It’s a weird convo and I appreciate you adding a sense of logic and facts to this.
5 Likes
What if someone has an a problem with their Topping amp? Like the poor guy on forum.hifiguides.com with 93 posts trying to help him determine why his XLR input died. If he opens it, he suddenly now has a two broken parts with his Topping because he destroyed the solder connection of the potentiometer to the board by removing the knob.
This has been addressed as a problem the Topping Rep himself:
“The removal process could have degraded the pot further(I’m very certain it has, and again with reinstalling). (Also the pot is fully customized, you almost are not able to find exact replacement for the pot, 5k 4gang 5% -60db tracking) So this is not recommended for everyone else. Also as I posted earlier it’s clearly described and explained. It is the pot itself. But it’s caused by external forced applied to the pot during the knob installation process. Some ended up requiring less force some with more. So the end result is some units may exhibit this behavior. But like many others have said, it’s acceptable and doesn’t affect the performance itself of the volume control.”
Topping continues this practice, making their amps disposable. When trying to diagnose the problems you break the amplifier more. This is one example of the Topping quality problems.
Crinacle pointed out the he too suffered a plague, with his A90 “The Ground Loop Issue” :
“Unfortunately, I’m a victim of that had plagued other Topping owners”
Even SenyorC had the usb port crap out on his Topping NX4 mentioned just a few posts up.
My first Topping DAC/amp forget the model its in the garage collecting dust where it has sat since the second week of owning it. Was unusable due to the noise it picked up.
And then, of course everyone knows of the AmpliFIRE of 2020 and all of the owners of the Topping L30 that had their headphones burned up including myself.
Every manufacturer has issues with their products. I’m unsure how Topping has become the source of your ire.
Please keep all your thoughts in a single, long post instead of multiple posts in this thread.
2 Likes
So, a company that knowingly sells equipment that is broken from the factory is bad. Topping knows that they sell broken amps by pressure installing the knobs. This is not acceptable to me.
Customers that have to deal with this or other problems also damage their amps by removing the knob. This is unacceptable as well. They can spend a few cents on a decent knob can’t they?
Topping is garbage.
Sorry, my mind had two additional thoughts after I had posted. I appologize.
We well know your views on Topping, but they are but one (historically low end) Chinese builder. What about Cayin? What about the white label Chinese shops that produce so many other audio products?
This is a thread about YouTube Reviewers, not Topping.
2 Likes
Small ticket items from white label Chinese shops are okay. But, I was burned badly buying an expesive DAC fifteen years ago and stay away from their high priced items. I don’t have any experience with Cayin. I do have experience with Darkvoice. My favorite review of the Darkvoice 336SE is by Passion For Sound. The entire piece is work of art. He covers everything about the amp and then he ends recommending the Bottlehead Crack. It is my favorite review of all from him or any reviewer.
yeah, not gonna lie, there’s bit of irony in someone going on about being concerned about shilling but then you see who they list as their favorite reviewer. I got a bit of a chuckle out of that. 
4 Likes
Chinese brands have never paid me for a review, nor questioned my reviews, positive or negative, and I give quite a lot of negative chifi reviews. On the other hand, I think its more likely non-chinese companies are more aggessive with their reviewer tactics. I am not even on the list of some brands because of 1 negative review. A few of us have been removed from tours from specific brands because of not liking a product in the past. That’s never been a problem with the chinese brands. They make a ton of products, and hope a couple are great and sell well. That’s kind of their operating model.
8 Likes
I read all of your DAC/amp and amp reviews. While I have completely different ears from what you wrote in your reviews, I have to say that I did not find a single over hyped review of any product regardless of it’s origin. In fact, I noticed that as you got more experience with more gear you actually did the opposite and became more critical of each piece, I noticed you were even critical of the Topping issues and reported them as best to your knowledge. While you might not yet be in my list of top reviewers, your reviews seem balanced and true to your experience, which are some great attributes to have. Nice website layout as well. For someone that has rusty Espanol, I found the English section was a godsend not having to rely on Google translate.
Well since you asked, I shall answer your question, I too had a Schiit Magni Heresy go into protection twice. Once with OneOdio Pro-50 and a Fostex T-50RP. The Fostex survived but the OneOdio did not and one of the drivers burnt up. Schiit took care of me in the end, and offered to pay for my destroyed headphones.
.
Topping on the other hand was a nightmare. Topping lied about the entire process by their rep. telling all to take it up with retailer, which I did. Then, when the retailer refused to take care of my burned up headphones, I contacted the rep and he then stated that I would have received a refund if I had contacted him first. I cannot stand dishonest lying people, so this has left a bad taste and is the source of my ire.
Please continue the Topping discussion in the relevant thread.
Retailers sign into agreements with brands when they choose to carry their products. Part of that agreement is handling customer facing service and repair issues. If dealers did not do this, companies may as well just sell direct. Like your purchase from Schiit that was handled directly by Schiit.
It sounds like the real issue is with the retailer who did not perform the service they were contractually obligated to provide.
8 Likes
Currently these are my favorite reviewers:
MidFi Guy He seems to have an excellent ear for gear, even Thomas & Stereo mentioned that to him.
metal571 I miss his channel/reviews.
The HEADPHONE Show The usual suspects.
and of course crinacle+
6 Likes
Hm I like Zeos but I dun give a flyin f about his opinions to be honest. He is fun and anarchic and he talks about music stuff entusiastically. I love that!
DMS… ok I’m a bit of a fanboy… He said I should buy the AKG 361, Tygr, HD 560s and the Sundara oh gawd and the Fiio K9 and I did. My wife hates me now and bought a new couch 
The dude from The HEADPHONE Show and Resolve… What was his name? 
Yep. Don’t miss any video.
Joshua… Ah no… I don’t know why - he seems to be a nice guy but I so don’t like him 
but still watch him sometimes anyways. Don’t know why. Maybe my female side, he’s cute.
Super* Review guy, I somehow totally thrust everything he sais. Great reviewer!
Crinacle… He’s funny and Zeos found his avatar in a hentai
Don’t know if anything he sais makes any sense tho…?
cheapaudioman - the best! ever! He is so unbelievable humble and has this great hidden humour!! Oh and he knows his stuff
The other The HEADPHONE Show guys; don’t know 'em that good yet. I thrust them so far somehow.
1 Like
Zeos was listed in my top five, but lately he has been reviewing/pushing some really bad gear more than usual. Combine that with shill math and I don’t want to watch his videos much anymore.
DMS is moving up.
However, I am just not finding much quality content in general of late. Forum seems much more in touch. Not much out there on YouTube that I can find appealing. Many YouTube headphone channels seem to have become stagnant and uninteresting. I have had to turn to my other big hobbies such as firearms and outdoors for more entertaining and engaging videos.
1 Like
Did you try the cheapaudioman yet? He is great! Much better than firearms
IT just needs a Bit of time to adjust.
1 Like
I’m not saying Real World Audio is my favorite, but this guy puts out tons of videos. These address general audio rather than headphones per se. He doesn’t have many subscribers yet.
Any thoughts?
2 Likes
Cheapaudioman is not too bad, but the dad jokes can be painful. I do like that he covers a large variety of audio gear. I love that he has a focus on lower end gear that I would likely try from watching one of his videos.
Very interesting. It looks as if this guy is all hands on and follows his own path. I will definitely be checking these out. Thanks!