Oppo 105 LPM upgrade

[karlkastner]

I upgraded the power supply on my Oppo 105 to the OppoMod LPM SE($380).

I've wanted to do this for a couple of years. After getting good results with the Furutech/mundorf upgrade($135).

This LPM has taken my quad system to another level! More detail(crisp?), louder at a given volume setting. Soundstage seems a little bigger. Best result: The surround speakers really came to life.

I've upgraded Shunyata AC outlet, Transparent Audio speaker cables, TA RCA interconnects, Panamax power conditioner, had my Marantz 4300 recapped, bridged it's amps to 100W and added a 2270 for the rears, ALK networks in all 4 Belles, Crites tweeters up front, one--->dual SVS cylinder subs, Shunyata Venom power cords on Oppo and subs...

Although its impossible to guage each improvement in and of itself, I think this power supply upgrade is more significant than any of the above. And it's supposed to need a 100 hour break in. I now wonder what clock upgrades would yield?

If you have a stock Oppo, you gotta do this. It's one of those things where I feel like I need to relisten to every CD again.

I hope this info helps somebody and is posted in the correct section.

 

[marpow]

I upgraded the power supply on my Oppo 105 to the OppoMod LPM SE($380).

I've wanted to do this for a couple of years. After getting good results with the Furutech/mundorf upgrade($135).

This LPM has taken my quad system to another level! More detail(crisp?), louder at a given volume setting. Soundstage seems a little bigger. Best result: The surround speakers really came to life.

I've upgraded Shunyata AC outlet, Transparent Audio speaker cables, TA RCA interconnects, Panamax power conditioner, had my Marantz 4300 recapped, bridged it's amps to 100W and added a 2270 for the rears, ALK networks in all 4 Belles, Crites tweeters up front, one--->dual SVS cylinder subs, Shunyata Venom power cords on Oppo and subs...

Although its impossible to guage each improvement in and of itself, I think this power supply upgrade is more significant than any of the above. And it's supposed to need a 100 hour break in. I now wonder what clock upgrades would yield?

If you have a stock Oppo, you gotta do this. It's one of those things where I feel like I need to relisten to every CD again.

I hope this info helps somebody and is posted in the correct section.

This is a very interesting upgrade, I like the part that says only a screwdriver needed. I own a OPPO 105 that I use for ripping only and there fore I would not need this but even when ripping I have noticed the OPPO runs much hotter than my McIntosh equipment. I have almost all the other upgrades exactly as you posted and I agree hard to tell except when I did do the upgrades I did them one at a time and I did notice tiny improvements (placebo accounted for). Hopefully others will take advantage of your suggestion, I know I would if I needed to.
Here is the link: OPPO Mod

 

[milt]

Marpow, ripping DSD files is very cpu intensive that's why your Oppo is running hot.

 

[marpow]

Marpow, ripping DSD files is very cpu intensive that's why your Oppo is running hot.

Thank you, that makes sense.

 

[ar surround]

Is this Linear Power Module mod really significant if just playing ripped files via USB?

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

That depends. If you trust your ears as the final judge in matters such as these, then the mod will probably sound better to you.

 

[ar surround]

That depends. If you trust your ears as the final judge in matters such as these, then the mod will probably sound better to you.

Interesting, Jim. I can tell you that when it comes to SACD (disc or file) playback, the Oppo 205 wipes the floor with my circa 2006 Marantz DV9600. The improvement was immediate, obvious and significant. And the Marantz was considered a very good universal player at the time. But $360 is not inexpensive for the LPM SE upgrade to the Oppo 205. It would be helpful if someone who actually did this upgrade to a 205 chimed in as karikastner did on the 105.

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

I apologize; my previous post was somewhat pointless.

 

[milt]

If I may weigh in. Right now I'm not interested at all with modding my 105 as it will be relegated to backup SACD .iso busting as I invested in 2 Oppo-205s.
If and when my PS3 croaks, the 105 is there.
I prefer to download and bypass the whole deal but that's not a reality yet for DSD or MCH.

I like to have quantitative evidence that mods improve stock performance.
Power supplies are great for this as it can be definitely measured.

After reading the measurements that Amir at the ASR website did on the 205, I'm not convinced that changing out the PS will be an improvement.
It measures nearly as quiet as the test gear.

Unsure if I've posted my take on the Oppo-205 or Oppo in general here but the real shame of Oppo ceasing operations is that the 205 & 203 were demonstrably better than any
players they'd produced before. Not dissing their previous products as I've been a loyal customer for years.
Their evolutionary improvements over each successive generation was finally realized with the 20x series, imo.

As ar surround stated, the 205 does wipe the floor on previous generations of their own players and a lot of other DACs for multiples in price.
They just nailed it this time.
Another gen would've been sweet but nothing great lasts for ever.

The 105 is another matter. If the 105 is your main player, after looking at the measurements on ASR, it seems very likely that various mods would offer tangible improvements.
As always these are dependent on your system & your taste in SQ.

