Looking at various forums, it seems the revisions that “very definitely have the grounding fix” have a mixed chance of actually having the fix.
I’d say taking it apart to check is mandatory.
Same. All of Topping actually. Something about systemic failure…
Actually, it should be reported somewhere where an authority or institute takes care of putting it on sale like this.
The risk of injuring oneself would still be there, if you look at it closely.
As always, the cry will only be louder when it actually happens and then it will be too late.
It is difficult to judge to what extent this affects other Topping products. The popular A90 may be all right, but the L30 is not. It would have to be taken off the market or to such an extent that no one buys it any more.
I mean, in Germany the L30 is in clear violation of the ProdSG §3 Part 2 as it can damage other products that are to be expected to be used in combination with it.
I will pitch the appropriate authority an email to ask what to do.
Wow, what a bodge job! I’m waiting on a replacement L30 from Hifigo and had already been considering just asking for a refund and this absolutely swings it for refund now.
I can do a better job directing the PCB ground to chassis myself and make sure it will stay!
The thread on ASR is actually ridiculous…
The ASR disciples have been so brainwashed they’re experiencing Stockholm syndrome and accepting it up the ass. Topping = best. Because Amir said so. If there’s a problem, it’s my own fault not Topping’s.
I’ll bet Amir doesn’t retest after the update.
And it likely will impact the noise floor of the amp because it’s bridging 2 grounds together.
Theoretically, one would have to measure again at each fundamental revision.
Actually, we can be glad that Asr discusses this so openly and shows pictures of the supposed revision.
It is clear that any blind person would probably recognise such work and be able to do it better.
What is not clear to me is that they think this is good, which I do not understand.
It’s okay to test it internally, but it’s absolutely not allowed on the market.
When I read the statement from the topping designer who obviously thinks it’s good, he would have been fired long ago in a European or American company.
It is not only dangerous because this supposed revision fixes the error, but not safe and fraudulent.
It really should be taken off the market and revised, and any dealer should no longer offer it.
Apart from that, the dealers should also react and ask and inform themselves better about what is going on.
In some countries, they can quickly become complicit.
You really have to order it and open it and see if it really is true, if it is, it’s really a big mess.
Chinesium product: Copied from good designs without any insight into why and how.
Yes and just very very badly copied.
I have purchased the l30 from aliexpress. I contacted the store where i bought my unit and asked about the issue. Fit they just told me that everything is fine. Then later they asked to send the serialnr. Now they are sending me a replacement unit which is supposed to be safe
I really like this one.
#Chinesium, it’s perfect.
that, trash response from topping, them not compensating people for what? expensive headphone in the mix but well under 10k is it really worth the negative press and loss of income from people saying fuck no to toppings?
The only truth that makes any sense is Topping is SCARED more will explode no matter what they say and they will owe lots of money, that is the only good explanation, if they were sure everyone else was good they would have easily looked at the few thousand and said we will do the right thing, clearly they are worried it will keep happening and cost them a lot of money if they are willing to throw their entire brand name into the garbage that fast and just shrug it off like if it happened again on this or future models they would just say "sorry your on your own"
90% of the customer who bought that model and read this are regretting their decisions, if anyone is full YOLO check ebay and you can probably get a good price on that model, not a good look topping
I wasn’t particularly interested in topping but I was also considering them at like top 2 if I ever decided I want a budget AMP, now i’m saying fuck no for that stinking putrid hot garbage response…
Cannot imagine how many people with actual expensive headsets are going to also say no and how much sales they will lose just from top end parts will be over 10k from this especially if im sitting here with like only a few thousand in gear and thinking it’s too big a risk
@Finite this is how Topping “fixed” the grounding issue:
That is a 5ct pogo pin. Better than sandwiching a wire in the case, worse than adding a screwed connection to the case.
This is not a QC failure, this is systematic R&D oversight or negligence. If you can’t test for ESD resilience in house, then pay someone to test it for you!
If your protection circuit is known to be dysfunctional, then WHY would that “protection” make it to market?
That “JohnYang”-guy works for Topping.
Him talking about missing protection in other amps is semi-true. Schiit Audio (who has a fuse in all their amps to prevent a fault like the one in the L30 from burning your house down) will however replace headphones their amplifiers damage, the JDS Labs Atom has DC-offset protection built into its output buffers (I think the EL-Amp uses the same configuration, would have to check though).
Figured I’d post about it, I actually got my replacement shipped in like 3 days via dhl to mexico, my old one was still working fine since I bought it in September, pretty good service imo…
supposedly they added the fix into all the 2012 S/N they had on stock but there’s probably a few 2012s in the wild without it, I’d buy something else just to be safe but tbh I’d have to pay the ass in import taxes and shipping, plus this is the only thing that does the preamp function right at this price so whatever, not like other amps at this price point are reaally safer either (after the fix) ¯_(ツ)_/¯
About that:
JDS Labs Atom - Output buffer (not Op-Amps or integrated/discrete anything) is a DC-Servo meaning the buffers will compensate out any parasitic DC component.
Schiit Magni - Fused power input (so it does not catch fire under fault conditions)
I am not 100% sure, but I think they have a diode on the output to open the relay responsible for start up delay when DC makes it to the output. Would need to stick some probes on the PCB to confirm.
iFi Zen CAN - Has some Op-Amp grid monitoring input and output, possibly feeding back to a quite powerful uController. Impossible to tell what the thing does without probing around the PCB (is a super complex board for what it is)
Monolith Liquid Spark - No idea. The black PCB successfully inhibits my curiosity from figuring out what is going on.
SMSL SAP9 - More complex input filtering and internal power supply than the L30, also has some chip on the output. Can’t tell what it is.
You realize you just said “no idea” or “not sure” on all of those? we actually have an idea of how safe the l30 is after all the scrutiny…
It should be fine lol
Keyword here is “reasonable doubt”.
Yes we do. And it is bad!
The circuit marked DC_Det is known to be “less than functional” (if that actually got fixed is yet to be seen), there is no fuse or other system for limiting current under fault condition. But hey! At least Topping was so gracious to bodge in a grounding contact…
Assumption the mother of all fuck ups…wouldn’t touch an L30 with your bargepole tbh, unless they do a total and tech transparent L30.2.
topping needs to make plastic see thru cases with schematics lined up to the parts, you know they wouldn’t fuck up if they did that
A Geshelli, Topping, Drop L30XXXX Collab?..now there’s a thing.
