[435279]

Yes but would you trust your life to a charger bought off Fleabay let alone your HA2/HA2-SE. A lot of the cheap Chinese made chargers do not separate properly or insulate between the mains (110 or 220V) and the low 5V sides of the charger. The national electrical safety approval marks such as CE are just faked. They kill people and not infrequently go on fire. I bought a MacBook Charger from eBay which turned out to a fake. Within minutes, it got hot enough to fry an egg on (if you wanted to). The seller claimed it was genuine but eBay agreed with me.

A valid point, put the word genuine in the search and sort by price descending to find a good quality one on ebay (maybe )

My genuine Oppo chargers I have two are also made in China, probably from cheaper components too. Like a lot of Chinese goods who knows if the cheap ones on ebay come from the same factory as the genuine ones. Monitor the first few charges closely and make sure your house insurance is valid and everything should be OK.

 

[wilsonlaidlaw]

The difference between the genuine ones and the look-alikes is that if the genuine ones are to be imported into the USA or the EU, they have to pass stringent tests on heat soak and insulation. On UK TV we have a programme called Fake Britain. Illegally imported fake chargers, which look identical to the genuine ones, with all the logos and approval marks Apple/Samsung/Huawei and so on, feature quite frequently on that programme. They often show them going up in smoke or delivering one pole of the 220V mains to the charging plug, when used in humid conditions. I am happy to buy a lot of stuff off eBay (it is where I bought my PM3s and HA2-SE) but chargers - never again after my bad experience.

 

[Hinomotocho]

Has anyone compared the HA-2 with the FiiO Q5 or the iFi xDSD?

 

[rufus1949]

Just a quick answer....own a mojo,ha2 se,q5 and topping x4
Over all
1 mojo
2 q5 with the 3&5 amps
3 ha2 se
4 toppings x4 dsd

 

[rufus1949]

Sorry forgot....I use
MrSpeaker Aeon open
Audio 64 A12t,U6,U4se,Alclair RSM,Noble Savanna and Astell&Kern Billie Jean's to judge.

 

[Hinomotocho]

Sorry forgot....I use
MrSpeaker Aeon open
Audio 64 A12t,U6,U4se,Alclair RSM,Noble Savanna and Astell&Kern Billie Jean's to judge.

Thanks for your reply. I'm actually not unhappy with the HA-2, originally I was motivated by finding something with a 4.4mm balanced output (tick for the Q5's AM3B add on) but now I'm just looking for a step up in quality. Are you able to please specify what qualities of the Q5 you deem to be better than the HA-2(SE)?

 

[rufus1949]

Quality of build
Can use balanced cable
The AM5 is powerful
To me my oppo sounds a bit harsh ..may be just my ears.
Q 5 is dead quiet with all my equipment with AM3B
Bluetooth works very well (walls cause dropouts).

 

[rufus1949]

All my home hifi equipment is tube based..even my cd player...just so you know my sound preference.
Hope this helps..judgements of equipment is not my forte

 

[rufus1949]

One more thought...Audio46 in nyc has lowest price (use welcome46 as code)

 

[Hinomotocho]

Quality of build
Can use balanced cable
The AM5 is powerful
To me my oppo sounds a bit harsh ..may be just my ears.
Q 5 is dead quiet with all my equipment with AM3B
Bluetooth works very well (walls cause dropouts).

Thank you again rufus1949, I appreciate your input. I'm steering towards the Q5 with AM3B, but I'm still open to other options.
Can anyone else please offer any opinions on the Q5, iFi xDSD, or any other portable amps that they have or upgraded to?

 

[SuperNovaGoesPop]

Thank you again rufus1949, I appreciate your input. I'm steering towards the Q5 with AM3B, but I'm still open to other options.
Can anyone else please offer any opinions on the Q5, iFi xDSD, or any other portable amps that they have or upgraded to?

Give me some time...I have an xdsd and a ha-2 that i'm playing around with.

Edit: Just a quick blurb...but both are very well designed, very well built, and sound great. There are some differences there, but yeah...it's sort of like "can't go wrong with either". The Oppo is slimmer and has a better form factor, the iFi has more power and a cool light show...both have very nice knobs with good feel, however the Oppo just oozes quality and has a smooth adjustment where the iFi has this sort of strange intended "grittiness" when you turn it. I need to find the time to do direct comparisons and all that, but the Oppo seems to have a stronger bass boost and also has more treble energy; I MIGHT prefer the Oppo overall at the moment, but haven't had the opportunity to try the iFi wired due to waiting on a cable to arrive(stock cable wasn't compatible with my phone).

