You had the Oppo BDP-105 and you've had the Oppo UDP-205 for some time...

I have seen the Schiit Gungnir Multibit highly recommended in a few DAC threads here. I placed a bid on one but it was sold for a higher price. The Bryston BDA-3 is way out of my price range. If I can get one used for a decent price I definitely want to try it and compare it to my 105D.

 

Same reason they've been modifying players since anyone can remember, the hope of BETTER PERFORMANCE!

 

I agree with Bill & Cliff, absolutely stick with the 105, my good friend got the 205 and said the same thing, he could not hear any differences at all, both sounded great and no advantage to the 205, but lots of advantages in having the 105 as it just does so much more. Obviously Oppo will say there are advantages with the newer SABRE chip, but honestly it could be so marginal that in normal listening most people would not hear it. That certainly seems to be the case with three folks here on this forum. I was considering doing a sale and upgrade on my 105D, but now that has been cancelled, it's just too good of a player with so many features to sell, just a darn good product. I'm sure Oppo cut a good bit of cost out of the newer player with no HDCD decoding, no silver brushed front, no streaming functions like the 105D, and no Darby picture enhancement.

 

Below is a post from a member over at the Quadraphonic Quad forum that I found quite "interesting" . I kind of got in a back in forth with the member in question. I'll admit I wasn't the most diplomatic in my response. Asked for an detailed reason why universal players "are not great SACD players". But the only response was that I probably wouldn't "understand" why universal players are not great SACD players . The discussion was started as I posted that I preferred The Doors - Greatest Hits quad mix on the Blu-ray compared to the SACD. Any thoughts on the below?

Most so-called 'universal' players are not great SACD players, especially Blu-ray players (and yes, I have had a few different OPPO models). It is quite plausible that the Blu-ray sounds better than the SACD simply because SACD playback was an afterthought on those players, and they do a much better job with Blu-ray disks they were primarily designed to play ... especially if they convert SACDs to PCM. I would be interested to know if the people who prefer the Blu-ray to the SACD are playing both disks on the same player. It might be as simple as that.

The Doors - The Singles (2CD/4.0 Blu-Ray set) coming soon! - Page 7

 

Haven't seen that since my school days!!!

 

Much to my delight the gentleman with whom you had your discussion called me a Pom! (Australian slang for a Brit)

I am of the opinion that the Oppo 105 plays SACDs in exemplary fashion - even more so if fed in through the front USB port as .dsf files.

I was switching between SACD, DVD-A and Blu-ray yesterday evening and found the sound equally good from all of them.

 

The Frank Iacone (Editor) review in Headphone.guru is so enthusiastic calling the 205 a Universal Sensation, I wonder how any modification can improve its PERFORMANCE. I await your forthcoming review with great interest especially being a Oppo Buddy. OTH several here find no SQ improvement over the 105/105D. which is contrary to what Frank Iacone reveals.

 

Is there such a beast in existence?

 

Apparently the rear USB ports offer an even shorter signal path!!!

 

I guess a very good high end Pre/Pro would qualify.

 

The 205 now offers gapless playback of FLAC files from an attached drive, something that has never really worked on the 105; it gets close, but you can almost always hear the transition

 

I've never understood why gapless playback matters!

 

Classical pieces, live albums, seamless transition, etc. I find it irritating when it doesn't happen, especially seeing as it's been done by the likes of Apple for years now.

 

It really is important when listening to rock albums like Pink Floyd's DSOTM and some Genesis albums I have on hard drive in DSD. I can't listen to those albums from my hard drive and always use the SACDs.

 

Couldn't agree more, gapless is essential!

 

There are a few threads on the forum where owners of the 105(D) "upgraded" to higher end DAC's. In the case of the Gumby and the Bryston 3A they all report improvement in stereo sound worth the change. I would not expect to see the 3A for sale used as they have been reviewed as perhaps easily in the top few DAC's available and are current models. I own Bryston gear and well we can only hope an owner gets the itch and offers one for sale. Gumby's do show up though the multibit version less often. At present I use a BlueSound Node2 and have compared it in my system to a borrowed 105. There are differences but it is not a clear upgrade and the Node2 sounds better on much of the music I listen to. I too sacan the market hoping to find a Gumy or a 3A.

 

I always listen to Dark Side Of The Moon in quadraphonic from the Immersion Blu-ray. Likewise Wish You Were Here.

 

I like both multichannel mixes of DSOTM and WYWH. But I do find I'm playing the quad versions more often.

 

There are so many controversies regarding upgrade to 205. I have 95. Working fine. I am wondering if I ate is worth upgrading for sound’s viewpoints . Apparently the Blu-ray is much improved (PCM)but maybe not so much with DSD ? I mainly use it for DSD and sometime Blu-ray. I find Blu Ray video suboptimal but then I never did m-ch so maybe I ought to use as Mch first. This Oppo as far as I know is the only m-ch SACD player doing DSD around at any price. Sony is not doing any at all. The main limitation for 205 is that it does not do DSD 256 M-ch. hardly any DAC does.
Also if I get the PS modified from my Oppo 95 e.g. using Oppomod from Korea (not the cheap Chinese ones on EBay) would that beat the stock Oppo?
Or should I get Oppo and do full Oppomod upgrade?

 

Unless you need 4K, a really good headphone amp or use the XLR outputs, no. Most of the updates are video related to deal with 4K, Dolby Vision, HDR, etc. I found very little difference between my 95 and 205 via RCA analog. There was a big difference via XLR on my system, but YMMV. The headphone amp is a big surprise. It easily drives high impediance cans and gives my Woo Audio WA7 a run for the money.
There are some guys here that have modded Oppo's and are happy, but each mod is different. Only you can tell if it’s worth it to you.

 

Oh my, it's time to break away from the old and into the light! Are you ready? SONY STR-ZA500ES For the BIG hitters!

 

I have a 105 and am contemplating upgrading to a 205. What is the highest resolution that the 205's USB 2 or USB 3 will play? I see specs for the type B USB input (up to 2ch/768kHz PCM, up to 2ch/2.8224MHz/5.6448MHz/11.2896MHz/22.5792 MHz (native mode only) DSD) but mention of the standard type A inputs. Also, if I find a portable drive that can use a type B cable, which my current Western Digital cannot--it has its own proprietary type A jack/cable, can I plug it into the audio DAC or will that input work only with a full computer?

 

You would connect a USB hard drive to the Oppo's USB A port with a USB A to micro USB cable. Western Digital doesn't use a proprietary cable. I would assume that it can play the same file formats over the USB A port. I don't have any 768K PCM files to test with .

 

Note that while it's possible using the USB B port offers formats/functionality the other inputs do not (I don't believe this is true, but I haven't checked), the largest differences will be in how you control it. With USB B you're using the Oppo as a sort of passive DAC you're controlling with the computer connected to it, with the USB A ports you're using the Oppo's on screen interface and the remote to select songs (as is the case with the network interface). There are mixed feelings with involving TV screens in audio, so different options for different people. This, and probably the ability to do gapless playback of all formats, is likely the most important difference between the A and B ports.