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Topping L30 II Review (Headphone Amp)

Rate this headphone amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 10 2.8%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 11 3.1%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther

    Votes: 27 7.5%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 312 86.7%

  • Total voters
    360

Miiksuli

Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2021
Messages
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42
Can the Topping L30 II preamp out be connected to a Tube power amp (100K input). Is the preamp section active or passive? Many thanks for your input

Works really well. I had problems when not using a tube amp as a power amp. This L30 II started to clip at high gain. What amp u have?
 

half_dog

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
452
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361
Location
Brazil

taner

Active Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2020
Messages
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136
Maybe due to insufficient psu filtering.
Is there any photos of V2's inside circuitry? I wonder if they use same size of filter capacitors of V1. V1 has 2*4700uF high quality filter capacitors (V1 photos are at this post).

At first I took this as sarcasm, but it does actually look like a distortion spike at 60Hz from a noisy power implementation in the V2.

The original L30 doesn't have this spike and is cleaner with no spikes above -120:
index.php
 

theron_day

Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2022
Messages
15
Likes
6
Im auditioning the ToppingL30II tonight preamp section, first time. Denon DVD 3910 CD player to Topping to an Adcom GFA 565se power amp to JBL 4312 control monitors.

With the Hi setting volume at 8-9 oclock is plenty loud enough. Medium gain equal loudness at 11 oclock.

Crystal clear image, full sounding, sounds good, Clear as a bell.

ONE ISSUE !!! on the high setting when the volume is at absolute Zero there is a small amount of the audio signal still heard in the speakers… Anyone else?
 
Last edited:

Veri

Master Contributor
Joined
Feb 6, 2018
Messages
9,595
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12,034
ONE ISSUE !!! on the high setting when the volume is at absolute Zero there is a small amount of the audio signal still heard in the speakers… Anyone else?
This is kind of typical for cheaper ($100-150 range) amps. The performance is there but otherwise I guess you 'get what you pay for'.
 

Miiksuli

Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2021
Messages
97
Likes
42
Im auditioning the ToppingL30II tonight preamp section, first time. Denon DVD 3910 CD player to Topping to an Adcom GFA 565se power amp to JBL 4312 control monitors.

With the Hi setting volume at 8-9 oclock is plenty loud enough. Medium gain equal loudness at 11 oclock.

Crystal clear image, full sounding, sounds good, Clear as a bell.

ONE ISSUE !!! on the high setting when the volume is at absolute Zero there is a small amount of the audio signal still heard in the speakers… Anyone else?
Same happens here. A bit bleeding.
 

Jayzqa

Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2021
Messages
27
Likes
11
Just got the II stack on my desk and boy it drives Sennheisers like nobody’s business.
 

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Jayzqa

Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2021
Messages
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11
@Jayzqa do you get the same amount og power from Topping L30 ii without using the DAC? Which Sennheiser do you have?
I do not have anything else sensible to test that with at the moment sorry. I only have hd660s and atleast they give their peak performance with this little box.

It literally kills all of their combo units. (only thing I haven't heard is the new DX7 pro+)
 

StratsoundFan

Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2022
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3
Ok. Thanks. I see those are 150 ohms. When I'm using my dt 990 pro 250 ohms, I have to set the volume knob at 2 o'clock on high setting. I just wanted to make a comparison
 

Jayzqa

Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2021
Messages
27
Likes
11
Ok. Thanks. I see those are 150 ohms. When I'm using my dt 990 pro 250 ohms, I have to set the volume knob at 2 o'clock on high setting. I just wanted to make a comparison
I drive mine on medium gain but your cans has also a much lower sensitivity so they are pretty hard to drive. You cannot directly compare them by impedance alone.
 

Merkurio

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2018
Messages
301
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511
I've been without audio gear for a long time, other than a Qudelix-5K which I personally adore and drives all my IEMs with no problem (in fact, my last desktop DAC/Amp was the original DX3 Pro a couple of years ago which I sold due to lack of use), but I'm motivated to buy a DCA Aeon 2 Noire soon and now I wanted something without the distracting orange numbers at low light, so I've ordered the L30 II with the Moondrop Dawn 3.5 version as a DAC to hook it up behind the computer and have a clean desktop setup at night.

Excited to see how the combo performs, at least initially with my IEMs and later with the Aeons. :D
 

Jayzqa

Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2021
Messages
27
Likes
11
I've been without audio gear for a long time, other than a Qudelix-5K which I personally adore and drives all my IEMs with no problem (in fact, my last desktop DAC/Amp was the original DX3 Pro a couple of years ago which I sold due to lack of use), but I'm motivated to buy a DCA Aeon 2 Noire soon and now I wanted something without the distracting orange numbers at low light, so I've ordered the L30 II with the Moondrop Dawn 3.5 version as a DAC to hook it up behind the computer and have a clean desktop setup at night.

Excited to see how the combo performs, at least initially with my IEMs and later with the Aeons. :D
You can actually turn the display off from E30 II
 

Merkurio

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2018
Messages
301
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511
You can actually turn the display off from E30 II

But there's no point spending more on another brick above (or below) the L30 if I'm not going to take advantage of the extra connectivity, especially considering that Moondrop Dawn's numbers are very competitive (115 dB SINAD) according to Wolf's measurements at L7AudioLab for less than $70.
 
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