Hooster

A powered USB hub makes a huge difference to me, in terms of stability, focus and saturation. I plug my PC into the powered hub and the signal goes from there to my DAC, presumably with cleaned up power. I have been away from the forum for a while, and I have not bothered to read this entire thread, apologies if this has already been mentioned.

He probably has a CDP already, in his PC. There is no need to spin those discs anymore. I only do that once and the file is on the computer and there is no need to touch the disc again.

Because the output from the headphone amp sounds better. "A Class A amplifier conducts signal over the entire range of the input signal cycle. The output transistors are biased to operate in their most linear range, and there is no crossover distortion caused by switching the signal between two push-pull devices. The HA-1's power amplification circuit for the headphones is Class A built with discrete transistors. The discrete design allows us to hand-pick and match the best parts to build the HA-1." https://www.oppodigital.com/headphone-amplifier-ha-1/headphone-amplifier-HA-1-Features.aspx The RCA out jack is variable if you want it to be, or fixed if you like. It uses op amps for the output. It sounds fine, but it does not scale the heights of the headphone output. I have asked Oppo why they don't use the headphone amp to drive the line out. They kindly answered that many others have also asked this question and that they have considered this. The answer is that they do not do it for reasons of compatibility. Oppo did not elaborate, but I assume this means that the headphone amp deviates from some standard for a line level out. Whatever, it works for me.

On what did I base my thoughts? Pig headed dogma I guess. An assumption that any thick copper cable should do the job. I assumed that a better cable automatically meant a much more expensive cable and such a cable would not be in harmony with my relatively cheap system, i.e. I could have purchased an expensive cable but my system may not have been good enough to benefit from it. Clearly I was wrong. In the past I have heard clear differences depending on how cables are terminated. I should have realized that changing the entire cable would make an appreciable difference. Yes, I suspect that even better cables may bring a further improvement, but I don't feel the current state of my system justifies spending significant amounts of money on cable. Now that I have found a cheap cable that does the job really well I am happy. A picture of my Oppo HA-1, with Wirewold Polaris 5 out of the headphone output to my power amp. A very nice cable I believe.

I have had generic, thick copper speaker cables in my system for ages. I have never been a big believer in the influence of speaker cables, but this has changed today. I was making a cable for another project and I stumbled across the Mogami W3103,so I ordered some. http://www.mogamicable.com/category/bulk/speaker_cable/conventional_configuration/ They are not expensive, about 3 USD per food, plus shipping to NZ. Anyway I installed them, and I sure ain't going back to what I had. I find the sound to have a greater sense of ease, but the biggest change is in the bass. It has gone from being a bit dry and a little subdued to having more bounce and body. Actually more bounce and body than I though my little Dynaudio speakers had in them. Very worthwhile indeed, and very cheap. I suppose my speakers are more sensitive to cables than most. They are low impedance and low efficiency and they really need some current to get them going. So, I can recommend these. If you do give them a try, please try them with bare wire connections to the speakers and amp. Terminations are convenient, but sometimes they rather strangle the sound.

Many thanks for your input, Omega. I was beginning to think that people might be afraid to express their opinion on this. There is something that interests me a lot regarding loudspeaker manufacture. There is the dead vs live school of thought. Some manufacturers try to deaden the sound of the enclosures at all costs and only want you to hear sound from the drivers. Others such as Living voice accept that there is a sound contribution from the enclosure and try to make it as pleasing as possible. You could argue that in the interests of high fidelity to a source you would not wish the enclosure to make any contribution. Then there is the counter argument that an enclosure can add some magic to the sound, which while not the highest fidelity is very pleasing to listen to. I think that LV have achieved this, and I think the videos are good enough for this to come shining through. Here is something that may throw more light on this issue: " "Our speakers have evolved though, the R2 and RW significantly albeit only when necessity became the mother of invention. Quite often those improvements happened very reluctantly because a capacitor manufacturer went bust or a cabinet supplier closed his doors. It was never about dissatisfaction over components or performance. I loved the cabinets we sourced from Castle here in the UK. When they folded, it was a very long road to get those Danish Hornslet cabinets to sound right. From a marketing point of view this sounds terrible but our Auditorium and Avatar cabinets are made from chipboard – a very particular type of chipboard but not MDF. Compared to MDF which is saw dust set in glue, chipboard uses very large shaggily shaped softwood particles. The reason for chipboard is that when I started out, I sold JPW speakers. Those came out of the Dartmoor prison's inmate rehabilitation scheme and their boxes were made of veneered chipboard. They sounded great for what they were, real budget wonders. Then JPW polished up the range (same crossover, same drive units) by making the enclosures from MDF. That killed them. They suddenly sounded very gray, dull and ordinary. The Snells with their life and vitality too used chipboard. " http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/livingvoice5/1.html Regarding AN, then I struggle to understand why their equipment sounds the way it does in these videos.

