[youngarthur]

iPad into front  HA 1 USB,very nice. Mac mini into rear USB, OR Mac Mini Optical, into HA1,is unusable. Sound is completely disjointed.  Vocals appear on rear soundstage, and very distant,,and all other instruments are to the front. I have never had this before,and having tried a few things,nothing has  worked. Using HD 800, Shure 846 into balanced. Any Ideas?.

 

[Mediahound]

Yeah, balanced is the way to go if the amp has balanced for sure. You get up to 4x the power, along with other benefits such as a lower noise floor and better stereo separation. 

 

[jerick70]

  I'm just trying to figure out who fault is that. OPPOs?
 
I used to have some cheap Samson amp (link) that would drive the same headphones without any problems.
 
And about the cables. I got linked some in this thread for $76, which is not that inexpensive.

 
I have never owned the Senn HD6XX series or used them with the HA-1, so my suggestions are educated guesses.  I'm starting to think you may have an issue with your 6.3 mm cable, the headphones, or you have a faulty HA-1 after what aamefford's said in his post.  I did own a pair of Senn HD555s, in my infant head-fi days, and the cable went bad pretty quickly.  Anyway, the new cable will tell you if it is a bad cable.    
 
Quote:

   
It's an imperfect world.
 
Senny needs to adhere to the industry standard of 6.5mm jack. If they want to sell any products. If they need high impedance to achieve the quality to stay competitive in the market, that is what they have to do.
 
Oppo, actually give you enough juice. Just barely. So why would you blame them? It is not like they did not rate the amp either. Try using the Panasonic, then come back. They are aware of the issue, but chose, just like pointed out, to solve the issue by balanced output. That was a great design choice, as support for balanced output, gave them a competitive edge in the market, as that is superior to the competition. In balanced mode, there is plenty of juice, something there would not be at Class A, for single sided output, at this prize point.
 
And, at the risk of getting into personal attacks, you actually play a role as well. Would you buy a headphone, if you had to buy an extra cable to get a 6.5mm jack? Most users would not. Senny would have to explain to users the advantages of balanced output, and users would complain of the non existing support for balanced headphones in the market. A bunch of amp makers would then claim that their single end amps, are far superior to balanced designs. Well, they do that as it is, anyhow.
 
In the end, everyone can blame anyone. Just start pointing. Its an imperfect world, as if you just twist your needs, something will always be wrong. Even pointing and blaming.
 
Oppo HA-1 is meant to be run balanced. Balanced is the main feature of the unit, and class A at that. At low costs. It designed to be killer value. And it support single ended on top of that, at reduced specs. A pity if people buy into the Oppo, not realizing that. If you read through this very thread, you will quickly realize, that people need a lot of explanation about balanced output, and that people spend a lot of time trying to comprehend it. Its not as easy to explain as if-you-shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-it-will-hurt concepts. That fact generate a lot of problems in it self, as complexity always does. Solutions may be surprisingly simple though.
 
Try getting a new balanced cable, or get the one you have re-terminated to balanced (just check that the cable support it first, it needs four wires, not three). If you know somebody who can solder, re-terminating is actually pretty cheap: Get a balanced to 6.5 adapter on top of that, if you still need that jack. If you got the Oppo, going balanced is a smart investment.
 
I would love to hear if the sound grew on you, going balanced, because in my experience, that is how the Oppo behaves. That would be perfect.
 
Peace,
 
Frode

 
Very good explanation.  I couldn't have said it better myself.  My hats off to you.  

 

[jerick70]

  Yeah, balanced is the way to go if the amp has balanced for sure. You get up to 4x the power, along with other benefits such as a lower noise floor and better stereo separation. 

 
Agreed.  

 

[vnmslsrbms]

Truly. The HA-1 is really great with the balanced output. I was disappointed with the single ended output but well I guess the downside is you need to recable or get after market cables to really enjoy the music.

 

[mikey1964]

Pretty happy with what I'm hearing from the cans I've tried with my HA-1, though I'd only just acquired it, like, a day ago!

 Not gonna run balanced, for now, as that would mean more expenditure for cables......perhaps in the future. Right now, I'm contented to run my Gustard H10 + X12 stack in balanced mode, the HA-1 sounds pretty good thus far.....