For those considering 105 mods, the power supplies offered by Oppomods are worth exploring.
I also like the drive stabilizers he offers for spinning discs.

 

[karlkastner]

I should have added that I have near zero electronics knowledge. All I know is what I read about, try, and hear after a new mod/upgrade is introduced into my system. My system is admittedly Mid-Fi. I'm just trying to extract the best possible sound out of vintage quad amps/speakers. It's been an educational and fun process. And I've learned a LOT from this site.

So how do I know, without measurement capabilities/knowledge, when an upgrade has made a positive difference? I listen to a few CDs or SACDs that I know extremely well. If I hear "new" subtle musical passages in the background, extra detail in the singer's voice, words I couldn't make out before, extension of the fade as a song ends....then I know the upgrade has resulted in more detail. The background noise has been reduced and/or the signal has been enhanced. My method is subjective, but I think I'm objective about what I perceive.

For instance, after one of the upgrades I did, I listened to some AC/DC. Bon Scott sang "singing like a bumble bee". After the lyric, there was a bzzzz sound that I had NEVER heard before. Not on cassette, on CD, on Pandora, in the car, home stereo, headphones.... Something had clearly changed. Unfortunately which preceding upgrade, or combos of upgrades made the difference, I'll never know. Let There Be Rock isn't one of my evaluation CDs.

This LPM upgrade has made the music more revealing. I just listened to Rumours DVD-A for the umpteenth time. New detail emerged. In particular in my rear pair of Belles. After I reconnected the Oppo 105, the increased detail was apparent in general. But it sounded a little shrill. Could that be the new caps, needing some break in time? I think it is mellowing out after 10 or so hours. That is subjective and I'm not isolating variables to assess that.

The Oppo board(power?) that the LPM replaced is as light as a feather. The LPM is hefty. They seem like two completely different devices if you look at them side by side. At first I thought the existing Oppo transformer must also be replaced like for like. But it stays. So basically I don't understand what specifically is outperforming vs. the original board. Can anyone give me a basic explanation of why the linear power supply is better than the switching one?

I don't know if the same cause and effect of this upgrade would hold with an Oppo 205. If the 205's "power" board is as slight as the one in the 105, I would guess so.

At any rate, I'm very happy with this upgrade. Running the system often to try to reach the 100 hour break in threshold.

 

[milt]

karl, I'm not doubting your impressions in the least. The 105 had some surprising anomalies in the measurements I saw.
Oppomods shows the measurements of their supplies and they're great. Personally I think if you're going to go the mod route on the 105, a better PS is a going to give you the best return.
If you're going to do much more than that, you're way better off buying a 205 even for the $2k+ they go for now.

The conventional wisdom is that linear power supplies are always superior to switching power supplies which isn't true.
It has been proven that a well-designed switching supply depending on the application can be as quiet and deliver the required power as a linear power supply.

 

[karlkastner]

Here is the board I replaced alongside the LPM...

 

[ar surround]

Geez! Look at the size of the transformer on the LPM compared to the original.

 

[karlkastner]

Not knowing much electronics, I wondered if that really was a transformer. The ones on my Belle crossovers dwarf that thing. It weighs nothing.

 

[boxhead]

Here is the board I replaced alongside the LPM...

But the one on the left is a switch mode power supply, hence no transformer? Completely different technology to the one on the right.

Sent from my K5000 using Tapatalk

 

[humprof]

I've gotten more useful knowledge from this thread than I have from several months of lurking on the Facebook Oppo Digital Users Group!

 

[ar surround]

But the one on the left is a switch mode power supply, hence no transformer? Completely different technology to the one on the right.

Sent from my K5000 using Tapatalk

The arrow points to the transformer:

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

Note that a switch mode power supply operates at a very high frequency, allowing a much smaller transformer to provide the same amount of current. This higher efficiency/ lower parts cost (the transformer is usually the most expensive part) is one of the main driving forces behind the general trend toward SMPS.

The LPM is a traditional linear supply operating at the normal 50/60 cycle AC house current. Transformers are much less efficient at this frequency, so they need to be a lot larger for a given output.

 

[ar surround]

Note that a switch mode power supply operates at a very high frequency, allowing a much smaller transformer to provide the same amount of current. This higher efficiency/ lower parts cost (the transformer is usually the most expensive part) is one of the main driving forces behind the general trend toward SMPS.

The LPM is a traditional linear supply operating at the normal 50/60 cycle AC house current. Transformers are much less efficient at this frequency, so they need to be a lot larger for a given output.

So more than one way to "skin a cat" as they say.

 

[karlkastner]

Note that a switch mode power supply operates at a very high frequency, allowing a much smaller transformer to provide the same amount of current. This higher efficiency/ lower parts cost (the transformer is usually the most expensive part) is one of the main driving forces behind the general trend toward SMPS.

The LPM is a traditional linear supply operating at the normal 50/60 cycle AC house current. Transformers are much less efficient at this frequency, so they need to be a lot larger for a given output.

Thanks, that's great info. So why does the SMPS emit more high frequency noise?