dmoor

Last night I walked away from my computer and got jerked back before anything disconnected. Luckily the Oppo PM-1's cables are connected via jacks so I don't have to worry about damaging them. The cables would pull out from the headphones.

After reading all of the above comments I decided to go with the Explorer 2 rather than the Dragonfly. Given that they are the same price, the advantages I see (hopefully I've got this right): 1. More powerful, so can go to 192 vs 96 2. It is a Meridian product, so I would expect that they make sure it runs perfectly and would support it. 3. The design with a mini usb cable connected to your computer greatly reduces the risk of damage if you walk away with your headphones on. You have 3 connectors which can pull out protecting your hardware from damage: the headphone jack, and the connections on both ends of the usb cable. 4. I am suspicious of the statement that they are waiting "until Tidal has a resolution for their buffering issue". Blaming the other guy doesn't give me much confidence. Particularly since my explorer 2 came in yesterday and is working perfectly. So why does the explorer 2 work and the dragonfly does not?

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I chose powered speakers since I didn't want to have a separate amp on my desktop. Didn't realize at the time that any closed system like that is going to have limitations. Just wish they had been able to do all of their conversions in the controller box so the controller box could be upgraded to support new conversions as needed. I have a pair of Grado Statement GS1000's which I have used as they are a bit better than my old Paradigm floor standing speakers. After listening to the Triton's for a while the flaws in moving coil headphones really started showing. Since I live a few miles from the Oppo plant I stopped in on Friday and picked up a HA-1 Headphone amplifier and PM-1 Planar Magnetic Headphones. Since they have a 30 day return policy I can try them out if I don't like them. If I like them I'll sell the GS1000s. This way I have a high quality DAC which can be used to drive the PM-1's or the Paradigm speakers. I'm assuming that the HA-1 was a good choice as it is on a number of "best of the year" lists and at least one reviewer said that he was going to ask OPPO if he could purchase the review unit. The PM-1 also has good reviews. As of this point I haven't setup the HA-1 as I want to see how the PM-1's perform. I must confess that I am blown way by the bass. There is something in my room that gives me a suckout from the Triton's at 45 Hz. The bass on these planars is almost too much - makes me think of Beats headphones. Once I have a handle on how they perform driven either by my Oppo BDP-105D or my receiver I'll then try them on the HA-1 with balanced cables. Any source that is greater then 96 KHz I'll just listen to on the PM-1's. 96 KHz or less I can use either monitor. The last step will then be to connect the HA-1 to the speakers via optical, to avoid conversions by the speakers. I'm assuming that DSD sources would be downresed by the HA-1 by the optical output. Hopefully the active output on the HA-1 can be selected easily.

Thanks for your replies. 1. My computer is not a MacBook, it is a MacPro (12 cpus). Probably makes no difference, but it is different hardware. 2. My computer is in a separate location from the Oppo. 3. Thanks for taking the time to look at the Paradigm site. Those are good points. It looks as if you're right. Reviewing a couple of conversation with Paradigm support I see that is what they said: (it's interesting that support doesn't know which format's are supported) the MilleniaOneCT will re-digitize your analog signal The conversion is done in the subwoofer, the cable leading to is carries a digital signal. [The control box connects to the control board in the subwoofer] The best would be to output PCM over using a DAC so we avoid using too many conversions. We can accept what is accepted through Optical cable, I do not have a list – DTS MA cannot be sent over optical cables, you can only use formats like this and Dolby True HD and DTS MA when using an HDMI connection. BluRays will also have a core track available that should be able to be played over optical.

With the availability of high resolution streaming from Tidal (tidalhifi.com) I am looking to get the best audio from my nMP. I have seen various numbers about the limitations of the MacPro's internal DAC, from 24 bit / 96 KHz to 24 bit /192 KHz. But either way it won't handle DSD 64, 128, or 256 (1 bit/2.8224 mHz or higher). I have read the arguments about whether higher sample rates than 16/44 kHz can make a difference. I'm not interested in this discussion as I want to decide for myself. I do know that for me there is a huge difference between the Tidal HIFI streaming and a 320 Kbs streaming service such as Beats. My computer speakers are a Paradigm Millenia One 2.1 system which will be driven by my nMP. They compare rather favorably with my main speakers which are Goldenear Triton Ones driven by an Oppo BDP-105D. The Millendia One's are driven by a control box with optical and analog inputs. I have been told that digital optical only goes to 96 KHz and it will therefore not handle DSD sample rates. My solution has been to use the Mac combined optical digital auto output/analog line out using the Pure Music Audio software, but it downsamples to a multiple of the MAC maximum sample rate. One recommendation to get around this limitation was to get an external USB DAC. The Teac UD-501 was mentioned, and the Oppo HA-1 has gotten good reviews (https://www.oppodigital.com/headphon...-1-Review.aspx). My experiences with my Oppo Blu-Ray players has certainly biased me towards the Oppo. My BDP-105D decodes virtually everything that I stream to it, FLAC, m2ts, etc. from my computer with only one hiccup to date for a very obscure video compression codec. In comparison my old PS3 50% of the time wouldn't recognize the streamed files codec. I'm unsure whether connecting a USB DAC to the Mac input and the headphone analog out on the DAC to the Paradigm controller will work. Comments/suggestions appreciated.