Schiit Vali 2+ vs Topping L50

Short answer

  • More power: the Topping L50, with 2.80 W into 32 Ω; the Schiit Vali 2+ has 1.50 W. Both drive 567 of the 567 non-electrostatic headphones here to 100 dB, so on that test the difference changes nothing.
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — the maker of the Topping L50 publishes no noise figure.
  • Output impedance: 72 headphones are left alone by the Topping L50 under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Schiit Vali 2+ (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 69 more).
  • Price: the Topping L50 costs $80 more; what that buys on these numbers is set out further down, under What the price difference buys.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $149 against $229.

On raw power they are level: each reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 non-electrostatic models here.

Side by side

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationSchiit Vali 2+Topping L50
Power into 32Ω1.5 W2.8 W
Power into 150Ω496 mW933 mW
Power into 300Ω400 mW540 mW
Power into 600Ω200 mW290 mW
Output impedance1.8 Ω0.1 Ω
Output noise25 µV unverifiednot published
Price$149$229
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567		567567

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

How solid these numbers are

Where each power figure comes from

LoadSchiit Vali 2+Topping L50
32 ΩPublishedPublished
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩPublishedPublished
600 ΩPublishedPublished

Both makers publish a power rating. Schiit Vali 2+ publishes at 32 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω; Topping L50 at 32 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

The two publish at the same loads, which is the one case where the rows of this table can be read straight across.

What the labels mean.

What separates them

The headphones that tell them apart

On power they are interchangeable across this whole database: there is no headphone here that one reaches 100 dB on and the other does not.

72 headphones are left alone by the Topping L50 under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Schiit Vali 2+ (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 69 more).

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

On real headphones

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 L50 has +47 dB of headroom there against +40 dB. 7 dB is about 4.7 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Schiit Vali 2+ and Topping L50 because neither maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsSchiit Vali 2+ headroomTopping L50 headroomSchiit Vali 2+ hissTopping L50 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+40 dB damping+47 dBnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+20 dB damping+27 dBnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+30 dB+34 dBnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+28 dB+30 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+22 dB+26 dBnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+22 dB+24 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+18 dB+19 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+12 dB+16 dBnot publishednot published
What the price difference buys

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Topping L50 costs $80 more than the Schiit Vali 2+. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 72 more models left alone under the one-eighth rule.

Nothing runs the other way: there is no axis here on which the cheaper of the two does better.

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

Next

Both pages in full

Each in full: Schiit Vali 2+ and Topping L50.

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