 

[SuperNovaGoesPop]

Thank you again rufus1949, I appreciate your input. I'm steering towards the Q5 with AM3B, but I'm still open to other options.
Can anyone else please offer any opinions on the Q5, iFi xDSD, or any other portable amps that they have or upgraded to?

Back again...finally got to do a good wired comparison between the two. I'll put it this way; both are top-notch in every way, however they're night and day different in terms of approach and intended sound. This is going to come from the point of view/ears of a guy who's been around live music and plays in a band for fun.

HA-2SE: Bigger, warmer, wider, thicker...less detailed and not as "3D". Bass boost is more noticeable, although it's not as "punchy". Makes me feel as if the music sounds like it is coming from a club/concert hall/venue and just sort of has that "real" type of quality to it...sometimes you guys can forget that music and sound itself are imperfect, and that imperfection is sometimes needed for musicality. It's not always about revealing everything possible at all times.

XDSD: Narrower, colder/balanced tonal range, huge clarity, tons of detail, punchy with a very "3D" feel to everything, very very very subtle bass boost, and a much more "audiophile and hifi" type of presentation that's really something else. It makes me feel as if I'm listening to a pristine recording with every little nuance being audible...it's incredible, but it also feels just a tiny bit artificial and "too clean" to me. It doesn't have a "live" quality or feel, definitely more analytical but in such a good way.

It's tough, very tough to say which is better...XDSD definitely wins in terms of resolution/detail/clarity/being high fidelity, you hear so much more popping up at you with the XDSD. However, the HA-2SE has such a lifelike character to it that is much more realistic and forgiving overall.

I would describe it as this: If you want to feel as if you are listening to live music in an organic setting, consider the HA-2SE. If you want to get the utmost experience of listening to recorded audio that sounds like recorded tracks should, with every little detail and nuance being there, then grab the XDSD.

In short, I wanna say the XDSD is "better"...but not necessarily the best choice. Really tough.

 

[Hinomotocho]

Back again...finally got to do a good wired comparison between the two. I'll put it this way; both are top-notch in every way, however they're night and day different in terms of approach and intended sound. This is going to come from the point of view/ears of a guy who's been around live music and plays in a band for fun.

HA-2SE: Bigger, warmer, wider, thicker...less detailed and not as "3D". Bass boost is more noticeable, although it's not as "punchy". Makes me feel as if the music sounds like it is coming from a club/concert hall/venue and just sort of has that "real" type of quality to it...sometimes you guys can forget that music and sound itself are imperfect, and that imperfection is sometimes needed for musicality. It's not always about revealing everything possible at all times.

XDSD: Narrower, colder/balanced tonal range, huge clarity, tons of detail, punchy with a very "3D" feel to everything, very very very subtle bass boost, and a much more "audiophile and hifi" type of presentation that's really something else. It makes me feel as if I'm listening to a pristine recording with every little nuance being audible...it's incredible, but it also feels just a tiny bit artificial and "too clean" to me. It doesn't have a "live" quality or feel, definitely more analytical but in such a good way.

It's tough, very tough to say which is better...XDSD definitely wins in terms of resolution/detail/clarity/being high fidelity, you hear so much more popping up at you with the XDSD. However, the HA-2SE has such a lifelike character to it that is much more realistic and forgiving overall.

I would describe it as this: If you want to feel as if you are listening to live music in an organic setting, consider the HA-2SE. If you want to get the utmost experience of listening to recorded audio that sounds like recorded tracks should, with every little detail and nuance being there, then grab the XDSD.

In short, I wanna say the XDSD is "better"...but not necessarily the best choice. Really tough.

Thanks for taking the time to compare them - I like the way you summed it up. I don't dislike the Oppo but I was wanting to take a step up so it sounds like the xDSD might be the way I want to go.

 

[SuperNovaGoesPop]

Thanks for taking the time to compare them - I like the way you summed it up. I don't dislike the Oppo but I was wanting to take a step up so it sounds like the xDSD might be the way I want to go.

For you, I think it honestly would do the trick and is worth trying out. It's really, really good...I just wish it had a wider soundstage and maybe the option of a bigger bass boost. But it's a total winner.

 

[Hinomotocho]

For you, I think it honestly would do the trick and is worth trying out. It's really, really good...I just wish it had a wider soundstage and maybe the option of a bigger bass boost. But it's a total winner.

Regarding the soundstage, was that using a 'balanced' 3.5mm or standard 3.5mm?