Topping L30 Headphone Amplifier Review

[Giangi71]

Still not understand if I could have problems or not in HPA mode

 

[highpurityusbcable]

I think that most of the users commenting ''you are just overreacting, the seller is gonna refund your broken amp so stfu'' are missing the real concern of many people inside and outside this forum: the failure that this amp is capable of is potentially dangerous not only for you expensive headphones, but for your ears too. The pop that killed my headphones was really really loud, and I was just lucky that I was not wearing them.

This is the driver that exploded on my headphones, tell me if you would be comfortable knowing that this may happen while you are listening to music.

All of this situation would not be this big of a deal if the problem was that amps under warranty are dying, nobody cares about that, but losing gear and potentially risking your earing is something people (mostly outside this forum, where eveyone seems fine with that) are simply not accepting, ask most resellers how many requests of refund they already got.




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It seems that you are referring to my post where I used this exact word. For some reason you took it out of context, because I was talking about those who can return their working units and get a refund. Don't really know why am I saying this twice but somehow you became upset so maybe one more explanation will help.

 

[gegebinazzi]

It seems that you are referring to my post where I used this exact word. For some reason you took it out of context, because I was talking about those who can return their working units and get a refund. Don't really know why am I saying this twice but somehow you became upset so maybe one more explanation will help.

I did not mean to sound more upset than I really am, I was just trying to explain that the problem is bigger than how is being discussed in here, everyone I've talked to that use an l30 is really concerned, and has already contacted the seller/topping

 

[frogmeat69]

I specifically said "the users that comments x", I don't understand how this can be a blanket statement.

This forum is full of helping and understanding people, and I replied only to the "you are overreacting" crowd, there's no need to feel personally attacked ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It was the other part I bolded, came off to me at least that everyone seems fine with possible hearing damage on this forum, seems like a blanket statement on this forum. Did I misread that? If so, my apologies.
The first quote I have not read anyone here post anything close to, who is telling others to STFU about this?

 

[jkm]

If the problem is fixed in the 2012 revision they really should know what the problem is? Or am I missing sometihng? I seem to have 2007 unit... still using it like before.

 

[gegebinazzi]

It was the other part I bolded, came off to me at least that everyone seems fine with possible hearing damage on this forum, seems like a blanket statement on this forum. Did I misread that?
The first quote I have not read anyone here post anything close to, who is telling others to STFU about this?

Nope, I said that everyone that seems to be ok risking his hearing from his L30 is on this forum.

Everyone I spoke to outside of here decided to do something other than "my unit works fine, so I'll be fine".

Obviously I was not stating that everyone on this forum is ok with damaging his hearing!

 

[wrigglycheese]

Um... A lot has happened. Thanks to Z for making me aware of this. I have been using my L30 day in day out for months now - I have up until Jan 31st to return the unit to Amazon.

I assume this is a very common question not resolved yet but perhaps an update on if there is anyway to IDENTIFY if I have one of the risky units? Cheers.

I've arrived to the 'oh schiit' party a bit late (pun/jest intended)

 

[nxnje]

People who can return their units and get the money back are overreacting more than anyone else. I live in a shithole and aliexpress is my only source of this type of electronics. To send a parcel back to China is a big hassle, unreliable and costly. If it will reach the destination at all.
Just return your amp to amazon buy something else and stop worrying.

We are not overreacting, we just feel uncomfortable with what I've paid for (considering Schiit stuff is out of stock here from the official retailer as well), and I'm even more worried when I see that there are people who say that they shouldn't be worried because there are just a few cases and that maybe it won't happen because it could have been a failure opamp or buffer lot. Yes, I'm a bit angry with the people
That's why I never buy from Aliexpress and that's why I prefer spending a bit more on something that I can easily return.
My mom always says: "

There’s a big difference between buying from a domestic company that’s committed to replacing both the amp and the damaged headphones and one that requires you to ship the amp halfway across the world and won’t reimburse consumers for damaged headphones.

