[Middy]

If you look at cement mixer thread I can do you a good deal....

 

[Tipton]

You guys crack me up!  I'm a general contractor.....I've done so much concrete work it's insane.
 
But yeah.....I really want that HA-1!!

 

[manpowre]

  You guys crack me up!  I'm a general contractor.....I've done so much concrete work it's insane.
 
But yeah.....I really want that HA-1!!

I have the HA-1 too, and used it as main AMP until I started expanding my system. So now I use V281 mainly, and Hegel HD25 dac, but I have to say, for the money you can pick up the HA-1 used, its totally worth it! 
 
Its a great platform to expand and review other products around! I would suggest to review a few different DAC's though, also depending on your headphone, balanced XLR4 or jackplug and the impedance your headphone has, you might end up like or not liking the Sabre DAC inside HA-1. 
 
One thing I do miss with my Hegel HD25 is the fact that HA-1 has excellent connections. like the bluetooth part. Im considering to put it into my main stereo as dac, and pre-amp
 
Good news.. I did all rightmark 6 measurements!!!! 21 different measurements to be excact.

 

[Middy]

I am still pushing.. If you can get inside the OPPO warranty aside deoxit on the internal connections. Just superb and with the INTONA...

Now I have my Mapleshade Cilclear silver contact grease. Muhahahatastic.
I will apply inside this weekend
My ETHER 2x MINI /BALANCED CONNS sound better an I tryed a bit on the power lead. No issues so far...
I think an improvement...
Final impressions next week and some pics if I can upload them...

Nice to see the thread wake up...

Keep smiling gents

Dave

 

[Tipton]

I'd really like to use the HA-1 as my main headphone amp instead of the Marantz NA8005.  I'd also like to have the HA-1 connected to my Marantz PM8005 integrated amp to listen to my digital music collection through my main speakers (instead of headphones) if the mood hits.  My Marantz NA8005 network audio player can also be connected to my integrated amp and used for listening to streaming radio when the mood is there.
 
Does this sound redundant to you guys?  Especially since I can already do all this without the HA-1.  Just looking for that excuse......

 

[polecrab]

... Does this sound redundant to you guys?  Especially since I can already do all this without the HA-1.  Just looking for that excuse.

I'd like to express a contrarian opinion and say that this sounds very redundant to me. I think you're better off spending that $1200 for something that will have a bigger impact (a musical instrument, bicycle, gift to a family member, charitable donation?) rather than duplicating capabilities you already have for the sake of possible subtle SQ improvements that may not be detectable in an ABX test. I have a minimalist philosophy, and the main reason why I bought the HA-1 is because it has so many features in one box, it can take the place of three different units and reduce clutter in my life.

 

[Middy]

It's good multi talented, can be improved and Modded. Looks great but enough about me...

I got the OPPO for the wife..A good deal as I never really liked her...

 

[Tipton]

I'd like to express a contrarian opinion and say that this sounds very redundant to me. I think you're better off spending that $1200 for something that will have a bigger impact (a musical instrument, bicycle, gift to a family member, charitable donation?) rather than duplicating capabilities you already have for the sake of possible subtle SQ improvements that may not be detectable in an ABX test. I have a minimalist philosophy, and the main reason why I bought the HA-1 is because it has so many features in one box, it can take the place of three different units and reduce clutter in my life.

 
Thank you sir for confirming my original redundancy concern.  My NA8005 does everything the HA-1 does and more.  I always wished I had bought the HA-1 instead of my current NA8005, but then I wouldn't be able to listen to streaming radio, and would lose my airplay.  Although the HA-1 does have blue tooth.  

 

[Allanmarcus]

For $49 you can get refurbished Airport express from Apple. There's your AirPlay

 

[polecrab]

I'm not familiar with your Marantz units, but I would guess that the HA-1 would provide a noticeable advantage only if your headphones were very difficult to drive or maybe benefited from balanced amplification. Otherwise, I seriously doubt the DAC or preamp capabilities, or even headphone out for easy to moderate to drive headphones, are noticeably different between the Oppo and Marantz. If you enjoy the streaming capabilities and AirPlay connectivity with your Apple devices (which will provider higher quality than the Bluetooth on the HA-1, which is more optimized for aptX devices) on your Marantz, then you probably made the right decision initially when you picked the Marantz over the Oppo. I'm probably in the minority, but I think we should just enjoy all the nice equipment that we have instead of constantly thinking about upgrading. Just think if your wife or GF wanted to spend thousands on a brand new wardrobe every season. She would probably view our upgraditis the same way we would view her frivolous fashion obsession.

