is undeniably high. In turn, there’s slightly enhanced smoothness and a good amount of texture similar to that on the THX789. This was where I found the issue with power supply most on display. Build wise this thing is actually fantastic. With the SP200 has balanced input and output connectors, the entire circuit inside the amp is just single-ended, so balanced here is just for convenience. The L30 borrows from its flagship sibling the A90, using the same Nested Feedback Composite Amplifier (NFCA) module. For ex – Will the desktop dac/amp set up sound as good with an android phone as it may sound with a computer or transport. The A90, in particular, has carved out a new performance delta and remains to be the solid-state headphone amplifier by which all others are measured. There is also a single 6.35mm (1/4”) headphone jack and a volume wheel on the right. It’s a nice feature to have at this price and adds to the overall value equation of the little Topping amp. There was a time when we thought the Drop THX AAA was the best we could do and here comes the L30, with so much lower noise and distortion. The E30 also offers the user to adjust the DAC filter settings with 6 filters for PCM and 2 for DSD decoding (I used setting “F-4”): Filter settings can be adjusted with the remote, which can also be used for adjusting the volume (not in pure DAC mode), switching between input sources, mute, auto power on/off and brightness level (low, mid, high). The left most switch if off in the lowest position, headphone amplifier in the middle position, and pre-amp in … I’m serious, it will put on a plate everything is there to hear, all the good and all the bad. It’s solidly put-together and feels surprisingly premium given its price. It may be related to the power supply, considering the fact that China is … I personally love that unity gain and I wish all headphone amp manufacturers would offer a unity gain (0 dB) for the cleanest possible signal. Wishlist TOPPING. View all posts by wyville. It has a very, very low noise floor and is very clean, very enjoyable with the right headphones. The new L30 can be used as both a headphone/IEM amplifier or a preamplifier The L30 headphone amplifier incorporates NFCA (Nested Feedback Composite Amplifier) modules from the flagship A90. I don’t know how Topping dealt with the overall gain and power output, because clearly L30 is not lacking at all in terms of power output and gain. Considering its performance and price point, I’m happy to recommend the. Moreover, Topping seems to have a talent for developing equipment that offers great value for money. As many will know, the power supply is integral to the performance of a high-end amplifier and, thankfully, Topping have opted for a linear power supply on the L30 as opposed to switch-mode that is more commonly seen around this price. The soundstage on the L30 slightly narrow, but does not end up feeling closed in. It’s not only a warm/neutral take on a ‘reference’ sound, but it also happens to be very revealing of source gear. It doesn’t make for the most appealing pictures, so let’s move on to the content itself, which looks a lot better. Kennerton Wodan, Magni and Gjallarhorn, Focal Clear and Quad ERA-1 sounded almost the same as they did on the single ended output of the Topping A90. With the Sennheiser HD 6XX, L30 powers the 6XX very easily and it does a couple interesting things. , a Big fan, a Big-Big biggity-Big fan. CONS: Max power output lower with E30 than claimed. The D8000’s like a bit of juice, and immediately preferred to suck +9dB of gain from the L30, reaching ‘too loud’ at 9:30 on the volume pot. L30 is a great little amp. Simply put, L30 follows the same footprints with their. The body of both is made from aluminium and they are very small, only 10cm wide, 3.2cm high and 12.5cm deep for the E30 with the L30 sticking out a little more because of the volume dial. I don’t actually know what the PAW6000 is capable of, but a desktop amp usually requires 2Vrms or more from the DAC and DAPs are usually not able to generate that much. For quite a long time now I have been meaning to get into desktop gear alongside portable audio and when talking to people about what would be a good setup, the name Topping kept coming up again and again. