Is that with or without the optional Bybee's? For $2500 in mods I guess their customers wouldn't want to admit it doesn't sound good.
Curious about the Oppo. The Oppo implementation of the ESS DAC's is really direct from ESS and essentially a reference implementation. ESS told me that they took over the implementation when Oppo's team was having problems. Not surprising given the 100 MHz clock and its impact on EMI etc. And not really a reflection on Oppo. I would not want to do a fresh take on layout for an I7 processor either. Too many places for something to not work and Intel would already have solved those problems.
"But I can tell you the Oppo, it's so bad, you can literally hear it saturating or falling on its face to provide current. It's sad, really." I might agree on the sound but I don't think the speculation on its cause is valid. The ESS DAC's have extremely good traditional measurements and are really unlikely to have any obvious problems relating to basics if the design guide is followed. I will acknowledge that I'm not a fan of how they sound and I don't know why.
"But I can tell you the Oppo, it's so bad, you can literally hear it saturating or falling on its face to provide current. It's sad, really." I might agree on the sound but I don't think the speculation on its cause is valid. The ESS DAC's have extremely good traditional measurements and are really unlikely to have any obvious problems relating to basics if the design guide is followed. I will acknowledge that I'm not a fan of how they sound and I don't know why.
It's remarkably easy to hear, vacuphile. It takes no such gifts. It sounds flat where other DAC/CD players do not. You can hear it chopping off sound.
As far as why, well I don't know what and where inside exactly is the cause, but it sounds distinctly like current shortage problems. You get an ear for them when you're always working to improve complex impedance.
As far as why, well I don't know what and where inside exactly is the cause, but it sounds distinctly like current shortage problems. You get an ear for them when you're always working to improve complex impedance.
for some reason my oppo uses all electro coupling caps after the dac. several from dac to output connector. and maybe the opamps used there are not up to the best performance...... all in the analog areas. and power supply is a question also..... I haven't converted it to higher current analog reg... all stock.
-RNMarsh
-RNMarsh
For all I know the Oppo's implementation is awful and horrendously awful, but this assertion really makes no sense as it's written. We're *all* dealing with complex impedances. Maybe you meant something different?
At some point this makes no sense, are folks biased because they paid $900 rather than $100 or are they all deaf? I assume almost the entire technical staff at OPPO uses one of their players are they all deaf too? I listened to the ESS reference board we got from the factory, it sounded fine to me.
Scott, Why does it have to be bias, or deaf, or fine to everybody if fine to you?
Why can't it be that different people have different brain DSP?
I kind of assume you are probably aware some people have perfect pitch, others have relative pitch, and others are tone deaf, there is a whole spectrum. Yet all three basic groups may be able to hear frequencies equally well. Pitch is something different from frequency that the brain may or may not perceive well, which of course why it has its own word.
It just seems odd to me that we can so readily accept that people hear pitch differently, but not so much certain other aspects of sound. In fact, I get the impression you are good at noticing noise, maybe something you have given more than an average amount of attention to over an extended period of time.
I guess the problem is two-fold: (1) we can measure many things quite well, and (2) we can imagine things or be fooled in certain cases.
My guess is that as there becomes more availability of distortion analyzers that can work down at -150 dB or so, we should be able to better correlate what some people report hearing with what we can measure.
Bob Katz claims to have heard something at -140dB in his studio, a story he relates while including that is studio is very quiet. I don't know the details of that story, but on the one hand it would seem to stretch credulity, and on the other hand it suggests that we are getting right around the point of becoming better equipped to more accurately measure the limits of human hearing in the most extreme cases. At least, this line of reasoning seems more likely to me than that it will turn out there is some type of mysterious distortion that existing test equipment is fundamentally unsuited to measure.
Why can't it be that different people have different brain DSP?
I kind of assume you are probably aware some people have perfect pitch, others have relative pitch, and others are tone deaf, there is a whole spectrum. Yet all three basic groups may be able to hear frequencies equally well. Pitch is something different from frequency that the brain may or may not perceive well, which of course why it has its own word.
It just seems odd to me that we can so readily accept that people hear pitch differently, but not so much certain other aspects of sound. In fact, I get the impression you are good at noticing noise, maybe something you have given more than an average amount of attention to over an extended period of time.
I guess the problem is two-fold: (1) we can measure many things quite well, and (2) we can imagine things or be fooled in certain cases.
My guess is that as there becomes more availability of distortion analyzers that can work down at -150 dB or so, we should be able to better correlate what some people report hearing with what we can measure.
Bob Katz claims to have heard something at -140dB in his studio, a story he relates while including that is studio is very quiet. I don't know the details of that story, but on the one hand it would seem to stretch credulity, and on the other hand it suggests that we are getting right around the point of becoming better equipped to more accurately measure the limits of human hearing in the most extreme cases. At least, this line of reasoning seems more likely to me than that it will turn out there is some type of mysterious distortion that existing test equipment is fundamentally unsuited to measure.
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I am glad that many of you can hear differences (problems) with the OPPO 105. Great bang for the buck, BUT until I added the Bybee, I would not listen to it for general listening.
I am retrying the Blu-ray recording. At first it sounds OK, BUT after awhile I have to turn off the supertweeter. The disc is just too strident, especially with classical selections.
As I previously said, I have comparable recordings from other studios that sound better.
I am retrying the Blu-ray recording. At first it sounds OK, BUT after awhile I have to turn off the supertweeter. The disc is just too strident, especially with classical selections.
As I previously said, I have comparable recordings from other studios that sound better.
Oppo BDP-105 Universal Blu-ray Player Measurements and Analysis | Audioholics
Yeah. Looks pretty awful. If I can look things up on my phone, why do some waste long paragraphs on anecdotes without doing some very basic research? Have opinions totally trumped facts?
(Aside) mother nature is being a b*tch today.
Yeah. Looks pretty awful. If I can look things up on my phone, why do some waste long paragraphs on anecdotes without doing some very basic research? Have opinions totally trumped facts?
(Aside) mother nature is being a b*tch today.
OPPO has lots of happy customers, if its "awfulness" is easy to hear with no special effort it makes no sense to me. It's the constant exaggeration of these things that bothers me.
Quote from Stereophile, I assume an experienced reviewer who listens to lots of equipment, I could find more. BTW I never said fine for me fine for everybody.
Looks better to avoid the multi-outputs and used balanced instead. I would still like to see some 2-tone intermodulation graphs at different signal levels. Wonder if some are around anywhere.
Sorry for reading in more than you intended. It's just I think some people may think if Scott Wurcer says he thinks its fine, you can rely on it being fine. Not your fault if someone does that, but its part of the baggage that may go along with having a well known name.
Gee really, I do take very seriously someone spending their hard earned money solely based on anything I say. That OPPO mod site was hilarious please shoot me if I start spouting that BS.
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