OPPO Digital Ends Audio Products Production (April 2018)

[bmoura]

I never heard the 205 but the e38 to me is better than the 105 I had. Lovely dac. Now I do not watch much tv or movies. If one does do that an Oppo is probably a more convenient choice.

I've heard the Oppo 205. An improvement over the 105. But it doesn't have the sound quality of the exaSound e28 or e38 DACs.
Given the price differential, that's not a surprise.

 

[JediJoker]

I've heard the Oppo 205. An improvement over the 105. But it doesn't have the sound quality of the exaSound e28 or e38 DACs.
Given the price differential, that's not a surprise.

But it does have minimal room correction and proprietary format decoding, which the exaSound does not.

 

[bmoura]

proprietary format decoding, which the exaSound does not.

That's why I have an Oppo 105 for movies and video.
Good to have an Oppo and a DAC for audio.

 

[Robert van Diggele]

But it does have minimal room correction and proprietary format decoding, which the exaSound does not.

Those things can be done in the software sphere, in Jriver and Dirac.

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

https://www.minidsp.com/products/usb-audio-interface/u-dac8

I found one of these for $145 yesterday...

Yup. I have 2 of those, as part of dual nanoAVR-HDAs (<--see avatar, heh) in a full-active 5.1 setup. The sound is immensely satisfying.

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

LOL! I dunno. She often shops at Aldi's for a number of lower priced non-brand items and takes that bag. She loves it.

I been meaning to check out Aldi's, but I keep forgetting my damn bag. I'm such a dope.

 

[ar surround]

That's why I have an Oppo 105 for movies and video.
Good to have an Oppo and a DAC for audio.

Please excuse my ignorance on this topic and allow me to pick the brains of those of you in the know.

1) Can one output multichannel sound directly from a USB port on something like an Oppo UDP203 into the USB port of the exaSound e38 DAC?

2) If so, I see that the e38 converts PCM and DSD streams, but I see no mention of DVD-Audio, Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master. I would surmise that one can setup the disc player to convert and output DVD-Audio and Bluray audio as PCM through the USB port. No?

3) If the above is all doable, is there any advantage to having the transport in a UDP 205 over a 203 solely from an audio quality standpoint?

 

[himey]

Please excuse my ignorance on this topic and allow me to pick the brains of those of you in the know.

1) Can one output multichannel sound directly from a USB port on something like an Oppo UDP203 into the USB port of the exaSound e38 DAC?

2) If so, I see that the e38 converts PCM and DSD streams, but I see no mention of DVD-Audio, Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master. I would surmise that one can setup the disc player to convert and output DVD-Audio and Bluray audio as PCM through the USB port. No?

3) If the above is all doable, is there any advantage to having the transport in a UDP 205 over a 203 solely from an audio quality standpoint?

Sorry but you can't do any of that. People use multichannel USB DACs like the exaSound for ripped files on their PC.

 

[DuncanS]

Please excuse my ignorance on this topic and allow me to pick the brains of those of you in the know.

1) Can one output multichannel sound directly from a USB port on something like an Oppo UDP203 into the USB port of the exaSound e38 DAC?

2) If so, I see that the e38 converts PCM and DSD streams, but I see no mention of DVD-Audio, Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master. I would surmise that one can setup the disc player to convert and output DVD-Audio and Bluray audio as PCM through the USB port. No?

3) If the above is all doable, is there any advantage to having the transport in a UDP 205 over a 203 solely from an audio quality standpoint?

(1 & 2) Only if the player manufacturer had written the software for the on-board processor to output via USB, so very unlikely.
(3) The transport can have an effect on the bit-error rates, so can affect the audio quality, but disc errors that can't be recovered by the error correction will probably be more prevalent.

 

[himey]

But it does have minimal room correction and proprietary format decoding, which the exaSound does not.

Check this out.

 

[ar surround]

Please excuse my ignorance on this topic and allow me to pick the brains of those of you in the know.

1) Can one output multichannel sound directly from a USB port on something like an Oppo UDP203 into the USB port of the exaSound e38 DAC?