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! I was quite a fan of the Topping A90, a Big fan, a Big-Big biggity-Big fan. Using the Ipower returned my HD800 to its normal cavernous sound. You use medium gain, you give it some juice with this headphone, but the excellent pairing is L30 with the TYGR 300 R. It doesn't take a lot of juice and this is an extremely — I haven't said it yet — this is an extremely clean amplifier. It is an amplifier topology that uses voltage current hybrid feedback architecture in conjunction with ultra-high gain feedback to provide very low distortion, high current output and a high dynamic range. The user manual includes a set of measurements for those who are interested in that sort of thing. The power output is easily sufficient for less efficient headphones and even high-impedance models, sacrificing just a little sub-bass authority to the much larger THX789. (345g) Topping E30 (DAC): 9.1 Oz. Kennerton Wodan, Magni and Gjallarhorn, Focal Clear and. No incentive was given for a favorable review. I’m actually very surprised by the performance I am hearing out of the little guy. The shell is brushed aluminum anodized in your choice of black or silver. Now let’s talk about the Topping E30 and L30… In the Box/Build. The THX789 offers an appreciable jump in resolution, especially with regards to sparkle and micro-detail that come across clearer and cleaner. In pre-amp, you can also use the volume dial to adjust output volume which is handy and adds to the amp’s versatility. The L30 sports a single full-sized 6.3mm headphone-out, a pair of RCA analogue inputs, and a pair of variable RCA outputs. As one would expect, the L30 offers a linear frequency response through the audible spectrum. Customer Questions & Answers , I got a silver L30, which is a perfect match for my silver E30. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. It’s superbly built and it’s audibly faultless if you’re looking for a faithful and enjoyable solid-state amplifier. is the pick of the bunch in the entry-level amplifier stakes, and well worth the $40 price differential over its $99 competitors. The L30 actually feels a tad heavier than the Zen CAN amp, which was a bit surprising to me. This would very easily power things like the HD58X, it would probably work well with things like the 4XX. In terms of soundstage presentation, the L30 gets good marks on soundstage expansion. is a monster combo in a mini-stack package. Select the 'Free delivery on … I loved it and I raved about it. I can still see some springing for the Atom for the flattest possible sound, however, you do sacrifice some driving power and it’s a large step down in build quality on top. The L30 was designed to be paired with Topping’s E30, I got a silver L30, which is a perfect match for my silver E30. this year, and they are two of the easiest products that I’ve been happy to recommend to readers without question. No dips, no rises, no nothing, just a long smooth line from sub-bass to upper-treble. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. The L30 is a stunning device for $139.99. In return, L30 always sounded snappy, engaging, with a faster pace and in a clean and transparent way. *** Warning: We were just made aware about a statement Topping issued due to a few faulty L30 units with S/N starting 2011 or less which might experience a problem and should be replaced under warranty by … The NFCA module also drives the pre-amp circuit promising strong performance for external speakers as well. It has some simple features: we have the on-switch, which makes it either a headphone amp or a pre-out. And I was not disappointed. 6.DAC filter mode And I was not disappointed. The L30 tells us that it is a ‘Linear Headphone Amplifier’, and that is perhaps the simplest way to describe the sound of the L30: absolute linearity. No BS switching power-supplies in here, no cutting corners and that makes me extremely happy. The L30 is a reference amp, no question. Like its NFCA-equipped stablemate, the L30 is an absolutely colourless window into your music playback, and it will reveal the qualities and capabilities of your headphone’s transducers to a fault. The craziest part is that transparency and detail are at the highest levels possible. Upfront on the L30, there is a 3-way switch that allows me to select between off, headphone amp, and pre-amp mode. Using 5V power supply, E30 can easily access the working power supply anytimeand anywhere in nowadays. The two three-way toggle-switches are precise, with a nice firm throw. The Topping L30 is a compact 3.5W capable single-ended headphone amplifier and pre-amplifier using trickle-down technology from the flagship A90. The A90, in particular, has carved out a new performance delta and remains to be the solid-state headphone amplifier by which all others are measured. While technically it might be possible to use the PAW6000 with the A50s, it is probably not advisable. In fact, it’s stunning full-stop. ***** Topping L30 The TOPPING L30 is a new product with Ultra-High Performance NFCA modules,uses the same NFCA (Nested Feedback Composite Amplifier) module from flagship A90. I’ve had the chance to review Topping’s $129 USD. The pricing is very attractive