Hi Matt,
Tell your daughter she did an excellent job on that video. I was listening via some good headphones through a JDS Labs DAC and a class A headphone amp and I was actually stunned by the quality of the audio and the video was also quite good. I don't know how old she is, but she's obviously very good at this stuff. I wish she was the recording engineer on some of my favorite musical tracks. Well done!
"One thing I will say is that I know what sounds great and what doesn't and I was just trying to point out how much a proper preamp will affect the sound of the system and in many cases can inject a real beauty and warmth that many of these digital systems need. "
I completely agree with your comment. I have no doubt a good quality active preamp 'injects a real beauty and warmth that many of these digital systems need' because I experienced exactly what you describe in my own system using my former VTL 2.5L preamp with NOS Mullard tubes. I really enjoyed the qualities that this preamp imparted on my system for over 5 years and truly thought the VTL would be the last component I'd ever be removing from my system.
But I realized my system was becoming overly complex with 2 preamps; the VTL for 2-channel music and with a flip of the HT Pass Thru lever a Parasound AV-2500 preamp/processor for ht surround.
I had this complexity along with the operational and hookup complexities in mind when the idea of streamlining my system, by removing both components and all the associated interconnect cables, and just using the Oppo 105 as a preamp/processor instead first struck me.
Before I compared system performance of each configuration, I knew I was heavily biased toward keeping the VTL not only because I thought my system would sound better with it, but also because I had recently bought and installed an expensive set of 4 replacement NOS tubes.
As soon as I decided music on my system sounded just as sweet, dimensional, textured and beautiful using my Oppo 105 as the sole preamp and reported on my findings, I realized many who hadn't heard the comparison first hand would question my decision.
"The variable volume is for driving a pair of headphones you plug into the 1/4 inch jack. That's why Oppo put it there, period."
The volume control for the BDP-105 is, as previously stated, selectable as either fixed or variable. But it's used both for the analog and headphone outputs and actually controls volume inside the 32-bit ESS DACs themselves. It has plenty of dynamic range to preserve all 16 -24 bits of data.
I think it's very encouraging and impressive that you're able to achieve system sounds you enjoy through both vinyl and digital based systems.
Thanks,
Tim
