[T Bone]

I bought a used a Oppo HA-1 recently.  The seller used all of the original packaging and did a fantastic job in the shipping department.  Used gear is awesome - it's lets you stretch your fun budget for higher quality gear for low-dough.  However, you have no warranty support and you're just going to have to suck up any repair costs if necessary.
 
That said, I have 2x issues with my Oppo HA-1 that are probably going to require factory service.
 
(1) Noisy potentiometer 
When I turn the volume up/down on the HA-1 I can hear a faint, but audible noise/crackling in my headphones.
In the grand scope of things its a nuisance, but not something I was expecting from a Oppo.
Has anyone one else experienced this problem?
 
(2) Inconsistent Output On One Channel
It seems like the left channel on the amp takes a good 30 minutes to warm up.  When I turn on the amp, the left channel plays but at a distinctly lower volume. 20/30 minutes into a listening session the left channel "wakes up" and the staging snaps to attention the way you would expect. 
Has anyone else experienced this problem?  I haven't read anything (yet) in this forum to that affect from other HA-1 owners.  
 
Unlike the noisy potentiometer, I can't abide with this problem.  I am going to have to send the amp in for service.  I've reached to Oppo tech support and have begun a dialogue to get this problem resolved.  I'm sure it won't be cheap.

 

[T Bone]

Pictures - 'cuz everybody likes pictures!  
 
The Oppo has a place of honor just over my desk

Yup, silver dragon cables for my Audeze LCD-3

 

[manpowre]

Well, I have the Oppo HA-1 unit too. I also bought it used locally.
 
The issue with volume control knob is something I have too. I don't use it much, as I leave it at 12o clock, as that has for me the most audible level as I can turn up and down digital volume control on my laptop.
I read in another oppo thread that dust can settle around the knob, so try turn it off, and turn knob 20-30 times both directions before turning back on. I havent tried this yet, been too busy with another issue.
 
Personally with the LCD3 series I found the DAC sabre chip to be too bright, so I tested Hegel DAC and went with that, and now just using the HA-1 unit as an analogue amp. After that I got very happy with the sound as the analogue part of the HA-1 is actually pretty good.
 
About the sonic effect. That is something I have experienced too. When I play eg. a 8khz tone out of my HA-1 being cold connected to my laptop to USB and use Oppo DAC, I can hear this only on right channel.
 
I suspect this to be the famous 8khz usb noice coming from a computer. The circuits havent warmed up properly to shield off the noise it seems.
 
Once I plugged in a USB separator like the Intona USB separator, this effect is completely gone. So this seems to be related to the DAC part not the analogue part.
 
When I use my HD25 DAC I can not hear the right side sound artifact at all (without Intona USB separator). I only had this 1x 8khz tone appearing on right channel with Oppo DAC. The DAC seems to be taking the noise as sound and playing the noise out on left channel. (Left channel is the standard mono channel too).
 
How do you connect your media source ? USB, bluetooth ? one of the other digital inputs ?
 
I am waiting for a Tascam UH7000 ADC and I plan to start blogging about these things and measure audible differences, like usb separators, cables etc.. With that its good to have a DAC/amp that is affected by these things. 
 
Again, I have not heard these artifacts on the analogue input/output of the HA-1, and that part sound quiet good!

 

[manpowre]

BTW, I see you havent connected it to Balanced output, I can hear big difference XLR/jack plug. There is just more life and dynamic and punch with the XLR cable.

 

[T Bone]

  I see you havent connected it to Balanced output, I can hear big difference XLR/jack plug. 

I bought the Silver Dragon's from a seller here on Head-Fi for an attractive price with the 1/4" plug.
I have wanted to switch to an XLR cable ever since I got bought the HA-1.  I called Moon Audio and the price to have it re-terminate in XLR isn't bad at all.  I think I'll send it to Moon at the same time I send the amp in for repairs.  
 
*EDIT*
The HA-1 user manual lists the channel separation at >90 db on the 1/4" connectors, while the channel separation on the
XLR connection is listed at > 120db.  That's not an insignificant difference!  

 

 

[T Bone]

Thanks for the well thought out reply manpowre.
I use the HA-1 to play lossless music from my laptop over a USB connection almost exclusively.  
 
Your comments on the USB noise are interesting.  I have a Schitt Audio USB "de-crapifier" around here somewhere.  I need to dig that out and see if makes any audible difference for me.  
 
I was in touch with Oppo tech support last night.  I am going to box it up and send it in for repairs this weekend.  Turnaround time shouldn't be too bad.  

 

[manpowre]

  Thanks for the well thought out reply manpowre.
I use the HA-1 to play lossless music from my laptop over a USB connection almost exclusively.  
 
Your comments on the USB noise are interesting.  I have a Schitt Audio USB "de-crapifier" around here somewhere.  I need to dig that out and see if makes any audible difference for me.  
 
I was in touch with Oppo tech support last night.  I am going to box it up and send it in for repairs this weekend.  Turnaround time shouldn't be too bad.  

 
When I send a 11khz jitter signal, I do see the wide inaccuracy in between bass at 400 hz and medium tone to 5000hz. Big deviations when the DA converter is cold. (this is measured on pre-out). after about 10-15 minutes on, this settles. It takes time to measure my long list, as I need to wait for overnight to cool it down.
 
This test was done without the intona. I will post my full article later this week once I have all test results.

 

[T Bone]

Oppo confirmed receipt of my amplifier today and are quoting a two-day turn around.  That's pretty good!  No one likes to send their gear in for warranty service, but getting it back quickly sure does go a long way towards easing the pain.

 

[Aaaaa]

Many people have reported the very faint static sound when turning the volume control. The current solution that works for most people is to turn the volume control all the way down then all the way up and repeat this full sweep back and forth about 20 times. This seems to clean up the problem. Make sure oppo is off or at least has no signal going thru so you don't hurt your ears or phones.

 

[T Bone]

I got my HA-1 back from Oppo today.  They turned the unit around in just 1 day - wow!  
Turns out that both problems had the same root cause, a bad volume dial.  They replaced it and upgraded the firmware to the latest version. 
 
The volume knob is dead silent now and I am back to audio bliss once again.

 

[manpowre]

  I got my HA-1 back from Oppo today.  They turned the unit around in just 1 day - wow!  
Turns out that both problems had the same root cause, a bad volume dial.  They replaced it and upgraded the firmware to the latest version. 
 
The volume knob is dead silent now and I am back to audio bliss once again.

 
Congrats man, glad it worked out. Good to know that you had distortion on volume knob. I dont have that issue in sound quality though. Offcourse upgraded firmware wouldnt be bad.. wonder if its possible to do it myself ?

 

[T Bone]

  Offcourse upgraded firmware wouldnt be bad.. wonder if its possible to do it myself ?

Updating the firmware is a piece of cake.  You just need a USB connection to your Oppo.  Flashing it is pretty much as simple as loading a new version of IOS onto your iPhone.

 

[Middy]

Where do you get the new firmware.. It's not listed on the main site???
Can a reseller update it??

Any advice would be great...
Cheers

Dave

 

[T Bone]

Where do you get the new firmware.. It's not listed on the main site???

You're 100% correct Dave, the firmware update for the HA-1 isn't listed on their site.  It's available for their blu ray players, but not the HA-1. 
I'd call support and ask.

 

[Middy]

Thanks T I hoped it was in the wild somewhere. Not sure what it does but never hurts to update if you can...
Mines out of warranty but ill ask all the same.

Good luck
Dave