Topping L50 Review (Headphone Amp)

[Billias]

Does the distortion or clipping happen at unbearably loud level?

Actually yes, but I've read somewhere that the DT 770 Pro 250 Ohm are distorting on high volumes and I wanted a bit more louder & clean sound without distortion / clipping. I'm wondering if the distortion is coming by driving the L50 with the DT 770 Pro 250 Ohm to their limits? If one of the two is the weakest link who is it from the two? And if the L70 with some planar magnetic headphones will give me that bit more loud sound but without clipping.

 

[pier25]

@Billias it sounds like the issue is with the headphones.

I owned the DT990 Pro 250ohm and the Scarlett should be enough to at least give you a decent listening volume. The L50 at max gain can destroy your ears and then some.

BTW I bought the L50 recently and it came with that exact white box.

 

[usern]

If it sounds like 60 Hz (or whatever your mains AC frequency is) growl, it is amp about to get rekt
If it sounds square wave or brick wall distortion, it's digital clipping or amp clipping
If it sounds plastic crackling to the beat of music, it's headphones distorting heavily

 

[Billias]

@Billias it sounds like the issue is with the headphones.

I owned the DT990 Pro 250ohm and the Scarlett should be enough to at least give you a decent listening volume. The L50 at max gain can destroy your ears and then some.

BTW I bought the L50 recently and it came with that exact white box.

I bought it from AliExpress during their Summer sale. Can you please take a photo of the Warranty card that's inside the box?

 

[pier25]

I bought it from AliExpress during their Summer sale. Can you please take a photo of the Warranty card that's inside the box?

Sorry I don't have the box or the warranty card anymore. I bought it on Amazon.

 

[Billias]

At last I had a reply from Topping...

Dear Xxxxxxx,

Thank you for reaching out to us and providing detailed information about your concern. We truly appreciate your vigilance and for bringing this to our attention.

After thorough verification, we can confirm that the L50 headphone amplifier you purchased is indeed a genuine TOPPING product. However, we sincerely apologize for the errors and poor quality of the warranty card included in the package. The card you received was part of an old batch that contained typographical errors. We have since discontinued the use of these cards and implemented improved quality control.

Should you experience any issues with the product, please feel free to contact us directly, and we’ll be glad to assist.

We deeply regret any confusion or concern this may have caused. Your satisfaction is very important to us, and we’re committed to ensuring the quality of both our products and the supporting materials.

If you have any further questions or need additional support, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Best Regards!
----------------------------------
Shelly Lau
TOPPING Technology Co., Ltd
Rooms 903-905, 7 Cuiyu St, Nansha, Guangzhou, China
www.toppingaudio.com www.topping.pro

 

[usern]

The reviews on this site for Beyerdynamic DT 990, DT880 show that they will distort at lower volume relative to other similar priced headphones so it's no surprise, especially if you applied bass boosting EQ as well. I have similar experience with DT 880.

 

[Billias]

I haven't added EQ at all.

The distortion is coming from playing loud.

However since I got all my equipment for pleasure listening, not for mixing, tracking or anything like studio use, I might invest in the future at planar headphones since from my search they don't distort. Something like Sundara open back, Fiio FT-1 Pro.

For the moment I will try to EQ them with the Harman curve by using AutoEq explained by Paul Third on YouTube.

 

[Billias]

I finally found something on ChatGPT that explains why the Scarlett 4th gen makes the Topping L50 not being so loud as some said to me here.

I guess I will return the Scarlett.

 

[staticV3]

I finally found something on ChatGPT that explains why the Scarlett 4th gen makes the Topping L50 not being so loud as some said to me here.

View attachment 475181
I guess I will return the Scarlett.

Didn't bother reading your Scarlett's spec sheet eh?


The 4i4 4th gen outputs 4.9Vrms. ChatGPT is wrong.

 

[Billias]

Yes, I haven't checked it. You are right.

There must be something wrong on how I have made the settings through Control 2 then. As most people say that at 12 o'clock it is very loud.

Can someone help?

 

[jdjung]

The maximum input voltage for line-level sources into the Topping L50 is approximately 2.7 Vrms at high gain (G=H), 12 Vrms at medium gain (G=M), and 60 Vrms at low gain (G=L) without clipping and distortion. 4.9 volts at line level is high and may be clipping your unit if your using the high gain setting.

 

[pier25]

The maximum input voltage for line-level sources into the Topping L50 is approximately 2.7 Vrms at high gain (G=H), 12 Vrms at medium gain (G=M), and 60 Vrms at low gain (G=L) without clipping and distortion. 4.9 volts at line level is high and may be clipping your unit if your using the high gain setting.

