Topping L30 xploding and taking headphones out

Discussion in 'All Points Bulletin / Be on the Look Out' started by M3NTAL, Dec 17, 2020.

  1. HHS

    HHS Almost "Made"

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    Well this is concerning. I'm glad I decided to pass on the L30 in favor of a Magni Heresy, but I do have an E30. No issues so far, but I might need to consider switch to a Modi.
     
  2. netforce

    netforce MOT: Headphones.com

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    I saw an L30 thread on Reddit talking about ASR thread:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones...r_l30_esd_victim_audio_technica_w5000_killed/

    But also the thread mentioned this old thread where it killed an HD600:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/knnurb/my_topping_l30_went_out_with_a_bang_and_killed/

    And on Head-Fi, a Sony MDR-CD780 was killed back in November:
    https://www.head-fi.org/threads/topping-l30-the-new-budget-benchmark.934262/page-23#post-16070819

    I saw on ASR John Yang saying its only been 4 units in over 10k units:
    https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ds/sequential-damage.19003/page-6#post-628521

    We know about M3NTAL and his i4, the HD600 on reddit, an W5000 on ASR, a Sony MDR-CD780 from Head-fi. Seems like these cases had mostly happened so far in a week and we can likely expect to hear more cases soon. John's post honestly looks like he is dismissing it as just 4 cases out of 10k which strikes me as tone deaf more than anything.

    My suggestion for anyone with an L30, cop some anti-static spray and spray the shit out of your room:
    https://www.amazon.com/s?k=anti+static+spray&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

    Topping really needs to be proactive and help out. Their amp is frying headphones and will fry more if they continue to do nothing. Maybe throw in a bottle of anti-static spray or just do a straight up recall.
     
  3. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    I sent a note to one of the Shenzhen dealers I know quite well - asking him to talk to Topping about this. He appears to have a wire to them. In previous cases (TRN earphones) the manufacturer exchanged the product....ok, these earphones were much cheaper.

    As said before, ground the case with a wire. Though it is also claimed that in-rush current was too high and fried the input circuit.

    Why this is allegedly not an issue in hot-humid climates beats me.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2021
  4. bboris77

    bboris77 Friend

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  5. HHS

    HHS Almost "Made"

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    Well static electricity is worse is cold, dry climates. My dog is shocking me constantly now that it's winter while that's not a problem at all during the humid summers where I live. A humidifier would be a good investment for anyone trying to avoid ESD
     
  6. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    Most gear has adequate static electricity protection and case grounding unless you open it up on a carpet like a retard named Amir. Even if you knob and stuff crackles, it usually won’t die. There are music studios in cold places and they all have carpet. Audiophiles have crazy ass class a shit that could burn their house down. If your gear sucked and you took down tower speakers or a main monitors... you would never work again. Imagine if Topping was an emergency backup system and broke Duntech, ATCs, Questeds, or PMCs? Would they front a 5000 dollar repair bill?

    Hell no these cheap asses wouldn’t. Any western company wouldn’t want to get sued for lying to regulators about product safety.

    that Hegel that caught fired in the hifi shop damaged their reputation forever. So did Tannoy failures, Behringer, Dynaudio plate amp issues, Neumann refusing to repair older monitors, KRK not paying Focal and the black goo, Antelope barely working, Gibson everything, API suing CAPI and recent reliability issues, Apogee fan and repair issues, UA defective recreations and Apollo / preamp Chinesium, Hifiman breaking. These companies damaged their reputations forever.

    meanwhile other companies will try to make it right fast and will overnight parts
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2021
  7. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    I was told to run a wire from a case screw to the centre screw in my wall outlet...or solder a grounding wire to an RCA plug...or - hold your dog on the leash - buy myself a humidifier...and possibly do 200 sit-ups...is asked a bit much of an end user.

    At a minimum, Topping should provide a decent grounding cable.
     
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Oh yeah, I can see someone with the grounding wire at one end attached to the L30. And then the user trying to finagle the other end of the wire to the ground screw of the outlet .... except oops and accidentally slipping and jamming it into where the hot prong goes.

    User error happens a lot more than you think. I'm sure you know I am not exactly an industry outsider. I know of a lot of super embarrassing stories of the dumb stuff that even SBAF people do, all of which I will keep to myself.

    No no no. They should put a hold on any sales of the L30. Put out an advisory. Ascertain the cause of the failures. And if warranted, offer a full refund, working with any regional retailers.

    No excuses, no half measures, no credit or exchanges. You cannot pull off banana republic shit when it comes to Western consumers. You gotta own it. Perception (or optics as it is called now by younger people) is everything. The good thing is that Westerners don't take things personally and are very willing to forgive. Americans love to see people kicked down a notch and then get up from that. The "racist" planar headphone guy is the poster boy of what not to do: denial, excuses, more excuses, etc.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2021
  9. M3NTAL

    M3NTAL Friend

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    @purr1n - I don't believe you need me to send it over to you analyze since it is pretty clear what has happened, but if you want me to reassemble it and ship it you way, LMK. Seems like a waste of both our resources, unless you have something else in mind. I'm going to Devin Booker it from mid-court if you don't want it :D.

    Suns looking like a team this year! I actually know the starting 5 this year.
     
  10. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Nope, no need to send.
     
  11. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    That's some literal kill yourself shit. These should all be detonated by a bomb squad.
     
  12. bboris77

    bboris77 Friend

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    This amp would make a perfect gift for someone you really hate. Plausible deniability and all.
     
  13. Raimei Templar

    Raimei Templar Friend

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    Topping strikes again it seems. The first version of the Topping DX3 also blew up some headphones which is why the later versions changed to a different (Shittier but safer) design. So this is two strikes now with what appears to be some serious design flaws. Topping really needs to put better effort into testing their products in environments other than a clean room with everything operating in ideal circumstances. Real shitty that people are losing gear.

    That bit about telling people to run a ground wire is complete crap and outright dangerous to say to a layman. No reason anyone should have to do that. Glad I got rid of all my topping stuff.

    Quite happy with my Geshelli and Schiit stuff that was only slightly more expensive than the topping stuff but has given me no issues at all. Just not worth taking the risk with a company who clearly doesnt care about its customers nor makes any effort at all to make things right.

    At a bare minimum Topping needs to make clear that the amp has no ESD protection and should not be used on a carpet or any other environment where static electricity is common. ASR of course should do the same.
     
  14. Grattle

    Grattle Friend

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    Don't be silly! That stands for detonator. It's triggered when that fake NE5532 shits the bed.
     
  15. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    It was not available in Canada. I had to order it from China. Very difficult to return stuff there...50% of it never made it and was returned to me, historically.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2021
  16. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    HifiGo have sent a note to Topping. I underlined the severity of the issue.
     
  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    They are already aware of it. John Yang works for Topping. I'm sure he's passed the information upstairs.

    upload_2021-1-7_19-41-24.png
     
  18. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    They pirated an op amp that costs 50 cents for one unit, less than a quarter in bulk.
     
  19. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    They definitely knew of the safety risks. They’re not retards.
     
  20. trl

    trl Acquaintance

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    I thought the same, so I guess an easy "fix" would be adding couple of MKP caps (big enough, to not affect low end roll-off) between OPA1612 and the output buffers. It would be nice if such a defective device could get to Bob's desk to do some in -depth checks and analyses; maybe some regulators fails or starting to oscillate, causing the gain opamp to fail.
     

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