Strange buddy is contacting hifigo so he can get a claim in so he can get his money backr an exchange but his sn label just is non existent.
Good manufactures and good products usually have the S/N in multiple places.
Original box, manual, on device or firmware, on product registeration, receipt etc.
Bad to have only one.
If the S/N cannot be found by manufacturer “that just perfect way to avoid it”. We are sorry but we cannot find anything with the S/N you provided, please check the number."
lol
There just ain’t a process for this type of procedure.
It’s would cost way to much. It’s way cheaper to figure out, where do we get the parts as cheap as possible, manufacture the thing we are making cheap, send it.
After the consumer stops using it. He places it to recycle. Done. Case closed.
Actual reason for malfunction of course is important. They might already know the weak spots but only few similar issues and cases gives it away pretty quickly.
I had a weird acting dac/amp with one speaker. They took it in, zero cost for me.
I got a new amp on speaker and they started searching why it did what it did.
Like professionals do with good products that actually cost money.
Also there is the PR and pride side of the great products they make. Nothing bad! Only good.
On cheap products (or electronics). The value goes down so fast.
There is no point looking in to it.
A actual person or more handling the case. Shipping and all other stuff involved on the investigation is just too expensive. It the product cost them like ~30$ like the L30. Someone looking it for 1hour already cost’s them way more with everything else.
FYI here is a statement from Apos Audio regarding the L30 issue:
The good: Topping and their retailers are making sure that in-stock units are protected against future headphone-killing failure.
The missing: No comment yet on how or even if those who lost headphones will be compensated for the loss. That however is not likely an Apos-level decision; that decision will have to be made by Topping.
My quick editorial: Topping initially took a defensive and unprofessional posture when news of these failures first surfaced. It initially appeared that they were going to hunker down and roll the dice that it would cost them less money to ride out the problem rather than fix it. It appears as though they agreed to restock their updated inventory with their retailers only after they received lots of pressure to take action - pressure that was applied here on HFGF, Head-Fi, ASR forums, etc. Personally, I’m willing to give Topping a chance to make this right and learn from these mistakes. However, I think they should step up and make a clear statement that they will compensate those who lost headphones as part of their making-it-right efforts.
Cheers, all.
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I wonder if they even spared a thought for all the intended damage…
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No, probably not! 
You have to notice something like that during development and in the test, not when you’ve already sold 30,000 units.
Just like the motto "oh, I’m sorry, it wasn’t my fault!
The rewrite could also damage the headphones.
I still think it’s a disgrace, right from the start.
I’m glad I didn’t buy it.
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Well, that didn’t prevent Mr. Yang from taking pot shots at Schiit and JDS Labs (see below). Of course Schiit had incidents where some of their amps blew up headphones in the past (Asgard 1 and Lyr 2 IIRC) but they owned up to it and replaced/compensated for headphones damaged due to the aforementioned gear. So far, Topping remains equivocal. I live in the Southwestern US, which is notoriously dry and I do build up static electricity when walking around the house. So far, my Magni 3 hasn’t blown up my headphones at my home or in my office. Likewise, my Liquid Platinum, THX AAA 789, and CTH. No damaged headphones from ESD from any of them so far.
Not only that, but Topping already knew something was wrong with the L30 since it made a silent revision during December 2020 (their “2012” batch) before news of the L30-caused ESD destruction of headphones surfaced.
Then again,
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Yep. These were the kinds of things I was referring to with the “defensive and unprofessional” posture line. Topping, and Mr. Yang in particular, do not look good right now. I’m still willing to give them a chance to make things right - Schiit set the example by replacing/compensating damaged headphones - but there’s no doubt Topping stepped in it with their behavior here. Not a good look.
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Glad I am not the only one to stumble over that.
When I looked into the Atom, I noticed the lack of protection on the output. It wasn’t until I looked through the Datasheet for the Buffers it uses as output stage to notice those were DC servos.
I also think there is something clever going on with the internal PSU of the Atom. Would need high quality photos of the back of the PCB to tell what exactly.
Another word regarding Schiit: They handled their issues professionally and as one would expect.
And they have a fuse, so in case of catastrophic failure, the amp will not burn your house down.
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That’s exactly where you’re saying they knew, and not just yesterday, but earlier.
If I already know, why don’t I say so?
Exactly, greed for profit, typically the end of the year, you still have to have nice figures so that you look good in front of the boss.
And to mention Schiit and Jds here is just to deflect his own unprofessionalism.
As you said Schiit and Jds Labs it happened too but they communicated it and paid for the damage.
Topping doesn’t do that, they deliberately don’t say that it damages the headphones because otherwise they have to pay for it, but it can, the bad thing is that it does destroy the headphones.
If it didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have this issue.
That was the reason why owners contacted us in the first place, because it did.
And they add to it that you can lose your hearing because of their incompetence.
That’s what pisses me off, they sell themselves as a “professional manufacturer” and when something happens they don’t have the balls to answer for it.
Just a question but, have we confirmed that guy, john yang, is from Topping?
