Candy store for OPPO owners?

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Comments

  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
    Listening to Jean Carn My Love don’t come easy. The bass line is definitely more solid and the presence peak eq that they used to apply routinely back when this was recorded to her voice doesn’t sound so off putting and harsh to my ears now.
    Next up is the Jones Girls Nights over Egypt. The eq’d bass line definitely has MUCH more presence! Overall this is Philly smooth at it’s best!

    If you don’t know who Tom Moulton is, he is an engineer who mixed a LOT of disco hits back in the day. A lot of people mistakenly thought he was a DJ mainly because if you bought a 12” single back in the 70’s to early 80’s you may have seen “A Tom Moulton Mix on it.
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
    The highs from the presence region up seem more subdued now compared to before.
    Almost rolled off even compared to what they were like before the BD-ROM stabilizer install. It’s a good match now for the Polks since I got @VR3’s crossovers a few years ago. Let’s face it Trey, those new caps sound good, but they can get pretty bright!
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
    The Three Degrees When Will I See You Again in this particular mix there is an unfortunate section where the lead vocals go out of sync with the music. Then they go back in sync and then go back out of sync. It is easier to follow that error in the mix now.
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
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    Love is the message by MFSB featuring the Three Degrees.
    I can hear just how good those girls were at harmonizing!
    I can hear each of their individual voices working together to make the antiphonal harmonies 😀
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
    edited July 2020
    Lou Rawls sounds amazing!
    I can also clearly hear a rhythm guitar that I don’t remember hearing before, because it was buried in the mix on You’ll never find a love like mine.
  • audioluvr
    audioluvr Posts: 5,408
    I think there's a rule here somewhere you can't post more than 2 times in a row in the same discussion without getting a time out.
    Gustard X26 Pro DAC
    Belles 21A Pre modded with Mundorf Supreme caps
    B&K M200 Sonata monoblocks refreshed and upgraded
    Polk SDA 1C's modded / 1000Va Dreadnaught
    Wireworld Silver Eclipse IC's and speaker cables
    Harman Kardon T65C w/Grado Gold. (Don't laugh. It sounds great!)


    There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus
  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Posts: 15,251
    LOL. If true then he gets at least a one month time out. :)
    Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
    Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
    Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes

    Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
    Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
    Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables

    Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
    Three 20 amp circuits.
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
    The highs from the presence region up seem more subdued now compared to before.
    Almost rolled off even compared to what they were like before the BD-ROM stabilizer install. It’s a good match now for the Polks since I got @VR3’s crossovers a few years ago. Let’s face it Trey, those new caps sound good, but they can get pretty bright!

    To clarify the highs aren’t rolled off at all. It just seems that way on some CD’s💿 compared to what it sounded like previously. I’m still getting PLENTY of detail from the upper midrange and up top. It just isn’t forced on you or in your face anymore. It’s kind of difficult to describe the difference. Some may like it and some may not. Like I said previously the vocals are further back between the speakers instead of right up front and even forward of them like they were beforehand. On some songs that have aggressive “presence peak” eq on the vocals (which while previously standard operating procedure that went back decades to make the vocals sit front and center, but caused an unnatural coloration) They are no longer as strident and/or harsh. Definitely more listenable now than before the stabilizer upgrade.
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
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    To that point on Sorry seems to be the hardest word. Eltons’s vocals are not as bright as they used to be and I can clearly hear when he goes into falsetto each time. On Someone saved my life tonight, I just for the first time noticed a tambourine that was being struck Simultaneously on each of the drum hits In different parts of the song. Never noticed that before.
    Time to pop in the SACD!
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
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    Amazing the difference between this version and the CD! The Compact Disc sounds muddy and muted compared to the Super Audio Compact Disc.
    I can hear everything that I described above more clearly. Not to mention the fact that I had to turn the volume down about six or seven Db.
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,666
    That'll leave a mark.....LOL
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."


    President of Club Polk

  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
    Clipdat wrote: »
    How many more mods to the Oppo before it starts sounding like a Marantz SACD player?

    I wonder what the two would sound like side by side..........
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
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    The last two tracks on disc two- Old Friend and Living all alone are from her Living all alone album and have a channel imbalance which made it to this collection. The vocals have for more than 30 years been off center to the left until now.
  • BlueBirdMusic
    BlueBirdMusic Posts: 2,060
    Good thread~~~even with the two comical interruptions!
    "Sometimes you have to look to the past to understand where you are going in the future"


    Harry / Marietta GA
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
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    Forgot I had this DVD-A. Got it from another Polkie.
    Lots of micro dynamics on this disc.

    wtvdeu9idv1l.jpg

  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
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    My second MQA CD. Let's see how it sounds compared to the DVD-A which is on its way.
  • audioluvr
    audioluvr Posts: 5,408
    Clipdat wrote: »
    How many more mods to the Oppo before it starts sounding like a Marantz SACD player?

    I wonder what the two would sound like side by side..........

    If you are able to press both play buttons at the same time? Like tripping on acid man!
    Gustard X26 Pro DAC
    Belles 21A Pre modded with Mundorf Supreme caps
    B&K M200 Sonata monoblocks refreshed and upgraded
    Polk SDA 1C's modded / 1000Va Dreadnaught
    Wireworld Silver Eclipse IC's and speaker cables
    Harman Kardon T65C w/Grado Gold. (Don't laugh. It sounds great!)


    There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
    It's interesting how remarkably similar they sound in stereo. The MQA CD has more bass though. The Anita Baker CD sounded exactly the same way, which has be wondering if they were EQ'd. I'll eventually get another MQA Cd and see if I hear the same thing.
    On the 5.1 layer the DVD-A departs from the MQA significantly (no surprise there)
    I always listen to the stereo layer via the XLR outs and the multichannel layer via the RCA outs on the Oppo.
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
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    SOUNDSTAGE DEPTH!!!😱 :o:D

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    Finally got my hands on the SACD version and it is an order of magnitude better!
    Deeper soundstage
    More detail
    Less grain and grit
    I can hear the instrument positions better.
    On the Borodin Polovetsian Dances I can make out the position of the Sopranos and Altos better to the left and left center. I can also hear the tenors to the right better.


  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
    Once again I tried a brief comparo between the Pioneer Elite DVL-91 Laserdisc/DVD combi player and the Oppo. They sound remarkably similar.
    The vocals now sound a little different on the Pioneer. I wouldn't say more forward, just different. I need to do more listening when I have time to flesh out the difference.
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
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    You know?
    I’ve come to the conclusion that doing audio component upgrades must be good for the economy. I have bought more discs this year alone than I have in over thirty years!! Most of them DVD-A’s📀
    I remember reading about this when it first came out back in 2003 and wanting it, but didn’t have anything to play it on.
    Then I just forgot about it. Ironically I have had a combi player that would play DVD-A’s since not long after this came out. First from Pioneer Elite, then one player after another from Oppo ever since they first began taking over the combi player market with their first DVD players.
    I’m telling you these two upgrades have got me harking back to the eighties when I used to spend half my paycheck on CD’s on the regular.
    Not anymore, but I really stopped buying discs except on occasion long ago.
    This dread disease Audiophilia Nervosa must be fed!!
    It needs a fix!!😂😉
  • Clipdat
    Clipdat Posts: 12,526
    What power cord are you using on the Oppo?
  • honestaquarian
    honestaquarian Posts: 3,186
    edited July 2020
    I'm using a rather large, shielded power cord from The Upgrade Company.
    Same one is on my Onkyo preamp that was Upgraded by the Upgrade Company and also my Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature amp.
  • ptrooper
    ptrooper Posts: 501
    you know the drill !pictures plz B)