Standard disclaimer: Youtube videos may not give any insight into a sound system being recorded. They are low res. The results will depend on the microphone used to record it and the system that you are using to play it back with. With the disclaimer out of the way, let's get down to business. In spite of the above stated limitation i feel that youtube videos may sometimes give an idea of a sound system's and associated room's character, especially if listened to through good headphones. What I would like is for you to have a listen, to pretty much any youtube video you like with an Audio Note speakers, (I have seen a few and I find a surprising large commonality) and any video with Living Voice speakers (videos with LV speakers also have surprisingly much in common with each other, at least it seems like that to me). To make it easy for you, then here are examples, the first two with Living Voice and the second two with Audio Note Ok, now I would be grateful if you post your opinion on these. Is there anything that strikes you? About the systems individually? About how they sound compared to each other? I don't want to bias the discussion by saying what I think, beyond stating that I feel there is something interesting going on here and there is in fact some useful information here. There is also an observation that I would like to make regarding the LV speakers, but I will save that till later.

Nice, I would love a pair if I had the space. Good luck.

I now have a saxophone playing in my living room, honest! http://www.head-fi.org/t/717834/oppo-ha-1-impressions-thread/2025#post_11125679 Click on the image below for a better view of how I have it hooked up for serious listening.

Nice. To me the downfall was the path from 2 channel audio to 5.1 and 7.1 instead of concentrating on high resolution 2 channel digital audio. It has been a great time for makers of cheap amps, speakers and processors, but not so much for high fidelity sound. Yes, hearing noises behind your back is fun, but I got over it after about half a movie. I will never "get over" high quality 2 channel audio.

Give it a try, it may or may not yield an improvement. I have a little experience with this. I had a power amp and pre with balanced and unbalanced and I felt the sound was markedly better when using the balanced connection. The pre amp was a fully balanced construction while I am npt sure about the power amp. More life and dynamics. You still have to be careful about what cables to use, balanced through a poor cable was not as good as single ended with a good cable, while balanced with a good cable was superior. I do think it would be worthwhile to run headphones from the balanced headphone output. I went to a great deal of trouble to re cable a pair of headphones to change them from single ended to balanced operation and at the same time tidy up their internal wiring. I have a HA-1 and I think it sounds gorgeous through be balanced headphone output. It also happens to sound pretty nice as a pre amp for my normal system. Enjoy.

I am not sure why you would want that so badly. A big wooden box usually sounds like one...

So, what kind of power amp have you got now?

AKG Q701. I have a pair that I re-cabled myself, balanced direct to driver dual entry, and could not be happier. They are fine, even unmodified and the price is right. The midrange and soundstage are wonderful but the bass is slightly weak compared to some others. The bass is however clean and well defined so I don't mind, it works better for me than over the top bloated bass. In my quest for headphones, a couple of years ago I found the NZ market difficult, with what to me was a limited selection and unreasonable prices. I got mine online. If you are ever lucky enough to find yourself in Akihabara, Tokyo you will find headphone heaven. Have a source, such as music on a smartphone and knock yourself out testing cans that are available there.

Can you use the Stibbert's dac with external sources? Then you could just use the laser in your pc disc drive.

Mogami cable, unless you like paying big bucks for snake oil. I re-cabled a par of AKG Q701 cans with Mogami and I could not be happier.

Well done, Heathen! Enjoy your amp, and the knowledge that sometimes less is more.

Very interesting. These days many people seem to stuff up the connection by using some kind of termination on their cables instead of bare wires, so in most cases this is probably no big deal. A chain is never stronger than the weakest link.

My wife would behead me before allowing those into our house. I am sure they sound good though.

$500 is good money. You should be pleased.

Block of Chinese steel:

DuncanV;178272 wrote: In another thread you spoke of splitting up systems if you seriously want to sell them. Would I have been better to split the two up? I have never sold audio gear on trademe before since this is the first gear to have been upgraded on and therefore find itself surplus. I think I agree with chopper in this case. Those are meant to go together I think. The separates in the other auction I was talking about are much more expensive and I can't see any reason why they should stay together.

8LUKI8;178273 wrote: Interesting to follow this discussion.. I have done a deal with the seller for the headphones. He purchased some speakers from Trademe that I was selling but mentioned after a few days that he was waiting for another person to pay him before he could pay me. I have done the deal with him but taken the headphones a Ferber knife and 2x fake rollex watches + $80 which he did pay into my account last night. I will wait for the goods to arrive before shipping the speakers. It was really a matter of saving the sale and getting my un wanted floor standers out of the house! I will let you know how it ends...... He does not have the funds to buy, but bids on things anyway. Tells you after a few days. Great... I hope you like the headphones. The only problem I had with them was the fact the the exact size of the cups and my ears was not a good fit. After wearing the phones for an hour or two there was some pinching. Sound wise I enjoyed them very much. They are not the last word in detail and analysis, but for the price, for portable use and for musical enjoyment they are fantastic. I wish you the best of luck and please let us know how this goes.

Well, he could not even get $200 and those headphones are really nice, as long a he is selling the pair that I sold to him. (The only reason I sold mine is that they are not comfortable for me.) I have a feeling that he would have sold the cans for more than $200 easily if he had just handled this a little bit better...

Commiserations. Was your amp well ventilated or inside some kind of entertainment unit? How old is it and what model? I hope you get this sorted to your satisfaction soon.