[FiJAAS]

have you ever listened to the DX90? i think they sound very close(same DAC).

Never heard the DX90

 

[Chris Ihao]

Just a question guys. In the description of the ha2, Oppo claims that the low gain setting is for "in ear" phones. What is your take on that? When playing my PS1000's or other low impedance hp's, I find that the low gain setting provides more than enough power. However, is there a reason for using higher gain, and then lowering the volume accordingly (to give more power (or watts) to the drivers themselves or something)? I'm guessing not, but perhaps some of you more knowledgeable guys can enlighten me once and for all. Thanks.

 

[gerelmx1986]

Just a question guys. In the description of the ha2, Oppo claims that the low gain setting is for "in ear" phones. What is your take on that? When playing my PS1000's or other low impedance hp's, I find that the low gain setting provides more than enough power. However, is there a reason for using higher gain, and then lowering the volume accordingly (to give more power (or watts) to the drivers themselves or something)? I'm guessing not, but perhaps some of you more knowledgeable guys can enlighten me once and for all. Thanks.

I have precisely the same question but for a pair of "full-size" cans : sony MDR-1R, esp driving them in Hi-gain (they are 40-ohm 104mw/dB). I had some ultrasone HFI-780 i think those wre 32-ohm or 24, really don't know but i used High-gain on my fiio x3 and they sounded way better than low-gain

 

[dbdynsty25]

With my HA-2, I use low gain for my VSonic GR07 IEMs and high gain for my Oppo PM-3s.  So yeah, I suppose it makes sense based on their description of the device.

 

[Bong Hollywodd]

 
I have precisely the same question but for a pair of "full-size" cans : sony MDR-1R, esp driving them in Hi-gain (they are 40-ohm 104mw/dB). I had some ultrasone HFI-780 i think those wre 32-ohm or 24, really don't know but i used High-gain on my fiio x3 and they sounded way better than low-gain

 
 

Just a question guys. In the description of the ha2, Oppo claims that the low gain setting is for "in ear" phones. What is your take on that? When playing my PS1000's or other low impedance hp's, I find that the low gain setting provides more than enough power. However, is there a reason for using higher gain, and then lowering the volume accordingly (to give more power (or watts) to the drivers themselves or something)? I'm guessing not, but perhaps some of you more knowledgeable guys can enlighten me once and for all. Thanks.

 
It doesn't work that way.  When you're lowering your volume with a potentiometer (volume knob) on your high gain setting that doesn't mean the circuitry that is made for your IEM will lower the sibilance (static noise).  Some AMPS will have a volume knob that are sensitive that when you increase the volume rate spikes inconsistently and this is unacceptable to IEMS.  Another is that in the low gain setting some amps will have more filter to isolate the quantum noise out.  Not all DAC/Amps are created equal.  
I push my SHURE 535 and my Final Piano Forte X-G in the low gain and high gain for all of these.
PM-1, PM-3, X2, and EL-8.

 

[money4me247]

for everyone asking about low gain vs high gain, it's really pretty straight-forward.
 
basically, just use low gain unless you cannot reach adequate listening volumes with low gain.
 
...aka all headphones that can play out of a 3.5mm jack will work fine using low gain. these are the low impedance (think around 20-40 ohms) and high sensitivity headphones (high 90s or over 100 is definitely high sensitivity). if you can't reach listenable volumes using low gain, switch to high gain.
 
High gain is useful for high impedance headphones (high impedance is like 250+ ohms or 600 ohms) or low sensitivity headphones. You can tell basically that you need high gain because the volume level is too low even with the pot maxed out. If you are on high gain and the lowest volume setting is too loud for you, then you are on the wrong gain setting.
 
basically, high gain will have a higher noise floor. this can be an issue with low impedance high sensitivity headphones & iems (you will hear a background hiss or buzz type sound). If you don't hear the noise issue with your headphones or if you can reach comfortable listening volumes with either option, then I guess it doesn't matter which gain setting you use, but I would personally recommend sticking with low gain because of the lower noise floor and volume pots sometimes have channel imbalances at the lower end of the scale, so you want your volume pot to be higher.
 
some people do claim is that 'high gain can have an effect on the bass or overall sound quality. I am really not sure what to make of those claims. It is possible that it is just due to not properly volume matching, so that the higher gain setting is just louder and our brain naturally perceives louder sounds as more high quality. Or when you switch back and forth and try to volume match, you have one setting louder, and that is the setting you prefer. there are more specific claims that often get passed around with high gain having increased bass quantity (either fuller bass or more bloated bass depending on your preferences). I am not really sure how gain would really have anything to due with FR changes, but if someone knows the logic behind this, I would love to hear it as well.

