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Topping L30 Headphone Amplifier Review

lashto

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Nobody has talked about the -9dB gain setting so far, but that's the main reason I replaced my Atom with L30.
Though using big desktop amps to drive sensitive in-ear phones does sound somewhat clumsy, there still are some cases I need this kind of match just like noise isolating and protecting hair style from the pressure of headbeam lol...

A phone with16ohm impedance and 106db/mW sensitivity doesn't meet any channel balance or noise floor issue at all, while on THX789, Atom and SP200 the experience is just terrible:facepalm:.
Hand feeling of volume control is wonderful, I like it very much.
impedance adapters should also be a good 'fix' for super-sensitive/low-impedance inears.
 

Recopilatorio

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I have ordered my Topping L30 from a seller in Spain (https://zococity.es/topping-l30), it will surely take two or three weeks to arrive. Pair with the Topping E30 DAC to listen with AKG K702 headphones (62 ohms and 105 dB sensitivity). I hope that all this makes a good ensemble to enjoy opera, classical music and others.
 

ThomasXia

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impedance adapters should also be a good 'fix' for super-sensitive/low-impedance inears.
Not only so called damping factor of the system but also frequency respose of earphones, espetially the low-imedance ones, will be influenced by these adaptors, making them sound quiet differently.
 

Veri

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Hi, I am new to the forum.

I am thinking on buying the E30+L30 stack. Two important questions to JohnYang1997:

  1. The L30 will work with 220V?
  2. The performance is expected to be the same as with 110V?

Greetings from Argentina!
You need to buy L30 from a seller that will supply a 230V power supply. That is all ;) same performance guaranteed, it uses 15VAC after all. All you need is the transfo power supply.
 

half_dog

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View attachment 77833
View attachment 77834
Nobody has talked about the -9dB gain setting so far, but that's the main reason I replaced my Atom with L30.
Though using big desktop amps to drive sensitive in-ear phones does sound somewhat clumsy, there still are some cases I need this kind of match just like noise isolating and protecting hair style from the pressure of headbeam lol...

A phone with16ohm impedance and 106db/mW sensitivity doesn't meet any channel balance or noise floor issue at all, while on THX789, Atom and SP200 the experience is just terrible:facepalm:.
Hand feeling of volume control is wonderful, I like it very much.

Could you talk a little more about your experience with Atom? I have one and sometimes use it to drive Samsung´s IEM by AKG (low impedance and high sensitive) and even at high gain and volume maxed out I can´t hear any background noise from the amp when it´s connected to a clean source. But if Atom is connected to a source like KTB there is possible to hear its background noise (at high gain and volume near to max).
Atom with its pot lower than 8 o'clock has a little channel imbalance and for this IEM I have to decrease the source volume digitaly - I think that´s the only "problem" I have with Atom.I mean no disagreement to you, just curious about your experience because I've bought a E30+L30 combo to replace my Atom+KTB.
 

Fedpul

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You need to buy L30 from a seller that will supply a 230V power supply. That is all ;) same performance guaranteed, it uses 15VAC after all. All you need is the transfo power supply.

Many thanks for your answer Veri. Do you know how many Amps the L30 need? Maybe someone can upload a photo of the 110V so I will know.

I am very excited about this upgrade, I have an almost 10 year old DAC/AMP (Nuforce Icon HD). I will be listening on a pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 with cable.
 

ThomasXia

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Could you talk a little more about your experience with Atom? I have one and sometimes use it to drive Samsung´s IEM by AKG (low impedance and high sensitive) and even at high gain and volume maxed out I can´t hear any background noise from the amp when it´s connected to a clean source. But if Atom is connected to a source like KTB there is possible to hear its background noise (at high gain and volume near to max).
Atom with its pot lower than 8 o'clock has a little channel imbalance and for this IEM I have to decrease the source volume digitaly - I think that´s the only "problem" I have with Atom.I mean no disagreement to you, just curious about your experience because I've bought a E30+L30 combo to replace my Atom+KTB.
Yes, I agree with you. Decreasing ditital volume can make volume control much more easier when these sensitive phones are plugged in. I realized it by adding a preamp switch of -10dB in EQAPO software on Windows. But this method only works when directsound or WASAPI shared API is used by audio applications. ASIO and WASAPI exclusive API just ignore volume control of system and EQAPO. Therefore, switching between different applications, using different phones, I have to adjust the volume of the applications, volume of the system/EQAPO and position of Atom's knob simultaneously, only to just avoid the channel imbalance area of the amp and to control the volume more precisely orz.... When it comes to L30, a single toggle of the gain switch is just OK in most cases, no matter what signal routing it is.
As far as noise floor is concerned, I can never notice any noise floor with L30 high gain. However I do notice some noise floor in several earphone models with Atom high gain, even when the volume is not high. I'm not complaining about Atom's shortcomings though, it is one of the most satistying amps I've used and noise floor level is just exellent. The phenomenon is just trivial.
 
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Hai

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A powerful SE output amp it is.
I was reading earlier that the e30 does not push the l30 to its highest potential and needs a more powerful dac. Also that schiit heresy is a tad more powerful than the l30. Are these two statements true?
 