This, and they wouldn't even reimburse an otolaryngology check if a pair of IEMs explodes in my ear canals, not that this will strictly happen but I'm afraid personally.

Anyway, if people are ok with keeping a unit that "you shouldn't worry about", they're free to keep. I care about my hearing and gear.

 

[Veri]

Still not understand if I could have problems or not in HPA mode

Most of us are using HPA mode primarily, so yes

 

[Giangi71]

Most of us are using HPA mode primarily, so yes

But the problem, as I red, does not affect only PRE mode?

 

[Sombreuil]

We are not overreacting, we just feel uncomfortable with what I've paid for (considering Schiit stuff is out of stock here from the official retailer as well), and I'm even more worried when I see that there are people who say that they shouldn't be worried because there are just a few cases and that maybe it won't happen because it could have been a failure opamp or buffer lot. Yes, I'm a bit angry with the people
That's why I never buy from Aliexpress and that's why I prefer spending a bit more on something that I can easily return.
My mom always says: "

This, and they wouldn't even reimburse an otolaryngology check if a pair of IEMs explodes in my ear canals, not that this will strictly happen but I'm afraid personally.

Anyway, if people are ok with keeping a unit that "you shouldn't worry about", they're free to keep. I care about my hearing and gear.

It's not like we want to become deaf either, we are just saying that this could be indeed a problem and we are also waiting for an answer. That being said, please read what @PSO has written about Schiit and Labs and the quote below.

My Liquid Spark blew out yesterday. I turned it on and the power LED started going on and off very rapidly. Then smoke started coming out from the rear of the amp. I didn’t change anything from before it was working. Still was hooked up the same way. Has anyone had this problem with their Liquid Spark? Thanks for any replies.

 

[filo97s]

In house testing and out sourced testing are different. We got ESD and all other parameters tested just as regular electronics. However this is special case. Hence needs different test. Nothing is even confirmed. In real world 20kV-50kV is possible. But in the standard it's 4kV. And the components are rated ar 5kV. Everything upon now is just guess. It's better to be safe than sorry.

well, ok, I see ratings on the 6120A2 for example stating that the chip is rated at 2000V, every component is ESD rated, but what I'm trying to say is that the ESD test should be performed also on the final product assembled. An ESD gun should reach without problems 25kV and above...

 

[filo97s]

Hi John,
I had one for 4 weeks until ESD killed it.
It was running as pre-amp between Cambridge Duo phono pre and the Cambridge Azur 651w poweramps. Lovely sound, so much better sounding than my Yamaha 3080 as a preamplifier.
I had a fleece shirt on and when I touched the L30, the ESD Lightning from my finger caused the loudest bang. My Kef speakers would have been gone, if the power amps would not have went to protection mode. I live in Germany and the Unit is still on the way back to Shenzhen since 6 weeks and I’m waiting for the refund. The L30 was still able to operate but now with a massive channel imbalance. I remember that this symptom was reported by Amir or wolfs, during an early pre release test.
I loved the crystal clear sound of it and replaced it with a save grounded chassis Topping A90.
cheers
S.

@Giangi71 an user reported the malfunction also when used as a pre.

 

[Giangi71]

@Giangi71 an user reported the malfunction also when used as a pre.

But how many people have reported that issue? Either as hpa or pre mode?

 

[filo97s]

But how many people have reported that issue? Either as hpa or pre mode?

mainly the fault happened when used as HPA mode just because is the most used feature of the L30.
I've read only of one or two guys that encountered the problem when used as PRE.

 

[Jose Hidalgo]

Like said previously, there is only one way to fix this IMHO.

• Asking Topping for product refund is not reasonable. It may work with resellers like Amazon but not with Topping. They aren't forced to do so.
  
  
• Asking Topping for product exchange (once a revised circuit version appears in 1-2 months) IS REASONABLE and Topping should agree.
  
