[Thrang]

It's all a matter of perspective I think. I liked the WA22 when I had one, but that is a very lush, warm, romantic sounding amp. Beautiful, but very far from neutral. So comparing the WA22 to the Oppo would certainly make the Oppo seem bright by comparison. But in absolute terms, the Oppo isn't bright, IMO. Whereas the WA22 is clearly very rose colored

This is precisely my feeling of the amp, as well as the Sennheiser HD800's via balanced. The most you can ask is that a rig faithfully reproduce the original material. Nothing is perfect, but I find my setup stunning in this regard.

When you buy a DSLR, you don't look for one that softens the sharpness or saturates reds excessively. You want something that captures an image as faithfully as possible. Later, you can dress it up all you want in Photoshop.

Similarly, I'd much rather optionally and subtely salt to taste those recordings that are subpar with a high quality EQ than have my gear pre-apply a singular set sonic signature.

 

[Badas]

  As a general rule:
 
Transistor amp = neutral
 
Tube amp = warm and romantic.
 
Can we please get over this and avoid hundreds of posts that essentially just regurgitate this common knowledge?

 
Yes we could. However taking the Woo out of the picture like I have. I have tested 4 other Solid State DAC and Amps. Even another head-fi member remarked on how bright (his words not mine) the Oppo was and he uses a lot of Solid State amps. The other amps may not be neutral but they are musical.

 

[Z06_Pilot]

   
 
 
That is all well and good. However is it suppose to sound nasty, harsh and make you want to smash you headphones? The Oppo can do that. Sometimes I cringe so bad I'm grinding my teeth. If that is neutral well ya can keep it.  I will be trialing a Auralic Taurus soon which also uses the ESS Sabre 9018. It will be interesting to see what happens.

My experience could not be any further from this.  I got my Black Dragon adapter cable from Drew so I can get my LCD3's and HD800's attached to the 4-post balanced connector on the HA-1.  Loving what I am hearing.  my signal path is:
 
Win7....FLAC files-both CD rips and HiRes downloads......JRiver 18 (ASIO or WASAPI-I can't hear any difference)...SOTM PCIe USB card w/linear external power supply.....Blue Dragon USB cable......HA-1.....LCD3 w/Silver Dragon and HD800 with Black Dragon
 
The HD800's sound fantastic...neutral as always, great bass extension, nothing bright or harsh about the sound at all.  some samples are: Patricia Barber's Smash-wonderful stand up bass solos, and a good deal of cymbals and high-hats and they really sparkle.  Norah Jones HiRes download of Come Away With Me.  The wide soundstage of the HD800 is not as good a match for her small intimate songs as the LCD3 is, but the sound is awesome.  Her voice carries like it's floating on air.  All instruments sound absolutely live with no veil whatsoever.  Michael Jackson HiRes download of Thriller.  There is so much musicality going on with these songs it's mind-blowing.  Very rich, full sound with consistently well produced bass that is punchy and very tight.  
 
Then I switched over to Led Zep and the recent Page remixes of albums II and IV.  Nothing remotely harsh about any of it via my HD800's.  Sounds spectacular...believe me, I know harsh when I hear it through my HD800's (I auditioned a Schiit Mjolnir/Gungnir combo-OUCH)
 
Do I like the sound better than my Woo DAC/WA22 amp combo.....It's different....I have gotten accustomed to that "tube sound".  Hard for me to quantify....warm, more "presence" and "immediacy" to the music, with a slight coloring to it? Complete neutral reproduction like that from the HA-1 will take me some getting used to, but I like the different experience.    
 
I think that personal music listening is the most polarizing hobby I have ever been involved in.  It's quite amazing that way !

 

[x RELIC x]

That is all well and good. However is it suppose to sound nasty, harsh and make you want to smash you headphones? The Oppo can do that. Sometimes I cringe so bad I'm grinding my teeth. If that is neutral well ya can keep it.  I will be trialing a Auralic Taurus soon which also uses the ESS Sabre 9018. It will be interesting to see what happens.

The only time I've heard it sound nasty or bad is with source music that is nasty and bad or with headphones I don't like. I will keep it.

The Taurus sounds like a great amp (it doesn't have a DAC) and another good value for the level of performance. It would be interesting to hear an unbiased comparison. In the mean time we get that you don't like the HA-1...............

