I want to dump my Oppo; but...

I do not post much here, but here are a couple of observations regarding your situation with digital music. I have the same needs in terms of two channel audio.

I am 100% digital, have been for a long time although I still own a turntable I bought in 1981 (JVC QL-Y5F).

By reading between the lines I gather that you are using either USB Flash Drives or external hard drives to play digital files through an Oppo 105. So was I a few years ago.  I also gather that you are playing CD and SACD through the Oppo and are buying the Ayre for this reason.

I do not doubt for a moment that the Arye is much better for the CD’s and SACD’s.   The Oppo is a great player for Blu-ray music discs.

Here in a nut shell are my main 2 channel system source units:

Cambridge Audio 851N

Cambridge Audio CXC

Cambridge Audio 752BD

This is not an advertisement for CA, it is just the way things have developed over the last 5 years. I have a my Oppo 105 now in a different system for audio & video. I would use the Oppo in this 2 ch system in place of the 752BD, but my amplifier only has one XLR input (Hegel H300). I am only using the 752BD in the 2 ch system for my small collection of SACD’s. I run a pair of Audioquest Niagara RCA to the Hegel from the 752BD. At some point I would like to have a better player for SACD, but don’t have enough to justify it.

To play CD’s (I have many SHM CD’s, plus MFSL gold) I run an AQ Coffee RCA to the 851N from the CA CXC. I run an XLR pair of AQ Fire to the Hegel from the 851N. (I run a pair of AQ Redwood to PSB Synchrony One). The CD’s sound amazing. FWIW, I still have a working Sony X555ES I bought in 1993).

But the real deal is the HD tracks played with a flash drive on the 851N through an AQ Jitterbug. And the cream on the cake is the discovery of the difference it made when I switched to a SOLID STATE flash drive. All the noise/jitter/whatever is GONE. I use a 128 and 256 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro SS flash drive.

Two final thoughts. I am convinced that the KEY in this system is the up-sampling digital player. The 851N up-samples to 384Khz. That and the silver cables.

Cheers. Enjoy the music.

Thanks, Phil. Your system must sound superb. Do you still use the JVC from time to time? Something like the 851N may be in my future and I agree with you on the SS storage, having been involved in PACS implementations in Radiology departments where the archival and almost immediate retrieval of huge imaging data files is critical.

I neglected to point out that my only reason for getting the Oppo out of my system is to sell it to appease She Who Must Be Obeyed. So if I can't find a cheap way of doing the digital file part, well some one is going to be disappointed; but it won't be me. Unless you count the pain and suffering that will be inflicted upon me when I'm not listening to music. She'll get over it.......I hope :^) 

2Channel8, Thanks for your comments. To be honest, I just keep the Turntable as a gorgeous piece of my music history, play a record once in a while. I also still have my Nakamichi CR-7A.  In 1968 I had a Dual 1019 along with a Sony 250 RR, which came in handy as I was able to borrow the new records from others in my fraternity and make tapes for parties. Now here I am fifty years later still playing the same music but have lived long enough to hear it in stunning high resolution digital sound (The White Album and Beggars Banquet for example released in HD this year).  But I sold most of my collection of Japanese and MFSL vinyl a few years ago, still have maybe 100 records.  Fortunately, I don't have your other half problem (married 35 years in 2019). In fact, I poached the older CA 752BD from the AV system my wife uses in our LR. I replaced it with a Sony UBP-X800.  We don't have 4K TV, but my wife is very happy now that she can do Amazon Prime video so easily.  One other thing I might mention is that my wife is also happy that I can quickly change the music on one of the SS flash drives she plays in her X3 . This 2016 model will play up to 192Khz WAV and FLAC from the flash drive, and the SS ones sound amazing in the car as well.  FWIW, one can buy refurbished (but like new) CA products directly from them on eBay, and they are very good about taking care of any problems. Happy New Year, Good luck on the music.

I would actually sell the C-5xeMP and look for a used DX-5 DSD. It can play music off hard drives and serve as a USB DAC for a computer in addition to handling your physical media - CD, SACD, DVD, Blu-ray, etc.

EDIT - I should add that it seems for the thumb drive / hard drive functionality to work, it needs to be formatted using the FAT or FAT32 file system, a possible monkey wrench to this scenario.

Good idea, @yage . I'll keep my eyes open.