[HasturTheYellow]

@HasturTheYellow Thanks for letting us know the HA-2SE was now available. I love my HA-2, but did lament that its DAC was not as good as I would have liked. This update I hope will fix that.

The other improvement I wanted was to lower the noise floor, because I use it with the very sensitive Shure SE846 (9 Ohms of impedance). These updates are very welcome.

For me, the form factor is so compatible with the iPhone 6, which I use as a dedicated transport, combined with the case that combines them without the need for rubber bands, double-sided tapes, or even the compact cables, makes this solution very appealing for my travel needs. It doesn't look like a science experiment. Lol

I placed my order for the SE with expedited shipping this morning and hope to have it by Friday. I'll post my impressions after some listening.

 
I look forward to your results with those highly sensitive IEMs.

 

[Kingston12]

@HasturTheYellow Thanks for letting us know the HA-2SE was now available. I love my HA-2, but did lament that its DAC was not as good as I would have liked. This update I hope will fix that.

The other improvement I wanted was to lower the noise floor, because I use it with the very sensitive Shure SE846 (9 Ohms of impedance). These updates are very welcome.

For me, the form factor is so compatible with the iPhone 6, which I use as a dedicated transport, combined with the case that combines them without the need for rubber bands, double-sided tapes, or even the compact cables, makes this solution very appealing for my travel needs. It doesn't look like a science experiment. Lol

I placed my order for the SE with expedited shipping this morning and hope to have it by Friday. I'll post my impressions after some listening.

I'd really like to get one of those docking cases, but Amazon won't ship to the UK. Do you know of any other vendors that I might try?

 

[TimeLord]

I'd really like to get one of those docking cases, but Amazon won't ship to the UK. Do you know of any other vendors that I might try?

Sorry, that's the only place I've seen it.

 

[kendavis]

 
I'd really like to get one of those docking cases, but Amazon won't ship to the UK. Do you know of any other vendors that I might try?

Haven't really been following the thread, but have you checked Amazon's UK site? Is this what you are looking for: https://www.amazon.co.uk/OPPO-na-Oppo-HA-2/dp/B00U1PQVWU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1475061165&sr=8-2&keywords=OPPO+HA-2+Portable+Headphone+Amplifier+%26+DAC ?
 
...Oops... or maybe you're just looking for the case.

 

[TimeLord]

Haven't really been following the thread, but have you checked Amazon's UK site? Is this what you are looking for: https://www.amazon.co.uk/OPPO-na-Oppo-HA-2/dp/B00U1PQVWU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1475061165&sr=8-2&keywords=OPPO+HA-2+Portable+Headphone+Amplifier+%26+DAC ?

...Oops... or maybe you're just looking for the case.

He was looking for this.

 

[kendavis]

Yes... I see that now. Thanks.

 

[Bazirker]

Looking forward to the HA-2SE!  Hoping to see comparisons with the original once the new units start landing on our doorsteps  

 

[JakiChan]

I'm thinking about picking up an HA-2 SE now that I have an iPhone 7.  My only wish - that I could charge it while it was feeding power to the phone.  This would be for long road trips only.  But can anyone guess for me my total run time if I started with a full iPhone and a full HA-2 SE?  I know the HA-2SE says a 7 hour run time on USB mode, but I'm wondering if I also wanted to keep my phone charged up (which I like to do on trips so that it's not drained when I get to where I'm going) how long I could listen for?

 

[abm0]

  I'm thinking about picking up an HA-2 SE now that I have an iPhone 7.  My only wish - that I could charge it while it was feeding power to the phone.  This would be for long road trips only.  But can anyone guess for me my total run time if I started with a full iPhone and a full HA-2 SE?

I assume you meant to say "use it while it was feeding power". Anyway, nobody can guess your run time without knowing your iPhone usage patterns (how fast you tend to drain it). What can be easily estimated is that if you use the HA-2 to fully charge your iPhone once from 0% to 100% the HA-2 will be left with about 45 minutes of run time as a DAC/amp combo. If you charge the iPhone for only 50% of its capacity, the HA-2 is left with half of what it had, so 3.5-ish hours of playback.
 
iPhone 7 battery capacity = 1960 mAh
Oppo HA-2 battery capacity = 3000 mAh
Charging efficiency for power banks = 70% or less (so for every 100 mAh taken out of the HA-2 the receiving device would only store 70 mAh in its own battery, at best)

 

[anticute]

 
I'd really like to get one of those docking cases, but Amazon won't ship to the UK. Do you know of any other vendors that I might try?