at around US$270 combined and I was curious to see what sort of performance you would get at that price point. The E30 and L30 are both a very attractive looking and feel well built. The analogue-out RCA output on the back of the L30 is variable, meaning that the L30 can work happily as a pre-amp upstream of a power amp or pair of powered monitors. I feel like a lot of times on most amps this headphone does not sound particularly incredible, but specifically on the TOPPING L30 it does come to life. Wishlist TOPPING. It’s a nice feature to have at this price and adds to the overall value equation of the little Topping amp. I think most people will have multiple such plugs lying around anyway and should not be a problem. and is designed to create a small desktop stack. In the box, we’ve got the amp, a ¼” adapter, a user manual, a warranty card, and a power supply that’s DUMMY THICC… As far as build goes, it’s excellent in both models. Two things were entirely conspicuous: the complete absence of any harshness and distortion; and just the most wonderful tonal richness and lush detail from the venerable Senns. Both are very articulate and well-controlled here, the L30 having slightly quicker decay and a hair more definition in the mid-bass due to the slightly smaller note size. The Topping L30 enters the budget amplifier field at a time when the consumer has more options than ever before and better measuring products than ever before. It’s a single ended unit, so not XLR jacks on its front or back plate. Those entry-level THX amps are still sounding decent in here, but on a more serious note, they lack midrange density and warmth. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. , it has absolutely the same case, same weight and shape. Same beautiful dance is shown with opposite load of 33 ohm: Channel balance was exceptionally good for an amplifier with analog controls: If the other samples in the field are this good, this alone differentiates the L30 strongly from the competition for those of you with sensitive IEMs/headphones. There is a several second delay when switching between HPA and Pre-amp output, otherwise, nothing intrusive to the listening experience was noted. As you can imagine, any IEMs I’ve tried with it, be it Meze Rai Penta or FiiO FA9 and FH7, they all worked as a charm with the little guy. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. “But what about planars?” you might ask. While I am looking at the A50s rather than the L30, I would like to know that if there is a reason to get a dac? ( Log Out / I used to like Topping stuff back in the day when they were just a (smaller) company that had bought up all the Tripath chips after they went bankrupt. Instead of comparing to gear at or above this price point, I decided to write it from the perspective of someone who might have a portable USB DAC/amp and wants to step up to a proper desktop solution. Next page. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. FREE Meze Audio Rai Penta Upgrade Cable — $149 Value for Limited Time. It’s a pretty minimalist kind of device not only in terms of its desktop footprint but also the way it goes about doing its job. With an output impedance of just 20Ω, the L30’s preamp will be able to pair well with most amplifiers. I’m having the same feelings about the tiny single-ended only L30. At the back are the standard RCA left and right inputs and outputs. It offers, to my ears, a slightly smoother note attack in general and not the widest soundstage but good note texture and coherence in terms of imaging. The L30 uses a voltage-current hybrid feedback architecture that started out in the A90 as well as their nested Feedback model. When the L30 came out, I was excited to find out if this little amp would be able to impress me as much as the E30 did. For the time being, the Topping L30 has grabbed the top spot in the budget amplifier field and may well hold onto it for awhile as it is hard to imagine anyone coming out with something much more versatile or much less expensive without having to cut corners that hurt the product. The ones I had for review were both in black, but there is also a silver version and I believe a red and blue version should be coming too. Any amplifier is only as good as the power it is fed and this is one place the attention to detail that Topping is putting into its products is very evident. When using portable charger, E30 turns into a portable DAC and bring the Hi-Res music around. The second set of powered monitors was the Elac Navis (borrowed). headphones, then I’m here to say that it was good sounding, but not great sounding. You can power the E30 by USB port of computer, mobile phone charger or portable charger. This makes the L30 perfect for