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Oppo Sonica DAC (an affordable ES9038PRO Sabre DAC)
Feb 12, 2017 at 6:12 PM Post #121 of 520
soundman414 said:
  I am also curious how the Sonica is different from the HA-1. I'm wondering if they got rid of the op-amps for direct coupling of the output stage.
Click to expand...

 
Sorry for the late reply, I have been very busy at work supporting our new line of products, including the Sonica DAC. The Sonica DAC uses op-amps and the output is AC coupled.
 
Feb 12, 2017 at 6:14 PM Post #122 of 520
hasturtheyellow said:
Sorry for the late reply, I have been very busy at work supporting our new line of products, including the Sonica DAC. The Sonica DAC uses op-amps and the output is AC coupled.
Click to expand...


Any plans for launching a matching Sonica amp?

Also, is your now discontinued HA-1 able to drive Sennheiser HD 800 sufficiently? Thanks!
 
Feb 12, 2017 at 6:16 PM Post #123 of 520
We re not looking to make another amplifier product at this time. But this can change depending on customer demand and engineering itches.
 
The HA-1 would be able to drive the Sennheiser headphones at a reasonable listening level, particularly if you are using the balanced outputs. It will not be ear splitting n the HD 800, but it should at least drive them well enough to resolve all the resolution and accuracy those headphones can offer.
 
Feb 12, 2017 at 6:24 PM Post #124 of 520
hasturtheyellow said:
  We re not looking to make another amplifier product at this time. But this can change depending on customer demand and engineering itches.
 
The HA-1 would be able to drive the Sennheiser headphones at a reasonable listening level, particularly if you are using the balanced outputs. It will not be ear splitting n the HD 800, but it should at least drive them well enough to resolve all the resolution and accuracy those headphones can offer.
Click to expand...


Nice to see you back on the Forums, HTY. 
 
Is there any possibility for you to give any updates in regards to MQA being added to The Sonica DAC or for that matter, any further updates to the now, discontinued HA-1? 
 
I love my HA-1 and as far as I can tell so far, one of the main reasons for me to want to add a Sonica DAC would be if MQA is added in a future update. 
 
Thanks in advance for any reply.
 
Feb 12, 2017 at 7:01 PM Post #125 of 520
We really did not do any driver updates for the HA-1 because we did not run into any compatibility issues that required new firmware. This is similar to the HA-2 only having a single firmware upgrade because we found Mac OSX was not properly negotiating 24-bit.
 
For MQ this is something that are looking into, but at this time we do not know if we are hardware, software, or licensing limited to support it. For example, if we find that we can support it, but then we have to pay a rather expensive royalty per unit sold (not per unit actually using MQA) then we may decline implementing the technology. Or it could be that the hardware is just not capable of accepting MQA. We just do not have an answer to this question at this time.
 
Feb 12, 2017 at 7:06 PM Post #126 of 520
hasturtheyellow said:
  We really did not do any driver updates for the HA-1 because we did not run into any compatibility issues that required new firmware. This is similar to the HA-2 only having a single firmware upgrade because we found Mac OSX was not properly negotiating 24-bit.
 
For MQ this is something that are looking into, but at this time we do not know if we are hardware, software, or licensing limited to support it. For example, if we find that we can support it, but then we have to pay a rather expensive royalty per unit sold (not per unit actually using MQA) then we may decline implementing the technology. Or it could be that the hardware is just not capable of accepting MQA. We just do not have an answer to this question at this time.
Click to expand...


I see.
 
Well, thanks for adding a little clarity to the MQA issue. I've heard so many rumors about it being added or not added it's made my head spin. 
 
Cheers!
 
Feb 12, 2017 at 7:07 PM Post #127 of 520
hasturtheyellow said:
We really did not do any driver updates for the HA-1 because we did not run into any compatibility issues that required new firmware. This is similar to the HA-2 only having a single firmware upgrade because we found Mac OSX was not properly negotiating 24-bit.

For MQ this is something that are looking into, but at this time we do not know if we are hardware, software, or licensing limited to support it. For example, if we find that we can support it, but then we have to pay a rather expensive royalty per unit sold (not per unit actually using MQA) then we may decline implementing the technology. Or it could be that the hardware is just not capable of accepting MQA. We just do not have an answer to this question at this time.
Click to expand...


How about Roon capability (Roon Ready)?
 
Feb 12, 2017 at 7:31 PM Post #128 of 520
ROON is also being looked into, but I have my doubts that it will ever be added to any of our product line due to a general lack of support we have received from system integration and streaming service partners.
 
Feb 12, 2017 at 7:35 PM Post #129 of 520
hasturtheyellow said:
ROON ... general lack of support we have received from system integration and streaming service partners.
Click to expand...


????

What does this even mean?

Lack of support?!

https://roonlabs.com/partners.html
 
Feb 13, 2017 at 3:07 PM Post #130 of 520
thyname said:
????

What does this even mean?

Lack of support?!

https://roonlabs.com/partners.html
Click to expand...

That's still a pretty niche group of companies. No Denon, Marantz, Yamaha, Onkyo, Pioneer, Anthem, Sony, Cambridge Audio, McIntosh Group, Meridian, Rega, Peachtree, NIAM, etc... Those are huge volume movers that at least some would need to commit to Roon to have it be a viable option.

*Edited
 
Feb 13, 2017 at 3:31 PM Post #131 of 520
soundman414 said:
  That's still a pretty niche group of companies. No Denon, Marantz, Yamaha, Onkyo, Pioneer, Anthem, Sony, Cambridge Audio, McIntosh Group, Meridian, Rega, Peachtree, NIAM, etc... Those are huge volume movers that at least some would need to commit to Roon to have it be a viable option.
Click to expand...

For what is worth, several of those you mention (Meridian, Naim, etc.) are indeed Roon tested and certified.
 
I appreciate the input.
 
Feb 13, 2017 at 7:59 PM Post #132 of 520
So I've been using the Sonica Dac for 5 days now. I'm confident that there are some improvements over the well implemented ess 9018 Dac in my Burson CV2+ amp.
There is more depth of field, less glare on the top end and a bit more snap to my music. It took a few days before I caught on to these differences as they a subtle, yet quite noticeable.
The Dac continues to operate flawlessly with 2 exceptions. When streaming via AirPlay and watching a video, the video lags behind the audio. Also when going to next song on audio playlist, there is a one second delay for it to change to next song. Neither of much concern with me .It's instant when hardwired. I'm currently streaming Tidal and Spotify via AirPlay. I can also hear the superiority of sound via AirPlay vs Bluetooth (although BT still sounds great). I cannot t hear a difference between AirPlay and hardwired via USB connection.
 
Feb 17, 2017 at 9:24 AM Post #134 of 520
erik701 said:
  Any other impressions from first owners?
Click to expand...

Since the DAC shares the same app as the speaker I am unable to connect to my Synology DS415play.  The Sonica speaker shows in the client list of the Synology NAS but speaker will not play.  I am in contact with Oppo but this will need to be resolved before I spend any money on the DAC.
 
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