If so, Topping could really use some better people, that guys hostile attitude is rather sickening and pathetic. I think they could really be due to pull that head from their ass and realize who pays their bills when push comes to shove and that’s their consumers… This is a very serious problem of which appears to be made quite light of and again what appears to be attempting to be shoved under the rug. Being combative towards the people who buy your products is one of the absolute dumbest things you could do and is straight up bad PR. I suppose if anyone else reads this from topping, perhaps consider this guys job while your at it for managing to piss quite a lot of people off.
actually did not know they did this… I have a bit more respect towards schiit… I have had very little issues with talking with schiit about any issues I have had(and I have had quite a few here and there honestly).
alex cavalli’s statement on that is pretty much even though manufacturing is in China , no used, or off-brand substitution of parts is allowed according to him.
This should have been covered immediately though is my issue with it, if your product is blowing up headphones and could even potentially cause further serious issues… why the hell are you not immediately jumping in to cover the unfortunate? The way they are covering this and acting about this is extremely childish and unprofessional, this is entirely on them and they should be fully expected to compensate those that have been hit with this fallout from their own failure in quality control and engineering. Instead they want to point fingers at other companies screw ups and walk around it
This isn’t even complicated to make things right… you screwed up… come out, apologize, compensate those for the damages, and issue a recall.
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To the best of my knowledge, yes. IIRC in his original post here on HFGF he copped to being “the Topping guy.” He deleted that initial post rather quickly. My understanding is he is also Topping’s chief designer/engineer. My take is Topping won’t fire him because they need him. Clearly he has mastered making amp circuits that have bonkers measurements and that’s Topping’s whole shtick right now. He may have been given a stern talking to, though, because I haven’t heard as many complaints about him since Topping backed down and offered the exchanges.
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He could use a foot up his ass if you ask me… just sayin
after listening to the A90 yeah I can see that.
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Let’s make Topping will have a harder time in the future.
If you read the latest posts, you won’t hear much about anyone recommending a Topping product.
Karma always takes revenge in the end.
I fully support your post and those of others who feel annoyed.
Even if you haven’t had a product from them, it annoys you when you read the eggless behaviour.
It’s purely a matter of principle and the honesty of society.
If I screw up, I have to answer for it.
What annoys me a bit is that all the dealers have taken over their communication.
If I had a popular audio homepage, I would never take over their text.
It looks just as unprofessional and comes across badly and drags my own company into the mud.
And I wouldn’t sell anything from them on my homepage any more. You don’t need that as a seller.
Unfortunately, there are stupid people who will send you a lawyer because of this, and you can get annoyed with this as a seller, because you have to make it clear to them that you are only buying the products and selling them on.
And the manufacturer is responsible for the damage caused.
Probably Topping will go bankrupt this year and one day a new chip manufacturer will come out and it will be the same eggless ones.
But people will remember, even Mr.Yang the head/Kevin of the L30.
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Nah. People on the Topping forum (ASR) are basically accepting things as they are and rolling with it from their preferred manufacturer.
It’s such a shame too. as topping has had great products in the past in context tot he market they existed in. my topping gear alone. the original topping d10 is proving it’s value to me as I use it as a dac for my micca rb 42’s and also feed coax out to my liquid spark DAC . and does a good job at both for only $70-80 2 years ago while. as well as my topping pa3 that feeds my micca rb 42’s at 80WPC relatively cleanly for a class D amp is small and compact with a noise floor that can only be heard at volumes that I do not reccomend using anyway. the sad part is we know their potential and they got rich and through good distribution as they were the only recommendable brand in the budget range for headphones prior to this ironically the amps that break headphones universally cause Schiit,monoprice, Geshelli. all suck at distribution adn get fucked by tariffs and import taxes outside of north america.
thats’s what you get when you base your entire audio experience in numbers
While I am sure they have the funds to do that. They won’t as one admitting fault for some reason is a sign of weakness. And two I imagine there profit margins are very thin and even the replacement program is going to cost them a lot of money and they do not wish to lose more by replacing headphones. An act they seem to want to think is a ploy to scam them.
admitting fault as a company shows integrity and that you care about your customers enough to be honest with them. Many companies do this when something goes this badly with a formal apology as they proceed to fix said issue. There is nothing wrong with admitting fault as a company as long as you do so in a professional manner and do proper damage control of the issue, instead of ya know… treating everyone like they are a bunch of idiots and being straight up aggressive
there is proof it’s screwing headphones up and known issues with the product which they themselves have confirmed. Their product and failure at quality control lead to issues of damaging very expensive hardware so they are responsible. It matters not if it impacts their numbers and money… the problem is on them, companies are still held responsible when stuff like this happens otherwise lawsuits tend to come up. Apparently they are giving replacements for the L30, though haven’t heard anything on reimbursements much towards the headphones their product caused damage to…
I suppose it just depends on how they choose to proceed from here.
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No I agree those are all things they should do for obvious reasons. Sadly big businesses are for the most part actual cartoon mustache twirling villains
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It’s not a numbers issue. It’s a cult mentality issue.