How does the Sonica Dac compare with the HA-1 other than an upgraded DAC chipset, the flagship ESS ES9038PRO SABRE DAC.?
"The Sonica DAC is designed to be used on the network to stream files from your server to the Sonica speakers, powered speakers or amplifier. It is not like the HA-1 which is designed to be connected/wired to everything."
It seems the Sonica lacks a headphone amp but does it have all the other capabilities of the HA-1?
I had the ha-2 for several months... while it was better than a few DACs, I was not satisfied and left far from being blown away.
There is more to the equation than merely a good chipset (which the ha2 had)... I am MUCH MORE better off and happy with my Astell/Kern ess9018 multiple chipset dac.
I dont thnk of Oppo as a DAC design company. functional, yes... good, not really.
Oppo as a Multi-Function player has been excellent. I have owned the Modwright Oppo 105D excellent sounding unit but the Sony SACD and Marantz were just better at music.
Looks like you can use the Aux. In inputs as a Home Theater Bypass. To bad they didn't have a balanced option for the Aux In. I use a Marantz 8802A pre-pro with all balanced connections.
I probably could if I setup a NAS or DNLA server but I don't want to navigate via the Oppo 203 and the TV. I want to control all of the playback with my iPad. I will just plug a Hard drive into the Sonica and surf from there with the iPad.
I would consider ripping all of your CD's to lossless ALAC's in iTunes and then copy them to a hard drive. I hate swapping discs. Since I ripped all of my SACD's to DSF's I have total freedom. It's pretty liberating.
You are absolutely correct! I do not have the resources to do a double blind study, but I did repeat my "test" several times with different hi-res recordings trying to keep everything else, including cables, the same. I did not use a SPL meter to match levels, but did the best I could with my ears. I was surprised when I first heard the difference, but after reflection I should have expected it. The 8802A is a good HT unit but it was not designed to be a great audiophile stereo unit. The OPPO 103 I would expect to be better by design, but again it was not designed for stereo. I'm looking forward to another subjective assessment once I get my OPPO Sonica on Saturday.
I'm a Beta Tester for OPPO and have been enjoying the Sonica DAC for some time now. I'll try to answer questions specific to the DAC, although I may not be able to tackle questions about related gear you are thinking of using with the DAC.
Note that the Specifications page at the end of the User Manual lists supported LPCM and DSD data rates for the Asynchronous USB Input of the DAC, as well as listing supported file formats for streaming. Data rates for the Optical/Coax Inputs are also listed.
--Bob
I'm a Beta Tester for OPPO and have been enjoying the Sonica DAC for some time now. I'll try to answer questions specific to the DAC, although I may not be able to tackle questions about related gear you are thinking of using with the DAC.
Note that the Specifications page at the end of the User Manual lists supported LPCM and DSD data rates for the Asynchronous USB Input of the DAC, as well as listing supported file formats for streaming. Data rates for the Optical/Coax Inputs are also listed.
--Bob
^ I'm going to refrain from giving my personal take on direct comparisons like that. I expect we'll see some detailed reviews and bench tests shortly that will be more helpful to folks than what I think.
I'll just leave it that I've got no complaints!
--Bob
Yes. Both for directly attached and, if you have another Sonica device on your network, attached to that one. Navigation is done via the iOS or Android Sonica app from OPPO Digital. Navigation can be by folders, or filtered by, e.g., Albums. You can also navigate by Recently Played, Favorites you save, or Playlists you create.
Playback can be once through, or looped, or shuffled.
It's important to note that the playback set up and lists are stored IN THE SONICA HARDWARE, which means more than one iPhone can control the same Sonica hardware, even simultaneously, and you don't even need the iPhone active during playback.
If you exit the Sonica app and relaunch it later, it will pick up the current status from the DAC automatically. And from any other Sonica hardware you have on your network.
--Bob
I spent the better part of yesterday rediscovering my music with the SDAC plugged directly into my JC1's. Rediscovering because all of my Hi-Rez music brought something new to the table. Imaging was amazing. Tiny delicate nuances and textures were rich and articulate. Atmospheric presence was robust. Instruments were complete wholly formed entities and not just smeared together with the rest of the output. For the first time my 44.1 ALAC CD's where palatable at a critical listening level. I got lot more bass from full range speakers well. Almost enough to be content but not because I know what I'm missing when you properly blend subs into the picture. Never realized how much any AVR can be detriment to a good 2ch analog source. Even trying to use the 8802A as pure pass through it still truncated the sound stage everywhere.
I am finally close to the sonic level that I have been striving to get to ever since I demo'd my Sonus Faber speakers and bought them right off the floor. The bar was set pretty high. They were tethered to a full McIntosh Stack piping in DSD from a PS Audio DirectStream DAC.
I received my SDAC today and I am also very impressed. The sound stage is awesome, the dynamic range is noticeably wider than the DAC in either my OPPO 103D or my Marantz AV8802a. I am hearing things at lower volumes with greater clarity and definition then before. The highs are crisp and clear and the bass is solid. I am running the SDAC through a Decware tube preamp and tube power amp into Focal 1028be speakers. I am using a JRiver Media Center DNLA server.
Has anyone tried plugging in a 4TB+ NTFS formatted hard drive into the USB port? My SDAC goes into a rebooting loop every 45 seconds when I do this. I have tried two brand new drives 4tb and 5tb one was USB powered and the other had it's own external power supply and the both behave the same way. When I use my 256gb thumb drive I have no issues at all. I have logged the issue with Oppo and they are trying to duplicate it. Just trying rule out if it's an isolated issue with my SDAC or not.
To your point Terry, just tried my 1TB Seagate drive that was working fine with my oppo bdp-103. The sonica recognizes the drive but no files are displayed. Thumb drives (256 Samsung) are not an issue for me as well....work fine. Maybe a firmware issue?
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