 

[miceblue]

Gain affects the maximum amount of power the amp can deliver to a load (headphones). When the specs say 300 mW output with a 16-ohm load, that's usually the highest output possible, so on high gain. On low gain, the power output is limited; maybe it's 150 mW or something. If you playback a song with a lot of dynamic peaks, low gain might not provide enough power output to cover those depending on how loud you listen to the music and how sensitive your speakers are.

With the same input signal, the low gain setting will let you use more of the volume knob providing that you're driving a fairly sensitive speaker since the output power is less. Otherwise, if you need to turn the volume knob near its maximum position for most music, then high gain should be used.

High gain also has a higher noise floor since that's the nature of gain: output signal/input signal. If the input signal is 1 V and the gain is 2.0x on low-gain (2 V output), 6.0x on high (6 V output), obviously any noise in the 1 V input signal is going to be amplified more in the 6.0x gain output than the 2.0x one.

 

[qsk78]

To me the ability to drive certain headphones or IEMs is not about the loudness at all.
This is all about the performance the source can get out of them.

 

[money4me247]

for people who want more information about gain, I would recommend googling ["All about gain" headphones] for a really good read. First google result will give you all the information you could possibility want to know about gain. gain is really all about matching the voltage output level of your dac to the amount of voltage your headphones require (which is dependent on its sensitivity and impedance). most amplifiers will actually perform better at lower gain settings, so you want to use the least amount of gain required. if an amplifier is underpowered for a pair of headphones, adjusting to high gain will not help.

 

[gerelmx1986]

I've been contacted by Oppo via e-mail asking me for scanning front and back of mt card used for purchase , card's customer-support phone # and photo ID.
 
I've sent them those docs. They still call you or i must call them (my order says pending- please call us and an USA phone number)?

 

[Smarty-pants]

  I've been contacted by Oppo via e-mail asking me for scanning front and back of mt card used for purchase , card's customer-support phone # and photo ID.
 
I've sent them those docs. They still call you or i must call them (my order says pending- please call us and an USA phone number)?

You probably don't need to call them if that is all they asked for and you sent it to them.
If you're still curious, just shoot them another message asking if everything is ok, or just call them anyway.

 

[gerelmx1986]

 
You probably don't need to call them if that is all they asked for and you sent it to them.
If you're still curious, just shoot them another message asking if everything is ok, or just call them anyway.

Thanks, yep i've sent a PM to the sponsor of oppo here on head-fi, let's see what he answer

 

[Smarty-pants]

^ You would probably get faster service by contacting Oppo directly,
or by replying to any already existing correspondence you may have with them via email.

While the sponsor reps on HeadFi will certainly try to help you,
they may not check messages daily, and it's more than likely that they
would have to pass your speceifc purchasing questions on to someone else anyway.

Here is the contact form to contact Oppo directly,
or like I said, if you already have an existing email going with them, you may want to try replying back that way.
https://www.oppodigital.com/ContactUs.aspx

 

[Charlie Norwood]

I recently started using the high-gain with my sony xba-z5 iems, increases the bass quantity a lot imo.  

 

[miceblue]

To me the ability to drive certain headphones or IEMs is not about the loudness at all.
This is all about the performance the source can get out of them.

So you're saying that if you had a Schiit Ragnarok that would be able to cover any headphone for any music genre in terms of power output and assuming it has a low output impedance for multiple balanced armature in-ear earphones and a sufficient slew rate for even 24/192 music, but it sounds bad to you with a particular set of headphones that your headphones wouldn't be "driven" well?

That sounds more like synergy than anything. There would be no logical explanation to say that the headphones wouldn't be "driven" well providing that the Ragnarok is pretty much overkill for headphones.