2) If so, I see that the e38 converts PCM and DSD streams, but I see no mention of DVD-Audio, Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master. I would surmise that one can setup the disc player to convert and output DVD-Audio and Bluray audio as PCM through the USB port. No?

3) If the above is all doable, is there any advantage to having the transport in a UDP 205 over a 203 solely from an audio quality standpoint?

Sorry but you can't do any of that. People use multichannel USB DACs like the exaSound for ripped files on their PC.

Thanks for the responses. The thought of ripping 250 to 300 discs onto my iMac in order to utilize an outboard DAC like the e38 is is not very appealing. I would have hoped that for $3800+, it would at least have had an HDMI input and been able to decode all the multichannel codecs as well as digital to analog conversion.

 

[himey]

Thanks for the responses. The thought of ripping 250 to 300 discs onto my iMac in order to utilize an outboard DAC like the e38 is is not very appealing. I would have hoped that for $3800+, it would at least have had an HDMI input and been able to decode all the multichannel codecs as well as digital to analog conversion.

Just get a receiver or a processor. The e38 isn't targeting you. Simple.

 

[bmoura]

Sorry but you can't do any of that. People use multichannel USB DACs like the exaSound for ripped files on their PC.

The output isn't from the USB ports but you can play multichannel DSD 64 and multichannel FLAC files on the Oppo 100 and 200 series disc players using the Analog outputs.
In addition to a multichannel DAC like the exaSound e28/e38, Merging NADAC MC-8 or NADAC Player PL-8, etc.

 

[himey]

The output isn't from the USB ports but you can play multichannel DSD 64 and multichannel FLAC files on the Oppo 100 and 200 series disc players using the Analog outputs.
In addition to a multichannel DAC like the exaSound e28/e38, Merging NADAC MC-8 or NADAC Player PL-8, etc.

Looks nice! Off topic because of the price but interesting. Someone better have some damn good speakers to consider a setup like that!

Yes, using the Oppo as a renderer, you can setup a server and send multichannel files to it or playback multichannel dsd and pcm (flac, wav) from an attached drive, but that wasn't what @ar surround was asking about.

 

[karlkastner]

Has anyone heard of MQA? I saw it on CD Japan. A new Hi -Rez format. Does this have anything to do with Oppo's decision?
http://www.mqa.co.uk/professional/for-playback-providers

 

[hafquark]

I don't know what affect MQA might have had on Oppo's decision to close up shop, but here's an article (Feb. 2017) from Linn that is highly critical of MQA. There are many more negative reviews if you care to search for them.
https://www.linn.co.uk/blog/mqa-is-bad-for-music

 

[ar surround]

Just get a receiver or a processor. The e38 isn't targeting you. Simple.

himey, well it was simple...Just get an Oppo UDP-205 and connect it through its analog outputs to my Lexicon RV-8. But Oppo stopped production of the player and and then Brian said that the DACs in the UDP-205 do not sound as good as the exaSound e38. Even if I can get an UDP-205, I don't know if it sounds as good as my Marantz DV9600...But I would hope so since the Marantz, even though it was once their top-of-the line universal player, is from 2006.

 

[milt]

The 205 sounds better than the DV9600. Trust me.
Just because the exaSound sounds "better" than the 205 doesn't mean it's a POS.
No more than the DV9600 is a POS.
But it is a bit long in the tooth.

DACs and transports that support multi-channel playback are few and far between and getting fewer and far betweener.

 

[ar surround]

The 205 sounds better than the DV9600. Trust me.
Just because the exaSound sounds "better" than the 205 doesn't mean it's a POS.
No more than the DV9600 is a POS.
But it is a bit long in the tooth.

DACs and transports that support multi-channel playback are few and far between and getting fewer and far betweener.

Thank you, Milt. This is extremely helpful info.
AR

 

[mandrix]

Still on my aging BDP-80 OPPO and my savings for a 203 are practically nihil. Man on man, why did OPPO have to do this to us. (whine/wringing hands/sniffling)