High End DAC's compared

In my mind, high-end is dCS, Emm labs, Empirical Audio, Light Harmonic DaVinci, Aqui HiFi, Resonessence, TotalDAC, Chord etc., but your Bryston is a solid affordable choice.  They are good people.

If you want good SQ from your Oppo as a transport, avoid HDMI. Use S/PDIF, AES/EBU or I2S. Get a good cable.

And reduce the jitter of that Oppo first:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=154408.0

This will make CD playback a LOT better.

Here different coax cables are compared:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=154425.0

Jitter is ALL that matters with an external digital interface.  More important than DSD.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

Insofar as I use the Oppo extensively for blu-ray DVD’s, and insofar as the Oppo will output un-decoded blu-ray audio only via HDMI, could you comment on the effect jitter reduction might have on the sound.

I play Blu-ray movies using my Oppo and for the audio I use the optical output over a 1.5m toslink cable to a iFi SPDIF iPurifier to reduce jitter for movies. The iPurifier output is then connected using a high-quality coax cable to my SS processor. It does not reduce jitter as much as a Synchro-Mesh, but it does support Dolby Digital and DTS streams for movies, which the SM does not. It’s a no-brainer, just get the iPurifier for $149 on Amazon. A really good toslink cable is this one:

https://btpa.com/TOSLINK-XXX.html

This will really enhance your movie experience, and even watching the Olympics. You can use the iPurifier from your smart TV digital audio output to your SS processor also.  The difference in sound quality is improved clarity, intelligibility, better imaging, improved dynamics.

I recently watched for a 3rd time the movie "Gravity" with Sandra Bullock.  The movie never made sense to me with George Clooney screwing around with the jet suit for so long.  I was even saying this us unrealistic, NASA would never allow this.  Then I watched with the iPurifier in the audio cables and heard the quiet detail in the first minute of the movie - radio chatter with Houston.  Now it makes perfect sense.  This is the difference.

Would you recommend a particular jitter reduction device, and
let me know where one might obtain this and at what cost.

For 2-channel PCM digital audio, the Synchro-Mesh (SM) is available here for $599:

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/products/synchro-mesh

It has 30-day money-back, no questions.

The difference in sound quality is huge.  The detail, imaging, focus, soundstage, dynamics, bass and liveness will all be improved.

The Oppo digital coax output connects to the SM input, either the RCA or BNC. I would highly recommend using either the Standard BNC ($275) or Reference BNC cable ($499 option with RCA adapters) on the output. The best scenario is to use the Standard cable to the SM input and the Reference BNC cable from the SM output to your DAC.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

According to the ’Absolute Sound’ October, 2017 review of the
Bryston BDA-3, "with both CD’s and DVD’s the HDMI outputs of my Sony Blu-ray players sounded decisively more refined and neutral than those players’ SPDIF outputs....mirroring what I’ve heard from three generations of Oppo Blu-ray players."

All this says is that their transports (Sony Blu-Ray players) had high jitter. Not unexpected from a Sony Blu-Ray player or an Oppo player. Here are jitter plots from Oppo:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=154408.0

S/PDIF input is the simplest input to design and I’m certain that it is 100% fine on the Bryston. You just need a low-jitter S/PDIF signal to feed it.

You are the only audiophile I have heard of that is using HDMI for music. It is generally the last choice.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio