{"id":1381,"date":"2018-12-30T02:10:33","date_gmt":"2018-12-30T02:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/?p=1381"},"modified":"2018-12-31T23:56:50","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T23:56:50","slug":"dac-preamp-headphone-amp-corda-soul-and-oppo-ha-1-4-of-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/2018\/12\/30\/dac-preamp-headphone-amp-corda-soul-and-oppo-ha-1-4-of-8\/","title":{"rendered":"DAC, Preamp, Headphone Amp: Corda Soul and Oppo HA-1 (4 of 8)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is part 4 of an 8 part series comparing the Meier Corda Soul and Oppo HA-1. Click <a href=\"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/2018\/12\/30\/dac-preamp-headphone-amp-corda-soul-and-oppo-ha-1\/\">here<\/a> for the introduction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Subject Listening Comparison<\/strong>, continued&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tue 12\/25; speakers; direct, no EQ<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Beethoven; Piano Sonatas Op 13; Apassionata; Brendel; Decca\n<ul>\n<li>Soul: purity, timbral accuracy<\/li>\n<li>Oppo: +HF, more earthy, dirty tone<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Chopin Op 58; Mapleshade, Gampel (Fazioli piano): this is a good but slightly flawed recording of a huge &#8220;in your face&#8221; sounding piano with a bit too much midrange presence.\n<ul>\n<li>Soul: bright, slight edge on HF, some distortion in upper RH dynamic peaks (sounds like analog tape overload)<\/li>\n<li>Oppo: virtually indistinguishable<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Schubert; flute\/piano songs D911; Naxos\/Grodd: one of few truly excellent Naxos recordings\n<ul>\n<li>Soul: slightly rounder flute tone; less air, but extreme HF information is there (lip\/air overtones &amp; light whistletones)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Oppo: a touch more air<\/li>\n<li>Doppler; Andante &amp; Rondo; Rampal, Arimany, Ritter; Delos\n<ul>\n<li>both excellent: tone, dynamics, voicing, virtually identical<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tue 12\/25; headphones LCD-2; with EQ (+3 dB @ 4500 Q=0.67)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Volume test\n<ul>\n<li>Soul click 31 \/ 12:00 noon \u2192 -7.5 dB on Oppo<\/li>\n<li>set to -8 dB by ear, fine tuned to -7.5 dB with SPL meter and white noise<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Doppler (from above): indistinguishable<\/li>\n<li>Taheke track 13 (from above): indistinguishable<\/li>\n<li>Chieftans 7: indistinguishable<\/li>\n<li>Notes\n<ul>\n<li>Are the Magnepans are more revealing than the headphones? Probably.<\/li>\n<li>Is the Oppo&#8217;s headphone amp slightly different sounding than its line level outputs? Certainly.<\/li>\n<li>Either way, the Soul &amp; Oppo seem indistinguishable on headphones. Both are excellent!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Before today, I&#8217;d say the HA-1 is the best sounding headphone amp I&#8217;ve ever heard; the Soul is its equal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tue 12\/25; speakers; direct, no EQ<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Brahms piano quartet; Belcea 96\/24: despite its high bit rate, this recording is imperfect with slightly edgy voicing and the piano sounds distant.\n<ul>\n<li>Soul: purifies the tone, smooths the edge<\/li>\n<li>Oppo: detailed yet slight grain\/edge<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Krall; Quiet Nights; 96\/24; track 4: this recording is good overall but like most of her albums, it adds an edgy presence to Krall&#8217;s voice\n<ul>\n<li>Soul: smooths the vocal edge, but all the highs, cymbal brush, still there. Three dimensional imaging.<\/li>\n<li>Oppo: voice is just a bit over the top with edge, HF more present but dirtier. Image has depth but a touch less 3D deep as the Soul.<\/li>\n<li>Which is more true to the original master is unknown, but the Soul sounds cleaner.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Krall; Girl in the Other Room; Temptation: another good but edgy Krall recording\n<ul>\n<li>Soul: surprisingly, not apparently smoother or more pure sounding<\/li>\n<li>Oppo: bass during solo has slightly greater perceived depth<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Mokave; first album; Audioquest; tracks 1, 3, 5: this is a near-perfect recording!\n<ul>\n<li>Soul: rounder, more pure piano tone; smoother extreme HF transients, may be slightly rounded off. A touch more mid-bass, less bottom depth.<\/li>\n<li>Oppo: extreme transients sharper, slightly accentuated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Lily &amp; the Rose; Binchois, Kirkman; 96\/24; tracks 16-17: a superb recording from Hyperion\n<ul>\n<li>Soul: slightly more pure midrange voicing, a tiny tad less sibilant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Monteverdi; book 7; Naxos: one of few truly excellent Naxos recordings\n<ul>\n<li>Disc 1 track 2\n<ul>\n<li>Soul slightly more distinct and pure<\/li>\n<li>Oppo more emphasis on harmonics \/ overtones<\/li>\n<li>Differences very slight, nearly identical<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Disc 2 track 3\n<ul>\n<li>Soul: a very thin slight veil lifted from the music<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Schubert; Schiller-Lieder vols 3 &amp; 4; Naxos: very good but too much midrange edge on the voices (why do mastering engineers feel this is necessary!?)\n<ul>\n<li>Soul: may be smoother but so slight I can&#8217;t be sure; virtually identical<\/li>\n<li>With this recording having a bit of edgy midrange presence, I expected to hear the Soul smooth it to a more natural presentation. Against my expectations, I was surprised to find it virtually identical to the Oppo.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/2018\/12\/30\/dac-preamp-headphone-amp-corda-soul-and-oppo-ha-1-5-of-8\/\">Next<\/a>, subjective listening notes part 5 (day 4)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is part 4 of an 8 part series comparing the Meier Corda Soul and Oppo HA-1. Click here for the introduction. Subject Listening Comparison, continued&#8230; Tue 12\/25; speakers; direct, no EQ Beethoven; Piano Sonatas Op 13; Apassionata; Brendel; Decca Soul: purity, timbral accuracy Oppo: +HF, more earthy, dirty tone Chopin Op 58; Mapleshade, Gampel &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/2018\/12\/30\/dac-preamp-headphone-amp-corda-soul-and-oppo-ha-1-4-of-8\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">DAC, Preamp, Headphone Amp: Corda Soul and Oppo HA-1 (4 of 8)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1437,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions\/1437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}