digital output dropping after ios 10.3.1 update

I'm hopeful you're right. I got this email from Oppo support:

This will be something that you need to wait for an iOS update to resolve. iOS 10.3.0 added this error, 10.3.1 made it worse, and 10.3.2 has made the dropouts better. We have heard early reports that iOS 11 will fully resolve the issue, so you will just need to a wait a little longer for this issue to be resolved.

In the interim you can use the LINE IN on the HA-2SE or use a longer Lightning cable, such as the one that came with your iOS device, and setting the iOS device to Airplane Mode.

I don't understand how people are having luck with longer cables. I don't even understand why that would work, unless there's some pre-emphasis being programmed at the lightning port that has changed in a different iOS release.

I have tried multiple cables (different brands: apple, amazon, generic non-certified) of multiple lengths all the way from the tiny Oppo cable (6 inches or so) upto 10 feet and I see the same behavior with my OPPO HA2: it cuts out anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes.

If someone is having specific luck with a certain cable, I'd like to know which one.

Airplane mode also does not help at all for me.

What's weird is that I have the problem with the OPPO but not the Apogee one. But others here are reporting problems with the Apogee one. it must be something marginal in the electrical interfacing and apple changed some parameters for the port such as pre-emphasis or power levels.

Does anyone know when 10.3.3 is due out? I ask because it seems that some are having luck with it. I am not a developer, so I can't download the betas (at least that's my understanding).

I can only imagine how upset companies that make these DACs must be.

For me, the issue seems to have alleviated somewhat. Sometimes I can go half an hour without audio dropping.

For my commute, I'm using TIDAL hifi->iPhone 6->Mojo via an Apple CCK & StarTech 3ft/0.9m USB cable (prod code: UUSBHAUB3RA). There's nothing special about the cable, but I've found StarTech to be nice and thin for portable use, reliable, plus this model has a nice 90-degree elbow, to prevent strain on the micro-USB cable on the Mojo.

When the audio drops, I use the Satechi BT MediaRemote (ST-BTRM1) to pause and re-start the track for 6-10 seconds. I use it so I don't have to keep dragging my 'phone out of my pocket and bending the cable, plus the tactile buttons are easy to find in my pocket when travelling standing in a packed London ****-hole train carriage.

If you go back and read the main Oppo HA-2 thread at Head-Fi, you'll see there were two iOS related issues reported over the past few months. (See posts from around April 12 on that thread.) One pre-dated 10.3.x and was specific to the Oppo; the other arose with 10.3. Oppo may have concluded they are related - I don't know - but the older one appeared to be dropouts triggered most often by unreliable cell service, i.e. to people on the move. Not everybody had this problem. I rode the NYC subways with cell service turned on, and never had a dropout. Also, as I recall - not sure about this - recovery from this problem did not require unplugging the unit or doing a reset. Oppo's recommendations for airplane mode and longer cables were first made in response to this problem.

After that came the 10.3.x problem, which affected a range of different products. It does seem to me that Oppo's recommendations are less relevant to the 10.3.x problem, but it is possible that some people asking for help are actually suffering from the former problem.

I started to face this problem from iOS10. I have Oppo HA-2 SE. What I have understood is that for some certain network scenario when iPhone needs extra power , iOS shuts down the Audio delivery. You can wait a while and connection will be resumed. I can now confirm that from iOS10.3.3 Beta 2 this issue no longer exists.

Thanks. It sounds hopeful. I did just listen to someone else's Mojo using the updated iOS on the same phone as mine. It worked perfectly when I used it overnight. I then attached my Mojo to her phone, and had the same problem. It seems it may not simply be Apple's issue. In the meantime, if it helps anyone, I've been able to make the problem a little less annoying by using Airplane mode, enabling wifi, shutting off cell data, closing down every non-audio function I can, and buying and using the latest camera adapter while plugging in the Lightning cable to power the iPhone while getting digital output. Forget portability. I still believe Apple completely failed its loyal customers, and manufacturers, by never really acknowledging this known issue. And since all these companies clearly know there's a problem, at least to me it's unconscionable they continue to sell their equipment to people as iOS compatible. My next phone won't be iPhone.

Hi all,

10.3.3 was released yesterday. I installed it and tried my OPPO HA-2 with my iPhone 6 using 2-channel 96khz-24bit FLAC files via FLAC player with a bitrate of ~ 3Mbps.

The good news: the audio is not completely cutting out anymore. I was able to play many tracks in a row without having to reset anything. That would never have been possible in 10.3.2, it was almost impossible to make it through an entire track.

