Oppo 105D with Modwright Modification

Last I spoke with Oppo, the guy told me the modded unit (bdp105) takes 400-600 hours to break in.

 

Why would an official oppo person talk about a modded unit? Or do you mean Dan from modwright?

 

Not sure how much info you'll get from Oppo. All three of my Modwright Oppo's started to really sing about the 400 - 500 hour mark. The tubes and caps in the player and power supply require some burn in time.

 

Did you change tubes once you got the machine or upgrade after 400 hours?

I'm assuming thats about 1.5 to 2 months of running the music for around 10+ hours a day for you?

 

The tubes will do some burning-in even without music playing if you leave the power on

 

Really? I'm not expert but I thought leaving tube systems on with no music playing wasn't good? Or am I totally off Base? Can you treat them like solid state?

 

Ken Stevens told me that there should be a signal going through the equipment for break-in/warmup. Leaving the tubes on without a signal won't hurt the tubes or your equipment.

 

Ok so I can just leave my OPPO on between uses and it won't hurt anything?

Just confused about what you said about "signal". Ie wasn't sure if that meant music needs to be playing, even at low volume.

 

Well...Your tubes only have so many hours on them kinda like a light bulb. So, leaving your Oppo on 24/7 is using up tube life when you aren't listening to music, which is a waste.

Yes, music needs to be playing even at a low volume for break-in to occur.

 

Plug in a USB stick with some music on it and don't turn your amp on. The tubes break in but no wear on the transport, etc

After the break-in period, turn everything off if you aren't listening

 

Or, just turn it on when you listen and turn it off after you are done and enjoy the slowly improving sound over the course of upcoming months. It will be like upgrading to a better CD player every day . Additionally, your brain needs to attune to the new sound too, and playing into a wave bucket won't help with that.

 

Yeah, this is my approach.

 

Yes, my mistake, Dan from Modwright.

 

Anybody have experience here !!!!!!

 

The DAC is untouched by Modwright. Just make sure you are using the Asynchronous USB port at the back to make use of the Stereo channel DAC

 

Thanks, but I knew that, what I was hoping for is someone using the modded unit also as a USB DAC, and what they thought of its performance after all the power supply mods etc...

 

Then the modwright mods won't change that performance as the dac is left as is.

 

Another mfg on the burn in bandwagon. Got an issue with a piece of gear? Needs more burn in.

 

Modwright doesn't mod the actual DAC "chip", but if you are using the unit as a USB DAC for your digital source you will have all the advantages of the Modwright mod

 

I really think the only significant burn-in here (past the first few hours) is with the tubes, and that will certainly vary.

 

Yes this is true. However he really should use the asynchronous USB port and take advantage of both.

 

"rbbert said: ↑
Modwright doesn't mod the actual DAC "chip", but if you are using the unit as a USB DAC for your digital source you will have all the advantages of the Modwright mod
Click to expand...
Yes this is true. However he really should use the asynchronous USB port and take advantage of both."

WEll I think we are close to what I was asking. I would only be using the asynchronous USB connection, I guess I could have meant the USB's in front, but never have used those.

So back to the question, knowing what we know above, is anybody using the asynchronous USB port , and can tell me if they are seeing the same overall performance gains as the rest of the sources ?

I have seen many people who think the asynchronous USB port on the 105 is pretty bad in stock form.

 

I remember reading that the back USB port is supposed to be best for audio. Not sure which is asyncronous. I did notice that the front USB is too slow to handle wifi for Netflix so that's not a good thing in its favor. I would be interested in hearing more opinions

 

I asked this specific question to modwright and they said that the upgrade would improve quality if I was using the 105D as a DAC through USB. I might be able to find the actual email

 

Asynchronous is the one where the USB port is different at one end. It looks like more like an ethernet port on the oppo 105 rear input.