Feliks Echo 2 vs Topping A30 Pro

Feliks Echo 2

The Echo 2 (since renamed Echo Classic in Feliks Audio's lineup) is the Polish builder's entry OTL tube amplifier: hand-made 6N6P/ECC85-family tube stages, around 350mW of output, and the warm, euphonic OTL presentation the line is known for. Approved coverage of the Echo platform (the original Echo review and the Echo Vibe offshoot, which earned Headfonia's Highly Recommended award for boutique-grade quality) consistently lands on the same verdict: an affordable, beautifully built gateway into real tube sound, best matched with high-impedance dynamics. The structural caveats define it: OTL topology means low-impedance headphones and IEMs are poor matches, output power is modest, and detail-first listeners will find it deliberately romantic. Note: this dossier leans on Echo-line coverage, since the Echo 2 revision itself lacks a dedicated approved-site review.

Topping A30 Pro

The A30 Pro is Topping's NFCA desktop headphone amplifier with an internal mains supply, and its reputation rests on bench behavior rather than voicing. Independent measurement put SINAD essentially as good as the test setup can resolve, called the signal-to-noise ratio at 50 mV output class leading, and recorded about 5.5W per channel into 32 ohms and 0.73W into 300 ohms single-ended, with balanced operation adding no meaningful power. Subjective coverage does not converge on a character. One listening account hears a mild euphony, romantic richness through female vocals and an overall warmer tilt, while others hear a sterile and neutral presentation, or a clean, linear one with note weight that is neither heavy nor light. Sensitive in-ear monitors come off well: separate listening tests with multi-driver customs and with an 8.5 ohm, 94 dB in-ear found the headphone outputs dead silent on low and medium gain, helped by three gain steps rated at -14, 0 and +14 dB. Staging is described as airy, with an expansive sense of recording space but elements inside it pulled relatively close, and imaging is called sharp and precisely localized. The complaints are practical rather than sonic: the case gets warm, there is no preamp mode and no remote, the rear pass-through outputs only go live when the amplifier is switched off, and the balanced jacks share the single-ended circuitry rather than doubling power.