Oppo Sonica DAC with flagship ESS ES9038PRO SABRE DAC

lol the albums were not recorded without gaps. That is just in the mixing. OK, I accept some people get bothered by the gaps. I guess it's not OCD technically. More like OCPD. "Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a general pattern of concern with orderliness, perfectionism, excessive attention to details" lol i'm just teasin'.

 

Of course I meant the final mix of the finished album. Look who's OCD now .

 

I agree, it's just you. Regardless of Everybody's Personal Preferences, there's a much bigger picture of equipment working properly to accommodate a wide array of functions.

Wha's difficult to understand is why the technical application to get a (seemingly) simple task accomplished isn't resolved. After quite a few years. Especially when computer software has long since nailed it.

And wondering why such a discussion is even happening.

 

I assume—as I also assume most of us are assuming—that this new Sonica is stereo-only. What I would really love to see from Oppo is a multichannel decoder/DAC/pre(/headphone amp) using the same philosophy/design as in the (x)x5 disc player models, with dedicated stereo and surround outputs, offering both balanced and unbalanced for every output. USB and optical/coaxial S/PDIF should remain, but in addition, it should have at least one HDMI input. This will allow those who opt(ed) to buy the (x)x3 disc players or other players with lesser DACs, for whatever reason, to upgrade their analog audio performance further down the line. It's a sparsely populated product niche at this time, and one that I think they could exploit with aplomb. It would be a perfect companion product for something else they already produce/have produced, and also to many other products out there in the marketplace.

 

I guess I also don't care because squeezebox does gapless fine and has for years, as do hardware CD players, but i have had other players (daps, etc) that didn't. I would agree with you that it should be a simple technical matter and a non-issue at this point...

 

Will this be an upgrade if I add it to the chain with my OPPO modwright 105D?

How would you plug it in to your pre and how would you get the oppo 105d to bypass its own dac and use this new one?

 

With digital out from the 105D to the digital in on the Sonica DAC you are using only the Sonica dac. Cannot tell if this will be an upgrade as I have never heard any of the two machines.

 

Should the 105D still be plugged into my Pre amp via the xlr cables like I have now? Will the dac need to be plugged into the pre at all or just the oppo 105d?

 

A (example: Sonica) DAC would go straight into your pre-amp. The main goal of a DAC is to ultimately provide analog outputs. Since the 105D doesn't have analog inputs, it's not meant to be used in conjunction with a standalone DAC. In fact, a 105D is essentially DAC in itself, it doesn't need to be paired with another one.

 

thats right. Owning a 105EU I use that as a multichannel dac, feeding it with stereo and multichannel files over ethernet. A standalone dac will probably add not that much, IMO although I have never tried.

 

I knew the oppo has its own on board sabre dac but I didn't realise it couldn't be paired with another (better) dac. That's a real shame that it can't be paired with its own family line of products.

 

You could still use the digital outs of an Oppo player into an Oppo DAC like the Sonica. There's just no reason to do the reverse, to plug an older DAC into a newer DAC.

 

You might be missing the intent. A 105D and a Sonica DAC are more similar in functionality than complimentary.

 

Yep. Missed this before I typed my response above, but this is spot on.

 

Yes, both can serve digital preamp functions and both are digital source components. The Sonica DAC appears to be more robust in certain ways, at least according to the description in TAS.

 

Yes this is what I was asking.

So basically, does the oppo 105d still plug into the pre via my xlr cables?

I'm wondering if this would be a worthwhile upgrade

 

I'd wager a lot of people who bought Oppo blu ray players don't use them to play blu rays, and probably quite a few don't play discs at all - they bought the 105 based on the reputation of its DAC. I think in recognition of this, Oppo began to offer more two-channel, no-disc options, among them the HA-1 and Sonica.

In your case, you already have a 105 and a Modwright one IIRC. There's some newer-is-better when it comes to DACs, but probably not so much that you need to worry about the Sonica. Especially if you're still playing discs.

 

I think you may have a fundamental misunderstanding of how the insertion of an external DAC into a system works. You would connect a digital output of the player to a digital input on the external DAC, and then connect the analog outputs of the DAC to the analog inputs of the pre. The analog outputs of the player will not output the signal from the new DAC. It is not a closed loop in which the digital signal goes to the DAC, is converted to analog, and then sent back to the player (as analog) for output. The signal only travels out of the player, not back into it. If the Sonica has XLR outputs, you could use the same cables currently plugged into your 105, but you would have to unplug them from the 105 and plug them into the Sonica instead.

As others have stated, I don't think this would be a worthwhile "upgrade."

 

Over at the Computer Audiophile forum someone posted a pic of the Opp Sonica Dac rear panel (sadly NO HDMI) Oppo Sonica DAC coming Fall 2016 »

 

Much clearer. Thanks for this. I've never had an external dac before so I had no idea of how it fit in the chain.

I have a fully modded modwright oppo 105D so I was wondering if the DAC was the weak link in the chain and if something like this could increase the quality at a relatively low price...

 

Btw looking at the other link it does look like the Sonica DAC has xlr outs... Which I can use to the pre. How would I plug the oppo 105 into the dac? Is that into the Aux in via rca leads or one of the USB inputs?

 

You could use the optical/coax out of the 105 into the Sonica DAC. But, not everything (SACD, full resolution Blu-ray audio) will come out of the optical/coax of the 105.

A modded 105 is no slouch... I'm wondering why you think a Sonica DAC would offer any improvement to your 105? The 105 can essentially do everything a Sonica DAC can, and more.

 

I very much doubt the Sonica DAC will better your Modwright 105D.

 

I've read that the only "weak link" in the oppo 105 is the dac. Everything else is really solid and I just heard the dac is not as good as it could be.

There's a company in Australia that specialises in modifying purely the dac stage of the 105D.

I was thinking this could be a relatively cheap upgrade to improve the sound.

It doesn't matter though, I'm very happy with what the modwright 105D is putting out!

 

Ya, don't believe everything you read Especially since you're happy with the sound!

The thing about DACs... you can't separate the actual "chip" from the analog stage. Meaning, it's likely that the analog stage in your modded 105D is seveal levels better than just the ESS chipset differences between the 105D and a Sonica DAC. I'd personally rather have an average DAC "chip" and an incredible analog stage, vs. the best chip in the world with a weak analog stage. Not saying the Sonica analog stage will be weak. Just that people get too caught up in one chip vs. another without considering all of the other parts.