I'm in the EU too, and I'd also like to get me one of those. Weird that there aren't any sellers on AE or ebay that sell something like that.. 

 

[Sevenfeet]

  Being able to use the HA-2SE as a battery bank does not lower the amount of battery space that is usable by the HA-2SE for normal use. The profile of the HA-2SE does. If we wanted to improve on the battery life of the HA-2SE we would have needed to increase the depth (size) of the HA-2SE to allow for a larger battery to be installed on top of the circuit board. This would require major retooling, engineering, cost, etc.
 
The HA-2SE was designed to be a simple product update/refresh, not a successor, to the HA-2, so the changes to the product are minimal.

I've been a happy user of the original HA-2 since it was introduced in Feb 2015 and I bought one in the first batch.  The performance has been good and I carry it often, especially on my business trips.  It makes everything sound better....headphones, my car stereo and I use it sometimes as a real DAC for my two channel listening room since I haven't spent the money on an HA-1 yet.  The battery bank feature has been very important to me when I know I'll be in situations of high battery use in my iPhone where charging may or may not be available (like on planes).  The new chipset and extra features are always welcome.  I am a little disappointed in not seeing USB-C....micro USB is a horrible interface and always problematic of plugging it in correctly, especially in low light or dark situations.

 

[Subhakar]

I'm thinking about picking up an HA-2 SE now that I have an iPhone 7.  My only wish - that I could charge it while it was feeding power to the phone.  This would be for long road trips only.  But can anyone guess for me my total run time if I started with a full iPhone and a full HA-2 SE?  I know the HA-2SE says a 7 hour run time on USB mode, but I'm wondering if I also wanted to keep my phone charged up (which I like to do on trips so that it's not drained when I get to where I'm going) how long I could listen for?

I've been a happy user of the original HA-2 since it was introduced in Feb 2015 and I bought one in the first batch.  The performance has been good and I carry it often, especially on my business trips.  It makes everything sound better....headphones, my car stereo and I use it sometimes as a real DAC for my two channel listening room since I haven't spent the money on an HA-1 yet.  The battery bank feature has been very important to me when I know I'll be in situations of high battery use in my iPhone where charging may or may not be available (like on planes).  The new chipset and extra features are always welcome.  I am a little disappointed in not seeing USB-C....micro USB is a horrible interface and always problematic of plugging it in correctly, especially in low light or dark situations.

Once they start making USB 3.1 Type-C DAC/Amps for the new USB 3.1 Type-C devices, it would be the end of all worries because USB 3.1 Type C is capable of sending 100W of power out. They can even power as many as a dozen or two or more desktop amps connected in one daisy chain. One USB 3.1 plug can replace 40 power adapters in 40 devices in daisy chain. Not to mention the data transfer speeds up to 10Gb per sec? And bidirectional flow. We won't even be discussing battery recharge time. All in a year or two. So the real question is, will there be any need for adapters, converters and cables anywhere at all once Bluetooth HD starts wirelessly transmitting digital lossless music to Bluetooth 4.2 ToTL headphones like the one AK is developing with beyerdynamic based on AK-T5p? Future is all wireless charging and wireless transmission i.e. no anxiety clock ticking anywhere. Just a quiet a hotline (wireless) from music source to receiver ears. And people are *upset* that Apple *removed* headphone jack from iPhone-7?!! Lossless HD Wireless communications will not just disrupt but totally annihilate interconnector/adapter/converter/cable industries worth trillions. There will be nobody standing between your favourite band's recording theater and your ears to adversely affect intended SQ or cause any loss. All the super high-end premium DAC chips of today's DACs and DAPs will be right inside your ToTL Bluetooth HD headphones. Lord giveth. We taketh. Nobody dareth come in between. HD hips won't lie. Nobody lets the dogs out.






http://www.head-fi.org/t/821419/hd-bluetooth-tesla-headphones-from-ak-beyerdynamic-24-bit-aptx-hd-2016-ifa/0_60#post_12896497

 

[TimeLord]

Oppo shipped my order the same day I placed the order. Now, I'm sitting down with the HA-2 SE. I fully charged it and have started listening to it. The packaging is identical to the original HA-2 with the exception of the "SE" designation and the indication on the side for the updated DAC chip.
 
I use the Oppo HA-2  iPhone 6 case to keep things tidy. The first thing I noticed was that while the SE looks identical to the original, there must be a slight change in size because it does not fit into the case as smoothly as the original. It still fits in there, but I had to finagle it and it causes a slight pitch at the back of the case. Overall, it is still a good solution.
 