 

[Tipton]

I'm not familiar with your Marantz units, but I would guess that the HA-1 would provide a noticeable advantage only if your headphones were very difficult to drive or maybe benefited from balanced amplification. Otherwise, I seriously doubt the DAC or preamp capabilities, or even headphone out for easy to moderate to drive headphones, are noticeably different between the Oppo and Marantz. If you enjoy the streaming capabilities and AirPlay connectivity with your Apple devices (which will provider higher quality than the Bluetooth on the HA-1, which is more optimized for aptX devices) on your Marantz, then you probably made the right decision initially when you picked the Marantz over the Oppo. I'm probably in the minority, but I think we should just enjoy all the nice equipment that we have instead of constantly thinking about upgrading. Just think if your wife or GF wanted to spend thousands on a brand new wardrobe every season. She would probably view our upgraditis the same way we would view her frivolous fashion obsession.

 
I agree with you 100%

 

[Middy]

I do look fabulous in the bedroom darling with last year's fashions...
Accessories By Ether IFI and Coco Chanel...

No ..More Coco the clown in my 7 year old baggy T shirt.

Yer treat the wife family and put some aside for next year's slush fund when upgraditus grips your wallet.
Brownie points can always be spent later.....

 

[Middy]

Just a quick note on my last experiment on getting the OPPO HA1 as race tuned as possible. You know I have been banging on about deoxit. Removing surface oxide air contamination and production methods gunk...

3 weeks after the final deoxit gold and hard soldering the female wires on the Toroidal power supply, I tried the MAPLESHADE CILCLEAR SILVER CONTACT GREASE...It is liquid metal wire and can cause shorts very easy... be warned but good stuff...

I IPA cleaned out the female plastic connectors and Male PCB Pins. A new contact Z cleaner for good measure and blew out the holes.... Then with a sowing needle applied CILCLEAR. The smaller male connectors pins are just a few mm wide... As this is an OCD extreme experiment I did the PCB earth points screw holes and screws with a wire brush and IPA bath..blow out and Cilcleared. The main earth tab as well.

The Deoxit now mainly cleaned off had done the hard work and such a boost to SQ it did...

Now the silver cilclear....
7 hours sweating and panicking...
The sound has improved again more silver icing on the connector cake..

Hard soldering can't be done on every connector to pin. This in my opinion is the nearest to it.
Flux = Deoxit
Cilclear =soldering
In my opinion that last few percent is nearly there. Over all more smoother as a whole.
Bass and percussion has that extra slam there. There is that sound at the back just out of reach is there now...
Voices and now intelligible and precise.

I can bang on but audiophile terminology can't convey what I hear.
It just nice and I reiterate from my second hand OPPO I thought was fantastic. Deoxit inside doubled in SQ with my machine. Now it has that extra class and refinement.
No way would anyone doing an AB test would say they are the same machine..

Intona and IFI IPURIFIER 2 make the signal cleaner and make thier mark heard. At a reasonable cost..to me..

I will sort out some reduced pictures if they can upload here.

I give up on trying to convince people that it's worth the effort. I can only say in my humble opinion it 'was' worth the effort. I will help anyone willing to try as best I can.

Post later when I can. Good luck gents and keep smiling
Kind regards

OCD audio cleaning experimenting

Dave...8^)

 

[T Bone]

I am about 3 months into HA-1 ownership now I'm just really enjoying my HA-1. It does everything I want.
 
The user interface was a bit weird at first, but much better than the media interface in my Mercedes!    It's not difficult at all.
The spectrum display and the VU meter haven't gotten old.  
 
The HA-1 has more inputs that I know what to do with.  I primarily use the USB input and occasionally I stream music over bluetooth.  
 
I love the Oppo IOS app.  It's nice to be able to control the amp from my phone; especially when I'm streaming over blue tooth.  
 
I use the "normal" gain setting on the amp for most listening.  There are a few tracks in my FLAC collection that require me to flip the gain setting to the "high" setting - but that's a factor of the source material, not a knock against the amp.  I also appreciate the way that Oppo protects your hearing by turning the amp down for you before flipping the gain setting and inadvertently blowing out your ear drums.  
 
Soundstage and imaging are great.  Close your eyes and you can place the music in the room.  I played around with Chesky's binaural test disc (HDTracks actually) and was very impressed.  
 
One of the better compliments I have for the HA-1 is that I've found myself trying to find better quality music to feed it.  I've been able to compare different versions of the same track and Oppo does a great job of letting me hear the minute differences between the two.  
 
I think the Oppo is an outstanding bargain considering the number of features you get.  
I think you'd have to spend a *LOT* more money to find a better sounding setup. ....but still not as full featured.  

 

[Middy]

Hi everyone can you check something for me...

Place your ear on the top of OPPO NEAR THE POWER cable...Where the Transformer is and listen. Do you hear anything what do you hear?

If it is voices that's not good...

I can hear buzzing I think that's normal but as I have been playing I want to make sure...

Thanks for the help.. just so you know the Transformer sits on a little foam top and bottom the bolt is welded on...

Cheers

Dave