Topping L30 II - Good shtuff

Submitted by _FinalPantasy_ t3_z84qx4 in headphones

Swapped over from a beefy Schitt Asgard 3 to a the Topping L30 II after seeing it's measurements on ASR and not being completely happy with the Asgard 3. The Asgard 3 had to be on high gain to get decent volume out of my X2HRs, and it felt like that would introduce some hissing/distortion.

On the L30 II, I can keep it in normal gain and about 80 - 95% on the knob to get it to a good volume with -3dp set in Peace. The L30 II is linked via RCA from my Modius DAC.

I don't know how it's doing it, but bass is headshaking where the Asgard would have to be turned up a good amount to get the same sort of punch the L30 II is giving me. I don't get it. Maybe I'm just imagining things. Being solid state, I didn’t imagine the sound signature would change this much.

The sound is clear, neutral and detailed. It feels like a slight improvement in audio quality over the Schitt.

Definitely happy with it. $126 during the weekend sales we had. When I get some harder to drive headphones, I'll definitely be looking into higher end Topping products.

I guess I have an Asgard 3 for sale, now. Haha.

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Comments

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szakee t1_iy9rjtl wrote

The X2HR is 30 ohm and 100 sensitivity. A phone can drive it. If your asgard couldn't, it was faulty.

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_FinalPantasy_ OP t1_iy9sg6q wrote

It could drive it, (edit: meaning it worked… but didn’t get very loud) but only in high gain mode did it get enough volume to be enjoyable. ASR noticed this, too.

I asked Schitt tech support and they said this was normal behavior for how they designed it... maybe to make running IEMs less confusing.

Plenty of power, but a fair amount of distortion it seems.

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klogg4 t1_iy9ug6k wrote

What did ASR notice? They only said they were surprised that Ether CX weren't superloud. Nothing else. If you had enough volume, you were good (you HAD enough volume... X2HR is a very efficient headphone that can be driven by a mobile phone, and Asgard is a crazily powerful amp).

Btw - term "driving" means having enough volume and that's all. It has nothing to do with the sound signature.

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_FinalPantasy_ OP t1_iya0fyh wrote

I clarified my response. Yes, both low and high gain drove my X2HRs, but low/no gain was fairly quiet even at 100%. Like having a face to face conversation in an office.

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blargh4 t1_iya4qng wrote

Something seems screwy. Assuming Philips's sensitivity spec is accurate and the input signal to the amp is enough to get it near the limits of its power capabilities at low gain, 150mW should be sufficient for hearing damage inducing SPLs.

Ah well, if low gain is busted, new amp solves the problem.

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what_that_thaaang_do t1_iyah1r8 wrote

Were you using the asgard with the DAC module?

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_FinalPantasy_ OP t1_iyah3gm wrote

No

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what_that_thaaang_do t1_iyaonqw wrote

That's odd then. The asgard should be able to power the X2HR with plenty of headroom

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_FinalPantasy_ OP t1_iyap0ao wrote

It'll blow them up in high gain, but normal gain is only useful for the IEMs I've been testing or higher sensitivity cans.

I've got the L30 IIs at about 30% when gaming (Playing Project Diablo 2 right now) and 90 - 100% when listening to music on Tidal on middle gain. The L30 has 3 gain settings (L/M/H) and Asgard 3 has 2.

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what_that_thaaang_do t1_iyarwc6 wrote

Even in low gain the asgard should be able to destroy those cans lol. Most schiit amps are pretty OP when it comes to power

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ComedianAcceptable32 t1_iyaqt08 wrote

Do you have other headphones that you've tested on these amps? I could drive my X2HR to uncomfortably loud (not ear-splitting, but probably at least 85+ dB) levels out of a simple, USB-C dongle that outputs 1V. Sounds like something might be wrong with your headphones (or their cable) if they need such high levels of gain to get that volume.

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_FinalPantasy_ OP t1_iybbw30 wrote

Just IEMs. The guys in the ASR review said they had the same thing where it wouldn't get very loud on low gain.

