[tcoulter1966]

Duplicate

 

[Luge]

 
​Sorry, I was trying to convey that I'm mainly interested in using the 300R balanced - 300R/PM-3's/balanced cable achieve that end - that's what I have now.  If the Oppo HA-2SE was connected to the 300R via the USB output, I'd have to use the Oppo HA-2SE 3.5 mm output for the headphones (I understand I'd need a new balanced cable for this configuration) - would the signal passed from the 300R to the HA-2SE then to the head phones still be balanced?

No.
 
The signal going from 300R to Oppo through USB would be digital and 300R's DAC and AMP would not be used at all (i.e. 300R would not "make" the sound). With digital signal there is no balanced or unbalanced. 
 
The sound would be then made entirely by the Oppo and the analog output (i.e. the sound itself going through 3.5mm jack) would be unbalanced (because Oppo has only single ended connection, not balanced connection).
 
Just for you to understand it better - in this configuration (300R with Oppo) you can substitute the 300R with anything else (e.g. smartphone) and the resulting sound will be 100% the same.

 

[tcoulter1966]

  No.
 
The signal going from 300R to Oppo through USB would be digital and 300R's DAC and AMP would not be used at all (i.e. 300R would not "make" the sound). With digital signal there is no balanced or unbalanced. 
 
The sound would be then made entirely by the Oppo and the analog output (i.e. the sound itself going through 3.5mm jack) would be unbalanced (because Oppo has only single ended connection, not balanced connection).
 
Just for you to understand it better - in this configuration (300R with Oppo) you can substitute the 300R with anything else (e.g. smartphone) and the resulting sound will be 100% the same.

​Great explanation!  Thanks!  Looks like the 300R standalone is the way to go for a balanced connection.

 

[Steve Buck]

Will do, but results will be inconclusive as im most definitely hearing the differences in the dacs and their amps as opposed to the mqa non mqa decoding differences.
I will however let you know my subjective opinion on quality differences.

ok dac connected and working with a y splitter.. the difference is astonishing !!
 
a totally different experience..almost overkill for me on mids and uppers.. detail in massive amounts muddiness that i didnt hear with the 300r headphone is not present on the meridian output.
yes i know its a different amp , but differences in clarity and detail are huge..
saying that its not a relaxing sound.. i dont know if i like it yet. Ill have to try with a range of phones (hifman 400i/oppo pm3)
 
whatever im hearing its very very different.

 

[kingkikapu]

For those curious as to how much of a sound difference there is between this DAP and running your music straight out of, for example, an iPhone 7 plus with lightning adapter: I've been spending a lot of time A/B'ing on spotify with Extreme quality using my Campfire Audio Vegas on stock cable.  Truthfully not a whole lot, but I do find the dynamics a touch better on XDP-300R.  Bass has a little more slam and there appears (to me) to be a bit of clarity improvement and a little widening of soundstage.  Not huge, but appreciable.  I will have to check out a 2.5mm connection soon.  That and some better FLAC files.
 
Truthfully, I picked up the XDP-300R for massive storage as I spend a bit of time out of cellphone range.  In that regard it's awesome as it keeps my phone storage free for other uses.

 

[qsk78]

To me all iphones sound digitally/synthetically. When I have a choice to listen to either iphone or nothing I prefer the second option)))
Yes, try balanced output and lossless files.
 
On the other hand some people consider Sabre DACs sounding a bit synthetically too.

 

[JohnRS]

So the inevitable happened. I've emailed Pioneer asking for a replacement.

Does anyone know the Buyee returns policy? I got it from Amazon.jp via buyee so if Pioneer won't replace I want to return and I'm going for a Fiio X5 gen 3.

 

[maniac2003]

So the inevitable happened

 
Ouch, not the way it should look like. Hopefully Amazon deals with it without much hassle.

 

[Necron99]

So the inevitable happened. I've emailed Pioneer asking for a replacement.

Does anyone know the Buyee returns policy? I got it from Amazon.jp via buyee so if Pioneer won't replace I want to return and I'm going for a Fiio X5 gen 3.

It came like that or something happened?

 

[tonehk]

So the inevitable happened. I've emailed Pioneer asking for a replacement.

Does anyone know the Buyee returns policy? I got it from Amazon.jp via buyee so if Pioneer won't replace I want to return and I'm going for a Fiio X5 gen 3.

Sorry to see that.  can you tell me which 2.5mm cable you used?
was it a straight plug or L shape plug?

 

[JohnRS]

It's a diy cable with a straight akrolink plug.

 

[SongJiHyo]

I am quite interested in this DAP after hearing all the crappy UI interface from the rest of the DAPs, even the Fiio X5 III also had some firmware issues. With that being said, I was wondering if I get a DAP and use a BOSE QC35.... is it even considered nonsensical to do so?
 
What I have researched is that the QC35 has built in bluetooth 4.0.
 
Another solution of me was to try the Sony ZX2 combo with the MDR-1000X to achieve the LDAC quality which is only applicable to sony products...
 
 
Any suggestions for this? Apologize if I'm noob at this lol. 

 

[N3verender]

  I am quite interested in this DAP after hearing all the crappy UI interface from the rest of the DAPs, even the Fiio X5 III also had some firmware issues. With that being said, I was wondering if I get a DAP and use a BOSE QC35.... is it even considered nonsensical to do so?
 
What I have researched is that the QC35 has built in bluetooth 4.0.
 
Another solution of me was to try the Sony ZX2 combo with the MDR-1000X to achieve the LDAC quality which is only applicable to sony products...
 
 
Any suggestions for this? Apologize if I'm noob at this lol. 

 
It's far from nonsensical but many of the benefits of buying a dedicated DAP will be lost while using Bluetooth.
 
Bluetooth audio is compressed and must be decompressed on the device playing the audio (in this case your headphones), so you will not be using the amplifier or DAC in the the XDP-300R while using it with any Bluetooth audio device. The DAC/AMP is one of the bigger selling points of DAPs in general as they use higher-end components over what you find in most smartphones. You are taking a hit to bit-rate of the music by using Bluetooth on any device, whether this is audible to you or not is an entirely different question (and one that causes much debate).
 
As you mentioned there are technologies that intend to improve the audio quality of Bluetooth like LDAC but both the sending and receiving devices must support it. Regarding LDAC specifically, I have never had the chance to hear it so I'm not sure how much of a quality difference there is. Sony has granted Google a license to use the LDAC codec in future versions of Android, so hopefully we will have more devices that support it going forward. 
 
The 300R has other features that benefit music lovers, for instance the dual Micro-SD card slots. So if you have a large music collection this could be a huge selling feature in itself. 
 
Personally, I would stick to using a smartphone with Bluetooth headphones. Much more convenient and cheaper
 
Hope that helps.

 

[VCMan]

I'm impatiently waiting for it from Japan. Take me aboard, plz!

 

[qsk78]

  I'm impatiently waiting for it from Japan. Take me aboard, plz!

Welcome comrade!