TOPPING - L30

One of the best solid state amps for both iems and headphones, measures really well, endgame quality.
My unit has a dent at the volume nob.
I've imported dozens of amps before before i gave headphonezone a shot and i received a visually faulty unit.
While the dent isn't huge or anything but when you're buying something that costs over 10k, you expect it to arrive in pristine condition.
Amp is highly recommended though.

After a lot of research i finally decided to get the topping L30 for my HE 400i 2020.

This is my first headphone amp and so i cannot really compare it to anything else in this range, however, i do want to share my impressions and experience for anyone looking for this kind of thing.

Build: the body is metal with a matte finish and the front panel is glass with a super glossy finish which is prone to fingerprints but looks really cool if it is clean. The two switches at front are really sturdy, clicky and satisfying. The knob at the front is big, super smooth and again, really satisfying. The whole unit is a delight to use and definitely feels like it's worth the money.

Amplification: Is clean as far as i can tell. running it off of my phone (Oneplus 6) for now. No hiss, quiet as a mouse. Really good overall!

Power: Has about 2.4W power at 32 ohms but only if the input is 3 volts. Most dacs can only do 2v as a standard (dacs like the modi and d30/e30) and at 2v input it only has a little above 1W of power (this is not mentioned anywhere in specs). And at the current input that i can achieve through my phone, i doubt if I'm even getting 500mW of power. However, the amp is still sufficiently drive my headphones much better than my fiio e06 (and I'd goddamn expect it to at this price). I will probably get a 2v dac somewhere down the line so i can at least get the 1.3W or so. That is more than enough power for my hifimans i feel. Otherwise i would have to buy something with 3v input and the options available to me are either not cheap or don't measure very well.

Temperatures: At 28C room temperature. On high gain, the amp gets up-to 40C and the power supply up to 48C. On medium gain, amp is 35C and power supply 48C. When the amp is off it stays at room temperature but the power supply stays at 46C

Note: The previous batch of the L30 used to blow up and take the headphones you're using with them. Topping has since fixed these issues in the previous couple of months (atleast that's what they say). So There is a higher risk to getting this than any other amplifier.

Do I recommend this? Yes and No.

The E30+L30 stack has less power than the Modi+Magni/Heresy stack from schiit. Moreover, Schiit has 2 year warranty in India while topping only has a single year warranty. So i would advise anyone reading this to go for the schiit stack or the k5pro instead of this. Why did i not buy both of my recommendations? Cause they were out of stock when i wanted to buy something. The L30 is not bad, it's just not as powerful.

Headphone Zone had quick service. Delivered in 2 days. I really like the little "thank you" card sent by them. However it took them a week to answer a query i asked them through the ask a query section and they straight up didn't answer my query about the restocking of the schiit magni. But apart from that the experience has been positive. Hop on over to r/headphonesindia on reddit if you want to ask me anything about this amp.

I just received the product. I used it with multiple headphones, most of them min the 80ohms range. Yet to test it with a higher end headphones which might take months to arrive from Drop.

Sennheiser HD 25, Drop HiFi Man H400, Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro, T51P. It all works flawlessly and the PC's DAC seems more than sufficient for the moment. The 9DB+ dial allows you to get maximum volume on big cans and for connectivity, I used the Amazon RCA to 3.5mm cable. I am not sure how great the Topping A90 could be but it costs $500 and could possibly be 50k or more in India. Maybe years later, should give such high-end stuff a try.

Build quality is quite good and it may be slightly lower than how a Schiit Magni looks but connectivity is better in this Topping. It costs $140 outside India and Headphone Zone made it easy to get it here.