Official OPPO BDP-105 Owner's Thread - Page 149

Originally Posted by fenario 

Yes Len it is unfortunate that when a valid question is asked the same individuals jump on the opportunity to dis it's validity...

I will offer some possibilities of why replacing a stock cord may or may not improve a system.

What cannot be controlled is the power feed from the generating station, the distriubtion lines, the step down transformer, the feed to your location, and unless you own your home the breaker box. There are many variables in the above line feed that may provide one with less than an optimal AC feed...withouth getting into the generating station and feed lets just focus from the transformer and how many homes/apts etc. does it feed. It if very possible that one could have a neighbor that has a swimming pool...which would have a pump/motor that runs constantly...genreating noise onto the AC line...or one could live in an apartment complex where your feed from the transformer runs to many apt's where you are subjected to noise form neighbor appliances etc...the above could put substantial noise onto your sytems AC line.

Additionally once inside your home you may have a long run from your breaker box to your system such that there are perhaps several appliances, CFL's, light dimmers, computers, etc. on the same line...these are all noise generators.

In those cases above substituting a power cable designed to provide filtering/shielding may do just that...and therefore reduce the amount of filtering that the power supplies within your equipment ie. the oppo, preamp, amplifiers, etc. would be required to handle. And thus the introduction of that power cord may improve your system.

On the other hand if one had a clean AC line into their home and has a short run to their system without noise generators on the system line feed the introduction of said power cord would most likely make no difference. A dedicated breaker and AC line feed to your system would be the best case if you are able to facilitate such a feed.

One thing that I think gets overlooked in a system is the power supply. The AC to DC conversion of the imput line is the most critical part any piece of equipment and it only takes one piece of equipment down stream to negate any upstream success. What I mean by that is if your oppo for example has an excellent power supply (the 105 now being linear for analog) but you insert a preamp that does not have a robust well designed power supply you are loosing all that was gained in the oppo. The signal that is passed from the oppo to the preamp is completely reconstructed by the next unit (preamp) using its DC power...and if it's not clean...then there is noise introduced into the system. The same applies for amplifiers as well. One of the most obvious improvements to my system was the replacement of the rectifier diodes in all power supplies with the ultra fast soft recovery type...the difference was uncanny and very cheap to implement.

One of the reasons why those who have removed their preamp and are astounded by the sound they are getting by running the oppo directly to their amps, besides removing all the circuitry, volume potientiometer, extra cable, etc...is that they removed another power supply which is what they were listening to.

So does swapping out a stock cord make a difference? It depends, if your system needs extra filtering due to a noisy AC feed, than it probably will, but the better solution is always to have the cleanest AC feed obtainable.

Originally Posted by Kris Deering 

Just some thoughts. I think it is easy to dismiss the 103 simply because it doesn't have the upgraded audio section of the 105 but I think that would be a mistake. The 103 is still a VERY good player for audio, even through the analog outputs. The 93 was also. I doubt most here would be disappointed and would probably have more issue with the thought of using it rather than the actual performance. It is easy to fall in the trap of just assuming one is night and day better simply because of the components being used but in many cases with all the other interactions happening in a system and room the differences between even the best equipment available and solid respectable equipment can be marginal at best. At the end of the day it should be about your experience and yours alone.

Originally Posted by detroit1 

OPPO themselves tell people that there is only a 15% maybe 20% difference in sound at the most between the 103 and 105; it can't be night and day

also, there are other pieces of equipment in the system like K Deering said ; most people probably would be happy with the 103 and if they are not going to use the Analog outs, then for sure they should get the 103

Originally Posted by Pres2play 

What are the chances that Audyssey will be included in a future BDP-105? I am torn between the need for EQ and preserving my 105's analog connection.

Originally Posted by Kris Deering 

Just some thoughts. I think it is easy to dismiss the 103 simply because it doesn't have the upgraded audio section of the 105 but I think that would be a mistake. The 103 is still a VERY good player for audio, even through the analog outputs. The 93 was also. I doubt most here would be disappointed and would probably have more issue with the thought of using it rather than the actual performance. It is easy to fall in the trap of just assuming one is night and day better simply because of the components being used but in many cases with all the other interactions happening in a system and room the differences between even the best equipment available and solid respectable equipment can be marginal at best. At the end of the day it should be about your experience and yours alone.

Originally Posted by Kris Deering 

Just some thoughts. I think it is easy to dismiss the 103 simply because it doesn't have the upgraded audio section of the 105 but I think that would be a mistake. The 103 is still a VERY good player for audio, even through the analog outputs. The 93 was also. I doubt most here would be disappointed and would probably have more issue with the thought of using it rather than the actual performance. It is easy to fall in the trap of just assuming one is night and day better simply because of the components being used but in many cases with all the other interactions happening in a system and room the differences between even the best equipment available and solid respectable equipment can be marginal at best. At the end of the day it should be about your experience and yours alone.

