PSA: Topping L30 Damaging Headphones

but… mah numbers, everything must be perfect on my measurement table… my amp must use the power of midi-chlorians. :thinking:

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I mean sure, why not. Would help if the numbers at least reflected real-world performance. :man_facepalming: :man_shrugging:

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I think the problem goes much deeper then that. When you go shopping for something you want a good deal and you want the thing you to get to be good, or at the very least better then the other option or better then what you had. With electronics it can be very hard to get hold of things to AB test. This issue is compounded by the problem that for many one could not hear a major difference even if they had the option to compare items. So for a large part of the consumer populace they look for what can be compared easily and go well this one says it has more wattage, or this one has less distortion so it must be better.

Yeah I totally get that. And that’s fine. I look at numbers like anybody else. The problem is, the spec’d and generally measured numbers are a limited subset of all that can be measured and, the accuracy of the measurements is highly dependent on the person doing the measurement.

It would hurt them a bit if people would stop buying products from Shenzhen Aoshida company and everything they make.
They might as well re-brand Topping if things would go that bad or just create a new one.
People still would buy them like hot cakes. No matter what happened in the past.

People will still buy their stuff cause products are cheap.
Spend more money and buy something that does not say “made in china”. :slight_smile:
Then things might change in " A decade" or so.
But the memory of people is so short and knowledge to really search is pooooor and they care about the money. So nothing will change.

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YouTube and various forums are all ablaze with support for Topping, SMSL and various other Chinese companies… They dont stand behind their products and they cut corners. Western designed Chinese made seems to fare better.

Everyone is praising these cheap Amps and DACs from these companies.

People don’t realize that Western companies like Klipsch, NAD, Cambridge Audio and other western companies keep quality control and engineers staffed at the Chinese factories to assure quality. Chinese companies are well known for cutting corners and offering bad support.

They are capable of quality work, under supervision… Chinese company, buyer beware.

Not true. Im not.

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Of course. One of my pirate made DC-shirt is from China and it’s still and holding colors after 18 years. Imagine that.

For my audiophile quality, i choose to not to shop China. Cause reasons.

BTW. You can add more text in one post by editing. No need to make new comment every time. :wink:

Depends. Denafrips is a Chinese company and their gear and customer service have a very good reputation. But it’s expensive…shocking - quality costs $$$ regardless of origin.

Denafrips is based in Singapore, but they do their manufacturing in China. I wouldn’t classify Denafrips as “ChiFi”. I agree they have excellent build quality, though. I’ve only had the pleasure of using Ares II but that thing is a tank.

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To put it this way, not everything that comes from China is bad.
I have two top Matrix Audio products here
Element H and Ipro mini 2 as well as the Singxer Sda2C which are excellently manufactured.

I have been using the Ipro mini 2 S for 2 years, the Element H since December and the Singxer almost daily for 6 months and there is nothing to complain about.

Everything is top.
Sure, they cost a bit more, on average $700, but what comes out is better than Topping and most of the other manufacturers in the Chinese sector.
Questyle, Matrix Audio, Singxer don’t use cheap parts in their concepts.
The workmanship is of the highest level.
This is a bit different with Topping,Smsl,Aune ect the motto is as cheap as possible and just good enough.
So that I can make more margins.

Topping’s products are plenty good, I would not call them particularly cheap. They have a big issue here sure, but they do make good products.

Just because it’s chinese doesn’t mean it’s bad by any means.

Never said that my Cambridge Audio Amp and speakers are very nice but those are UK designed and have good QC, same thing with NAD.

Thing is if I were to go high end it would be like PS Audio or Marantz made in Japan models.

Really anything high end from any part of the world typically ends up having good quality and qc, of course there are exceptions, but there is a stark difference from a company that has established itself by showing quality products and care to their customers compared to a company crapping out gear with sketchy practices and sketchy support. I don’t really think it’s fair to criticize a company just because of their geographical location, it’s much more appropriate to criticize a company based on their actual work and products, along with how they may operate their business and how they communicate and interact with their customers. There will be excellent companies and shit companies in most places you will go regardless of location

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You’re right, there are certainly other countries that make crap just like any other country, no question.