sensitive, low impedance in-ears in addition to planar magnetic headphones – especially in conjunction with its high current output. This did not give me volume control on the DAP, like it did with the PAW6000 via USB. Its build and design also outclass immediate competitors too which makes it nicer to use on a daily basis with no sharp edges and a really high-quality weighted dial. In addition, there was minimal deviation in sound signature from the THX789, which offers a 1-ohm output impedance. TOPPING D90 DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter), TOPPING E30 DAC (Digital-to-Analog-Convertor), SMSL SU-8 Version 2 DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter), Moondrop Blessing 2 In-Ear Monitor (IEM) Earphone. While it does produce low-end. PROS: Highly versatile, low noise, high power, small footprint, price. Before I tell more about the L30, I want to have your attention of that enormous external power supply, I’ve had a gut feeling and I’m glad that I followed it. However, once the passage goes into a faster pace, the L30 starts to show some of its faults. With such heavy loads, the little L30 will be struggling in offering you tons of headroom or effortless presentations. Total Harmonic Distortion plus Noise (THD+N) is <0.00007%, the noise floor is <0.3uVrms, output impedance is 0.1 Ohm and the L30 produces 141dB of dynamic range while pushing out a maximum of 3,500mW per channel. Using the USB in does support DSD up to DSD512 Native/DSD256 DoP, so this limitation goes for the optical and coaxial in only. Topping E30/L30 stack is again more powerful with greater drive but sounds a bit brighter and sharper in comparison. Despite being neutral, I also found it to sound natural and detailed for the price point. The final wrapping points are that it is an amp that I can definitely recommend, but once again it's going to be recommended to specific use cases. I spend a lot of time commenting on how budget products can be improved by improving the power they are provided. It makes for a very good looking stack that takes up little space on a desk. This headphone has a much lower impedance of just 13Ω but requiring the amp to supply quite a bit of current due to the lower 92dB SPL. It would seem unfair for me to be comparing these 2 amplifiers, as the SP200’s price tag is double that of the Topping. L30 is a pretty great little amp. Power Supply . I will slightly alter my reviewing process as I want to mention all the bad parts of this unit before going forward. *Please do not plug the power supply of Topping L30 into E30. This headphone is being driven relatively easily. There’s a minuscule white LED dot on the front of the L30 to indicate that power is on – it’s kinda hard to see, but on the flip-side, at least it’s not blinding you while you’re getting work done at your desk. It changed them…in a good way, I’m still spotting the naturalness in both, but their laziness is gone forever. The L30 also implements Toppings’ UHGF (ultra high gain feedback) Technology, which gives it the ability to drive even the most demanding headphones. It is priced at $139. Personally, I would rather recommend K5 Pro despite its worse measurement, because I know it is a safer product. I also used my MacBook Pro (mid-2012) to stream Idagio (a classical music streaming service). Sonically, the high current delivery works well in tandem with a very low OI. Get one and thank yourself that you live in this era and not a few years ago. Tt does start to distort once you get up to a pretty good level with the Argon. If you went past worldwide politics and you’ve opened your mind, then I will tell you that A90 competes with the best solid-state headphone amplifiers ever made at any price point. I find the low end on this to be less pleasing with the 6xx than with another few amps. While amplifiers at this price point tend to emphasize treble too much to disguise itself as detailed, or they emphasize the bass to sound more enjoyable, I’m glad to hear that the L30 did neither of these things. So you may want to leave that plastic on it. I don't know if I would particularly recommend this amplifier with HIFIMAN Sundara; I'm sure it could get there, but there are factors about Sundara that make it sound just better on a beefier amplifier. One gripe, there is no LED or indicator that power is on on the front face so you just have to know that if the left switch is in the middle or upper position the unit is on, if it is in the lower position the unit is off. *Note: All the units in stock are all new from Topping arrived (29th January) with serial number 2012 and above*. L30 can be also considered as a sleeper type headphone amp - its small and it will lower your expectations once you look at it, but after pressing play, keep your hands on the chair handles, close your eyes and prepare for a fast ride. It’s astonishingly impressive. The L30’s main chassis is an all-metal unibody, made from nice-to-the-touch brushed aluminium. So actual distortion is limited by this test setup. You can’t really go smaller than this and if desktop space is important to you, it should fit those requirements really well. As a system, I was impressed with how well the nuances of the music were presented. Output impedance is impressively low, at just 0.1 Ohms, you can be sure that damping factor is unaffected at all and you can basically drive highest sensitivity headphones with great results. