Topping L30 Headphone Amplifier Review

[highpurityusbcable]

Just heard the news and now I can send a message to Aoshida based on them. Destroying an amp to get a new one is an interesting choice. But I am glad there are options, even extreme ones. I will decide later but there are no alternatives to L30 where I live. Let's see how it goes. I have to admit it would be a pity to destroy a working amplifier "just in case". That's some drama movie plot right here.

 

[raistlin65]

I hope these vendors are asking for a photograph of the destroyed unit with a name/time stamp included in the picture.

Otherwise, some of these L30s will end up on the used market and purchased by unsuspecting people.

It also seems like a good time for Topping to retire this model and release an L30S. Just update the poor contrast of the writing on the front plate to make it very obviously visually different. Updating the faceplate only allows for quickly moving over to a new model.

Otherwise, this issue will always be associated with the L30, and people will continue to talk about it more as long as the L30 is in production.

 

[Vini darko]

Maybe we should start a "how I killed my L30" thread.

 

[Frio]

Maybe we should start a "how I killed my L30" thread.

For real. Service cost is always in a mix calculation of a price. We would all pay that one way or the other and some people would be double ditching and sell their 'destroyed' amps. As a customer I have no interest in lax service.

 

[threni]

Just heard the news and now I can send a message to Aoshida based on them. Destroying an amp to get a new one is an interesting choice. But I am glad there are options, even extreme ones. I will decide later but there are no alternatives to L30 where I live. Let's see how it goes. I have to admit it would be a pity to destroy a working amplifier "just in case". That's some drama movie plot right here.

It's not that extreme. And define "working". A manufacturer has identified (via this site, it appears) a problem which can cause the destruction of one of their products in a way which can not only destroy the attached headphones but also potentially cause hearing problems if the headphone was being worn at the time. It's not outside the realms of possibility that an old/ill person could have a heart/panic attack induced by the sudden loud noise. So "just in case" it kills someone or whatever they're recalling them, and having customers destroy them saves a lot of postage, checking returns, handling "lost in the post" etc.

Perhaps one could destroy it creatively such that you had spares (caps, sockets) for any future problems?

 

[highpurityusbcable]

It's not that extreme. A manufacturer has identified (via this site, it appears) a problem which can cause the destruction of one of their products in a way which can not only destroy the attached headphones but also potentially cause hearing problems if the headphone was being worn at the time. It's not outside the realms of possibility that an old/ill person could have a heart/panic attack induced by the sudden loud noise. So "just in case" it kills someone or whatever they're recalling them, and having customers destroy them saves a lot of postage, checking returns, handling "lost in the post" etc.

Perhaps one could destroy it creatively such that you had spares (caps, sockets) for any future problems?

I understand all this very well but still won't believe it's faulty until my iem driver will blow up during listening. Not that I want to experience it.
I'm also a bit cautious about the new unit. What if something like this will happen with it, while my current one never caused or will cause problems. Impossible to know. Have to think after I'll receive an answer from vendor.

 

[enomiss]

Contacted my Dutch dealer. I have to send the unit without accessories to them. They make pics and send the data to Topping, then Topping directly sends a new unit from their factory to me. It should be a pretty quick process, since Topping is not waiting for my L30 to arrive in China. The dealer said this would be the fastest way. Sounds fair to me, I suspect Topping probably prefers it if the dealers destroy the units, they are more trustworthy to do it. I find it a reasonable solution.

 

[raistlin65]

I understand all this very well but still won't believe it's faulty until my iem driver will blow up during listening. Not that I want to experience it.
I'm also a bit cautious about the new unit. What if something like this will happen with it, while my current one never caused or will cause problems. Impossible to know. Have to think after I'll receive an answer from vendor.

As has already been discussed in the thread, the newer units have improved DC voltage regulation. This prevents damage to headphones with amp failure.

 

[threni]

I understand all this very well but still won't believe it's faulty until my iem driver will blow up during listening.

NURSE!

I'm also a bit cautious about the new unit. What if something like this will happen with it, while my current one never caused or will cause problems. Impossible to know.

It's possible to deduce from the person who designed the amp, and who's posted in this thread, stating that the fixed version will prevent the headphones from being damaged, whereas the earlier versions will not. Of course, there's no guarantee that the new version doesn't fix this problem and introduce another problem. But you're weighing that against the fact that the earlier one definitely has a problem.

