OPPO HA-2 Portable Headphone Amplifier/DAC Discussion Thread
Oct 1, 2018 at 9:04 PM Post #4,771 of 4,878
Oct 10, 2018 at 1:24 AM Post #4,772 of 4,878
Has anyone compared the HA-2 with the FiiO Q5 or the iFi xDSD?
I have both the HA-2 se and Q5 with the standard am3a as well as the am3b which has the option for 3.5 and 4.4 pentaconn. If you like slim and a backup battery then I'd say go Oppo. You're always tethered via a cable but It's easy to carry around. Better bass boost too. If you can spend the extra $50 and don't have anything that needs the 220 mW then I'd say go Q5. It has good bluetooth quality sound wise and has options for the optional amp modules. I really like the fact you can do balanced or 3.5 on their am3 series but you only get like 150 mW out of the 3.5 jack but if you do anything balanced then you get almost 500 mW out of the 4.4 pentaconn connector. I think the Q5 sounds better but you have more options as well with the amp modules or bluetooth. HA-2 SE is sexier though lol
 
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Nov 12, 2018 at 2:27 PM Post #4,773 of 4,878
Hi guys. Can anyone supply me with HA-2 firmware 6.7.4? I've accidentally upgraded to 6.7.6 not knowing that it's one way ticket. I like stock sound signiture more and only had some issues with fast charging. I've seen that on russian forums 6.7.4 version was distributed once, but the link is outdated. Thanks in advance.
 
Dec 17, 2018 at 3:31 AM Post #4,774 of 4,878
Good day! Is it okay to leave both line out and HP out occupied, and use one at a time? Am planning to use this in a desktop setup.

My rationale for leaving both jacks occupied is to lessen the degradation of jacks from pulling / inserting.
 
Dec 17, 2018 at 8:18 AM Post #4,775 of 4,878
Good day! Is it okay to leave both line out and HP out occupied, and use one at a time? Am planning to use this in a desktop setup.

My rationale for leaving both jacks occupied is to lessen the degradation of jacks from pulling / inserting.
The HO will override the LO, so you may need to unplug the headphones. But as a side note, I have had this 3 years and I always unplug the headphones every day, sometimes 2 or 3 times, and I’ve had absolutely no issues (I am guessing at over a thousand times of unplugging and plugging in again, though it could be much more). So you should be fine.
 
Dec 17, 2018 at 11:29 AM Post #4,776 of 4,878
The HO will override the LO, so you may need to unplug the headphones. But as a side note, I have had this 3 years and I always unplug the headphones every day, sometimes 2 or 3 times, and I’ve had absolutely no issues (I am guessing at over a thousand times of unplugging and plugging in again, though it could be much more). So you should be fine.


Appreciated! Thank you!
 
Dec 17, 2018 at 11:20 PM Post #4,777 of 4,878
Also, is there a way to bypass the power source of the oppo? it seems it is using the dac's batt when im using it on the pc
 
Dec 18, 2018 at 12:20 AM Post #4,778 of 4,878
Also, is there a way to bypass the power source of the oppo? it seems it is using the dac's batt when im using it on the pc
If you see a blue LED among the battery indicator lights, then you’ve got the unit set to offer power via the USB A port, as if to charge a phone. Press and hold the battery button until the blue LED disappears. Then when you quick press the same button, the white LEDs light up briefly to show, roughly, the remaining power.
 
Dec 18, 2018 at 1:27 AM Post #4,779 of 4,878
If you see a blue LED among the battery indicator lights, then you’ve got the unit set to offer power via the USB A port, as if to charge a phone. Press and hold the battery button until the blue LED disappears. Then when you quick press the same button, the white LEDs light up briefly to show, roughly, the remaining power.

So when a blue light appears, it means I am using the power from the USB and not the battery?
 
Dec 18, 2018 at 5:01 PM Post #4,780 of 4,878
So when a blue light appears, it means I am using the power from the USB and not the battery?
No, the opposite (apologize for confusing you). The blue light means the Oppo is SUPPLYING (or trying to supply) its battery power to something that OUGHT to be connected to its (large-ish) USB-A port (not the mini USB-B port you're using to cable from your computer to the Oppo). So you want the blue light OFF when using it with your computer - and most of the time generally. You ONLY want the blue light ON when you want your device [phone, digital audio player, etc] to receive power from the OPPO and its battery. Of course, that drains the OPPO battery but the presumption is that you do this when desperate to get your device back up and running. BTW, the HA2 manual is available online from OPPOdigital site.
 
Dec 28, 2018 at 7:52 PM Post #4,781 of 4,878
Someone here had try to use the iDefender 3.0 with no psu with the ha2 ? or any other way to use the ha2 with a laptop but eliminating the battery charge during playback ?
have you ever tried this? I have lot of noise issue with the Oppo plugged to a Mac Mini 2012. Before spending $50 on the iDefender, would be nice to see if the Oppo DAC actually works on port B without external power.
Other option is to see if port A could be used with a Mac instead of an iPhone. Anybody tried this?
 
Dec 28, 2018 at 8:27 PM Post #4,782 of 4,878
have you ever tried this? I have lot of noise issue with the Oppo plugged to a Mac Mini 2012. Before spending $50 on the iDefender, would be nice to see if the Oppo DAC actually works on port B without external power.
Other option is to see if port A could be used with a Mac instead of an iPhone. Anybody tried this?

Yes of course it works, and at least with my office set-up it does sound better that way too as the iDefender breaks the noisy ground connection to the PC. The DAC always runs off it's own internal battery power even when connected to a PC, so the post you were replying to above is also answered here, no external iPower or any other power supply is needed. However the HA-2 battery will still charge unless you use an UpTone Audio USPCB with the bus power switch turned off.

That too works and the HA-2 battery will not then charge. But that UpTone piece is a hard adaptor, it doesn't flex so it isn't as practical for most people compared to using a USB cable. You need to line up the height of the PC's USB port with the DAC input and support it in some way so that there is no strain on the connectors, and you can't move it around during playback unless also using a small wire dongle extender like the AudioQuest DragonTail in between, that provides some slack and flex so you can at least move it a little, looks like this:

USPCB.jpg
 
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Dec 29, 2018 at 11:23 PM Post #4,785 of 4,878
have you ever tried this? I have lot of noise issue with the Oppo plugged to a Mac Mini 2012. Before spending $50 on the iDefender, would be nice to see if the Oppo DAC actually works on port B without external power.
Other option is to see if port A could be used with a Mac instead of an iPhone. Anybody tried this?
sorry never had the chance to....
 

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