Topping L30 II Review (Headphone Amp)

[Veri]

However the said company in China not only copied the exact circuit of L30(including the not working dc protection circuit), but also filed patent exactly describing circuit of A90 in China. This is the completely different behavior than what I was doing. And now they are claiming the circuit is independently developed(which they apparently couldn't do in the past decade?) while the L30/A90 circuit was the first design I put out. I only joined Topping in December 2019.

Whaaat

 

[Bleib]

Well, wow. Purchased. Even though I'm not sure I need it.

 

[Jimster480]

Don't give the High End Audio, ideas. Some solid, brushed aluminum case, a power supply for 200 wpc in another but separate solid aluminum chassis and ... $19,999,00 later you have the new HEA "best preamp ever", a true bargain



Peace.

P.S. Just to make sure that I own a Topping, I just purchased a D10 Balanced, to replace a perfectly good , working but single-ended Khadas Tone Board... There!!

And yet Topping is delivering it at a price under $200 a 99% discount from the scam price ;x

 

[lc155]

You were basically correct. But learning from is very different from copying. I also learned these circuits from Bob Cordell's book and Douglas Self's book on TMC and TPC. I didn't make a big fuss about how new the circuit was but the actual performance it was achieving. That type of circuit was already experimented long long time ago by many people. JDS also must have learnt it from somewhere. And that's absolutely ok. And in the course of the time I was on ASR, I respected JDS very much and recommended Atom to members all the time.

However the said company in China not only copied the exact circuit of L30(including the not working dc protection circuit), but also filed patent exactly describing circuit of A90 in China. This is the completely different behavior than what I was doing. And now they are claiming the circuit is independently developed(which they apparently couldn't do in the past decade?) while the L30/A90 circuit was the first design I put out. I only joined Topping in December 2019.

The what company? Is this throwing shade at JDS?

 

[iamsms]

The what company? Is this throwing shade at JDS?

the said company in China. Definitely not JDS, whoever it is.

 

[lc155]

the said company in China. Definitely not JDS, whoever it is.

The post just made no sense to me because the last line in his paragraph talks about how he 'respected' JDS (implies he no longer does), then doesn't mention any specifics about the company. 'the said' company implies he spoke about them already and the only company he mentioned was JDS...

 

[Jimster480]

The post just made no sense to me because the last line in his paragraph talks about how he 'respected' JDS (implies he no longer does), then doesn't mention any specifics about the company. 'the said' company implies he spoke about them already and the only company he mentioned was JDS...

Yes but he said the company in China. JDS isn't in China and mfg's in the USA. So they couldn't be who he was talking about.
Also just because he said "respected" doesn't mean he doesn't have respect for them any more. This is likely due to the language barrier.

 

[DrIacozKnows]

I would like to see next HPA from Topping: Resistor Ladder Volume Control, true bal input, all kind of phones output, perfect R&L channel match and no preout.

 

[pongpaktech]

I would like to see next HPA from Topping: Resistor Ladder Volume Control, true bal input, all kind of phones output, perfect R&L channel match and no preout.

You mean the A90 Discrete? Also what do you have against preouts? It's really useful for powered monitors or large power amps with no volume control

 

[DrIacozKnows]

You mean the A90 Discrete? Also what do you have against preouts? It's really useful for powered monitors or large power amps with no volume control

Nothing against at all. I just like pure HPA. A90D doesn't has SNR>100 dB.

 

[JohnYang1997]

The post just made no sense to me because the last line in his paragraph talks about how he 'respected' JDS (implies he no longer does), then doesn't mention any specifics about the company. 'the said' company implies he spoke about them already and the only company he mentioned was JDS...

I used 'respected' because I had not been on ASR for some time. And that was talking about something happened a long time ago already. Now I still think they are doing fine work. No question about it. Sorry for the miscommunication.

In which case you didn't get what I was talking about at all, you might try click the link in his post to his older post in a different thread.

But I would consider this topic kind of a off topic and I really don't want to drag it for too long. Just to be sure, I'm 100% no beef with JDS. I have been a happy customer of original EL AMP, Atom, OL DAC and 2 O2s. I really appreciated what they have done to the community.

 

[pongpaktech]

Nothing against at all. I just like pure HPA. A90D doesn't has SNR>100 dB.

umm the A90D has an SNR of 125, unless you mean at 50 mV

Topping A90 Discrete Review (Headphone Amp & Preamp)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the new Topping A90 Discrete balanced preamplifier and headphone amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $599. Announcement was supposed to be a few hours from now but one of the distributor already released it so here we go. As...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Edit: A90D not A50

 

[raif71]

umm the A50D has an SNR of 125, unless you mean at 50 mV

Topping A90 Discrete Review (Headphone Amp & Preamp)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the new Topping A90 Discrete balanced preamplifier and headphone amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $599. Announcement was supposed to be a few hours from now but one of the distributor already released it so here we go. As...

www.audiosciencereview.com

A50D ?? A50 going discrete?

 

[DrIacozKnows]

Nothing against at all. I just like pure HPA. A90D doesn't has SNR>100 dB.

sorry, have not has,

 

[DrIacozKnows]

umm the A90D has an SNR of 125, unless you mean at 50 mV

Topping A90 Discrete Review (Headphone Amp & Preamp)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the new Topping A90 Discrete balanced preamplifier and headphone amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $599. Announcement was supposed to be a few hours from now but one of the distributor already released it so here we go. As...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Edit: A90D not A50

Exactly!

 

[Jimster480]

Exactly!

Who knows when that would be.... A95D?

 

[oscar_dziki]

Let's make a new company. Maybe call it LOWING instead and we just take Topping stuff and put it in "witchcraft" cases and sell for 14k and then make youtube videos about the extensive designs lmfao

And that would still be a better buy than chord BS

 

[Jimster480]

And that would still be a better buy than chord BS

Definitely. You would actually get top tier performance for your money.
And later on if some $500 device came out even with slightly better performance it would not be audible because we have already reached past the audible threshold for most things. I have a feeling that in another year or so we are going to need some new measurements of differentiation. Since we are basically heading the limits of the analyzer already today. Who knows what will come out by the end of the year.

 

[ngs428]

A number of us, myself included, have the E30/L30 combo already? Anyone going with this new II as a replacement?

No functionality change from what I can see. Just chasing numbers or is anything audible? More power would be nice if you need it. The L30 already powers my 6XX and ED XS just fine.

 

[staticV3]

A number of us, myself included, have the E30/L30 combo already? Anyone going with this new II as a replacement?

No functionality change from what I can see. Just chasing numbers or is anything audible? More power would be nice if you need it. The L30 already powers my 6XX and ED XS just fine.

The L30 has pretty low gain, meaning that you cannot use it to its full potential with the E30. You need a DAC that has 3Vrms output voltage for that.
The L30 II remedies that with a lot higher gain. 2Vrms is enough to drive it to 100% output power.

I'll make some graphs to show the difference in power/loudness between E30+L30 and E30+L30 II later today.