The bad news: at roughly the same intervals as the previous dropouts in 10.3.2, the audio is interrupted (more on that in a second) for a fraction of a second. It seems that at roughly the same interval (30 seconds to a few minutes) of time that we previously completely lost audio, we instead now get a momentary glitch in the bitstream. I can't yet tell what's exactly happening during the blip, it's not a pause nor is it a blankout, it's almost like a loss of sync between the OPPO and the iPhone resulting in an audible glitch.

Perhaps it's something unique in my setup that's causing this new oddity, i am curious to hear if others are experiencing this as well. In older 10.x releases,I do not recall these 'blips'.

I was about to post the exact same thing. No matter what bitrate file, I'm getting the same result as you. The dropouts have gone, but I get blips in the playback. It doesn't happen when connected to my Macbook so I think the problem is still isolated to the iOS.

It almost seems like they've been able to minimise the issue so there is no complete dropout but have not been able to solve it completely.

So it seems I am not alone in finding that the "solution" isn't really complete. Instead of dropouts which force manual resets, we get glitches. Obviously, it's now better, but I would guess that most people paying hundreds of dollars for apple certified DACs don't consider this acceptable.

It seems like there is a real communication issue between the phone and the DAC, and all they've done is allow it recover to when it happens, whereas previously when it happened it didn't automatically re-sync.

This seems like something they should be able to get right....

getting very frustrated with iOS...

I have the same frustration with iOS now. After a long wait, this is unacceptable. I've raised it as an issue again with Apple support. Keep the pressure on!

For the first time, I'm thinking of trying an Android 'phone to drive my Mojo. Anyone had any experience, good or bad, with using the Android platform as a DAP?

I also updated, and tried various configurations of settings and of CCKs ad cables. It didn't matter. It doesn't completely stop now, true, but those momentary drops are still not acceptable for this kind of money. I still believe Apple is failing its loyal customers, and the manufacturers their own, by not acknowledging it or by putting all the responsibility of Apple respectively. Our companies continue to tell us we will have to wait now till the next update (I think this may be the third?), yet not really knowing if iOS 11 will solve it (and I've read it has the same problems); worse is that they continue to sell the same DAC models as currently iOS compatible. It's not right. A class action suit doesn't seem out of order. I bought my Chord Mojo specifically because it was portable. I'm sure I'm not alone.

I was tempted to try ios11 beta2 to see it completely fixes the issue, but the list of general problems being reported by many people is not worth the risk for me, as this is my primary phone. Perhaps, for others, it is worth a shot.

I would be interested in hearing from others, however, if they are using ios11beta2... if the problems is completely gone. "Completely fixed" means no dropouts, no glitches, no momentary re-syncs.. whatever you want to call it... at all.

It's interesting that a few weeks back, some people commented that the 10.3.3 beta versions "fixed" the issue... 1 of 2 things happened:

1. the problem was completely fixed in a beta and then in the final release we get a partial fix... seems unlikely.

-or-

2. they were just happy that it played an entire track without having to be reset and ignored the glitches

It's very frustrating, I would hope that companies like OPPO and others would put pressure on apple to completely fix this. Companies like OPPO must be getting returns from people who are not aware of this thread and do not understand it's an apple problem. I think the average consumer doesn't surf around looking for this info, if you buy a new apple-certified OPPO HA-2SE (for example, there are other manufacturers obviously), and they plug it in and get glitches or momentary dropouts, you are likely to just return it as defective not realizing it's an iOS issue.

I can confirm that after installing iOS 10.3.3 beta 5 on iPhone 6 the problem has been fixed. I am using Oppo HA2 SE. However, I am little hesitant to move to 10.3.3 final release since I noticed the issue is still found in that release.

So to be clear, you're saying the following:

1. 10.3.2 had dropouts (meaning you actually lost the connections and had to reset the device or the cable, etc). I think we all found this to be true.

2. 10.3.3 beta 5 had no dropouts and no glitches -- basically, it performed as expected... you could play multiple tracks with no dropouts or interruptions of any kind caused by the iOS device.

3. 10.3.3 final, as confirmed by many people in the last few days here, including myself, has glitches during playback with any bitrate but does not completely lose sync.

Is the above an accurate series of events as we know it?

I have updated to iOS 10.3.3 and am still getting glitches using an iPhone 7, Oppo HA2, Onkyo HF Player and 96K 24bit FLAC files that play without issue on my MacBook Pro and PC. I didn't use the beta iOS 10.3.3. releases, but cannot consider this issue resolved. The only improvement is that the audio restarts after each pause after a fraction of a second, but it still ruins the flow of music. Having briefly bricked my iPhone with the beta of iOS 11 I am waiting for a stable release. Poor effort. Given that the Oppo DAC is MFI certified and worked well prior to 10.3.1 I blame Apple for this,not Oppo.