Topping L30 Headphone Amplifier Review

[CraigShaw]

Nice! Why 768k PCM though? never thought I'd see someone actually use such high rate in the wild

Lol, and you still havent! It was saying it because USB was plugged in. There was nothing playing, i think it was a bug because it wouldnt stay turned off either (receiving 5v from raspberry pi usb = on)

I updated the firmware today and tried it again with the Pi in the den and it hasnt done it since. It shows 44.1 now with no signal (i think, maybe it is showing last received) and now stays turned off so happy days!

edit:
I normally use optical or coaxial input in the den but couldnt be arsed setting up another HiFiBerry Digi on the Pi upstairs when the usb works great anyway. So that was the first time I had seen this bug myself. Not tried it back on that Pi so im not ruling out the problem could lie with that particular one. Tried it on PC too afterward and that too is fine.

 

[raif71]

I find his claims that the L30 somehow can't power all these headphones properly a little dubious. The L30 gives the HD6XX plenty of bass. I'm not sure what he was talking about the whole review, but I'm pretty sure the differences between this and the Atom are negligible lol, plus idk someone needs to tell me if the Atom is good with sensitive headphones too.

Like all reviews like this, his views are his own. The views may or may not correlate with what your eventual experience with your headphones and the amp. Your dac may be different than his too. The L30 will benefit with dacs that have more than 2V output. This I have experienced with the mojo and probably with Hiby r5 and nx4 dsd. I didn't need that much volume powering my senn hd600 compared with the e30. Not that e30 is not good but volume wise, I needed to go to +9db on the l30 to have the same spl with some sources. His ears and yours are different too so imho, his views are his and to me just information. Until we try and test, we will never really know.

 

[Mr:River]

Here we go. The setup is finally done. Custom made (by me) slide in under table table for my PC, Emotiva BasX A-300 power amplifier and, Polk Audio LSIM703s speakers, Topping D50s DAC and L30 amp. The preamp inside L30 is is very high quality. Music is clear but also impactful and musical. Much better experience than the preamp of the Atom.
View attachment 78979

Is the P50 + D50s feeding the L30 in this configuration?
Could you talk a little more about both?

 

[Mr:River]

Does anyone have an opinion on how HE400i looks with E30 + L30?

 

[MechEngVic]

Does anyone have an opinion on how HE400i looks with E30 + L30?

I would very much like to know this too. Also, maybe a HE400i vs. HD6xx, I think the two best options @200 ish bucks. Or am I missing another?

 

[Raoul Duke]

Well, the L30 turned up and, wow! I ended up feeding it from my Marantz and will probably be getting another to do the pictured set up again....
Raspberry Pi 3 receiving lossless music from Roon server >> E30 DAC via USB >> L30 amp >> AKG K702 Quincy Jones (Bass modded)
It sounds fantastic and I dont really need to take it to +9dB on gain.
The Bose Soundlink sounds a mess btw, its been on my bedside collecting dust so i connected it up for the laugh!
As for the L30, i think the 'wire with gain' quote on a review i read is a great description of its performance, well done Topping!View attachment 83546

Hi!

How were you able to output at 768 PCM? Drivers don't allow me to go over 384, and I never saw in any review anyone getting that number. I have been searching how to do it for a while.

Thanks in advance for your reply!

 

[Toku]

Hi!

How were you able to output at 768 PCM? Drivers don't allow me to go over 384, and I never saw in any review anyone getting that number. I have been searching how to do it for a while.

Thanks in advance for your reply!

To play PCM768kHz, you need to install Topping's USB driver and an audio player such as Foober2000.

 

[Raoul Duke]

To play PCM768kHz, you need to install Topping's USB driver and an audio player such as Foober2000.

Thanks for your reply!

I have the drivers installed and I tested both AIMP and Foobar2000 (with the provided F2000 components) and I am unable to do it. Foobar seems to go as far as Windows10 lets. And Windows 10 audio drivers display 32 bits 384khz maximum.
I also updated the firmware of the DAC (everything done as explained by Topping).

Maybe I missed something or an alternative driver?

 

[Toku]

Thanks for your reply!

I have the drivers installed and I tested both AIMP and Foobar2000 (with the provided F2000 components) and I am unable to do it. Foobar seems to go as far as Windows10 lets. And Windows 10 audio drivers display 32 bits 384khz maximum.
I also updated the firmware of the DAC (everything done as explained by Topping).

Maybe I missed something or an alternative driver?

Maybe your Foober2000 output doesn't have a Topping USB Audio Device configured and is output to the E30 using the Windows 10 audio system.
What is selected for the Output window on the Foober2000 screen?

 

[CraigShaw]

Hi!

How were you able to output at 768 PCM? Drivers don't allow me to go over 384, and I never saw in any review anyone getting that number. I have been searching how to do it for a while.

Thanks in advance for your reply!

Have a look at the last post of mine, basically, it was receiving no input from USB but still showing 768 pcm. Either a firmware upgrade fixed it or it was the RPi i was using at the time, doesnt do it where it is now.

 

[CraigShaw]

To play PCM768kHz, you need to install Topping's USB driver and an audio player such as Foober2000.

In case it helps someone else, i found Qobuz app on PC selected the Topping DAC as output but via WASAPI which seemed to only output at 44.1.

You can choose to go direct to the DAC by selecting Topping DAC with the button next to the source quality at the bottom of the window. It will have Topping e30 WASAPI, WASAPI exclusive, Direct Audio THEN Topping e30 DAC ASIO.

Maybe it is similar in foobar?

EDIT: Changed ALSA to ASIO.

 

[w1000i]

Thanks for your reply!

I have the drivers installed and I tested both AIMP and Foobar2000 (with the provided F2000 components) and I am unable to do it. Foobar seems to go as far as Windows10 lets. And Windows 10 audio drivers display 32 bits 384khz maximum.
I also updated the firmware of the DAC (everything done as explained by Topping).

