I guess some of us have seen the page for the upcoming Oppo HA-1. Here is the link for Oppo HA-1
The specs are excellent at many levels. DAC chip is ESS 9018 Sabre32 which is same as my Oppo BDP-105. I know how clean and musical it is.
It looks like the Op-amp / Headphone amp section is full Class A and there are several inputs including an APT-X Bluetooth. There are analog inputs, pre-amp function as well.
It also has a remote control, half form factor (makes it portable for all those travels when you are away from home for several weeks in a month - This is one of the product suggestions that I made to Oppo some time back. It is not that they took my advice, but I am glad to know that they are in alignment with some of the real world requirements)
To top it all, the display is customizable, even you get to set VU Meter on the display 8)
Given the Oppo BDP-105 is pegged at 1199 USD, my guess is that this will be at 499 USD. If my guesstimate is in ballpark, and the performance is closer to Oppo BDP-105 DAC+ pre-amp section then it is a huge bargain and Meridian Explorer, for example. feels like a rip-off.
Anyways, I was considering to buy Merdian explorer for my 4 month trip to USA in 2014, which is a bit trickier to buy at the moment as dealers still have the old stock which can not drive all headphones and I understand it is not easy to differentiate the newer version of the explorer from the older one, just from the packaging :quest:
But now I am lot more excited with this upcoming Oppo launch as I am already familiar with Oppo sound from BDP-105 and fits several requirements that I have !! I wish they add the Network functionality to this and then all my requirements will be met :cheer:
The specs are excellent at many levels. DAC chip is ESS 9018 Sabre32 which is same as my Oppo BDP-105. I know how clean and musical it is.
It looks like the Op-amp / Headphone amp section is full Class A and there are several inputs including an APT-X Bluetooth. There are analog inputs, pre-amp function as well.
It also has a remote control, half form factor (makes it portable for all those travels when you are away from home for several weeks in a month - This is one of the product suggestions that I made to Oppo some time back. It is not that they took my advice, but I am glad to know that they are in alignment with some of the real world requirements)
To top it all, the display is customizable, even you get to set VU Meter on the display 8)
Given the Oppo BDP-105 is pegged at 1199 USD, my guess is that this will be at 499 USD. If my guesstimate is in ballpark, and the performance is closer to Oppo BDP-105 DAC+ pre-amp section then it is a huge bargain and Meridian Explorer, for example. feels like a rip-off.
Anyways, I was considering to buy Merdian explorer for my 4 month trip to USA in 2014, which is a bit trickier to buy at the moment as dealers still have the old stock which can not drive all headphones and I understand it is not easy to differentiate the newer version of the explorer from the older one, just from the packaging :quest:
But now I am lot more excited with this upcoming Oppo launch as I am already familiar with Oppo sound from BDP-105 and fits several requirements that I have !! I wish they add the Network functionality to this and then all my requirements will be met :cheer: