Topping L30 II Review (Headphone Amp)

[juliangst]

Balanced?

Topping A30 Pro has balanced I/O and costs half the price of the A90d. I don’t see the point in getting the A90d when the L30 v2 and A30 Pro exist

 

[Nango]

An excellent set of measurements in a low priced HP amplifier. A game changer (possibly a “game over” product) in the arena of similar products. Superb performance from Topping. To note how it is almost 1/100th of the price of DAVE. Thank you Amir!!

Well, don't think it is a game over or killer gear unless it beats the competitors in a blinded blind testing. Certainly it is one of the finalists.

 

[Veri]

Topping A30 Pro has balanced I/O and costs half the price of the A90d. I don’t see the point in getting the A90d when the L30 v2 and A30 Pro exist

A30 Pro has balanced inputs but its output is single ended, not to mention it has no pre-amp output but just a passthrough. A90d has an active pre-amp functionality, and more voltage out from its XLR/4.4mm output as opposed to the A30 Pro. And ladder relay volume control.. So there are differences which might push one to A90d. (or A90).

 

[juliangst]

A30 Pro has balanced inputs but its output is single ended, not to mention it has no pre-amp output but just a passthrough. A90d has an active pre-amp functionality, and more voltage out from its XLR/4.4mm output as opposed to the A30 Pro. And ladder relay volume control.. So there are differences which might push one to A90d. (or A90).

Yeah the preamp could be an important factor to some people. I use a speaker amp so I don't want a preamp at all.
Yes the balanced outputs are single ended but I don't think it really matters if you still get a lot of power out of it. The single ended output has more than double the power of the A90d's single ended output.
I don't wanna discredit the performance of the A90d but for the same price you can get the A30 Pro with similar power and a DAC that you could use as a preamp.
It's really nice that good hardware has become this affordable

 

[BeerBear]

Need that relay volume control for perfect channel matching.

Yeah, in practice I'd rather have with a few dB more noise than channel imbalance, even if it's only 0.5dB.
Other parts in the chain, like headphones, have their own imbalance and small differences can add up and become audible. So it's best to keep things under control wherever possible.

 

[razamanaz]

it will work if the speakers connect 8 ohm?

 

[staticV3]

it will work if the speakers connect 8 ohm?

Whatever IEM/headphone/speaker you plug into the L30 II must be >8Ω, otherwise you risk losing your warranty.

 

[juliangst]

it will work if the speakers connect 8 ohm?

You want to connect speakers to a headphone amp?

 

[hutt132]

This is totally unacceptable.
I wait for v3...

View attachment 220561

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:

 

[raif71]

This table is from Topping:

View attachment 220595

I like how this L30 II double the output power as I find the original L30 lacking in power when fed with 2 Vrms input.

 

[razamanaz]

You want to connect speakers to a headphone amp?

Yes, i need 2.5w power

 

[Blake Klondike]

This is a review, detailed measurements and listening test of Topping L30 II. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $149.
View attachment 220536
It comes in a number of colors. Usability could not be better with positive clicking switches for power/pre and gains. Three gains are provided with the low gain being very negative (-14 dB?) which should be very useful to drive sensitive IEMs.

Power is provided through an AC transformer:

View attachment 220538

In use the unit ran warm but noting concerning. It survived my multiple overload tests.

Topping L30 II Measurements
As usual we start with our "unity gain" dashboard of 2 volts in/2 volts out which required using medium gain:

View attachment 220539

Wow, check out that distortion. We are talking -148 dB which is basically what the analyzer itself generates! Noise level is also very low:
View attachment 220540

Check out how low it is when I adjust the output to just 50 mv:
View attachment 220541

This shatters all previous records:
View attachment 220542

We are talking a 5 dB gain over the best before! Considering that the analyzer noise is also in there, this is a remarkable achievement. Translating, even at 50 mv output, your noise floor is well below that of CD's 16 bit format!

Back to distortion, here is our multitone:
View attachment 220543

Frequency response is the flattest I have measured of any amplifier I think, extending to beyond 100 kHz!

