OPPO BDP-103 and BDP-105 Networking Universal 3D Blu-ray Players (part4)

Are you SURE the WiFI sounds as good as the Ethernet?
I'm apoplectic about the difference. I'm thinking DON'T buy a DAC now.

What's going here?

Someone else want to comment?

 

Please don't be. It's not worth it. From vocabulary.com.

Someone who is apoplectic is not just mad — they're so filled with rage, they can barely communicate. If your mother is apoplectic, you better hope it isn't over something you did.
Apoplectic comes from a Greek word that means to "disable by a stroke." What is a stroke? The sudden loss of consciousness or control caused when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures or becomes blocked. When this happens, a person becomes apoplectic. This word also applies to someone who acts so upset, it is like he or she is having a stroke.

 

Glad I'm not the only pedant in this thread.

 

I know what it means. And I meant it!!

But seriously, I want to be able to use the WiFi and get it to sound as good as the Ethernet.

 

I am sure. No difference for me.

 

Just brought one home, replacing a Denon 3910 and most recently an Onkyo C7030.

Initial impressions: I may never leave the house again.

 

Mind if I ask what router you're using?
Mac or PC?
I'm on a Mac, and my router is more than a few years old. Cisco.

 

I am having an issue with playback from a portable HDD plugged into the front USB port. In quite a few folders on the HDD, when I select a track, my 105D freezes and the only way I can get out of it is to cycle power on the unit. I assumed there may be some read or latency issue between the Oppo and the drive. I have checked the HDD for errors (none), and I have no issue accessing the folders and playing the contents on my laptop.

Anyone else experience this or know what's up? It's annoying and I can't play ~15% of my library on the HDD because of it.

 

Just a thought. Are there any unusual characters (like foreign letters) in the path/file names.

 

A quick, lazy question because I'm sick and stupid with a cold:

When using the BDP-103D as a video processor via the HDMI input, will it also decode the audio via its internal DAC and pass it to the analog outputs, or will it only pass the digital audio through to the HDMI output (or coaxial/optical outs)?

Trying to come up with a workaround for watching my legal, TiVo-recorded episodes of Game of Thrones in surround sound on my current setup wherein the integrated amplifier has no digital ins (one set of analog 5.1 inputs only; it's a Sony STR-GA8ES from '96) and neither the TiVo (Premiere 2-tuner) nor the TV (Panasonic TC-L32U3) have analog 5.1 outs. Ideally, I'd just transfer the shows to my computer, load them up on a USB thumb drive, and play them on the Oppo that way. Unfortunately, Comcast copy-protects HBO content (at HBO's behest, no doubt), so I can't do that with Game of Thrones. Now, I'm thinking my best bet is to buy a 1-to-2 HDMI splitter/signal amplifier with the TiVo as input and the TV and Oppo as outputs. That way, it's still easy to watch TiVo recordings/live TV without turning on the Blu-ray player, but when desired, surround sound or even just quality stereo playback on the sound system (the TiVo's stereo out sucks and the TV's analog out isn't worth hooking up) is available. Thoughts? I'd also welcome any suggestions for HDMI splitter models.

 

I haven't tried surround, but it will process stereo audio from the HDMI input to the analog outs. You may want to give Oppo support a quick email.

 

Yes, it will decode surround sound via HDMI and send out via analog. If you need a splitter, don't get a cheap one, they don't typically work well. I found this one to be rock solid: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=101&cp_id=10113&cs_id=1011306&p_id=7522&seq=1&format=2

 

Thanks! I was leaning toward that model.

 

I don't know if this is old news around here or not. If so, then I will apologize for being redundant.

However, I just recently discovered an ultra-cool product which was designed specifically for the Oppo 103 which is absolutely awesome! Its called the "Vanity HD 103" card. It completely replaces the stock analogue output card in the Oppo 103 and allows you to send DSD stream to any external DSD-capable DAC which can understand a DoP signal via its coaxial input. That is the big got-cha however, as many current DSD-capable DACs will only accept DoP signals via USB.

I know for a fact that this works because I am presently able to play SACDs directly using my PS Audio Direct Stream DAC from a Vanity HD card which is mounted inside of my Oppo 103. No ripping is required!

No, this will not work inside of an Oppo 105. But why would anybody want to do this to a 105, since the entire purpose of getting a 105 over a 103 is the superior analogue outputs on the 105? But they do apparently have an Oppo 93 version available (if you can find anyone who sells the DoP version).

I have no affiliation with any of these companies. I'm just a happy customer.

 

I just did a search on this product and the cost is $849 !

http://www.jvbdigital.nl/jvb.asp

Bill

 

Yep, unfortunately it's not cheap. But it offers the ability to do something which was previously completely impossible in the SACD realm: Use a separate DAC while actually spinning an SACD.

They also offer the Non-HD version which looks intriguing for about 1/3 of that price. I'm not sure if it supports DoP though.

Obviously this isn't for everyone. But for those of us who have been wishing for this ability for the past 15 years, it's a godsend!

 

They seem to do it right but there have been others. The first, afaik, were Shawn Fogg and JVB with mods for Oppo players and other devices. I still, somewhere in my closets, have an early Oppo (DV-980H with Shawn's 3xS/PDIF outputs!

 

I know that JVB has made boards for some other players. But have these actually offered DoP outputs previously? I had thought that all of these previous incarnations only transcoded the DSD into PCM. But I could be wrong about this...

DoP is not transcoding. It is true DSD, just inside of a PCM carrier for backwards compatibility. Unless I'm mistaken, this seems to be a relatively new development for JVB.

 

Meh, I'm still waiting for a cheap-n-easy way to rip SACDs so I can feed 'em to my lil' dink iFi Nano.

 

Apologies if this has been discussed but wondering if anyone has hooked up their 105 directly to a McIntosh MC275 V and used the Oppo volume? How does it sound? Thinking about doing this at some point, as I don't run a pre-amp (vinyl is an EAR 834P w/ volume control directly into an MC275 V).

 

Can't comment on the MC275 in particular, but I use my 105 without a preamp, and the 105's volume control works just fine. It's digital but operates within the DAC, I believe at 32-bit float - in other words, you're not going to lose resolution unless or until the volume is way down - and even then, it's questionable whether you could even hear any difference.

The only risk I think would be if you have a monster power amp and super-efficient speakers. In that case you might be forced to keep the 105's volume control pretty low in order to avoid blowing yourself out of your room.

However, I think that risk would be minimal, as in my experience the 105's output is a bit less than a typical preamp's.

I should also note that the reason I don't have a preamp in the chain is because I prefer the sound without it - it's cleaner.

 

I'm waiting for that as well. With that I need to stress the "easy" part .

Bill

 

Repeated for emphasis.

 

You are correct. I tend to ignore DoP.

 

Appreciate the reply, thank you. Great points, probably would work great — was thinking I could connect an Oppo in balanced and leave the EAR into the unbalanced inputs and just switch between them for SACD/CD or vinyl.