Depends if balanced or unbalanced though. Right column is balanced:

 

[Billias]

So, my setup is:

Laptop connected through its USB port 3.1 Gen 1 to Scarlett 4i4 4th Gen with the original provided USB cable and the original power supply, to the L50 through Roland Interconnect TRS 1.5m cables Black Series through Scarlett's back Output ports 1&2 to the Balanced inputs of the Topping L50 to the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 250 Ohm. No distortion on Low and Medium gain of the L50. The Medium gain of the L50 to Max volume is similar to the Scarlett's headphone output. On High gain of the L50 on close to max volume the distortion starts. My laptop's volume is on 100%. Should I set the laptop's volume to 90%? Should I get the L70 since there is no headroom with the L50 on High gain and it might gives me distortion due to this?

 

[Roland68]

So, my setup is:

Laptop connected through its USB port 3.1 Gen 1 to Scarlett 4i4 4th Gen with the original provided USB cable and the original power supply, to the L50 through Roland Interconnect TRS 1.5m cables Black Series through Scarlett's back Output ports 1&2 to the Balanced inputs of the Topping L50 to the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 250 Ohm. No distortion on Low and Medium gain of the L50. The Medium gain of the L50 to Max volume is similar to the Scarlett's headphone output. On High gain of the L50 on close to max volume the distortion starts. My laptop's volume is on 100%. Should I set the laptop's volume to 90%? Should I get the L70 since there is no headroom with the L50 on High gain and it might gives me distortion due to this?

Before you invest another cent, I strongly advise you to check all your devices, especially your headphones.
The same applies to your listening volume.

The L50 has a measured power of 636mW at 300 ohms, which is almost three times the power of the L70 on SE. Amir's test showed no distortion, and I haven't heard any with the L50 either.
And the power of the L50 on the DT 770 Pro 250 ohms is more than enough to permanently damage your hearing.

Potential problems in the order I consider them likely:
- The DT 770 Pro 250 ohms is defective.
- The DT 770 Pro 250 ohms is a fake. Unfortunately, this is happening more and more often, and these fakes have even been sold on Amazon. Search for it and check.
- You're listening way too loudly, which would be damaging to your hearing. It's definitely not a problem if the headphones produce distortion at a volume that is damaging to your hearing.
- Your Scarlett or L50 are defective, or the problem is with the source. Based on the information so far, I consider this highly unlikely.

 

[Billias]

I will try the Scarlett's back line level outputs 3&4 so that the volume adjustment is going to be directly from the L50, in contrast to the outputs 1&2 that makes the volume be adjusted by the front monitors knob of the Scarlett in conjunction with the L50's volume knob.

Other than that, as I bought the DT 770 Pro 250 Ohm from scan.co.uk I don't think that they are selling fakes. I will also check the sample rate of Windows if there's a mismatch with the sample rate of the Scarlett (I'm not sure if this will make any difference to be honest).

I'm quite new to all this, and I just bought all this gear just to be able to learn electric guitar with yousician!

But I'm already in the rabbit hole as it's something new and interesting for me!

 

[gino1961]

Hi good morning to Everyone
i have read the L50 review and i am impressed It is a completely transparent device
just a question The L50 does not have a preamp mode right ?
i wonder if using the unbalanced headphone out as preamp outs could make it a line preamp Using an adapter like the one below

Have anybody tried it this way ? thanks

 

[staticV3]

just a question The L50 does not have a preamp mode right ?

Correct. Only a signal passthrough when turned off.

i wonder if using the unbalanced headphone out as preamp outs could make it a line preamp Using an adapter like the one below

Yup, that would work.

 

[gino1961]

Correct. Only a signal passthrough when turned off.
Yup, that would work.

Hi ! thank you very much for your kind and valuable reply
I will search the thread to understand if anyone has experienced an unbalance between channels for high attenuations A very common issue with cheap units

 

[Roland68]

Hi ! thank you very much for your kind and valuable reply
I will search the thread to understand if anyone has experienced an unbalance between channels for high attenuations A very common issue with cheap units

You can save yourself this trouble entirely, as it provides no information at all about your own device.
All potentiometers, even from the same production batch, are different and have variations in channel balance. So, you can be lucky or unlucky with your device. These variations can occur especially at the very beginning and end of the range.
This has nothing to do with cheap or expensive, but rather a fundamental problem in potentiometer production. However, a potentiometer is the cheapest type of volume control, and truly high-quality ones have long since ceased to be manufactured.
But you can measure it yourself.

If you want to avoid this completely, you can use devices with ICs for volume control or relay-based volume controls. Both are absolutely precise.
Potentiometers based on switchable individual resistors are only available for retrofitting and don't fit into most devices, including the L50.