 

[Z06_Pilot]

It's all a matter of perspective I think. I liked the WA22 when I had one, but that is a very lush, warm, romantic sounding amp. Beautiful, but very far from neutral. So comparing the WA22 to the Oppo would certainly make the Oppo seem bright by comparison. But in absolute terms, the Oppo isn't bright, IMO. Whereas the WA22 is clearly very rose colored

 
Ah, perfect words I was looking for Skylab  "rose colored" would perfectly describe the WA22 sound.  I am really liking the differences between it and the HA-1.  But boy, you start spinning a lower quality recorded/mastered selection on this amp listening through HD800's and it can be a pretty awful experience.......you hear the way they laid it down-warts and all...

 

[Thrang]

Ah, perfect words I was looking for Skylab  "rose colored" would perfectly describe the WA22 sound.  I am really liking the differences between it and the HA-1.  But boy, you start spinning a lower quality recorded/mastered selection on this amp listening through HD800's and it can be a pretty awful experience.......you hear the way they laid it down-warts and all...

Imagine the inverse of this - all the good things you miss on great recordings playing through a "rose-colored" system...

 

[Skylab]

Ah, perfect words I was looking for Skylab  "rose colored" would perfectly describe the WA22 sound.  I am really liking the differences between it and the HA-1.  But boy, you start spinning a lower quality recorded/mastered selection on this amp listening through HD800's and it can be a pretty awful experience.......you hear the way they laid it down-warts and all...

Yup...and I personally would rather pair the HD-800 with the WA-22. I find the HD-800 to be bright at times, and I don't think for many people the pairing of the HD-800 and the HA-1 will be ideal. Conversely the LCD-3 and the HA-1 are a great pairing, whereas the LCD-3 and the WA-22 were too warm a pairing for me.

 

[Badas]

 In the mean time we get that you don't like the HA-1...............

There is sooooooo much I do like. Just that one aspect I don't like.
 
It isn't over for the Oppo in my books yet. The fat lady hasn't sung.
 
I'm going to plug all my music into a Marantz SR7009 AVR. Which has a good musical quality for speakers. Then I'm going to feed the Oppo HA-1 and the Woo from the Marantz. So basically bypassing the Oppo HA-1 Dac. The good thing is the Marantz also has tone controls. I will still have Remote volume control also from the Marantz.
 
If this works then great. I have everything I like from the Oppo including the class A amp. The Oppo will then stay. If not then it will go.

 

[Hooster]

  There is sooooooo much I do like. Just that one aspect I don't like.
 
It isn't over for the Oppo in my books yet. The fat lady hasn't sung.
 
I'm going to plug all my music into a Marantz SR7009 AVR. Which has a good musical quality for speakers. Then I'm going to feed the Oppo HA-1 and the Woo from the Marantz. So basically bypassing the Oppo HA-1 Dac. The good thing is the Marantz also has tone controls. I will still have Remote volume control also from the Marantz.
 
If this works then great. I have everything I like from the Oppo including the class A amp. The Oppo will then stay. If not then it will go.

 
 
You have the Woo and you like it better than the Oppo. You are going to plug all your music into a Marantz with tone controls and all. What do you need the Oppo for?

 

[Badas]

   
 
You have the Woo and you like it better than the Oppo. You are going to plug all your music into a Marantz with tone controls and all. What do you need the Oppo for?

I need a solid state for short listening periods.

 

[goldendarko]

That is all well and good. However is it suppose to sound nasty, harsh and make you want to smash you headphones? The Oppo can do that. Sometimes I cringe so bad I'm grinding my teeth. If that is neutral well ya can keep it.  I will be trialing a Auralic Taurus soon which also uses the ESS Sabre 9018. It will be interesting to see what happens.

The Taurus is an amp only, no Sabre DAC on that one I'm afraid

 

[Hooster]

 
I need a solid state for short listening periods.

 
Is that Marantz's headphone output useable?

 

[Badas]

The Taurus is an amp only, no Sabre DAC on that one I'm afraid

 
Yeah. I got my wires crossed. Sorry.

   
Is that Marantz's headphone output useable?

 
I haven't tried before. I wouldn't think so. AVR's are not designed for good headphones. I just want to use the Marantz DAC which does a good job of my speakers.

 

[goldendarko]

For some reason all of my hi-res music is showing "Audio Format: DSD 2.8224 MHz" even though most of my files are 24/96 or 24/192. Anyone know why this may be happening? It doesn't seem to affect sound quality as they still sound great, but I would just prefer it to show the correct format so I would be able to know at a glance. Thanks!
 
As info, I am playing my files on my PC with JRiver.

 

[x RELIC x]

Sounds like the PC or JRiver is set to upsample instead of pass through the signal.