Official OPPO BDP-105 Owner's Thread - Page 143

By the way Kal, I'm drawing a blank....DSF....what are you referencing?

DSF is one of the file formats of DSD (SACD).

Oh, OK, thx. But I will be OK passing 192 wave & flac via SPDIF, correct?

Yes.  Confirmed.

Edited by Kal Rubinson - 3/18/13 at 7:08am

Hi Angelo,
Just out of curiosity - do you have any strong reasons to stick with SPDIF/coax?

As mentioned here ( http://www.articlecell.com/Article/Limitations-Of-SPDIF/794444 ) SPDIF has significant disadvantages:
"There are various disadvantages within S/PDIF. Both retry facilities and flow control, SP/DIF doesn't have these simple applications. This therefore limits its audio playback operations. The receiver may also be unable to keep control of the incoming data rate and instead elect to avoid most bit slips. Bit slips are avoided by synchronizing the source clock with conversion rates. S/PDIF can as a result not totally decouple final signals. These signals are impacted by analogue facets. The clock chosen as a source could also undergo jitters along with a wandering effect which can additionally result in noise and audio distorsion"

Alternatives?
1) Ethernet (SMB/DNLA, UPnP) - file copied into oppo's memory (caching enabled) - Oppo is always in control of playback, no extra distortions; Also, can get data over much longer distance than coax or from multiple servers - your music server could be moved further from your audio system; All content could be played, not just audio; Foobar could be integrated in this solution via extra plugin
2) Assyncl USB - Oppo also should be in charge of the click. Oppo will become a sound card.
Could be some drivers problems and also 2 cnannel limitation if I remember correctly.

Personally I transitioned my system from Emu/coax to Ethernet and never looked back.

My only explanation to these nominations and wins would be ignorance, politics, and a popularity contest. I would give the same response when seeing how a basic film like Argo, which had absolutely no sound effects to think of, would get nominated for the same sound categories. This is especially true when you have movies like Prometheus, Avengers and Dark Knight Rises that get released the same award year and not even get noticed. You should trust your ears, and not some article or award ceremony.

The same thing happened back in 2007 when Die Hard 4 wasn't even nominated for any sound category, but No Country For Old Men was. Based on your logic with the awards, do you mean to tell me No Country For Old Men's soundtrack was superior to that of a world class reference audio track? I guarantee you no one on AVS, or in the entire world, is choosing No Country For Old Men over Die Hard 4 to demo their home theater sound system.

There's nothing complicated or special about it. If you just use HDMI or optical or COAX you're skipping the DACs and the rest of the play works like it always does. The OPPO doesn't even need to know you're using digial outputs. Connect COAX to your external DAC, its starts playing right away (as long as the right input is selected, etc) and use the OPPO like you normally would.

I thought SPDIF was limited to 96/24?

Are you using the multi-channel analog output or HDMI?

Well all I can say is that Prometheus kicked his .... especially when it comes to low bass :)

 

SkyFall was a much better movie, I just feel the sound track could have been better especially in the chopper scenes, I live near a base and I can tell you that when a The CH-53E Super Stallion fly's over you feel it :)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dQoPQdNuQ0

Awesome. Thx, Kal.

I used HDMi direct thought the SSP-800

Hi,

I have a peculiar problem. I bought the 105EU unit which was sold in the UK as multi-zone and multi-region. The unit switches between and plays zones A (US) and B(Europe) zone BR disks fine, but it won't switch to zone C (Asia, and Russia, where I currently am).

The guys who sold it to me (QuantumAV in the UK) are as perplesed and claim that it never happened to them, thought they admitted to only having tested between zones A and B before...

anyone else had this? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

By far the most common issue is that discs marked "Zone x" are actually something other than what's on the case. You'd want to rule that problem out first. Beyond that you're stuck dealing with the maker of the region mod.

If that is the case the Oppo isn't doing ANYTHING for your sound, that all falls on the SSP-800. The Oppo is just delivering the bits. The only way to evaluate the Oppo with movie soundtracks is to use the analog outputs, otherwise you're evaluating everything in your audio chain after it.

