Recent content by polecrab
  1. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

    I and others have posted about this channel imbalance problem at cold temperatures. For me, Oppo had to replace the main board and potentiometer and it worked fine after that. I suspect there was a common defect in early units that they later addressed. Since you need parts, you probably need...
  2. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

    Here’s a very interesting article on balanced headphone amplification by one of the most respected manufacturers in the industry: https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/audio-myth-balanced-headphone-outputs-are-better
  3. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

    Regarding the Yggy 24 bits, JA is saying that it truncates the last 4 bits rather than dithering, resulting in higher distortion than traditional designs: When you have 24-bit data but 20-bit DACs, you need to dither those data to match the DAC. Otherwise, simply chopping off the 4 LSBs, called...
  4. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

    JA's measurements are the only reason to read Stereophile. Absolute Sound doesn't perform measurements, so there's no useful info there. The subjective reviews in both mags are completely useless, unless you want to learn some purple prose to write a love letter to your honey bun.
  5. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

    The Yggy sure don't smoke the HA-1 in terms of measurements https://www.stereophile.com/content/schiit-audio-yggdrasil-da-processor-measurements
  6. polecrab

    Oppo Sonica DAC (an affordable ES9038PRO Sabre DAC)

    After talking with Oppo tech support, I learned that the Sonica DAC and HA-1 have the same low output impedance on the pre-outs, 100/200 ohms on RCA/XLR. That, along with the published output voltage, which is only slightly lower on the Sonica than the HA-1, means they should have similar preamp...
  7. polecrab

    Oppo Sonica DAC (an affordable ES9038PRO Sabre DAC)

    Just got my Sonica DAC today. I'm using it as a preamp for my power amp. Was anyone else thrown off by the volume slider display? Most volume controls get loud really fast, so I'm used to setting my volume around 9 or 10 o'clock on the dial (e.g., on the HA-1). So when I first hooked up and...
  8. polecrab

    OPPO HA-2 Portable Headphone Amplifier/DAC Discussion Thread

    Anyone have an HA-1, HA-2SE, and HD600/650/6xx? If so, how much of a difference in sound quality can you hear between the 2 amps at moderate volume (like 9:30 on the HA-1 volume knob) with the Senn? To put this in perspective, I just spent an hour switching between my iPhone 7 and HA-1 playing...
  9. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

    Anyone using the Tidal app for Windows 10 PC through the HA-1 via USB having problems with weird distortion that goes away when you restart the Tidal app? This doesn't happen with any other source, just Tidal. Very annoying.
  10. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

    I've been having problems with that using the Tidal software for Windows 10 PC. If I use the Oppo Asio driver in exclusive mode, it works fine for a few songs but then starts getting distorted. It plays fine if I choose the default driver, but then it's getting downsampled. I'm wondering if I'm...
  11. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

    No, I didn't have any headphones plugged in today. I was using the HA-1 pre-outs (RCA and XLR) to drive an amp for speakers and a powered sub. Source was a PC connected via USB.
  12. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

    My HA-1 has powered off by itself twice today during playback. I press the power button to turn it back on and it resumes as normal. Has anyone else experienced this or have a clue what the problem is?
  13. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

    It's not like Oppo's abandoning the headphone market. They still have their headphones and mobile DAC/amp, which they just updated. Their mobile amp is more appropriate for their headphones, which are more mobile oriented and are easy to drive, so the HA-1 is really a product ideal for other...
  14. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

    The pre The pre-out is op amp, not class A discreet.
  15. polecrab

    Oppo HA-1 Impressions Thread

      I didn't realize you wanted to output DSD. I don't know anything about that, just that it's usually a big hassle. I wonder if you might be better off just using the analog output from the disc player to the HA-1 for DSD and USB for everything else. But this is an area I know nothing about.
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