This evening I've been afforded an insight into just how good this Oppo HA-1 can and hopefully will sound. Since receiving it I've been a little underwhelmed by it's headphone amp capibilities. I was pretty sure it was down to the (in my opinion throughly disappointing) AKG Q701's I've paired with it. My daughter has a pair of K550's and I think they fared a little better.
Anyway tonight I thought I'd have a fiddle (of hifi related knobs only) and see how I got on... ;-)
I've just added a Raspberry pi3 to my system complimented by RuneAudio and it seems ok all things considered. I'm comparing it with my old Yamaha WXC-50 streamer and to be honest when the price is taken into account it isn't too shabby. I also enjoyed the concept of putting it together. I'm awaiting and looking forward to adding a digital output, an optical and Coax board is due later this week. I think this is definitely an option people should consider investigating if looking for an inexpensive method of streaming their digital collection. I tried the Chromecast Audio and in my opinion it's shockingly bad.
So my Raspberry pi3 is coupled by Ethernet to my (Music only) Synology NAS which in turn feeds the Oppo via usb and an almost long forgotten, dust gathering Audioquest Jitterbug. I wondered what else I could rediscover and I found my B&O H3 ANC earphones.
Been playing a variety of tracks and genres but on NIN's - 'Copy of A', what a massive difference! The B&O's ANC was swtiched off/not charged but wow! I don't know the figures involved but imagine the B&O's, perhaps all but the very best and pricy IEM's are a hell of a lot easier to drive than fully fledged headphones. The Oppo finally felt like it had plenty of muscle where as before it felt light weight. The missing warmth was here in abundance and boy the bass felt like it was in the room, let alone in the space between my ears! It wasn't massively overblown either, not perfect but enjoyable and totally agreeable whilst producing a soundstage and presentation I really enjoyed. I felt like I almost went from one unpleasant extreme to something much more palatable, where I'd be tempted to ask for a lot more!.
This has completely convinced me that my next purxhase has to be a decent pair of cans that are compatable with the Oppo. I've justifed to myself the saving up and eventual puchase. The Oppo performs other duties in my setup but primarily I purchased it because I wanted a decent headphone amplifer. Tonight, I finally feel like I'm getting familiar with it and thoroughly like what I hear, the idea of what I will hear.
That was my short story, long... ;-)
Anyway tonight I thought I'd have a fiddle (of hifi related knobs only) and see how I got on... ;-)
I've just added a Raspberry pi3 to my system complimented by RuneAudio and it seems ok all things considered. I'm comparing it with my old Yamaha WXC-50 streamer and to be honest when the price is taken into account it isn't too shabby. I also enjoyed the concept of putting it together. I'm awaiting and looking forward to adding a digital output, an optical and Coax board is due later this week. I think this is definitely an option people should consider investigating if looking for an inexpensive method of streaming their digital collection. I tried the Chromecast Audio and in my opinion it's shockingly bad.
So my Raspberry pi3 is coupled by Ethernet to my (Music only) Synology NAS which in turn feeds the Oppo via usb and an almost long forgotten, dust gathering Audioquest Jitterbug. I wondered what else I could rediscover and I found my B&O H3 ANC earphones.
Been playing a variety of tracks and genres but on NIN's - 'Copy of A', what a massive difference! The B&O's ANC was swtiched off/not charged but wow! I don't know the figures involved but imagine the B&O's, perhaps all but the very best and pricy IEM's are a hell of a lot easier to drive than fully fledged headphones. The Oppo finally felt like it had plenty of muscle where as before it felt light weight. The missing warmth was here in abundance and boy the bass felt like it was in the room, let alone in the space between my ears! It wasn't massively overblown either, not perfect but enjoyable and totally agreeable whilst producing a soundstage and presentation I really enjoyed. I felt like I almost went from one unpleasant extreme to something much more palatable, where I'd be tempted to ask for a lot more!.
This has completely convinced me that my next purxhase has to be a decent pair of cans that are compatable with the Oppo. I've justifed to myself the saving up and eventual puchase. The Oppo performs other duties in my setup but primarily I purchased it because I wanted a decent headphone amplifer. Tonight, I finally feel like I'm getting familiar with it and thoroughly like what I hear, the idea of what I will hear.
That was my short story, long... ;-)
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