Bluetooth and other neat things
It pairs easy enough with my Red Wine Astell and Kern AK120, but doesn’t hold a solid connection even with the two near each other. The HA-1 comes with a small dongle for Bluetooth needs but I am not positive the problem here is with the AK120, or if it is the HA-1. Either way, the connection is not very reliable and I am leaning toward the AK120 being the culprit. Sadly, this is the only higher-end Bluetooth device I own or had access to. When it works, it sounded fantastic. Actually, I really have nothing bad to say about it outside of the cutting out and sluggishness the experience comes with. It sounded like I was using my Stax 007 and GES normally. For the few minutes it was working right, I forgot that I was running on Bluetooth.
Oppo has done something really awesome by adding a safety feature when toggling the gain from normal to high. The unit automatically dials down the volume for your safety. I cannot thank them enough and despite this feature, I’ve still forgotten to dial down the amp with my Beyer T1 or LCD3 after unplugging them and then plugging something like the efficient Audeze XC in their place. Ouch! It happens, so it is so nice to know the amount of potential ear damage is greatly lessened here and the odds of not turning the gain down after using an inefficient headphone is not be much of a problem. It is really cool to watch the volume knob automatically down backward when I swap between high and normal gain. Great job Oppo! This should be a standard feature in every amplifier.
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