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Topping L70 Headphone Amp Review

Rate this headphone amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 14 4.4%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 2 0.6%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 29 9.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 272 85.8%

  • Total voters
    317

YSC

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Sorry if I missed, but if there’s linearity and channel balance data? Those are usually among my top list for headphone amp
 

Jimster480

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I wish my equipment had an easy to read display volume and a 12v trigger.
My two wishes came true here
Topping is listening to people especially on this forum.
I gave it one for the OLED display alone,otherwise I would have given it fine (to give great must be proved reliable over time too)
(I'm in an open war with OLED displays,I like to be able to read a screen more than 1 or 2 years after i get it)
I mean my ~4 year old DX7 had some faded components on it but it had been left on basically all the time for the past 4 years until I got my D70S 2 months ago.
Definitely still was very visible even if the brightness had reduced on the pixels that had been on for years.
 

PeteL

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Wow. 7W of output power.
This device is useable to replace a single ended 300B amplifier on a high efficiency speaker? White this technical data, this must be amazing.
greetings, Walter
According to this graph posted later in the thread, no, You won't get much power for speaker loads, say 3 to 8 ohms.
1670320122988.png
 

Sokel

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To tell my whole truth is not only about function but looks too.It doesn't look nice with faded digits,let's not forget that screen is the first thing that catches the eye.
Hopefully as @JSmith said not the case here,that's not an OLED (I don't have a clue about screens,I rely on you guys).

(Changed my vote too,I want to be fair)
 

kencreten

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The only negative about all these fantastic headphone amps is, it's kind of a race to the bottom.... Sorry. It's the only bad joke I could come up with. Great equipment.
 

anphex

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Same same, but different, but still the same.

So DAC manufacturers have gotten into the yearly release cycle like smartphones. Well, who's to blame them as long as it sells and there are actually people who ugprade their DAC every year.
 

solderdude

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Sorry if I missed, but if there’s linearity and channel balance data? Those are usually among my top list for headphone amp

Linearity is near perfect as there is no distortion so has to be linear.
You might be meaning the volume control though.
Channel balance is near perfect (0.025% = 0.0023dB), at least at the volume setting Amir used.
It has relay volume control (0.5dB steps) so will be fine on other volume levels as well (determined by the tolerance of the used resistors).
 
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Mattx

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Excuse my ignorance but for the 12V trigger input control would this be a correct cable ?
modulation-jack-35mm-to-jack-35mm-cable-3-poles-red-15cm.jpg
 

solderdude

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According to this graph posted later in the thread, no, You won't get much power for speaker loads, say 3 to 8 ohms.
View attachment 248091

The L70 is current limited at 0.4Amp so in 8ohm is only 3.3V = 1.4W
In 4 ohm = 0.7W

And, it will go in overload mode as the output chips would get too hot.

Exif68 should consider the A90D if wanting to stay in the Topping range (or LA90)
 

solderdude

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I am wondering if this matters if you have active speakers attached. I assume it doesn't matter ?

You can connect active speakers. These have a high input resistance so do not load the amp.
 
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PeteL

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The L70 is current limited at 0.4Amp so in 8ohm is only 3.3V = 1.4W
In 4 ohm = 0.7W

And, it will go in overload mode as the output chips would get too hot.

Exif68 should consider the A90D if wanting to stay in the Topping range (or LA90)
I wouldn't consider any 10 Watts into 4 ohms amps to drive speakers, even very efficient ones but that's just me.... The fact that some use low power 300B tube amps don't mean that's right, and we do know that the distortion characteristic is different, It will not clip as hard.
 

vintagelove

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Could anyone confirm what the maximum input level on this would be (in low gain mode). I’m considering this for a monitoring solution for a mixer I’m building (Basically think recording studio monitor control). The nearest thing price wise in the studio world clips at +22db, that would be about the same as the L70 right (9.6v rms). The thing is, the L70 is half the price and absolutely humbles it spec wise. Seems like it could be an excellent fit for the purpose.


Also, I assume that in preamp mode, the headphones are muted and vice versa?

Thanks
 

staticV3

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@vintagelove Afaik, Topping spec input sensitivity only as a function of max output voltage and gain, e.g:
6866310.jpg
sqrt(600mW*600Ω)*10^(-19.8dB/20)≈1.9Vrms

So the max input voltage before the Amp clips at full volume.

It's possible that if you reduce the Amp's volume by, say, 30dB, you can input more voltage than what the specs say.
Basically, we don't know at what point the L70's input will clip. Only the output.
 
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