[GodAtum]

  I went to try the Opus today. I really wanted to like the Opus since it's like 3 times cheaper then AK320.
 
Test Songs:
-Arnesen - Magnificat 4. Et Misericordia FLAC
-Yo-Yo Ma - Ave Maria FLAC
-Diana Krall -Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea Remastered FLAC 
 
Test Equipment: Oppo PM3
 
Initial Impressions of Opus:
Construction looks good and feels good in the hand, although it's made from plastic housing, it feels firm and solid. Screen resolution and viewing angles are terrible, although it's not that critical since it's mainly for album art and navigation. Like the firm buttons, so no accidental presses. Selection of songs is pretty basic but functional, loading my 64GB card was pretty fast ... where's the playlist selection .. WHAT ? No playlist selection !?! 
 
Initial listen: 
Soundstage is nice .. instruments left and right and at the back, lots of kick powering the PM3 (PM3 needs power to shine man). But where is the emotion? I don't FEEL the warm emotional feels from Yoyo Ma's cello string (On side note, Chord Mojo does a EXCELLENT job of conveying the warm emotional feels from Yoyo Ma's Ave Maria, you feel chills going up the spine).
In summary, great soundstage, lots of power/kick, but cold and clinical.   

 
have you tried the Ak320?

 

[zhix78]

Yes I did. I found the AK320 more lush, richer and more emotional. When I listen the yoyo ma cello I can feel the chills going up my spine. Not with the Opus. Although the opus was very good with the soundstage, the sound signature was a bit too cold and clinical for me.

have you tried the Ak320?

 

[twister6]

Yes I did. I found the AK320 more lush, richer and more emotional. When I listen the yoyo ma cello I can feel the chills going up my spine. Not with the Opus. Although the opus was very good with the soundstage, the sound signature was a bit too cold and clinical for me.

have you tried the Ak320?

 
Opus#1, just like LPG, has a more reference sound quality without too much coloring.  Other DAPs tend to color the sound a bit by rolling off some upper treble frequencies and warming up the low end.  Though I personally prefer a more reference sound quality because it helps me analyze headphones for reviews, I can see how some might prefer a warmer/smoother sound for everyday listening pleasure.  AK120ii (which sounds identical to AK240) is exactly that, and AK320 probably takes it one (or two) step further.

 

[regit]

Opus#1, just like LPG, has a more reference sound quality without too much coloring.  Other DAPs tend to color the sound a bit by rolling off some upper treble frequencies and warming up the low end.  Though I personally prefer a more reference sound quality because it helps me analyze headphones for reviews, I can see how some might prefer a warmer/smoother sound for everyday listening pleasure.  AK120ii (which sounds identical to AK240) is exactly that, and AK320 probably takes it one (or two) step further.

Never could understand this term "Reference" sound. For many years, HD650 was a reference sound, now HD800 is a reference sound, yet they sounded day and night. And here we have warm and cool Dap... I guess I could say #1 is cool tilted as much as 320 is warm tilted from "reference", no?

Feedback system is a tautology. I hear warm due to the way I defined cool, and how I define cool is due to how i hear warm. Even with a trained ear (e.g. played violin and listen violin) or Hi-tech measuring, when the sound come to another individuals ears, it becomes the subject of another tautological reference...

 

[bluesyfluesy]

Opus#1 vs AK120ii comparison was mentioned toward the end of my review here.

Excellent review. Detailed and informative. However, I think I'll need to control the urge to get another piece of equipment afterall... My wallet is just begging me not to

 

[ostewart]

Yes I know. My D3 has coax; this has optical. That is partly why I want it. They are both spdif.

Please don't get derailed by that. If you could be so kind, please instead address the question I asked, specifically naming optical to avert this confusion (lol):
"can anyone confirm or deny quickly that this will output 24-bit 96khz over the optical spdif out?"
And
"Are the eq and effects applied to the optical spdif stream out of the Opus 1?" Almost bought the DX80 until I read it does not do this.

 
Haven't tested the EQ over optical but I have tested 24bit/96kHz and it outputs at that sample rate fine.

 

[glassmonkey]

I've posted my review up. Overall I was extremely impressed with the transparent reference quality sound. The OS let me down a bit and I'm still waiting for some features, but the Opus #1 is a well-done first effort from Audio-Opus.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/audio-opus-opus-1/reviews/16109

 

[jesadjust]

Have been using the little guy with my jupiter for a week and I am really happy about it. Such a huge improvement from my old dx90, the soundstage, the details and its performance with strings are all making me smile when i am listening to it.
 
Still I have one tiny problem yet to be resolved - most of my files are aiff as I am a mac/ itunes user, and I have spent a lot of time make sure that all the artist info, album artwork are properly set for all the aiff files. However opus#1 can only display the song title and the album title of the aiff files; the fields of artist name return as unknown artist and the album artworks are all missing for the aiff files. Is there anyway to solve this problem?

 

[glassmonkey]

  Have been using the little guy with my jupiter for a week and I am really happy about it. Such a huge improvement from my old dx90, the soundstage, the details and its performance with strings are all making me smile when i am listening to it.
 
Still I have one tiny problem yet to be resolved - most of my files are aiff as I am a mac/ itunes user, and I have spent a lot of time make sure that all the artist info, album artwork are properly set for all the aiff files. However opus#1 can only display the song title and the album title of the aiff files; the fields of artist name return as unknown artist and the album artworks are all missing for the aiff files. Is there anyway to solve this problem?

I hope a firmware update fixes some of these issues in the future. I had problems with not all my FLAC tags loading properly. I too had many 'unknown artist' albums. Testing with my DX50 and the same card revealed that the Opus #1 was the problem.
 
Also, welcome to HeadFi. Sorry about your wallet.

 

[siamdave]

Would it be possible to install a different player on the device like Poweramp by sideloading it?

 

[twister6]

  Would it be possible to install a different player on the device like Poweramp by sideloading it?

 
Unfortunately not.  Android OS is running in the background, but it's just like A&K DAPs where you can only use a native player.  Opuse#2 supposed to have full android capability.

 

[siamdave]

OK thanks. Anyone do a comparison between the Opus and Sony ZX100 by any chance?

 

[BartSimpson1976]

tough choice. I am exactly in the situation to make a choice between these two. Currently I am more towards the Sony
due to battery life, form factor, UI and Bluetooth. However, sonically I see the Opus slightly in front with its nice transparent, detailed sound.
But it is 2% better maybe than the Sony and in everyday use mainly during commuting the usability of the Sony becomes an important issue.

 

[ostewart]

Anyone else having issues with the new firmware. I have had it output no sound, once i finish an album i go to play another and it shows its playing but no sound output.

I either have to turn it off and on again, which takes ages, or reload my whole library which is also slow...

 

[remastered]

Anyone else having issues with the new firmware. I have had it output no sound, once i finish an album i go to play another and it shows its playing but no sound output.

I either have to turn it off and on again, which takes ages, or reload my whole library which is also slow...

I'm experiencing th same as well. Probably a bug that needs to be fixed with the latest firmware.