There was some discussion in the past about a slight clicking noise coming from the bass and gain switches if you shook the HA-2. It wasn't a big deal to me, but my HA-2 has that click. The HA-2 SE is completely silent when shook. It looks like Oppo has tightened that part of the chassis.
 
One of the things I was hoping for was to get a pitch black quite noise floor with the improved amp section. I have mentioned before that I use the Shure SE846 for portable listening. The SE846 is very sensitive and has a low 9 Ohms of impedance. The SE846 will pick up amp noise if it is there. None of my portable amps (HA-2, Sony PHA-3, Sound Blaster E5, Fiio E11K Kilimanjaro 2, Centrance Skyn, Beyerdynamic A200p) or others that I have tried like the Mojo have a pitch black background. I do have some desktop amps that are dead silent.
 
The HA-2 SE has reduced the amount of background noise, but it has not eliminated it. Compared to its predecessor, it is about 60% quieter, but there is still a definitely noticeable hiss when listening through the SE846. With less sensitive IEMs and cans, it is going to be pitch black. There is a definite improvement in the reduction of noise; alas, I'll continue to look for a solution that will provide a low enough noise floor for the SE846 in a portable solution.
 
I'll need to do some critical listening to see what differences I can discern from the new DAC. In the meantime, here are some comparison pics.
 

 

 

 

[Bazirker]

Thanks for the early impressions! I've been considering this amp to match with my UM Merlins, which are 12 ohm. I recently owned the Leckerton UHA760, which I thought was awfully close to black. Might be worth a try.

 

[billtboys]

 

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OPPO HA-2 Portable Headphone Amplifier/DAC
OPPO HA-2 User Manual

 ​

 

Spoiler: Specifications

Designs and specifications are subject to change without notice.

General
Dimensions (W x H x D)	2.5 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches, 68 x 157 x 12 mm
Weight	6.2 oz, 175 grams
Frequency Response	20 Hz - 200 kHz
Audio-in Level	1 Vrms
Line-out Level	1 Vrms @ 0 dBFS
Recommended Headphone Impedance	16 Ohm - 300 Ohm
Maximum Headphone Output Power	300 mW into 16 Ohm 220 mW into 32 Ohm 30 mW into 300 Ohm
Output Jacks	3.5 mm stereo headphone 3.5 mm stereo line-out
Input Ports	Analog: 3.5 mm stereo audio-in Digital: USB A for iPod / iPhone / iPad; USB micro-B for smartphones with USB OTG feature and computers.
DAC Chip	ESS Sabre32 Reference ES9018-K2M
Input Format	Stereo PCM, Stereo DSD (DoP v1.1 or native)
PCM Sampling Frequencies	44.1 kHz  -  384 kHz, 16 / 24 / 32-bit
DSD Sampling Frequencies	2.8224 MHz (DSD64), 5.6448 MHz (DSD128), 11.2896 MHz (DSD256, native mode only)
Profile	USB 2.0, USB Audio 2.0
Battery
Built-in Battery type	3000 mAh lithium polymer rechargeable battery
Battery Operation Time	Approx. 13 hours for analog source via Audio-in; approx. 7 hours for digital sources via USB
Charging Time	Approx. 1 hour 30 minutes

Spoiler: Bass Boost Frequency Plots

Normal: No bass boost applied. The frequency response is flat.
 

Bass Boost: Bass boost is turned on. Low frequency band gets a boost.
 

Bass Boost Detail: Bass frequency below 100 Hz gets about 5dB boost. The boost gradually decreases from 100Hz to about 500Hz where it reaches the normal non-boosted level.

 
Now that the HA-2 has been officially launched as of this afternoon (February 20th, 2015) I thought it would be appropriate to start a new discussions thread that was originally started in the Sponsors Forum when we revealed the HA-2 and the PM-3 to the public for the first time at the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival in 2014.
 
All those who have beta tested the HA-2, we thank you, and we hope that you will contribute immensely to on the HeadFi forums. Your NDAs are over, so if you had any tribulations about posting, don't. Post to your heart's contentment.

The HA-2 is one of my favorite pieces of equipment. Overall quality is just stellar. The transparent sound is awesome, the bass boost is  realistic and subtle (perfect for  most open backs), the clarity, and if you can hear any noise at full volume on high gain, then scientists need to study your ears. All that and a full size USB which is underrated as a function of flexibility in the market. Only a tiny complaint...The amp is awesome, but it doesn't power my HD 600s to my satisfaction.