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covertash t1_iy9t83i wrote

Meanwhile, here I am driving a Susvara and HE6se v2 from the lowly Asgard 3, lol. To each their own. :P

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_FinalPantasy_ OP t1_iy9zib2 wrote

It drove it just fine in high gain. Had to crank it up to 100% on normal gain to get it to conversational level. It wasn’t loud enough until you flip the high gain switch up.

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covertash t1_iya3o7p wrote

Yeah, not sure why that was the case for you. I regularly flip between high and low gain, when swapping between a wide range of headphones, and I have not noticed any noise or distortion - despite how it can come across in measurements. To me, whatever it takes to get it to the right volume is fine, so long as the signal remains perceptibly clean; and so far, I have not had any complaints.

No matter, though. So long as you found something you're happy with, and enjoy using, then it's all good. :)

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pongpaktecha t1_iyc07tr wrote

If you ever get the chance to I'd highly recommend you try the HE6SE v2 on a beefy class A amp. I was running mine off a topping L30 v2 for a bit while I was putting together my Beta 22 amp and it's night and day when it comes to bass clarity and impact driven off of pure class A with 5W into 50 ohms

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covertash t1_iydw862 wrote

Yeah, I do have a Class AB speaker amp, which I use from time to time on a separate desk setup. It is a richer listening experience for sure, but lately I've been relegated to my WFH desk for the majority of my waking hours, so the convenience of using the Asgard 3 there outweighs the desire to fire up the other rig. Especially since the speaker amp only really works well with the Susvara and HE6se v2, but the Asgard 3 is more than "good enough" (to me) for all other headphones in my stable - including the aforementioned two. :)

For what it's worth, I also like to run the Susvara through a humble Massdrop CTH too, which is severely under powered by most standards, on paper. Yet, something about the synergy between the two keeps drawing me back to that combo, and thankfully the gain levels are truly obnoxious so I cannot even get the volume knob up to ~40-50% before it becomes too loud to bear.

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CPOx t1_iyax6j2 wrote

Yeah that Asgard 3 wasn't working correctly.

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ku1185 t1_iy9vlqn wrote

Had the original L30 (after they addressed the explodiness) and didn't really see it as a powerful amp. Didn't think the Asgard 3 was either, but no worse.

You sure you're not confusing their sound signature? Going from memory, Asgard is warm, a little soft in the transients, doesn't have much subbass, slightly rolled off treble, slightly emphasized upper-mids, narrower but deeper soundstage. L30 was more neutral, had a slight mid-bass hump, and while the treble was present, I remember thinking something about it felt lacking. Maybe they changed something with the L30 II.

I wouldn't say one is clearly better than the other but I preferred the Asgard 3. L30 felt a bit lifeless whereas I thought the Asgard 3 did a better job of conveying dynamics with more nuance. Better staging too imo.

Then again, I didn't love the X2HR either. To each their own =).

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_FinalPantasy_ OP t1_iya02ka wrote

Indeed. Could be. The bass on this thing is great. I didn’t think it would make that much of a difference with them both being solid state.

I’m looking for an upgrade to my X2HRs. Not sure what direction to go in. Massive soundstage, good punch, okay highs, gets good with EQ. I want more of the same, just better, I guess. Lol. I got some 400ses on sale to test hifimans and then maybe step up to JM edition HER9s.

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SonOfYavanna t1_iya85q7 wrote

That's so good to hear, I bought a L30 II from linsoul on Amazon due to warranty (I'm in Brazil), it's still in between sorting facilities in dongguan (funny name for a city dOngGuAn), and you've just described everything I was hoping for, coming from a soundblaster G6 paired with the x2hrs and Anandas, thank you fellow dude :)

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AGuyWhoLikesSocks t1_iycer57 wrote

I have a Topping L30 II coming in the mail because I'm getting real tired of my Herasy's scratchy pot... And with Amazon's extended return policy, I really saw no downside.

Hopefully I'm in the same boat and enjoy it too!

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