Affordable Headphone Solutions From Pono, Fiio, Oppo and others

I have been in the market for a headphone listening solution for a couple of years. I'm not quite sure what it is exactly, but my thoughts were something like a portable player and/or headphone amplifier/DAC.  This all started since the Apple iPod Classic was discontinued and I got a great deal on an AKG K712. I still have the iPod, but it's married to my car which is iPod only. The iPod Classic sounds fine, but not the best I've heard, and it's limited and fixed storage size has been an issue.

In the mean time my search for solutions continues. 

So, what IS ideal?  That varies from person to person, but they are, from most important:

• Sounds great
• $500 or less. 
• Battery operated (i.e. portable)
• Supports 128 GBytes or more
• Support for Tidal music streaming
• Nice if it can double as desktop DAC/amp

I've also been struck by how completely off some reviews have been compared to my ears. They tend to be universally positive with colorful and nuanced critiques regardless of the source. I really have to wonder about the reviewers. In any event, I present my own list:

	Pono PMP	Oppo HA-1	Fiio X5II	Fiio X7	EchoBox Explorer	UFO
Type	DAP	USB DAC/Amp	DAP/Usb	DAP/Usb	DAP	USB DAC/Amp
Approx. Cost	$399	$1,200	$299	$650	$449	$430
Portable	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Maximum Storage	192	N/A	256	192	1 Micro SD Slot??	N/A
Sound Quality	Excellent	Sadistic	Sadistic-ish	???	???	Very very good
Wi Fi Tidal	No	N/A	No	Yes	Yes	N/A
DAC	ESS	ESS	Burr Brown	ESS	Burr Brown	???

Pono

As I have written before, the sound of the Pono Portable Music Player, regardless of headphones, is always excellent, musical and enjoyable. It handled both my AKG and Shure IEM's so convincingly and smoothly that is has been my reference standard for what a portable Digital Audio Player (DAP) should be. However it is hampered by a few things which have kept me from pulling the plug on one for myself: Size, features and storage.

The size is too chunky, the apps are non-existant and storage is limited to about 192 GBytes. There's no way to stream music from a NAS or online service.  If it had BluTooth connectivity (and BluTooth could do high resolution music) so I can play from my phone it would be hands down unbeatable.

UFO DSD DAC

I purchased a UFO DSD DAC from Blue Coast Records at a show and it worked for about 2 months before it died from what I believe were power supply  and overheating issues. Among the USB DAC's I've listened to under $1,000 the sound quality was simply outstanding, and almost as good as the Pono player. If mine had not died so quickly it would be an easy recommendation.  If you buy, make sure it's from a reputable vendor (such as Blue Coast Records) and save your receipt.  In a sense, it IS portable in that it can be driven from the USB out of a phone or tablet, which works surprisingly well given the limited power a phone could supply but it is far too chunky for a pocket.

Oppo HA-1

This is a beautiful looking headphone amplifier and DAC from Oppo that I really wanted to like. The Oppo 103 BluRay player with it's 7.1 analog outputs makes my home theater life so simple and beautiful and easy to integrate with my music listening that I could not be happier or conceive of buying another brand of BluRay player, ever.

Then I come to this "thing" released by Oppo as the HA-1. Are they serious, or just being cynical? I can't tell really. What a hard, strident and difficult to listen to treble and limp sounding bass. I heard it at the 2015 California Audio Show, the same show where I heard the UFO DSD DAC, driven by a Macbook Air. It was literally the worst sound at the entire show, of any kind, and I heard some really bad rooms and bad music at that show. I thought perhaps it was me but I mentioned this to a fellow audiophile who owned one for about two months who described it as "fingernails on a chalkboard." It's a real shame because it's beefy, sexy and comes from a company I really appreciate for it's high quality products and connection to consumers. Perhaps it performs much better with their own headphones? I never found out. For about a third of the price, the UFO DSD DAC easily sounds better and takes up less space.

Fiio X5II (2nd Generation)

The Fiio X5II is an extremely well reviewed player that is now in it's second generation, as well as heavily discounted from it's original $500 to around $300. With the glowing and numerous consumer reviews, and Fiio, like Oppo, showing very good customer engagement, I was certain this would be a good player for my commute. Unfortunately, cold and alone it's barely listenable. The treble is such an ear drill it literally makes them feel hot after twenty to thirty minutes of listening. It's like when you've been out in the sun too long and your eyes ache? Imagine that in my ears. It's not hyperbole, it's exactly what it feels like. By itself I really can't recommend this player. The closest experience I've had to this is the Oppo HD-1, or speakers from Triangle.  Ouch. Not all is lost however for with an outboard amplifier this is a very good source.

Fiio X5II/K5 Combination

As an article at EnjoyTheMusic points out that the Fiio K5 headphone amplifier really improved the sound of the X7.  I have not heard the X7 at all, but It seems from my listening to the X5II/K5 combination that the K5 does in fact improve the sound quality of the player. Using the K5 the listening experience is much more balanced. The midrange and bass are no longer shy, the treble softens up, channel separation (or something like it) gets really good. Thanks to the K5 I'm not as ready to throw in the towel than if I had purchased the X5II by itself. Also, while I usually review with the AKG K712 my outdoor headphones are Shure in-ear-monitors, so I need to give them a good long listen in the streets to see if that is a reasonable arrangement.

I have also recently reviewed the Fiio E12A Mont Blanc Edition portable amplifier, which also does an admirable job of driving difficult headphones from the X5II.  If you are only looking for a portable solution, that may be your dream ticket. 

EchoBox Explorer

The $449 Explorer is an indy Android / Wifi DAP in a dapper looking whiskey flask design. It will constantly remind you to drink, so probably not good for those dealing with addiction issues, and what audiophile isn't? Still, it looks promising at a reasonable price. Like the X7, it aims to be an Android answer to the iPod Touch challenge. For those not familiar with the iPod Touch, they are essentially iPhones without calling abilities and as a result can run the full suite of iOS apps that don't require calling. To my knowledge only the X7 and Explorer are reasonably good Android equivalents.

Sadly I've never seen one in real life so cannot comment except to say they look very interesting!

Lessons Learned

I. The resolution of the playback files is much less important than the sound of the player.

 I'm not saying crappy MP3 files sound as good as everything else.  What I am saying is that the sound quality and balance of the player is a much bigger factor to my enjoyment of the music than the file resolution. This may not be true in my home system, but  it is here. I would much rather have the Pono sound at 44.1kHz/16 bit FLAC than the Oppo at any file quality.

II. Online audio reviews, even when apparently independent, are often completely off the mark.

III. DAC chip makers don't matter as much as the amplifiers.

Some audiophiles ascribe to the idea that DAC chips from manufacturer X are always better than Y, but putting together this report and going over my past experiences I can't agree with that at all. I've listened to ESS and Burr Brown devices and have found great and bad examples of both. My current and previous home DAC's had Burr Brown chips in them. The Pono uses an ESS chip.  The X5 uses Burr Brown. The Oppo 103 uses Cirrus Logic. There's no correlation in my experience that either chip is inherently better or worse.

I'll write more on this as I gain more experience. As always, please for the sake of the Dark Goddess of Coffee and Chocolate I worship, use your own ears to spend your own money. Buy what you like, always.