You mean the HA-1 above, right?
All my comparisons were using the Oppo's amp section using RCA with the Bifrost Uber connected to my PC via USB vs. the Oppo's own DAC/amp setup with the same USB cable out of the same USB port on my PC.
Again these differences were very subtle and were only obvious after a lot of A/Bing, but I found them to be consistent after the first hour or so of listening of a 4-5 hour headphone bender. So I wouldn't say the DAC difference to be even remotely close to the difference between an HD800 vs. an LCD-X, which is more of an obvious difference in sound signature. However, just a warning that I'm not sure how good my critical listening abilities are, so YMMV if there are people who have heard a lot more DACs and amps than I have and can provide more nuanced impressions.
I found the Bifrost was comparably bright to the HA-1, with no noticeable difference in terms of the balance across all frequencies. My out-of-the-box impressions of the Schiit was that bass, mids and treble sounded equal in quantity, with perhaps a tiny bit less treble sharpness with the Bifrost, but more extended listening didn't really carry that out that treble difference, and my end judgment is that they're very similar in balance. Both sound remarkably similar in terms of sound signature. The biggest differences were in terms of resolution and detail. The Bifrost was not as smooth, with treble especially lacking the same quality and detail of the Oppo. Notes didn't appear as distinct, and timbre of instruments wasn't as lifelike or realistic on the Schiit, particularly noticeable with cymbals and hi-hats taking on a fuzzy, brittle quality. There were a lot of microdetails the HA-1 nailed that lent more of a sense of transparency into the music compared to the Bifrost. Again, the Oppo just feels smoother and more transparent, but the differences I could only quantify as 1% at most. I honestly don't think there's a noticeable difference (to me, at least) of the overall sound signature and balance, so I think you would be happy with the HA-1 if you like the Bifrost. I'd guess that your Lyr 2 + Bifrost would make much more of an obvious difference in sound signature than just the DACs out of the same amp, although I don't have the Lyr 2 to compare.
One additional note I'd give is that I personally found the balanced output on the HA-1 to be much brighter/more forward than the single-ended for some reason, and that was immediately noticeable. I posted that in this thread a week or so ago and some people reported back that they had a similar experience going balanced vs SE with the Oppo while others didn't, so YMMV.
The best part about buying the Oppo for me was knowing that I could return it for a full refund to Oppo within 30 days with no questions asked, so I'd urge you to try it as well if you can front the dough (hooray for credit cards!) but after having it for 3 weeks now I'm sure I'm going to keep it. I ended up returning the PM-1 to Oppo after encountering some immediate comfort issues and preferring the LCD-X, and it was smooth and painless and a quick refund. I think I needed the Bifrost comparison to remind me of how good the DAC implementation is in this thing.
TL;DR, I find the Oppo HA-1 was better than the Bifrost, but it's a very subtle difference that doesn't really have much to do with the strikingly similar sound signature.
Hope this helps!
ya i did mean ha1, sry typed it out on my smartphone. if u cld comment on the bass it wld b rly helpful too. saw ur response n the lcdx thread too and asked abt bass there, but just respond on one thread is fine. rly appreciate ur impressions! may go the route of swapping out my bifrost+lyr 2 for the ha1 after i audition the ha1 for myself, but ur impressions are very reassuring. thanks!!
