moving on from Emotiva UMC-200 pre/processor

Mid-fi gear..my bad.
..Same goes fer the Oppo, it seems, as no stepped forward to defend its direct analog connect to an amplifier, passive application merits vs others, nor active pre comparison.
Oh well...tried

The JC-2 is packed for shipping to Parasound for the by-pass mod, so I've been listening to the Oppo 105 direct to Proceed HPA 2 & 3 amps that drive KEF Reference 107/2 mains and 102 surrounds. I think the sound is pretty damn good, a quality of sound I could easily be happy with.

db

Great! So direct Oppo vs Oppo to passive pre vs Oppo to active pre should be easy to judge the differences and quantify??. Like to hear the results posted, if u dare?? Yes,please compare difficult dynamic large scale stuff to compare would be awesome, n inform us all what differences u found comparing the diff connect arrangements?
Yes, oppo is as I suspected, read reviews as better than most, but bellow world class disc spinners for more money. From what I gather, I'm sure I could live with moded versions. Which ver is best bang fer???
yeah yeah...probably look into getting one for all it accomplishes.
Then again we WILL be going 4k and even disc-less real soon. Soooooooo.......

Avoground, you're reading far too much into my posts. For stereo, I prefer my Ayre C-5xeMP for CD and SACD or my Thorens TD 124 with SME Series III arm and Ortofon SMS 30H cartridge through the Parasound JC-3 for vinyl. Of course, both of those sources go through the JC-2. OTOH, an opera on Blu-ray DTS HD MA played on the Oppo 105 and projected onto our 100" screen is a treat.

db

Am very happy to find people having 'fun' with this thread, and am more than ready to jump into the melee or would be if I didn't have equipment comparisons to get to ...

As stated earlier I was going to do some testing with a Placette passive pre and compare with an active (a Forte Audio Model 2). So far inconclusive except for the clear fact that there is no "dynamic" rolloff of any sort whatsoever, and I see no reason why there would be given Placette's attempts to prevent it. It's been nothing but a pleasure to listen to the passive in concert with Pass Labs x250 and Vandersteen 2Cs. If you doubt it, give me some source material to listen to that should convince me. I want to hear the rolloffs but simply can't - highs are well extended and bass is beautiful and as "dynamic" as is delivered by the Forte.

Avo - you've written a lot and I've enjoyed most of it and appreciate quite a bit of the writing. I'm getting plenty out of it as well, but always with a keen eye on the lookout for extreme subjective commentary. There is a lot, but that's true with most of the posts here. I find that to be useful at times as well. However you never even tried to answer the question I posed to you about your claim that "Not properly oversimplifying the initial signal before the amp section, will cost you in that area." There's no way for me to understand what you mean, either as an engineer or an wanna-be-audiophile. "Oversimplifying" just isn't a word that means anything at all to me. Can you at least try to explain this comment you made?