Hey, they're your headphones. (Which they'll not replace if the amp kills them, by the way).

 

[Rick63]

I hope these vendors are asking for a photograph of the destroyed unit with a name/time stamp included in the picture.

Otherwise, some of these L30s will end up on the used market and purchased by unsuspecting people.

I was thinking the same thing myself. I don't believe trusting everyone to destroy theirs is a wise decision.

 

[Frio]

I was thinking the same thing myself. I don't believe trusting everyone to destroy theirs is a wise decision.

It's the cheapest for them, no shipping cost or electric scraps.

 

[Jose Hidalgo]

I think you read that wrong. December batch has changes due to a case of failure from November, any changes done to the design NOW would be effective in units produced February at the earliest.

No, sorry. If you read all of John's comments, you'll see that he still doesn't know for sure what's causing these issues. He has been saying that repeteadly over the last few days. Some protections may have been implemented recently, but nobody knows if they will solve the problem. Nobody even knows if it's a faulty batch, a faulty OPA, of something else. That is the real problem here : we still don't know what we're dealing with.

John has said that he will keep on examining amps and hopefully implementing NEW protections... which won't be physically implemented before the february batch (possibly even later). That is what he said.

As has already been discussed in the thread, the newer units have improved DC voltage regulation. This prevents damage to headphones with amp failure.

It can help prevent damage in some cases, but like John said, he's still unsure of the origin of all these issues. He hasn't gotten to the bottom of this yet.

 

[Seeing_Red]

As in? There was one reported issue of a failure in 2007. I remember because mine is 2007 too.

My 2007 batch failed on me. You can see my post in my history. The failure seems random with no warning signs.

 

[highpurityusbcable]

As has already been discussed in the thread, the newer units have improved DC voltage regulation. This prevents damage to headphones with amp failure.

Sorry, but I don't have as much trust in words as you do. Only time can tell how improved this regulation is. As much as I want to believe, one, two, three or ten units could still miss the qc.

@threni ,my choice will be optimal, of course.They won't replace eardrums too, most likely. Still made me search for them on aliexpress.

 

[Rick63]

It's the cheapest for them, no shipping cost or electric scraps.

It's a difficult situation for sure. While I understand why Topping would want to minimize their losses on this, I'd feel real bad for someone who bought a suspect unit on the used market only to subsequently have their headphones destroyed. Or worse yet have their hearing damaged.

 

[raistlin65]

Sorry, but I don't have as much trust in words as you do. Only time can tell how improved this regulation is. As much as I want to believe, one, two, three or ten units could still miss the qc.

Then don't. Ask for a refund. Or if they'll only do an exchange, sell it as NIB on eBay.

I just don't see that you have any other option if you don't trust that there's improved DC voltage protection.

 

[filipduarte]

IMHO we still have to wait (I'm doing it) next @JohnYang1997 statement about this.
Check which improvements have been implemented in serials 2012 and above and whether they deal with both the DC problem and the ESD problem.

 

[highpurityusbcable]

It's also about how much to wait before the new units will be shipped for an exchange. Would be silly to destroy it and wait 3 months. I don't have too many amps and too many dacs.

 

[Quomz]

No, sorry. If you read all of John's comments, you'll see that he still doesn't know for sure what's causing these issues. He has been saying that repeteadly over the last few days. Some protections may have been implemented recently, but nobody knows if they will solve the problem. Nobody even knows if it's a faulty batch, a faulty OPA, of something else. That is the real problem here : we still don't know what we're dealing with.

John has said that he will keep on examining amps and hopefully implementing NEW protections... which won't be physically implemented before the february batch (possibly even later). That is what he said.


It can help prevent damage in some cases, but like John said, he's still unsure of the origin of all these issues. He hasn't gotten to the bottom of this yet.

I reread the facebook post and might understand what you mean. It is not guarenteed that 2012 and newer revision will not have whatever catastraphic fail, but since that revision there is better protection in place so that the amp won't take the headphones with it. But it is not clear if the cause for failing is known.

 

[Frio]

For those concerned to loose the stack symetry. I'm very ok with this look. Also they put in an auto off switch, fun fact: Monolith active 6 Watt (l30 8w), turned off we have 0.8w vs 5 watt at the l30. I will keep the e30 since it does it's job and I like Akm, who knows when they rebuild their factory.