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Topping A30Pro Review (Balanced Headphone Amp)

Racheski

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I know plenty of the usual reviewers (other than Amir) have had the a30 pro for a while and not a single one has commented on it. That kind of scares me and APOS keeps pushing back my shipping, so every day I think of just cancelling and ordering the SH-9.
Have they given you free expedited shipping at least? They usually do that if shipping is late.
 

devopsprodude

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I know plenty of the usual reviewers (other than Amir) have had the a30 pro for a while and not a single one has commented on it. That kind of scares me and APOS keeps pushing back my shipping, so every day I think of just cancelling and ordering the SH-9.
Yeah, this is a big reason why I went with the A90 instead. A30 Pro is too new.
 

rawrJ

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Have they given you free expedited shipping at least? They usually do that if shipping is late.
oh yeah, and a $20 gift coupon. It really isn't their fault, I just get cold feet the longer I wait.


Yeah, this is a big reason why I went with the A90 instead. A30 Pro is too new.
Yeah, if the next shipping date doesn't happen I'm gonna pony up the extra for the a90 or go SH-9. I'll just have to find a way to make desk space lol
 

AudioStudies

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The A30Pro would meet my needs fully and is cheaper than the A90. My DAC is the D90 (among others). This noise issue has me a little troubled though. Can anyone else shed more light on this issue? I was all set to order one (and may still).
 

devopsprodude

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The A30Pro would meet my needs fully and is cheaper than the A90. My DAC is the D90 (among others). This noise issue has me a little troubled though. Can anyone else shed more light on this issue? I was all set to order one (and may still).
Yeah, I get all that. One of my requirements is that I would like the stack sooner rather than later. I've already waited a month. Good on you for exercising patience though. Seriously.
 

AudioStudies

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Yeah, I get all that. One of my requirements is that I would like the stack sooner rather than later. I've already waited a month. Good on you for exercising patience though. Seriously.
I failed in the patience category many times over in Audio = LOL.
 

VariousArtists

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The A30Pro would meet my needs fully and is cheaper than the A90. My DAC is the D90 (among others). This noise issue has me a little troubled though. Can anyone else shed more light on this issue? I was all set to order one (and may still).

I would be interested to hear others experience as well, hopefully there is no obvious pattern.

https://www.corsair.com/ww/en/blog/coil-whine

“Many people, especially those over 25 years of age, cannot hear noises over 15kHz, while others can hear noises all of the way up to 20kHz.”

Ironic that it can be a curse to hear the intended frequency range for “hi-res” music!
 

usern

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My A30pro also has coil whine while the input switch is on OFF position (passthrough). If the unit is turned off from the back switch or when it's working in RCA or XLR mode, then it's silent.

Ground lift is useful, it suppresses my D10s USB noise.

Now I'm thinking whether to wait for balanced output version of D10 or order D30pro right now
 

Veri

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VariousArtists

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If the unit is turned off from the back switch or when it's working in RCA or XLR mode, then it's silent.
That’s interesting, I just tried it (flipped input from Off to XLR) and it became silent indeed, but the unit stays warm unless it’s flipped to off from the front or the back. I had been using the front switch to turn the unit “off” for convenience, guess I will avoid flipping it to off for now.

I wonder if @JohnYang1997 could comment what happens when the input switch in the front is switched to Off - does it trigger something special?
 

Yaiba

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I used A30pro connected with SU-9 via XLR. But I did not heard any coil whine when I turn off and use passthrough TRS to XLR cable with JBL monitor speaker. However, I'm may be so old and my hearing decay. My PC also have many noise from 360mm close loop water CPU cooler and True-Online UPS. Anyway, I'm happy with A30pro as I used with ATH-R70x and it sound better than my old A50s.
 

nuht

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Hello,

I want to buy an A30pro, but after these posts related to this noise, and some reports about the Topping explosions, I'm starting to be wondering if it's not a better idea to get an SMSL SP200.

Should I go to A30pro, SP200, or wait a little bit more?
 

usern

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PSU coil whine is non-issue. It is not there when the unit is working or turned off from the back switch.
 

VariousArtists

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Does anyone know the difference between input switch "Off" (on the front) and power switch "Off" (on the back)? Both are passthrough mode and the power switch additionally switches off the PSU?
 

VariousArtists

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Hello,

I want to buy an A30pro, but after these posts related to this noise, and some reports about the Topping explosions, I'm starting to be wondering if it's not a better idea to get an SMSL SP200.

Should I go to A30pro, SP200, or wait a little bit more?

I am pretty happy with my A30Pro, state of the art measurements in a compact package.

To be totally unbiased, the only risk of being an early adopter is if there is a hardware revision down the line that fixes the coil whine issue in passthrough mode - this is only relevant if you plan to use this feature (specifically using the front switch for passthrough, assuming the back switch can also be used for passthrough - to be confirmed).

I am only speculating but if all it takes is to re-wire the front switch to switch off the PSU, it would not be very hard for them to fix.
 
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nuht

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I am pretty happy with my A30Pro, state of the art measurements in a compact package.

To be totally unbiased, the only risk of being an early adopter is if there is a hardware revision down the line that fixes the coil whine issue in passthrough mode - this is only relevant if you plan to use this feature (specifically using the front switch for passthrough, assuming the back switch can also be used for passthrough - to be confirmed).

I am only speculating but if all it takes is to re-wire the front switch to switch off the PSU, it would not be very hard for them to fix.
Got it, thanks for your feedback.
I will wait for a while, 2~3 months more, and see...
 

usern

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My A30pro just died. RCA inputs (from D10s), ground lift on. Was playing a game at medium gain 12 o clock volume, heard a pop and then silence. The white led shut off. Can't get the unit to turn on any more. The shell temperature was around 41 degrees Celsius when it happened. Headphones survived.
 
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rawrJ

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My A30pro just died. RCA inputs (from D10s), ground lift on. Was playing a game at medium gain 12 o clock volume, heard a pop and then silence. The white led shut off. Can't get the unit to turn on any more. The shell temperature was around 41 degrees Celsius when it happened. Headphones survived.
fuuug, that's awful. Didn't damage your headphones or anything right? Really starting to think hard about cancelling.
 

Fernando

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My A30pro just died. RCA inputs (from D10s), ground lift on. Was playing a game at medium gain 12 o clock volume, heard a pop and then silence. The white led shut off. Can't get the unit to turn on any more. The shell temperature was around 41 degrees Celsius when it happened. Headphones survived.
Can you give more information please? :eek: :facepalm:
 
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