  
• And then there's the individual cases (e.g. those who have damaged headphones like @Jimbob54 ). I think they should wait until there is an official Topping statement acknowledging the issues, and then try to negotiate with them privately. Better chance of success IMHO. No manufacturer is ever gonna say publicly "we will reimburse all damaged headphones", because then people could damage their cans on purpose and use the reimbursed money to buy whatever they want. That's never gonna happen.

What's obvious is that Topping has to react and set up a nice product exchange procedure for us, their customers. After all, we are the ones advertising their products on sites like ASR. We are the ones advocating for them (heck, less than two months ago I made my nephew buy a L30/E30 stack he's very happy with it, but I doubt he would be if one of these days it fries his headphones - plus he'd be angry at me too, so... ).

I'm sure that Topping is well-aware of this, and I'm confident that they will react appropriately in a few days/weeks time. Let's give them that time.

 

[threni]

I'm not really a hardware guy but I find it interesting how can amp can destroy headphones. If it were software there'd be any number of checks you could do to stuff numbers getting too large. If it's related to static, is it possible the large voltage is making its way into the input of the amp and the amp's going "better amplify that - no way of telling it's way outside any sensible input voltage level"? If so, is there any way of stopping that?

 

[nxnje]

It's not like we want to become deaf either, we are just saying that this could be indeed a problem and we are also waiting for an answer. That being said, please read what @PSO has written about Schiit and Labs and the quote below.

I saw that, but that does not mean I will look at my L30 in a different way.
Failures can occur, but I would have reacted in the same way if I had an Atom from JDS and someone would have said his amp blew up.
I'm just afraid of what can happen, just that.
We can stay here and say there are not enough evidence to speak, and I'm ok with that, I do not pretend Topping to swap every unit in 2 days, but there were cases and a reports are increasing so I just don't feel safe.
Everyone else can keep it if they feel ok, we're not pointing our finger towards anybody nor I want others to say I'm exaggerating this.
I really hope Topping will look into this so they'll get to the end of this issue with some good improvements on their amp.
I'm sending it back tomorrow, together with the E30. I will stay here anyway to discuss and keep myself updated on this particular case.
Must be a hard situation for Topping itself as a company even because their movements will be crucial, moreover if we speak about their brand image and trust.

 

[filo97s]

I'm not really a hardware guy but I find it interesting how can amp can destroy headphones. If it were software there'd be any number of checks you could do to stuff numbers getting too large. If it's related to static, is it possible the large voltage is making its way into the input of the amp and the amp's going "better amplify that - no way of telling it's way outside any sensible input voltage level"? If so, is there any way of stopping that?

My guess (BUT IT'S ONLY A GUESS) is that at this point is not an ESD problem or something like that. If it was something ESD related, it shouldn't leave such burned marks on the pcb, specifically on an opamp. Maybe the static discharge triggered the problem, but for me it's something that has to be related with the feedback circuit. In particular, something related with such a low output impedance, when 6120A2-based circuits are known to be stable with an output-Z of 10 ohm. Even the DX3pro v1 reported a similar problem and the v2 was corrected with an higher output impedance.
This is only my guess, I'm happy to discuss it.

 

[raif71]

I think that most of the users commenting ''you are just overreacting, the seller is gonna refund your broken amp so stfu'' are missing the real concern of many people inside and outside this forum: the failure that this amp is capable of is potentially dangerous not only for you expensive headphones, but for your ears too. The pop that killed my headphones was really really loud, and I was just lucky that I was not wearing them.

This is the driver that exploded on my headphones, tell me if you would be comfortable knowing that this may happen while you are listening to music.

All of this situation would not be this big of a deal if the problem was that amps under warranty are dying, nobody cares about that, but losing gear and potentially risking your earing is something people (mostly outside this forum, where eveyone seems fine with that) are simply not accepting, ask most resellers how many requests of refund they already got.




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Looks like Iron Man power source, kinda