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 . The E30 did a bit when paired with the HD800 and its legendary stage. The Face of the L30 has two three-position switches on the left, then the 6.3mm headphone jack, followed by the volume knob on the far right. When it comes to things like these, you can’t get better than this at any price point. It also reportedly incorporates Topping’s UHGF (ultra high gain feedback) technology in a voltage-current hybrid … Aside from aesthetically being a perfect pair, the E30 and L30 were designed to be sonically complementary. Though the. Simple and effective. As I have explained in my A90 review, it exhibits a higher gain, higher slew rates and much lower distortion. With the SP200 has balanced input and output connectors, the entire circuit inside the amp is just single-ended, so balanced here is just for convenience. This supply is heavier than the unit itself and is a full-blown transformer we’d expect to find in a more expensive model. Discussion. While the L30 has a very neutral sonic presentation, the overall sound of the E30 is slightly warm, and rich, with good depth for such a small DAC. The L30 combines an impressively high maximum power output of 3.5 Watts at 16 ohms with a dynamic range of 141dB, all the while keeping Total Harmonic Distortion and Noise (THD+N) to a paltry <0.00006%. The Sennheiser HD600 is my North Star when it comes to looking for truth in audio. But once I pulled it off, I realized the real labels are not as easy to read. Topping measured its noise floor at 0.9 micro-Volts on the high gain and 0.7 micro-Volts on the low and mid gain. Topping L30 (Amp): 11.8 Oz. However, they provide a much quicker transient response in addition to lower noise output. Of course, the damage is not that big, I’m exaggerating a little, but it’s there - especially with open-back headphones the width of the stage was shrinking in size compared to all-balanced solid-state amps. The analogue-out RCA output on the back of the L30 is variable, meaning that the L30 can work happily as a pre-amp upstream of a power amp or pair of powered monitors. for quite a while, and I was impressed with what the little E30 was able to do. mid-range, which plays very well to the strengths of the hd6xx. Power Supply As many will know, the power supply is integral to the performance of a high-end amplifier and, thankfully, Topping have opted for a linear power supply on the L30 as opposed to switch-mode that is more commonly seen around this price. I don’t know why it felt heavier at first. Let's start off with some headphones that I know are very hard to drive. Thanks. The AEON Flow is quite a source revealing headphone, and I’m quite impressed with how the L30 was able to handle the AEON Flow properly. I’ve had the E30 for quite a while, and I was impressed with what the little E30 was able to do. I’ve had the chance to review Topping’s $129 USD E30 DAC as well as their $499 A90 flagship headphone amplifier this year, and they are two of the easiest products that I’ve been happy to recommend to readers without question. The downside is that outside of the preamp setting, there is no volume control other than that of the L30 and with sensitive IEMs, even on low gain you end up very low on the L30’s volume, meaning there is precious little room to play with before it gets loud. I'm not getting a lot of low frequency response out of it, and that's not the fault of the amplifier, but this amp is not necessarily going to drive this headphone as well as it should be driven. I’m having the same feelings about the tiny single-ended only L30. that is carrying a lot of tech from its bigger sibling. Now, this is a slippery slope I’m threading on but I’ll do it anyway. This is a feature that I rarely see, as most headphone amps with pre-amps just automatically turn off the pre-amp section when headphones are plugged in, or even worse just leave both the pre-amp and headphone section on all the time. This is a super super well-built amp. Linear power supplies are not as efficient, larger and are substantially