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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 3.0%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther

    Votes: 28 7.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 314 86.5%

  • Total voters
    363

Bleib

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Just received my black unit. And listening to HE400se is a better experience, you can tell that it has more power than DX3 Pro+
 

Jimster480

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Just received my black unit. And listening to HE400se is a better experience, you can tell that it has more power than DX3 Pro+
DX3+ pro doesn't really have enough to comfortably drive the 400SE from what I read.
 

staticV3

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DX3+ pro doesn't really have enough to comfortably drive the 400SE from what I read.
DX3Pro+ has enough to drive the 400se to 120.5dB SPL. That should be plenty comfortable.
L30II is a little over 123dB btw, or 20% higher perceived loudness.
 

Jimster480

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DX3Pro+ has enough to drive the 400se to 120.5dB SPL. That should be plenty comfortable.
L30II is a little over 123dB btw, or 20% higher perceived loudness.
Really? I must have read the original graphs wrong, I thought it only had around 190mw?
 

Miiksuli

Member
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Oct 2, 2021
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42
I pulled a tricker and bought this new headphone amp but I noticed that it can't drive full power. Protection kicks in and it cuts sound for a split second. Around 42% volume is max at high gain.
 

half_dog

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
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Brazil
I pulled a tricker and bought this new headphone amp but I noticed that it can't drive full power. Protection kicks in and it cuts sound for a split second. Around 42% volume is max at high gain.
Which headphones are you driving with L30 II?
 

Miiksuli

Member
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Oct 2, 2021
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Which headphones are you driving with L30 II?
I'm not driving HP directly. I use headphone output for the stereo amp. Medium gain works perfectly even at 100% volume. Too bad because it rocked very well but sound started to clip when gaming. If I listen to music it works fine but gaming has different sounds that will make it clip and I hear a click sound from the L30 II.
 

Jimbob54

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I'm not driving HP directly. I use headphone output for the stereo amp. Medium gain works perfectly even at 100% volume. Too bad because it rocked very well but sound started to clip when gaming. If I listen to music it works fine but gaming has different sounds that will make it clip and I hear a click sound from the L30 II.
Why not use the rca at the back? Get splitters if you need.
 

half_dog

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I'm not driving HP directly. I use headphone output for the stereo amp. Medium gain works perfectly even at 100% volume. Too bad because it rocked very well but sound started to clip when gaming. If I listen to music it works fine but gaming has different sounds that will make it clip and I hear a click sound from the L30 II.
That's... Strange. This version is supposed to have considerably more headroom compared to the former version. Could you give more details about your setup. Something (DAC?) seems to be saturating the L30 II input or maybe the L30II is saturating your power amp.
 

staticV3

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Really? I must have read the original graphs wrong, I thought it only had around 190mw?
7Vrms @25Ω (=1.96W) based on WolfX-700's measurements and 5PL curve fitting thereof:
Screenshot_20220813-110235_Sheets.png THDN-Ratio-vs-Measured-Level.jpg
L30II has 9.5
 

Miiksuli

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Why not use the rca at the back? Get splitters if you need.
I like power. I use a tube amp. The less I had to turn the volume knob the better.


That's... Strange. This version is supposed to have considerably more headroom compared to the former version. Could you give more details about your setup. Something (DAC?) seems to be saturating the L30 II input or maybe the L30II is saturating your power amp.
It's strange but I think it's the L30 II itself but I could be wrong. It started to clip when spamming low frequencies. I use Muzishare X7 power amp. DAC is DX7 Pro. I have stereo speakers connected to the amp and X7 is connected to iESL Pro and electostatic headphones connected to it.
 

Miiksuli

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Pretty sure the rca outputs are the same as the front headphone jack, just less adapting of cables. But nevermind
Hmm. I need to test that then.

Edit. Same clipping happens. Didn't change but now I can use better cables. Thank you! :)
 
Last edited:

Jimbob54

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not really, output impedance is different, for RCA it's 20ohm
True - but I'm assuming its a high input Z amp thats being fed from it- so shouldnt matter. Not sure why the poster's L30 v2 is shutting down at higher outputs though as it should be an easy/ no load to drive.
 

Miiksuli

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True - but I'm assuming its a high input Z amp thats being fed from it- so shouldnt matter. Not sure why the poster's L30 v2 is shutting down at higher outputs though as it should be an easy/ no load to drive.
It's happening only when gaming. Not when listening music. But not biggie deal because I can use medium gain when gaming.
 

nyxnyxnyx

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May 22, 2019
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My personal standard for a headamp is it must be able to drive my headphones to a ground level around 120dB (excluding peaks), even better if it has enough juice for a hefty preamp figure (think -10dB) so I can comfortably make heavy adjustments with EQ.

Not that I think I will listen that painstakingly loud but it's mainly for peace of mind. I honestly don't really care about SINAD with headamps, I tried to A-B my tube amps with Atom before and it was difficult to know which is which.
 

Miiksuli

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Oct 2, 2021
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@nyxnyxnyx Same here. I have plenty of headroom but getting that extra is not bad. It still outperforms DX7 Pro HP output even with medium gain :) When using electrostatic headphones you need quite much power. X7 KT88 power amp is something like 56W*2. When gaming, Peace will reduce output 7 dB for not clipping.

Maybe the third version of this L30 can handle high gain better.
 

tlr125

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Maybe the third version of this L30 can handle high gain better.
L30II is good for >300ohm loads in high gain, no clipping at all, but with lower impedance it can't provide too much current power (which is ok for budget amp's)
 
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