Oppo as transport

The Oppo universal player is good as a transport. Running its signal into a quality DAC can greatly improve its two-channel performance. My only problem with it relates to playing DVD-As and hybrid-SACDs. I've had trouble with it reading the correct layers when there's multi-channel SACD and two-channel SACD or CD. I've set mine up for two-channel preference, but it'll often read the CD layer when I want two-channel SACD. With the little tiny screen you basically have to blindly toggle around trying to find the right layer. It's really designed to be used in conjunction with a TV rather than as a stand-alone transport.

My Pioneer DV-58AV is much better in user interface friendlyness. I set it up for two-channel audio preference so now it always chooses the highest two-channel resolution option on any SACD. So, as a CD-only transport the Oppo is pretty darn good, but if you're into SACD then it may fight you and annoy you some. I'd recommend going a further step up to something like the Pioneer if you want a friendlier user interface.

I've got an expensive Playback Designs MPS-5 as my main digital source. It's got a custom, proprietery DAC, claimed zero jitter clock and really beefy output circuit and allows for digital-in from transports and other devices. When I use the Oppo and Pioneer as transports I get 90% of the improvement from the stock Oppo and Pioneer, which is to say it's a relatively huge improvement. Mating your Bel Canto with a really top line transport like an Esoteric (as in the MPS-5) will gain you more SQ than the Oppo or Pioneer, but it's only incremental. IME the big gains seem to come from the DAC. As you continue to improve your DAC you'll continue to gain with those basic transports.

Going from Oppo's basic transport to their midline or even to the Sony, I'm not so sure that you'll gain much. I'd focus on the user interface in these price ranges. If you go upscale, maybe look for a used Esoteric or an ond PS Audio Lambda transport. The transport IS important, but IME the DAC seems to be about nine-times more important, given at least a decent level of transport performance.

Dave

07-17-08: Lngbruno said:
"This weekend I visited a friend and had a Bel Canto DAC 3 and Rega Apollo (for transport use)with me. He has the universal OPPO and when we did a comparison the OPPO sounded weak in every aspect of the listening experience. It was very noticeable and didn't require and straining to hear the differences. My friend is now looking for another option for his 2 Ch listening experience."

So, let me get this straight, you used the Oppo as a transport running through the DAC 3 and it wasn't even close to the Rega through the DAC 3?

Dave

Yes, I think that the higher the quality of the DAC the more it makes up for any shortcomings in the transport. My discussions earlier in this thread were all about feeding a signal to an upsampling to DSD DAC, with a very robust output stage and a zero-jitter clock (claimed by the maker and I'm waiting to see the test results).

Dave

OK, if you only need Redbood CD then you might seriously look for an older Esoteric, TEAC or other CDP known for their solid transport, to use with your DAC3, making sure you've got digital-out that matches the DAC.

Dave

Sounds like a great plan to me, and the transport will be....?

Thanks for the follow-up Lngbruno. That finding is VERY interesting to me. My Playback Designs has an Esoteric VOSP transport, reputed to be one of the very best available and the Oppo gives me roughly 90% of what I get using the PD's internal transport. The difference is some added solidity in the bass and a slight increase in image size going to the PD transport.

I'm not disputing your finding, just observing that with the PD's DAC the diffences caused by transports seems to be greatly reduced. There's a jitter correction process in the PD's DAC that may account for this. PD claims zero jitter using the internal transport, but I haven't read anything about jitter correction from other sources. If they're accomplishing that with external sources, then that could explain the small difference.

Don't get me wrong, it's not so small that I wouldn't use the PD at every chance. However, it is small enough that if I hadn't heard the PD with it's internal transport I probably would have been with the PD's DAC driven by an Oppo.

Dave

In my system the Oppo sounds very good when run through the Playback Designs MPS-5's DAC.

It's a little clunky getting it to read the right layer of an SACD or DVD-A, but pretty faultless otherwise. I prefer my Pioneer Elite DV-58AV, mainly because it's faultless at finding the two-channel hi-rez layer (my preference).

Dave

Audphile1 asked:

"What's the best place to get the Oppo from?"

New, at Amazon or direct from Oppo.

Dave