Maybe I missed something or an alternative driver?

I think you need some tool in Foobar2000 to enable ASIO driver

 

[Toku]

In case it helps someone else, i found Qobuz app on PC selected the Topping DAC as output but via WASAPI which seemed to only output at 44.1.

You can choose to go direct to the DAC by selecting Topping DAC with the button next to the source quality at the bottom of the window. It will have Topping e30 WASAPI, WASAPI exclusive, Direct Audio THEN Topping e30 DAC ALSA.

Maybe it is similar in foobar?

sorry. I don't know anything about the Qobuz app.
Maybe in your case the output is set to WASAPI mode. Therefore, it is not affected by the resampling settings of the Windws audio system and is output to the E30 at the original bit rate.
Even with Foober2000, if you incorporate the WASAPI component, you can get the same operation, and you can play up to PCM 768kHz.
Without the built-in components, resampling will be output according to the sampling rate and bits set in the Windows 10 audio system.

 

[Veri]

Thanks for your reply!

I have the drivers installed and I tested both AIMP and Foobar2000 (with the provided F2000 components) and I am unable to do it.

You can install SoX resampler to foobar2000 and just manually input "768000" kHz in its configuration output rate. But you need to use WASAPI or ASIO output mode to push it directly, not DirectSound.

 

[CraigShaw]

sorry. I don't know anything about the Qobuz app.
Maybe in your case the output is set to WASAPI mode. Therefore, it is not affected by the resampling settings of the Windws audio system and is output to the E30 at the original bit rate.
Even with Foober2000, if you incorporate the WASAPI component, you can get the same operation, and you can play up to PCM 768kHz.
Without the built-in components, resampling will be output according to the sampling rate and bits set in the Windows 10 audio system.

Yes it defaulted to WASAPI, i had to manually set it the output to the DAC ASIO last option in the list (not direct sound or WASAPI exclusive) only then did it display the correct bitrate.
Does / would WASAPI drivers downsample to 44.1? Maybe a previous app changed the settings - im thinking REW possibly? I dunno just guessing here. Just thought id share that bit of info incase someone else found the output being downsampled.

 

[Veri]

Does / would WASAPI drivers downsample to 44.1?

It shouldn't. WASAPI is direct exclusive mode.

 

[Jose Hidalgo]

Hi!

How were you able to output at 768 PCM? Drivers don't allow me to go over 384, and I never saw in any review anyone getting that number. I have been searching how to do it for a while.

Thanks in advance for your reply!

For God's sake. Why would you want to do that ?
You take a perfectly good 44.1 signal, you alter it by needlessly resampling it to 768, just to have a nice "768 KHz" display in your E30 ?
That is not "Hi-Fi", sorry, that is something else.
You don't really believe that "just because it's 768 it will sound better", do you ?

If you had actual 768 KHz music I wouldn't say anything (except that your ears are limited to 20 KHz in your younger years, which is the reason why 44.1 exists BTW : 44.1 / 2 = 22.05 and 22.05 > 20). But AFAIK such music doesn't exist yet at this point. Or maybe limited so some rare files.
100% of people here and elsewhere on Earth have mostly 44.1 music. In my case I have 1 to 2% of 48/88.2/96/176.2/192 KHz music, but no more.
For 44.1 music, 44.1 is the way to go : bit-perfect output and 44.1 on your DAC. That is "High Fidelity".

 

[raif71]

Not sure about windows but 768kHz wav files play fine from my Hiby R5 to e30. I converted 16bit 48khz flac to 16bit and 24bit 768kHz wav and both play fine. Used ffmpeg to convert.

Edit: I spoke too soon. Playing first 48khHz let it finish. When 768kHz took over, it played fine for few seconds then out of sync with hissing. I had to select the 48khz file then switch to the 768khz/16bit , only then it played fine. From 768khz/16bit to 768khz/24bit change over, the file played fine. Not sure whether due to hiby r5 or e30, the problem occured (48khz flac to 768khz wav)

Edit: Tried 2nd time let the player changed from 48khz to 768khz and this time it was ok. I remembered that I used the backtrack button from 768khz/24 to 768khz/16 to 48khz/16 at that time , perhaps it messed up the player. So, I think the e30 is fine.

 

[CraigShaw]

For God's sake. Why would you want to do that ?
You take a perfectly good 44.1 signal, you alter it by needlessly resampling it to 768, just to have a nice "768 KHz" display in your E30 ?
That is not "Hi-Fi", sorry, that is something else.
You don't really believe that "just because it's 768 it will sound better", do you ?

If you had actual 768 KHz music I wouldn't say anything (except that your ears are limited to 20 KHz in your younger years, which is the reason why 44.1 exists BTW : 44.1 / 2 = 22.05 and 22.05 > 20). But AFAIK such music doesn't exist yet at this point. Or maybe limited so some rare files.
100% of people here and elsewhere on Earth have mostly 44.1 music. In my case I have 1 to 2% of 48/88.2/96/176.2/192 KHz music, but no more.
For 44.1 music, 44.1 is the way to go : bit-perfect output and 44.1 on your DAC. That is "High Fidelity".

Yup, thats why i question music sources saying 96 when its probably upsampled from 44.1 Where 88.2 would be preferable as not to fudge the timing. Unless of course it is a different master file. But then again the instruments will be recorded by one OR the other multiple so one master will be sub par.

 

[Sin Hizer]

Has anyone hooked up some powered speakers to this thing yet? Like LSR305 or Edifiers or similar desktop/bookshelf type speakers? Is it really as simple as a flip of the switch to go from my headphone to the speakers? Or do I need to worry about levels like what I read about with the DX3Pro?