Pulled the trigger on an Oppo last night. . .

drumminman

I arrived home yesterday to find the 105 along with some other packages sitting on the front porch. A bit odd that no sig was required on an expensive item. Brought it in, unpacked it and made room for it in the 2 channel rig. I left the Peter Daniel DAC (PDD) in place so I could do an A-B comparison.

I connected it using my DIY Finesilver IC's to the RCA outs and the cheapo PC that came with it. The latter appears to be a generic 14 awg cord with molded plugs and nickel plating on the wall end. Didn't want to give the Oppo the advantage of a much nicer cord so I could hear what it sounds like totally stock. I let it sit on standby for about an hour, then turned it on and let it idle for an hour. I realize that critical listening to a component that's brand new may not be an indication of what it can do, but I thought it would be interesting to be able to document any changes that occur with burn in.

First CD played was Kasey Chambers "Barricades and Brickwalls". I'm very familiar with this CD on different systems as it was a favorite when it first came out; it was in heavy rotation for a while. It's also a bit of a torture test as her voice is a little thin, and can sound quite harsh when she hits certain notes. I've never been sure if it's the kind of mics used during the session, her mic technique or the mics being over driven. The Oppo rendered her voice the best I’ve heard. The harsh notes were there, but the distortion was noticeably less. Mostly she sounded natural with a pleasing tonal balance. The next thing I noticed was the bass slam. The bass player on this CD plays sparingly, not busy at all. Very melodic. Each note had power, depth and finesse, more so than with the PDD. The overall sound was musical, with great detail and power, but not in your face.

Next up Bonnie Raitt’s Silver Linings. This is a CD that I listen to at least once a week. Bought it without knowing anything about it at Wal Mart for $5. It’s just killer with a great array of songs. From the opening track I noticed that the overall sound is brighter but not etched or harsh. Transients (the strike of a drumstick on a cymbal, snare or high hat; tamborines; the impact of piano notes, a pick on guitar strings, etc.) are better by maybe 5% than with the previous PDD/transport combo. This lends a more dynamic, spacious sound to the music with the soundstage having slightly more depth front to back, but not quite as wide on either side by maybe a foot. Track #9 is one of my favorite songs lately (not so good remembering titles), sounding like it could have been included on Paul Simon’s Graceland. Great smooth, melodic bass, and Ricky Fataar’s drums really drive the tune.

Final selection for the night was another CD I know well, Susan Tedeschi’s hits. I burned this mostly from several albums borrowed from a friend. Again I heard slightly more detail with an overall brighter but smooth quality. Never heard any digital glare the whole evening.

Even without burn in it’s clear that my concerns about the Oppo not being as easy to listen to as the PDD were unfounded. The 105 is a little brighter but very smooth with slightly greater detail, and more slam across the whole frequency range. The bass is powerful, tuneful and very clear. I had the volume turned up loud, as loud or louder than I usually have it with the PDD, and never once reached for the linestage remote to turn it down. That’s an indication to me that this unit has no harshness at all in its presentation. I’ve read that sound quality continues to improve for anywhere from 15-200 hours – so looking forward to that! And all this is with the stock PC.

drumminman

I should mention that all the CD's referenced above are Redbook as I don't own any SACD's.

steveinaz

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

I created a thread on the 105 but don't think Steve's specific question is covered. I wanna say I've talked about it on here before, but here are my thoughts:

I still think that JRemote or the Apple remote app (when using JRiver and the Airport Express, respectively) offer the cleanest and nicest interface for browsing content on the Oppo, but I also do have a USB drive attached to my player that has about 3TB of flac files (redbook and hi-res) and concerts ripped from DVD.

For an interface you have two options. You can navigate directly on the Oppo using the TV display or if you have a tablet you can download the MediaControl app (this is what I do so that I can have the TV off when listening to music). Either way it's really simple to use, though not the most elegant solution. It's a folder browser like what you'd find in Window Explorer (or Finder if you're a Mac guy). This means your music needs to be organized physically in a manner that is conducive to finding what you want by browsing folders. Note that this approach completely bypasses the library method, so all your tagging and such is basically rendered moot here, it's all about folder structure.

Oppo does have some type of library program called Gracenote that builds a library and lets you browse that way, but I've never played with it.

Here is my thread on the 105:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?149192-Oppo-BDP-105-thoughts

Thank you!

SCompRacer

The 105 analog outputs are AC coupled using ELNA caps so some hours are required for them to settle in.

A 105 hardware page with design parameters.

http://wiki.oppodigital.com/index.php?title=BDP-105_Hardware_FAQ

Good to hear you are enjoying it.

MarkTX

I bought a 105 and returned it the next day. whenever it was plugged into the same outlet as my other audio gear it created a high frequency whine that was very audible from my speakers. it did this with nothing else plugged into the oppo, just the power cord. I moved it into the listening room with the logans (with more filtering) and it sounded better but was still present. I didn't get a chance to do any major compairsons but straight out of the box i did notice the highs were sharper, but not in a good way. Went to my fathers who also bought one, no high frequency whine with his, but also noticed the highs were sharper, jagged, some "S" were way too hot. maybe this elna cap break in in true, but if it's not going to work in the video room then back to the store it goes

drumminman

MarkTX wrote: »

I bought a 105 and returned it the next day. whenever it was plugged into the same outlet as my other audio gear it created a high frequency whine that was very audible from my speakers. it did this with nothing else plugged into the oppo, just the power cord. I moved it into the listening room with the logans (with more filtering) and it sounded better but was still present. I didn't get a chance to do any major compairsons but straight out of the box i did notice the highs were sharper, but not in a good way. Went to my fathers who also bought one, no high frequency whine with his, but also noticed the highs were sharper, jagged, some "S" were way too hot. maybe this elna cap break in in true, but if it's not going to work in the video room then back to the store it goes

Sorry to hear about your experience. I have about 15 hours on mine and it sounds spectacular. I had concerns that it would sound like what you're describing but my fears were allayed from the opening notes. The highs never sounded harsh, but they've now taken on a more detailed character while losing none of their smoothness. I'm very impressed! In my short time with it I've learned that powering it up for 15-20 minutes from standby seems to bring a better sound.

Maybe you got a bad unit, or it was handled roughly and damaged during shipping. What pre or linestage are you using, or are you running it straight into your power amp?

MarkTX

tried two different oppo 105's balanced straight into a parasound a21, adcom gfa-5802, and mcintosh mc602. tried martin logan odysseys, polk SRTs, and magnepan 3.6's. all the same character sound on the S's. it's okay tho, because it was just a blu ray player for the video room. I bought a cheap sony bdp-790 to hold me over. for the listening room i still use an old gcd-750.

vmaxer

I really want one, how much better than the 83SE is it?

AsSiMiLaTeD

It's a step up for sure, but it's not a huge night and day improvement in sound quality. It's definitely better, but I wouldn't plunk down the money for that alone.

Now in terms of features and connections it's no contest, and that's the reason I bought the 105. So you have to ask yourself if those are important to you. For me it was a no brainer given all the extra connections, ability to act as an external dac only, streaming ability, and ability to function as a preamp. Check out the review I posted on it, it's a great player,