Topping A30pro (has potential)

I saw that audiosciencereview posted a review of a new Topping A30 pro. Sounds pretty promising:

Just thought I would share.

It’s worth watching the video just so you can halfway understand what all those graphs mean.

It’s worth doing some research to understand what those graphs don’t mean :wink:

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Looks very promising. If this can come in at under $150 it’ll probably be the only amp worth recommending to 99% of people new to the audio world. The only thing it can’t power fully is basically several thousand dollar planars and it has a lower noise floor than an a90… which makes me think a90pro soon?

What does this mean?

It won’t hiss when you are listening to super sensitive iems.

Do you know at what -DB (noise floor) level human hearing can no longer perceive sound? And if you do, do you know at what power level the A30pro (or any other amp for that matter) is still below that noise floor? Also, has ASR ever measured IMD? Or done measurements with a reactive load (a speaker or headphone is a reactive load).

I’m not trying to be a dick I swear :rofl: it’s just that ASR is wannabe science and their conclusions and measurements should be used for nothing more than entertainment.

I have yet to find an amp that I can’t hear the noise floor on. Until that day, noise floor is important to me. a bunch of those other measurements don’t really matter to me, but I’d like to know the single ended output @ 600ohm and also the balanced output of 60. The ability to put out 3.4 watts into 50 ohms is pretty impressive and it can do that with less noise than an a90? This thing is gonna be a savage but I just have a feeling they’ll price it at like $225-250+ and totally miss the mark of budget starting point and miss a ton of sales, which is really sad. If they could get the price to $130 they would destroy every “gaming” amp on the market. Being that the a30 non pro is $110 (msrp?), I feel like they could slip this in under $150 but just won’t because it would make too many people happy and we can’t have that, can we? All of their higher end gear would be completely replaced by this little guy for almost everyone out there.

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I take what ASR with a grain of salt, same way I take what Zoes, DMS, Valour, Cuurowong… etc. They are opinions, some people use measurements to inform their opinions, and that is fine. This thread is meant to discuss the new amp. If you want to hate on ASR, please take it somewhere else.

It is not hate, it is just a legitimate concern as people seem to think “higher numbers = moar better”. That is not how this works.


Has anyone found pictures of the internals?

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The issue is that ASR’s measurements are misleading and their measurement methodology is total shit. They present themselves as science which they are not. They are a disinformation machine that’s an offense to both the hobby and actual science.

Zeos, Valour, etc. are blatantly obvious in the fact that they’re presenting an opinion. That’s fine. ASR is purporting to present fact. That’s not fine.

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Well, I’m certainly not an audio engineer, so I don’t know too much about the measurements one way or the other, but it seems like this is probably going to be a pretty decent amp. Thus, it has been shared with the community. Feel free to come to your own conclusions about the amp and the validity of its reviews.

If the GL2000 has taught us anything, it is that all of this is quite subjective.

I believe I’ll stick to looking at a wide variety of perspectives and trusting my own ears.

It’s up on Apos now: TOPPING A30 Pro Desktop Headphone Amp – Apos Audio
Some pretty respectable specs too

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Finally they increased the gain. Previously for something like L30, you’d need a single ended DAC with output of 3 volts to achieve the numbers the published.

Even they don’t make DACs with 3 volts single-ended so how could the costumer reach the full potential of L30?

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will it sound good? that is the question , the measurements are so far into inaudible that it is irrelevant and just a contest at this point. with the Singxer SA-1, for 599 this had better have a decent sound otherwise why not go class A? or just get a heresy and be done. or 789 for balanced. if amplifiers could have a sound 789 and topping would be at the bottom. but some people say amps that measure well cant have a sound so…

I was assuming it was going to be at the $200 price point to compete with the Magnius. Seems a little pricey at $350.

Hmmm,
After Topping dug his own grave with the L30.
It would first be important to know on which architecture it was built.
A de-designed A90, a similar structure to the L30 or a completely new design.
Furthermore, without wishing to denigrate Topping, I would be a little cautious about buying products from them at the moment.
Because a lot of things were developed last year and they certainly tried to make savings due to Corona.can the products suffer from this or rather the consumer.
It would be a shame if the A30 pro also goes up in smoke, destroys headphones and possibly injures people.
Topping is actually obliged to prove what has been done to ensure that everything is OK, if they want to create some trust again.
Yes, personally I would rather listen to a Thx than this if only the market would allow it.

Unfortunately, I don’t know why people always compare Thx with other amplifiers, but Thx is a completely different concept that originated in the film industry.
I understand the appeal that people like it, which is okay.
But the comparison bothers me.
I am sure that the big brother A90 is tonally very different from the Thx series.
You can’t compare the analytical with 3D sound or whatever the marketing department comes up with.

The Singxer Sa1 goes in a completely different direction just from the variety of settings it offers and what it aspires to be.
The comparison also lags badly behind and you can’t pin it down in terms of price because of that.
The price is justified in terms of workmanship, choice of parts, diversity of use and quality.
And you can’t compare it with the A30pro.
The Singxer will beat it by a long way.
If the A30pro offers any competition then it will be in the 300-400$ range, Fostex Hp A4 Bl,Smsl,Ify combination with Can and Zen maybe.

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At $350, you might as well spend another $50 and get a Jotenheim 2 (not sure if it’s good for IEMs if that’s your use-case).

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All those measurement chasers are the same:

  • Higher-performance (audio) Op-Amp on the input (likely with aggressive feedback to get datasheet like performance numbers)

  • for the output stage, Audio or High-Speed (because numbers!) Line-Driver, (Power-) Op-Amp, or integrated Amplifier

The interesting part is what is not directly responsible for the audio, auxiliary circuits like protection, power filtering, etc.

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not sure if im dashing peoples hopes here but im seeing posting for this at $300

bit much imo… had best be worth while to be more expensive than an asgard 3