more costly to produce. Topping L30 xploding and taking headphones out. THD is roughly 0.00007% while still being able to push 3.5 Watts into a 16Ω load. Treble is of course going up and up, it goes past top-octave and there is still plenty of information that will be rendered by the little one. The race toward perfection and beyond continues in headphone amplifiers at incredibly low prices. With the E30/L30 you feed a digital signal into the E30 DAC, which is a Digital to Analogue Converter, and an analogue signal from the E30 to the L30 amplifier. The two pair very well together because I feel like the 300 has exceptional resolution for its price point, and when you pair these two together, it really is something special. It changed them…in a good way, I’m still spotting the naturalness in both, but their laziness is gone forever. is a versatile little amplifier that can be a great fit to supplement a growing collection of headphones. When the E30/L30 were paired with these, there was no lack of bass and the sound was well defined and clean. If you went past worldwide politics and you’ve opened your mind, then I will tell you that A90 competes with the best solid-state headphone amplifiers ever made at any price point. I want to clarify that only with Audeze LCD-4 and Hifiman Arya I’ve felt a lesser kick and impact, but with everything else like Kennerton Wodan, Focal Clear and Quad ERA-1 it was punching like a natural boxer and it was keeping up with demanding music. In terms of power, the SP200 has quite a bit more power, as I can’t even max out the volume dial on the SP200 on any headphone that I own, while I end up pushing the L30 a bit more. Big disclaimer here for the more technically savant and those fully into desktop gear. Its functionality is excellent and price is very reasonable. Do you have a headphone that's harder to drive that you listen to at low volume levels and you don't expect crazy bass performance out of it? Audiosciencereview have done several deep dives on Topping’s technology and have found it to offer lower noise than even THX’s modules in some instances making it one of the best measuring systems on the market. In this regard, A90 and L30 are better as I am carried away by music much easier, voices are going deeper, string instruments sound more natural to me, there is none of that plasticky sound in here. 300 ohms = no sweat for the L30. Integrating this with the E30 will make a great upstream section to a pair of headphones and a pair of powered speakers or a speaker amp. , they all worked as a charm with the little guy. Considering its performance and price point, I’m happy to recommend the Topping L30 as a great sounding tiny headphone amp. If are worrying about driving high-impedance dynamic headphones, you shouldn’t, as L30 would be slapping those membranes until they turn red. It was only a matter of time when Topping would start trickling down technology from that one, that time is now and I’m presenting you the newest and the smallest. Poor power gave me a less than expected stage size and detracted from the music. How could I not be impressed by it? However, switch-mode power supplies are less resistant to harmonics from the power system, and may also generate high-frequency noise due to the switching transistors inside. It already proved its value multiple times as you are getting the same wire-with-gain flavor with only $139! offers 2.3 V Rms of power on the RCA out instead of the standard 2V and yet I wanted to raise the volume a bit higher. Let's go with the Edition XX now. In fact, it’s probably the only headphone amplifier you’ll really need for a long time. The midrange presentation is also very similar between both amplifiers, being transparent and accurate. I’ve heard some comments regarding the L30s ability to handle fast passages and have to say I found no such problems with the L30 and wonder if maybe those impressions were more due to either the dac feeding it or the headphone it was feeding as I tried to make it mis-step and could not using several different sources and headphones. The L30 uses a voltage-current hybrid feedback architecture that started out in the A90 as well as their nested Feedback model. Despite this, the Topping was able to power the AEON to a respectable volume level at maximum gain, with some power to spare. The AK4493 chip provides better distortion and S/N ratio while having increasingly accurate digital filters for sound. L30 is a simple and straightforward device, it’s only a tiny headphone amp in the end, right? In this respect, it provides contrast to the slightly warmer Schiit amp while the Atom offers a slightly flatter sound yet, subjectively speaking that is.
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