Topping L30 xploding and taking headphones out

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

  1. Biodegraded

    Biodegraded Friend

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    Drop version would be re-branded: TopBANG EX-L30.
     
  2. Elnrik

    Elnrik Super Friendly

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  3. MarkQ

    MarkQ New

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    Well, the new Schiit Vali 2+ that I received last week was leaning to the left by about 30% when in high gain. I got that uneasy feeling in my stomach at the thought of the drama of returning it. I notified Schiit. They got back to me within 24hrs, asked me to send it back to them (from Australia!), and said that when the tracking number went live, they would refund me the shipping and ship a replacement unit, all of which they did. Brilliant customer service!
     
  4. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Somewhere out there, you know someone who sees this is going to worry about a "pure" signal path and try bypassing the protection...
     
  5. Josh83

    Josh83 Friend

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    Yang is saying Topping will not reimburse customers for headphones damaged by their amps because otherwise their customers would be scamming them left and right...or something.

    [​IMG]
     
  6. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    Quite frankly, that was my first thought, too: people falsely claiming their headphones had been destroyed by the L30.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2021
  7. bboris77

    bboris77 Friend

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    What a mess. They are in a hole and just cannot stop digging. It is not like hundreds of audiophiles have expensive headphones with fried drivers lying around and are now going to go out of their way to purchase pre-December L30s, reverse-engineer them to blow up, and then try and risk sending the whole package to China for Topping to determine whether the L30 caused their headphones to blow up. Ultimately, Topping can just say no if they suspect fraud.

    However, at least John Yang appears to be trying to determine the underlying cause and is attempting to communicate however awkwardly.

    There are two issues I still have with all this:

    1. It appears that Topping knew about L30s blowing up headphones 2 months ago - why did they not inform the users and recall the affected units?

    2. Why has ASR not amended their "cannot recommend highly enough" rating at least temporarily and why has not Amir offered to perform a teardown and analysis of either a failed or a working pre-December L30? There has been absolute radio silence on his part regarding this issue.
     
  8. Baten

    Baten Friend

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    Well they also never amended the Topping DX3 review while the current revision is a Version 2 with much worse designed output stage and >=10ohm output impedance. The original measured and performed better... when it didn't self-destruct that is, again with failing head-amp chip.
     
  9. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    I have had an L30 on order since around 20 Dec. - right now still in transit. Will return to sender - and get the Yulong Canary II instead.

    Apart from the safety discussion, I heard lots of voices disliking the L30's overly neutral/sterile sound.
    -----------------------------

    Hey, since Topping appear to acknowledge the issue, are they shipping a replacement? But if one has to ship the "defective" one back (1.4 kg), this could be expensive.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2021
  10. Josh83

    Josh83 Friend

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    Another failure reported over at ASR.
     
  11. bboris77

    bboris77 Friend

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    People over there are getting increasingly annoyed for a good reason. The best way to respond is to vote with your wallet.

    Side note - does anyone have a clue why in God’s name Topping insists on using OLED displays in their DACs? Don’t get me wrong, I love my CX48 TV, but it is the last technology I would choose for displaying static images for a prolonged time with its tendency to burn in. Do all the defective/rejected OLED panels from LG get chopped up into small pieces and end up in these DACs?
     
  12. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I don't see the risk. 4 out of 10000? Let's say they make $75 per unit. That's $750,000. Surely they could reimburse 4 TOTL headphones. Another policy is to put a cap on it. Lots of ways to make things right. Or just allow people outside of China to do this. The failure mode looks pretty spectacular. It would not be unreasonable for Topping to ask the owners to provide proof - return unit and headphone. I can't see folks intentionally smoking their Utopia headphones just to ask Topping to reimburse them.

    Schiit was a much much smaller company with the DC issue many years back. If they can do it, I don't understand why Topping / SMSL, which is HUGE, can't do it.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2021
  13. soekris

    soekris MOT - Soekris Engineering

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    I'm waiting for the OLED lifetime to go significant up, the current half life of 30.000 to 50.000 hours just don't do it for me, I'm building DACs to last much longer.... Although they are pretty, at least when new....
     
  14. scblock

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    How does that lifetime compare to the VFDs all that vintage gear used?
     
  15. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    I don't know anything about Topping, but following your argument, a little bit of goodwill/flexibility on their side could create the positive publicity they urgently need right now - and being rigid about it would do the opposite.

    Their handling of the situation will affect their future sales in a big way. I hope they figure it out...are smart, and create a win-win situation.
     
  16. fastfwd

    fastfwd Friend

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    Around the same. VFDs are typically rated for 30,000 hours to half brightness.

    But there's significant variation from case to case. I had a SlimDevices Squeezebox with a VFD display that was driven 24/7 and was still bright when I stopped using it after 8 years (although it did lose one row of pixels at around the 5-year mark). That's 70,000 hours, with presumably more in reserve.

    And on the other hand I went through 4 pairs of OLED climate-control displays for my car in four years -- they got illegibly dim after less than 1000 hours. The manufacturer finally switched to LCD just in time for my fifth set, and those displays are still bright 5 years later.
     
  17. penguins

    penguins Friend, formerly known as fp627

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    Just looked at the latest page and it looks like there is another failure. At this point, it looks like it's not a fluke and I'm pretty much thinking what Boris said:
    1. Time to issue a warning or recall
    2. Why has ASR not suspended recommendation pending resolution of issue/s?

    Regarding Toppings design decisions, etc. - Have decided not to comment instead.
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Note how the thread title is a rather vague and concealing: "Sequential damage"

    Not sure what sequential damage means. Damage to DNA?
     
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2021
  19. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Personally, I choose to purchase products from companies that already exhibit technical excellence and scientific rigor in their product development process. Extending my journey metaphor, I prefer purchasing from companies that completed this journey before bringing their product(s) to market, rather than after.


    ^ I stole that from a post on ASR. ;)
     
  20. HHS

    HHS Almost "Made"

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    I have to say that Topping's poor response here should rightfully lose them customers. There are just so many other options now. Personally, my E30 was within Amazon's return window so it's headed back just because I don't want to support them as a company
     

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