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Topping A90 supposedly lacks ESD protection?
- Thread starter kenshone
- Start date
ESD protection requires a very high resistance between you, it and whatever is around it and you. To slowly drain the ESD and not let it hit hard. There are coatings available that help, mats, rugs, flooring, ceiling fans etc. Lotsa stuff.
D
Deleted member 46664
Guest
The first question is what the heck is he doing plugging headphones into a trs input?
Yes it can happen ... but it's almost always the result of user stupidity.
- Thread Starter
- #4
With the caveat that I haven't studied electricity, so these may be newb questions:
- If there was a large electrical differential between myself and an A90, and I put on headphones attached to the A90 via a cable, and the headphones+cable don't have adequately high resistance, could that damage the A90?
- Is it possible that the headphones could develop a electrical differential if detached from the A90, and upon connecting it, that could also damage the A90?
- Thread Starter
- #5
Serious question: as someone who is relatively competent, but barely knows anything about electricity, how would I avoid this level of stupidity?
Some stuff will not take well to a static zap at the headphone jack or inputs. Headphones have a very low resistance compared to the high resistance needed for protection. Whether a A90 can or can't is not known here from what I know.
You mean develop a charge/voltage across the leads? Static electricity can do some unusual things and it migrates across surfaces, onto objects and such from what I studied. So it could build up on them yes, and carry a potential voltage.
Use ESD precautions and be aware of it. If you study it a good condensed read will be maybe 5 pages with pics. It's not difficult. The numbers involved are easy to read and the concepts make sense.
D
Deleted member 46664
Guest
By not plugging your headphones into the input of your amplifier. That much should be obvious
Alternatively just touch both the case of the amplifier and the metal sleeve of the plug when inserting it. .. if it was a static discharge, that is... more likely he got the bright idea to plug his headphone amp into the input of the power amp.
- Thread Starter
- #10
Ah, I see. I thought the reviewer was implying that he damaged his A90 through the 4-pin XLR in the front.
Noted, thanks.
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Deleted member 46664
Guest
The front connection is not XLR ... it's an amp output and it's a DIN plug.
- Thread Starter
- #12
Ah okay. I see some places online where it's called "4-pin XLR," but it's good to know the real technical term.
formula 977
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2022
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What the H?
- Thread Starter
- #14
Can you elaborate on what you find surprising about this?
Do you get zapped a lot where you use your amp? If not then there is not much to worry about. A90 case should be earthed so you can just touch that before plugging headphones in.
I would say ESD building up on headphones just sitting by themselves is negligible chance happening. ESD can build up on yourself if for example there is carpet in the room and the air is very dry.
- Thread Starter
- #16
I live in SoCal so the dry air + carpet is a legitimate risk. Good to know.
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
This is a silly discussion.
If people are going to plug inputs to outputs and vice versa, speaker to line etc, they deserve to get some almighty cracks and pops, especially if they are stupid enough to do it while the units are powered up and the volumes turned up.
Otherwise, gear can handle just about anything if it's properly designed.
An amplifier is just that- feed it a signal, a discharge, a transient- whatever and it will faithfully amplify the bejesus out of it.
If people are going to plug inputs to outputs and vice versa, speaker to line etc, they deserve to get some almighty cracks and pops, especially if they are stupid enough to do it while the units are powered up and the volumes turned up.
Otherwise, gear can handle just about anything if it's properly designed.
An amplifier is just that- feed it a signal, a discharge, a transient- whatever and it will faithfully amplify the bejesus out of it.
- Thread Starter
- #18
This is a silly discussion.
If people are going to plug inputs to outputs and vice versa, speaker to line etc, they deserve to get some almighty cracks and pops, especially if they are stupid enough to do it while the units are powered up and the volumes turned up.
Otherwise, gear can handle just about anything if it's properly designed.
An amplifier is just that- feed it a signal, a discharge, a transient- whatever and it will faithfully amplify the bejesus out of it.
With the repeated caveat that I am an ignoramus when it comes to electricity, I'm really just trying to suss out the reliability of the Topping A90 before I possibly purchase it. I have seen more than 1 online review, out of a relatively small sample size, claiming that the A90 stopped working for whatever reason. Here is another one:
The overall ratings are still good, but if there is a >1% probability of failure that is outside of my control, that makes the purchase a lot tougher to swallow.
If it is a matter of properly "grounding" myself before touching the A90, I can take that responsibility upon myself. If there is more to it, maybe not.
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Inputs can't eat current/voltage, outputs can, so I wouldn't worry about the ESD toughness of the output based on the performance of an input.
That said, insufficient ESD protection of the input is a legit concern if you saw it happen. That being said, ESD protection is built-into most ICs, so there's nothing much to say if that fails.
That said, insufficient ESD protection of the input is a legit concern if you saw it happen. That being said, ESD protection is built-into most ICs, so there's nothing much to say if that fails.
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
With Topping, it is a case of "suck it and see". If you think it's cheap enough to have a go and potentially burn your investment in a few years or less, go for it. Topping clearly has some reliability issues across the board- I've never seen so many different products from the one small company being reported as faulty in the one place.
And I reckon many people with failed Topping products are laying low, as they don't want to hear "I told you so" from members on ASR about purchasing inexpensive, far-eastern audio gear and expecting miracles.
If an A90 blew up (killed the micro or whatever) due to a static/ESD discharge from some bloke rubbing his socks on a woolly rug, then it's clearly not fit for purpose.
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