Good point so next time, I will use the analog since they are plugged in! That is what I use for listening to music :)

The helicopter and explosion scenes were very laid back in the Imax theater I was in as well, so it is not your system. I have since watched Skyfall 3 times at home, and still can't find any reference audio scenes whatsoever. The BD release did not improve on the soundtrack quality, nor will the mighty Sabre DAC.
Edited by SergeantYnot - 3/18/13 at 3:05pm

What a shame :(

Since you appreciated Prometheus, when you test HDMI vs multichannel on your Oppo, see if there is any improvement in LFE in your system during the crash sequence. Though I prefer HDMI with room correction, when I played that scene with multichannel with the 95, I noticed the bass seemed tighter during that scene.

I will compare and let you know with the BDP-105!

 

 

Supposedly but I streamed 24/176.4 from the PC via Ethernet to the Oppo 103 which, in turn, was connected to an exaSound e18 by coax S/PDIF.  The e18 displayed 24/176.4 (and sounded fine).

Kal,

 

Did you compare the Oppo BDP-105 Analog with the Classé SSP-800 DAC

I just checked, and this has not yet made it to the OPPO UK Downloads page for the BDP-105EU, European model players, but the driver on the US site *SHOULD* work for Windows 8 users in Europe as well. If anyone on that side of the pond cares to give it a try and confirm, please post the results here.

Alternative, wait a couple days and it will undoubtedly get pushed to the OPPO UK Downloads page as well.
--Bob

I feel like Oppo's USB DAC input from Mac Mini fed into SSP-800 via XLR gives better definition and depth compared to the same material played from CD at Oppo.

I also suspect that I like this setup better than sending HDMI input from Mac Mini to SSP-800 thus using SSP's DAC, but I need to do more listening.

I'd be interested in others' experiences.

Re the first option, has anyone tried an external USB galvanic isolator for the USB DAC input? The Classé CP-800 description refers to the same, I wonder if Oppo or SSP-800 has it at all, or needs one.

Of course, not.  It was more than a year after the Classe left when the Oppo arrived.

Sorry, I though you purchased the SSP-800!

There should be no need for you to do either.

Even if the player "crashes" you can still shut it down via the Power Off Failsafe. Just press the power button once (Remote or Front Panel) and be patient. After a delay of 10-15 seconds the player will figure out that normal processing is not happening and the Power Off Failsafe will kick in and turn it off anyway. In addition, the next power up will be an "Energy Efficient" power up instead of a "Quick Start" power up, regardless of the setting you've made in Setup. I.e., it will be a full reboot just as happens after you physically disconnect the power plug.

You don't want to use the Panamax as your "normal" way to turn off the player, because settings get saved as part of normal power off and you'll be bypassing that.

Of course if the player is already off after normal power down, turning off the switched outlet on the Panamax will be identical to disconnecting the player from wall power.
--Bob

Thanks, Bob. I would always turn off the player before turning off the Panamax, But I prefer the flexibility of using unswitched so I could turn on the 105 either with or without the whole system being turned on. As long as the Failsafe works, I should be fine (will connect everything up tomorrow night - I've been too busy so far between work and taxes).

First of all, welcome to AVS and to this Thread!

This is an HDMI handshake issue and is almost certainly due to flaky implementation of the HDMI out of the Videotron when going through a "processor" -- in this case the OPPO -- as opposed to direct connection to a TV.

Poor HDMI implementation is unfortunately rife in the cable/satellite set top box biz. OPPO Engineering is looking at ways the player's Inputs can be a bit more tolerant of this stuff, but there's only so much that can be done as the handshaking is controlled by the Source device.

One thing YOU can do however is check your HDMI cables. First, make sure your cables are identified as "High Speed" or "For 1080p". Next, know that short cables can often cause as much problem as cables that are too long. 6 feet (2 meters) is the "best" length for an HDMI cable between any two devices. Next, make sure the plugs are fully inserted straight into the sockets with nothing (e.g., cable kink or weight) tugging the plug in any direction. HDMI plugs are only friction fit, and it just takes a small shift of plug in socket to screw things up. Finally, remember that HDMI is an end to end protocol, so the problem could be ANY of your HDMI cables in the signal path, not just the cable to the OPPO Input. In particular, if you have any HDMI path that is daisy chained (cables attached end to end), goes through an adapter, wall plate, HDMI switch box, or other gizmo, those alone could be the cause of the problem. (The cable provided by OPPO with the player is a correct cable.)
--Bob