Schiit Valhalla 2 vs Topping A30 Pro

Short answer

More power: the Topping A30 Pro, with 5.50 W into 32 Ω; the Schiit Valhalla 2 has 115 mW. The Topping A30 Pro drives 6 headphones to 100 dB that the Schiit Valhalla 2 cannot (Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Symphonium Crimson, 3 more).
Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — the maker of the Schiit Valhalla 2 publishes no noise figure.
Output impedance: 522 headphones are left alone by the Topping A30 Pro under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Schiit Valhalla 2 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 519 more).
Price: the Topping A30 Pro costs $100 less, and wherever both makers publish a figure the Schiit Valhalla 2 shows no advantage for the extra money.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $349 against $249.

The Topping A30 Pro reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Schiit Valhalla 2 on 561.

Every published figure, next to each other

Specification	Schiit Valhalla 2	Topping A30 Pro
Power into 32Ω	115 mW	5.5 W
Power into 150Ω	426 mW	1.4 W
Power into 300Ω	800 mW	840 mW
Power into 600Ω	450 mW	420 mW
Output impedance	14.0 Ω	0.1 Ω
Output noise	not published	0.3 µV
Price	$349	$249
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567	561	567

Not published means the maker leaves it out, so that axis cannot be compared.

Where each power figure comes from

Load	Schiit Valhalla 2	Topping A30 Pro
32 Ω	Derived	Published
150 Ω	Derived	Derived
300 Ω	Published	Published
600 Ω	Published	Derived

Both makers publish a power rating. Schiit Valhalla 2 publishes at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω; Topping A30 Pro at 32 Ω and at 300 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

So the two columns are not equally firm row by row: at 600 Ω only the Schiit Valhalla 2 figure is the maker’s own and at 32 Ω only the Topping A30 Pro figure is the maker’s own. On those rows the derived number is the one to doubt first.

What the labels mean.

The headphones that tell them apart

6 headphones reach 100 dB on the Topping A30 Pro but not on the Schiit Valhalla 2 — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Symphonium Crimson, 3 more.

522 headphones are left alone by the Topping A30 Pro under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Schiit Valhalla 2 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 519 more).

561 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both.

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the Shure SE846: Topping A30 Pro has +49 dB of headroom there against +29 dB. 20 dB is about 104 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Schiit Valhalla 2 because that maker publishes no output noise figure.

Headphone	Impedance	Needs	Schiit Valhalla 2 headroom	Topping A30 Pro headroom	Schiit Valhalla 2 hiss	Topping A30 Pro hiss
Shure SE846	9 Ω	0.04 mW	+29 dB damping	+49 dB	not published	4 dB
Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020	9 Ω	4.0 mW	+9 dB damping	+29 dB	not published	-16 dB
Audeze LCD-2 Classic	70 Ω	0.79 mW	+25 dB damping	+35 dB	not published	-18 dB
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)	250 Ω	0.63 mW	+30 dB	+32 dB	not published	-22 dB
HiFiMAN HE400se	25 Ω	7.9 mW	+11 dB damping	+28 dB	not published	-23 dB
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X	470 Ω	1.6 mW	+25 dB	+25 dB	not published	-29 dB
Sennheiser HD 600	300 Ω	6.6 mW	+21 dB	+21 dB	not published	-33 dB
HiFiMAN Susvara	60 Ω	50 mW	+6 dB damping	+18 dB	not published	-35 dB

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Schiit Valhalla 2 costs $100 more than the Topping A30 Pro, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the Schiit Valhalla 2 handles and the Topping A30 Pro does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper Topping A30 Pro drives 6 models to 100 dB and leaves 522 alone under the one-eighth rule that the Schiit Valhalla 2 does not.

Only published figures count here; blank axes are counted separately.