JohnYang1997

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I was reading earlier that the e30 does not push the l30 to its highest potential and needs a more powerful dac. Also that schiit heresy is a tad more powerful than the l30. Are these two statements true?
You do need a dac with higher voltage output to get the maximum power of L30 but in real world use you don't need it. All people need from the power is probably the "headroom". Unless you listen a max volume with high gain and you still need higher volume it's completely meaningless. Also with 16Ohm, 9.5dB is already close to clipping. I want my amp to not clip in normal use with many different loads. Changing to higher gain is just one resistor value thing. I chose not to use higher gain because it becomes less usable with high gain setting. Also you experience larger jump from mid to high gain which can be hurting experience when you do that. But I may use 18db gain for high gain in future design as this is apparently what most people want (power on paper over user experience). *shrugs*

In terms of max power, L30 has more power than heresy with any load. Different become larger with impedance lower than 32ohm.
 

half_dog

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@JohnYang1997 I don´t know if that's the best aproach, but I was thinking if would be better to make a DAC its -6dBFS (just a suggestion) be equivalent to 2.1Vrms (or higher) of output giving it some digital headroom for oversampling and leave L30 with the current gain setup. Usually I leave Foobar2000 with -6dBFS and sometimes I do like to use Atom´s high gain because of this low volume... I don´t know if I explained it right.
 

JohnYang1997

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@JohnYang1997 I don´t know if that's the best aproach, but I was thinking if would be better to make a DAC its -6dBFS (just a suggestion) be equivalent to 2.1Vrms (or higher) of output giving it some digital headroom for oversampling and leave L30 with the current gain setup. Usually I leave Foobar2000 with -6dBFS and sometimes I do like to use Atom´s high gain because of this low volume... I don´t know if I explained it right.
Did you go close to max volume? Or did you just felt you turned the volume knob quite a bit? It's log/audio taper that it's only about 20% at half way position.
So ultimately, unless you are at max volume at high gain and still wanting more volume, it's good enough.
 

half_dog

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@ThomasXia Huum I got it, thank for your explanation. Just a note, I´m able to hear Atom´s background if nothing is connected to it, that´s why I gave emphasis to a "clean source" - in my case, believe me, this clean source is a Galaxy S9, it´s cleaner than KTB.
 

half_dog

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Did you go close to max volume? Or did you just felt you turned the volume knob quite a bit? It's log/audio taper that it's only about 20% at half way position.
So ultimately, unless you are at max volume at high gain and still wanting more volume, it's good enough.
In a few songs, most "classical" musics, with HD650 I've played close to Atom's max volume with high gain - Foobar2000 at -6dBFS. But I agree that's atypical. Usually I listen with "low gain", volume knob around 12 to 1 o'clock and -6dDFS. This is alredy loud for most songs.
 

yavormoskov

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Could you talk a little more about your experience with Atom? I have one and sometimes use it to drive Samsung´s IEM by AKG (low impedance and high sensitive) and even at high gain and volume maxed out I can´t hear any background noise from the amp when it´s connected to a clean source. But if Atom is connected to a source like KTB there is possible to hear its background noise (at high gain and volume near to max).
Atom with its pot lower than 8 o'clock has a little channel imbalance and for this IEM I have to decrease the source volume digitaly - I think that´s the only "problem" I have with Atom.I mean no disagreement to you, just curious about your experience because I've bought a E30+L30 combo to replace my Atom+KTB.

I also have KTB and Atom. Can you hear any difference between KTB and E30 and between the Atom and L30? I am just interested in your impressions, soundwise. Thanks.
 

yavormoskov

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Guys, have you tried L30's preamp function? Here is my problem. I have KTB DAC and Burson Fun and Atom amps. When connected to my power amplifier the preamp on the Atom is subjectively very bad to my ears. The music from my speakers becomes lifeless and boring. When I use the preamp from my Burson Fun amp, my speakers sing, just perfect. The situation is completely reversed when headphones are plugged in, any headphones. I just love the sound from the Atom amp and don't like the sound from the Fun anymore. I just wish there is an amp with sonic excellence in both departments - headphones and preamp output. If you already connected Topping L30 to power amp and speakers can you share what you think about it, please.
 

half_dog

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I also have KTB and Atom. Can you hear any difference between KTB and E30 and between the Atom and L30? I am just interested in your impressions, soundwise. Thanks.
Oh, I've bought the combo but they haven't arrived yet and I'm being eaten by inside by my anxiety haha
Anyway, I've talked about KTB being not so clean as my Galaxy S9, but it is only perceptible at "extreme" situations like high gain, volume close to max with a sensible IEM and no song. If I had played anything in this condition, the digital volume had to be really low or a I could loose my IEMs or even my hearing =P
Honestly, I don't know if I'm gonna hear any significative difference. Atom and KTB are a nice and clean combo for headphones.

About your dilemma, how does yours speaker sound if you connect the KTB straight to them and control the volume digitaly? I've tried something similar with a pair of JBL 308P MKII and I couldn't tell apart when Atom was in the chain or not.
 

yavormoskov

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Oh, I've bought the combo but they haven't arrived yet and I'm being eaten by inside by my anxiety haha
Anyway, I've talked about KTB being not so clean as my Galaxy S9, but it is only perceptible at "extreme" situations like high gain, volume close to max with a sensible IEM and no song. If I had played anything in this condition, the digital volume had to be really low or a I could loose my IEMs or even my hearing =P
Honestly, I don't know if I'm gonna hear any significative difference. Atom and KTB are a nice and clean combo for headphones.

About your dilemma, how does yours speaker sound if you connect the KTB straight to them and control the volume digitaly? I've tried something similar with a pair of JBL 308P MKII and I couldn't tell apart when Atom was in the chain or not.

They sound good but if I connect the KTB to the Emotiva power amp and speakers , I will lose the headphone amp funtionality. KTB directly connected to speakers sounded good, KTB/ Burson Fun preamp to the Emotiva power amp sounded even better to my ears and KTB/Atom preamp to Emotiva power amp, not good at all, plain horrible. The weak link here is the active preamp of the Atom. If L30 can manage to sound great both through headphones and through speakers that would be great. Seriously, if Topping L30 has a good active preamp I would sell both The Burson Fun and the Atom. I don't need multiple DACs or Amps in my life. Simple is better :)
 
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