It’s just the way they’ve dealt with it.
And the way it was handled.
Sure you can ask yourself why would you plug a $1000-3000 headphone into a $99 amplifier?

However, it is simply that the owners of such headphones saved for it or financed it because it was their wish that went up in smoke in a few seconds because of a beginner’s mistake in electrical engineering.
And of course because of lack of quality control.

It is also the case that the manufacturer has opened his mouth too wide.
People would be happy to get at least part of the cost of their destroyed headphones refunded so they can buy something halfway decent instead of starting from scratch.

Why do people still buy Shia products even though there were problems in the beginning?
Jason took the hate but he paid for it.
That’s the subtle difference in the end.
Nobody actually goes to the same garage a second time if their car was repaired too expensively or badly.
Of course, if we look at the world-wide situation, everyone fights for themselves and everything quickly goes to shit for someone who is having a hard time.
And with a statement like that, it doesn’t matter which country the manufacturer comes from, you feel like you’re being taken for a ride.
It’s the same with other products.

Pretty much, haven’t really commented on this, imo nothing unusual to have a more budget product having a bad batch, as long as those that had their amps and headphones damaged were supported and weren’t screwed over it wouldn’t be a big deal. But specifically relating to topping, the way they went about handling this initially was definitely not the most graceful or professional for sure lol. I wasn’t one who had an amp die or a headphone go along with it, so I really can’t comment on that, and I’ve never had any experience with topping customer service, so again I can’t really say anything there, moreso just look in from the outside of what’s been going on

I would agree that question seriously needs to be asked lol

Yes it was unfortunate, and in order to make the people that had their headphones taken right, they should have been replaced along with the amp without question

Honestly I’d still be pretty pissed if I only got half the cost of the headphone, since the reason it died was the amp that it was plugged into that failed. Obviously I’d rather take 1/2 over nothing, but it’s still not something I would really trust again if a company didn’t fully make it right

Yup, which is nice to know, since if something like that does happen with their amps, they will actually support the customer and make it right without hassle

Yes, that is true

Also to be clear, what I said previously wasn’t directly related to topping, but more just about the general idea of “chifi” (but did encompass topping to some extent)

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Yep, that’s right, it probably happened unconsciously.

Yes, you are right that one should not question the geographical map of where the manufacturer can be as long as the product is good and the service on top is good.

Surely if we really went through our house we would find more made in China than we would like.
Even Apple builds in China.

As I said, I use the Matrix Audio and the Singxer myself and I really can’t complain.
As always, there are manufacturers in every country that offer products that really suck.
We don’t need to fool ourselves about that.

It would certainly be good if, for a change, someone would write about how their exchange was implemented and what they might have received in addition.
It might also bring some peace of mind, even from myself :innocent:.

Yes, we are also somewhat dependent on the Asian market and have been spoiled.
Of course, it’s also discriminatory when something breaks or isn’t as good as we hoped it would be, oh, the Asians again.
But that’s partly due to the country itself, because they don’t know any different, and they have to buy their faux pas and accept them in the end.
The other side is that they hardly have any standards in production.
Unfortunately, this is different in Europe and the USA, where we are spoiled in comparison but have to comply with them.

I once saw pictures of our production manager who was there and employees who were there on assembly.
I tell you, the floor, the walls, the hall…oouuufff.
One of the fitters had to sand something from the repair work there and didn’t even have a sanding machine.
The next one was 300 km away and even that was high-tech for them, which is scrap metal for us.

Actually, I don’t think you should this ask question at all. Unless the headphone, and the price of that headphone, is the reason the amp blows, it’s irrelevant what the cost is of the headphone and it distracts a bit from the actual problem. Feels a bit like asking someone who was mugged why they were carrying cash and an expensive phone on them.

EDIT: typo’s

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