plugged in my headphones using the front jack on the A30 and… nothing.

Am I doing something wrong?? Is the A30 possibly bad?? I did buy “open box”

 

[NiagaraPete]

Ok… received my A30 pro today and hooked it up to my Emotiva Basx-TA100 integrated amp. Didn’t work.

Not sure what the problem is??

I connected rca cables to the emotivas analog output jacks (main) to the topping rca inputs then plugged in my headphones using the front jack on the A30 and… nothing.

Am I doing something wrong?? Is the A30 possibly bad?? I did buy “open box”

Switch (left top) is on. The A30 pro has pass though so make sure you’re plugged into the inputs.

 

[imthetxman]

Switch (left top) is on. The A30 pro has pass though so make sure you’re plugged into the inputs.

Yeah double checked the switches. Input switch was set to RCA. Cables were in the correct jacks