Originally Posted by edfowler 

the extra $700 would buy a sweet pistol

Originally Posted by Kal Rubinson 

Amen.  It is too easy to read over and over about the 105 being preferred for its analog outs and assume that the difference is substantial or, even, significant in all contexts.

Originally Posted by edfowler 

so they think an oppo 103 with a say, Onkyo 818 would sound as good as a OPPO 105 with a Yamaha Z9?

Originally Posted by SergeantYnot 

I cant answer that for you honestly. I would call Oppo up and talk with their customer service reps. They are the best in the business, and answer direct questions immediately and bluntly, there is no "level 2" type support for advanced questions and they always answer every question objectively.

I would write the specs of the units, and tell them what your playback habits will be. They will then walk you through your options. It was extremely informative for me. They shockingly dont recommend the 105 as much as you would expect them to. It really comes down to your listening habits. Good luck with your quest!

Originally Posted by RouslanB 

I used to own onkyo 805 which is audio-wise superior to 818 (toroidal transformer, burr brown DACs). In onkyo lineup you probably would have to go all the way to 5010 model to get something comparable to 105 in terms of DAC used. Sound quality wise even with 5010 as a receiver I am not sure you would be able to reach sound quality of Oppo 105 + good power amp combination of equivalent price ( ex Emotiva Amps)

Originally Posted by dbphd 

"Since I am primarily interested in movie playback and want audio EQing, they actually recommended the 103." I think this was likely the relevant point to the Oppo recommendation. Oppo support recognized that the proposed use would be digital rather than analog. Oppo has been upfront in their contention that only analog audio is superior in the 105. I doubt the recommendation from Oppo was based on their view that the difference in analog is insignificant.

Originally Posted by SergeantYnot 

I agree with you, having heard the 95 on analog in my system, that will be my benchmark test with the 103 and AVR combo. One of the caveats is that I asked for Oppo's recommendation based on the AVR having 32bit Burr Brown DACs, and that sound quality is at the forefront of my concern. I posted their reply several weeks back, but essentially they said the sound quality should be comparable. I will be testing this theory out later this week.
One factor I neglected to mention in their recommendation was that I will be running a 9.2 system. Given that multichannel analog is limited to 7.1, and the majority of BD content is natively 5.1, it was inevitable I would need some kind of post processing like Audyssey. After researching playback habits, it seemed to me that a lot of the 105 owners are using HDMI audio for movie playback, and analog for multichannel music and lossless. When I get the 103 all setup, I will test both HDMI and multichannel on the 103 versus my friend's 95. I actually had a 93 in my system for some time, and thought lossless music sounded incredible as well. A/B testing is always fun in home theater

Originally Posted by eusoro 

That is how I use my BDP 105, Analog for Lossless and Multichannel Music and HDMI into AVR for Movies. Can I tell the difference between the AVR and the OPPO for analog music? Yesterday No, Today yes, Tomorrow maybe. Heck that is the fun in it. Its an engaging process to seek out the best A/V performance we can afford. When you finally get to a satisfaction point don't forget to kick back and enjoy yourself. At times I find myself testing and tinkering so much that I forget to enjoy the end result..:D. What an enjoyable Hobby!

Originally Posted by edfowler 

Thanks for your concern and correspondence SergeantYnot. I sent the 103 back this morning. Getting the 105 is going to cost me about half the other option of 103/denon 4520 system. My room is pretty well treated and I will utilize the headphone jack and asyncronis USB DAC on the 105 for computer music playback.

I just sold my 42lb Denon DVD-9000. I kind of like the well built players. I know the video is supposed to be identical between the two OPPO's but one European reviewer did say that he and his friends thought the video was slightly better with the 105, he thought possibly the power supply being upgraded may have had something to do with that.

Originally Posted by SergeantYnot 

^ So you are not using HDMI, correct? Did you experiment with Audyssey for music too, or just for movies?

Originally Posted by edfowler 

excellent Rich. That is pretty impressive as the Marantz is a incredible component. Your room must be pretty decent too. I feel that the room is one of the bigger parts of the audio equation.

Originally Posted by dbphd 

I assume the reason for using HDMI for HT is inability to take video directly to a monitor, otherwise it seems a pointless division between music and HT. When we replaced a 95 with a 105, the HDMI port of the 105 permitted removal of an iScan Duo video processor that was doing HDMI switching. Video goes directly to a projector and 32" monitor; audio is analog. Direct video from HDMI-1 of the 105 is superb, as is analog audio. The Cary 11a will do video pass-through, but it seems an unnecessary extra connection.

db