 

[youngarthur]

  iPad into front  HA 1 USB,very nice. Mac mini into rear USB, OR Mac Mini Optical, into HA1,is unusable. Sound is completely disjointed.  Vocals appear on rear soundstage, and very distant,,and all other instruments are to the front. I have never had this before,and having tried a few things,nothing has  worked. Using HD 800, Shure 846 into balanced. Any Ideas?.

Anyone?.

 

[frodeni]

 
Anyone?.

 
Sure. I actually shared the cue just a few posts back.
 
The Oppo is extremely picky on the digital input.
 
I am breaking in my HD800, and that is clearly a moving target. Nor do I use any fruit products myself. I have only tested them briefly in stores.
 
Using a PC and the Denon MM400, I know that ASIO settings matter a lot. They need to be at max, and not at default.
 
In my experience, i-anything, has serious noise issues. They are clearly audible. Not just on the Oppo. In my experience, the noise is oftentimes dismissed as recording errors, or even described as to prove the quality of the apple signal. It is sort of as an USM filter in photography, in which less sharp is conceived as more sharp.
 
By slump, I ended up testing the Audioquest Coffee USB cable, and that was such a smart move. I did not get the results I expected: It worked like crazy, and the resulting sound was way off from my expectations. But it completely removed this haze, that placed the instruments far in the background: It removed noise. So if you ask for my experience, I guess I would recommend trying out that cable, If you can afford it.
 
Just a warning: I do not understand why it works or how it works. You might not have the same noise sources as I do. I just have no clue, as to when it would work, or under what conditions it will not. It supposedly has some extra shielding, but the marketing sounds really strange, and appears not to be proven in any way. But it did wonders for me, using the Denon MM400 and speakers. I recommend trying it on your rig, not just buying it.

 

[youngarthur]

Thanks Frodeni,will try that,these things can be very frustrating.

 

[Mediahound]

Originally Posted by frodeni /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
 
The Oppo is extremely picky on the digital input.
 

 
I have to agree. When I had the HA-1, it would have clicks and cut outs very often when I would simply close a browser window with music playing. . I have not really had this issue with another DAC before. 

 

[rambotan]

When you are surfing the web while playing music in the background via USB, sometimes you can hear imperfections when you are scrolling the webpage with the mouse. 

 

[Mediahound]

  When you are surfing the web while playing music in the background via USB, sometimes you can hear imperfections when you are scrolling the webpage with the mouse. 

Yep, but I don't ever have that problem with another DAC with a different USB receiver.

 

[frodeni]

  When you are surfing the web while playing music in the background via USB, sometimes you can hear imperfections when you are scrolling the web page with the mouse. 

 
No. I do not. If you by "you", try to include me, then I sort of wonder where that came from?
 
I have never had this issue with the Oppo, but did prior to the Oppo. It is simply digital noise spilling over into the sound circuitry. It is your computer, not the DAC.
 
Kill power savings. It is a medicine for a lot of trouble, like slow web page scrolling, or flash being unresponsive. A lot of sound issues to, but probably not kill issues with badly designed PCs, that spill noise into the sound card.

 

[jlbrach]

i have an HA-1 which i bought here and should be with me soon,will use it with HD800 as well as LCD3F's...I have a Chord Hugo which i use portably as well as at hime...i look forward to comparisons with the Hugo...has anyobdy listened to both the hugo and the HA-1 and have impressions?

 

[vnmslsrbms]

No. I do not. If you by "you", try to include me, then I sort of wonder where that came from?

I have never had this issue with the Oppo, but did prior to the Oppo. It is simply digital noise spilling over into the sound circuitry. It is your computer, not the DAC.

Kill power savings. It is a medicine for a lot of trouble, like slow web page scrolling, or flash being unresponsive. A lot of sound issues to, but probably not kill issues with badly designed PCs, that spill noise into the sound card.

Yeah I don't know why people blame webpage scrolling to the dac. This happens with any dac, and for me only at my work laptop. Running chrome, it eats up lots of memory, and when you scroll or move it around, it cuts the music for less than a half second. Of course I have lots of other programs too. This is not a dac problem. It's your computer running out of resources. Unless you think the oppo usb driver takes up more memory to run. But I doubt anyone actually tested it in a proper manner with their other dacs.

@jlbrach- I don't have the Hugo, but for hd800 I would definitely suggest using a balanced cable with the ha-1. The power difference makes it well worth it for the hd800. My lcd-2 not so much.