View attachment 220544

Beyond noise, power is everything for a headphone amp so let's see how much we have:
View attachment 220545

Am I seeing right? Nearly 0.6 watts into 300 ohm? Are you kidding me? All of you with high impedance headphones rejoice!!!

Power into 32 ohm is no slouch either:
View attachment 220546

There is plenty of drive for every load you throw at it:
View attachment 220547

Importantly there is no clipping at 300 ohm and higher meaning if you hear distortion, it is your headphone!

Finally, here is channel match:
View attachment 220548

There is an initial glitch with a deviation of 0.7 db but then things get better and you get plenty of attenuation.

Topping L30 II Listening Tests
I paired the L300 II with its companion E30II DAC for testing. I started with my difficult to drive Dan Clark Stealth headphone. In high gain, the L30 II had no trouble driving it to incredible volume and dynamics. Except in one rare case, I could not get the amp to produce anything but pure, clean distortion-free response with amazing detail.

Switching to Sennheiser HD300 meant there was more power than you ever wanted. In high gain, I could get the headphone to produce superb bass response that rattles your skull like you have your head in a drum set!

I wanted to just sit there and listen to this. Alas, it is past 1:00am in the morning and I have to get this review out...

Conclusions
Just when I thought boredom was setting in in this class of headphone amplifier, here comes Topping raising the bar so much. Not only does it set new record as far as noise performance, but it delivers incredible amount of power. And does it for US $149!!! I mean lunch at McDonald's for two is starting to get close to $30. And here we have an audio product that obsoletes even my made of phrase of "instrument grade!"

It is my pleasure to recommend Topping L30 II. This is engineering at its ultimate best.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

This is great to see. Thanks so much for all you do!

Quick question re: hard-to-drive headphones like the Stealth: If you can get them to play through an amp to the volume you like to listen to, are you necessarily hearing the best the phones have to offer? Is it possible to reach comfortable listening volume and still be missing bass response or other characteristics of the sonic picture? Trying to figure out if I need to buy one of these to upgrade my HD800 experience. Thanks again!

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Okay, this one is seriously promising to drive a pair of high sensitivity compression drivers.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

it will work if the speakers connect 8 ohm?

I second this question

 

[Psycher1]

Curious for a teardown, how are they bashing around the competition so badly for so little money? If it were easy, everybody would do it - what is going on in that little box?

 

[Orion76]

So I could buy these, come up with a silly name, stick it in a case with sharp edges, lots of screws, and silly controls and sell them for $14k?

Well, Lexicon put an Oppo Blu-ray player inside a larger chassis and sold it for big $$$

Lexicon BD-30 Blu-ray Player (Oppo BDP-83 Clone) Review

We discovered the Lexicon BD-30 is an Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray Player with a $3k premium. We prove this with pictures, measurements and an official response from THX. Lexicon no longer sells this product.

www.audioholics.com

 

[Noob]

Is there any reason left to buy the A90 / A90 Discrete?

Specifically the A90 Discrete, which I consider superior to the A90 has:
#1 Better current delivery to low impedance headphones.
#2 Better Voltage swing/slew rate
#3 has more in/out options
#4 Has much better volume control.

And while the L30ii has better low-level THD+N performance for especially sensitive IEMs, the A90 Discrete still does extremely well and is likely to have practically indistinguishable performance or perhaps even better because those channel imbalances can be especially noticable in low-level listening with sensitive IEMs

 

[Garrincha]

Stunning measurements, still don´t like the external power supply almost the size of the device.

 

[Bow_Wazoo]

Specifically the A90 Discrete, which I consider superior to the A90 has:
#1 Better current delivery to low impedance headphones.

Hmm...
That's not what my L30 did on the LCD-5.
Therefore, it was a downgrade for me to switch from the L30 to the A90...

So if we are talking about low impedance headphones, I see the E30 in front of course

 

[Thomas savage]

Chord blimey governor.. , what performance.