Sony PHA-1 portable DAC/amp - Page 16

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiFiGuy528 

My Pha-1 makes noise in the audio stream when used on a Mac. Why?

I've just gotten mine and am burning it in and charging from my MacBook Air via USB. No problems at all. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiFiGuy528 

I

Quote:

Originally Posted by barbes 

I've just gotten mine and am burning it in and charging from my MacBook Air via USB. No problems at all. 

I have a Air too. Which USB input are you using? I'm on the Left. I hear scratchy noise when playing iTunes. I'm using the included Sony cable.

OH OH

The iTunes software EQ is <atrocious>. It causes lots of noise and static when used. Check if it's on. It has turned itself on in the past for me, so check even if you didn't turn it on yourself.

If that doesn't work, try using a different player if possible, see if that fixes it.

Left USB and that same cable, but no problems.

anyone has the manual in english?  Maybe I need to update the FW?  I'm on v1.0

It's not iTunes causing the problem.  The noise is present when playing from the web on Safari too.  The PHA1 is silent when nothing is playing.

This is from another pha-1 thread. Will it help?

I'll give that a try.  I have tried 44.1, and 88.2

brb

YES!  That fixed it.  WTF is up with that???  so it has to upsample everything to 96khz.  Thanks for your help man.  

Today I have received two amps :

1 Sony PHA 1 

1 Jl audio BAB 3 JE 

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiFiGuy528 

I'll give that a try.  I have tried 44.1, and 88.2

 

brb

 

YES!  That fixed it.  WTF is up with that???  so it has to upsample everything to 96khz.  Thanks for your help man.  

No problem. I'm looking forward to your review , I'd like to hear how it pairs with a Mdr-1r.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiFiGuy528 

Listening to the Sony 1R right now and I'm still not a fan of this headphone. The amp didn't clean anything up.

I don't know why this is, but it sounds better through iPhone 5 Lighting Dock than iPod Classic 30 pin Dock connector. If the PHA-1 is doing the processing why would the two devices sound different?

I'm loving the design of the PHA-1, but not loving the sound yet. More ear time is needed.

The 1R is probably your problem. If you don't like the headphone, an amp isn't going to magically make you fall in love with it. It has an 8 ohm voice coil and extremely high efficiency, making the need for an amp absolute zero. On top of that, the 1R is not very revealing to begin with, which is probably why you don't hear a difference.

The difference is probably the USB controller chips. Another possibility is that Lightning has a much higher throughput than USB, hence a better sound.

I've got the Sony PHA-1 connected to a Macbook Pro Retina and I've got a slight hiss on some quiet tracks while it is charging. (Gotye - Somebody that I used to love is a good example.)  I'm using the included USB cable and I've got my Mac's midi settings set correctly to 96K/24, etc..

Still, it sounds pretty good.  I've only tested with Sennheiser HD-700 headphones but I plan to try it out with HD650's and HD800. 

I've got the new ALO Audio International DAC/Amp and I want to do a comparison review.  The International has balanced connectors so it might have a slight advantage, be interesting to see how it stacks up with a single ended connection.

Quote:

Originally Posted by joshkerr 

I've got the Sony PHA-1 connected to a Macbook Pro Retina and I've got a slight hiss on some quiet tracks while it is charging. (Gotye - Somebody that I used to love is a good example.)  I'm using the included USB cable and I've got my Mac's midi settings set correctly to 96K/24, etc..

 

Still, it sounds pretty good.  I've only tested with Sennheiser HD-700 headphones but I plan to try it out with HD650's and HD800. 

 

I've got the new ALO Audio International DAC/Amp and I want to do a comparison review.  The International has balanced connectors so it might have a slight advantage, be interesting to see how it stacks up with a single ended connection.

 Balanced was designed for use with longer (20m+) runs of cable, using it in a short-run environment will only make things sound worse...

The PHA-1 is driving me nuts. I've been trying to connect it to my Macbook Pro Retina and it simply refuses to show up. My FiiO E17 shows up just fine.

I have the USB cable connected from my MBPR's left USB port and terminating in the microUSB port on the PHA-1, with the source switch all the way to the right (Digital In / microUSB). I've got Audio MIDI Setup open on my MBPR and there's no PHA-1 showing up for digital audio on the left bar of the app. 

How do I get this infernal device working with my MBPR?

EDIT: just noticed that it's stopped picking up a signal from my iPhone as well (i.e. iPhone --> PHA-1 --> headphones). Not sure what's going on. Is there a way to reset this device?

EDIT2: Right, it's detected my my Macbook Pro (model 8,2). However, in Audio MIDI Setup, I have set the format to 96,000 Hz, 2ch-24bit Integer, and now the singers sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks. This is very odd.

EDIT 3: Turned out to be a bad USB cable. But still not able to figure out why

- PHA-1 works just fine with iTunes

- choppy sound when using Amarra 2.4.5 or Audirvana. Setting format to 96kHz results in The Chipmunks (doesn't happen with iTunes, using the same track)