OPPO Speaker Distance Settings

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A new Firmware Release is available that fixes a bug in calculating acoustic propagation delay from the "Speaker Distance" parameters of the "Speaker Configuration" setting. If you use the 5.1 analog outs and your Speaker Distance parameters are not the same for all speakers you will notice a major improvement in the sound field imaging. In my own case my FL, C, and FR are all 9 feet and my RL and RR are 4 feet. The improvement I am hearing is amazing.

The firmware release applies to: OPPO BDP-103/103D/105/105D Blu-ray Disc Players

The firmware release is available here: http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-103/BDP103-firmware-75-0430B.aspx
 
The user who has been testing the 105 for the distance bug has said that the 103 has the same issue. Quite likely the 105D and 103D are affected as well because all these players get the same firmware updates.

nice to know this now. After how many years of using it analog? 93-93ne and the 103 now. No matter I don't employ analog anymore.
 
Hey Robert - I'm curious to know how/if this firmware fix improves your playback. Over on the AVS 105 Owners Thread nobody (except me) has said anything about improvements. I find this odd since the whole point of the 105 is to take advantage of the Analog outputs. Personally the fix has been a game-changer for me. My Oppo plays like a dream now.
 
Hopefully I have time on Sunday to play around with the new firmware. Just one question, after loading the beta firmware, did you also readiust the trim levels?
Just a re-statement of the issue - you are only going to notice a change if all of your speaker distance settings are not all the same. If all your distances are identical then the bug never was affecting you. Of course you should still update the firmware in case you ever do change your distance settings.

Before applying the firmware you should use the "Save Settings" (Configuration management I think) option and save your settings to a USB stick. Then after applying the firmware and doing a "factory reset" you can re-load your settings from the USB.

My experience was that I did not have to make that many adjustments to my trim levels. In fact, now I find that I fiddle less and less with trim levels regardless of which disc I play. Before, when the bug was there it seemed like I was constantly adjusting trim with every different disc that I played.
 
Just a re-statement of the issue - you are only going to notice a change if all of your speaker distance settings are not all the same. If all your distances are identical then the bug never was affecting you. Of course you should still update the firmware in case you ever do change your distance settings.

Before applying the firmware you should use the "Save Settings" (Configuration management I think) option and save your settings to a USB stick. Then after applying the firmware and doing a "factory reset" you can re-load your settings from the USB.

My experience was that I did not have to make that many adjustments to my trim levels. In fact, now I find that I fiddle less and less with trim levels regardless of which disc I play. Before, when the bug was there it seemed like I was constantly adjusting trim with every different disc that I played.

For years I dealt with this not aware of this issue. I ran analog from my 93ne and my 103 and my settings were an object of this bug. Now using hdmi finally I can't believe I just put up with it, never did realize this was causing all my messing around. Admit this was the last thing I messed with.
 
For years I dealt with this not aware of this issue. I ran analog from my 93ne and my 103 and my settings were an object of this bug. Now using hdmi finally I can't believe I just put up with it, never did realize this was causing all my messing around. Admit this was the last thing I messed with.
Exactly how I feel. I got my first and current Oppo a year ago. I know, as you say, I can't believe I put up with it. But, of course, I didn't know anything was wrong with my player. I thought it must be room acoustics or issues with how the music was mixed. Looking back it was a painful year. Life isn't always the path of least resistance. But now that issue is solved. Now I can truly appreciate what a great machine the 105 is.
 
It does make me wonder how many times we say we don't rate a mix when it's maybe because our gear isn't setup quite right or something in the playback chain is detrimentally affected by something like this DSP bug.. I know we don't and can't all hear the same things but there's less of a fighting chance when faults & flaws like this occur.
 
It does make me wonder how many times we say we don't rate a mix when it's maybe because our gear isn't setup quite right or something in the playback chain is detrimentally affected by something like this DSP bug.. I know we don't and can't all hear the same things but there's less of a fighting chance when faults & flaws like this occur.
Again...Yes, exactly. Multi-channel systems are complex. I have learned one thing from this experience: speaker distances really do make a difference.
 
It does make me wonder how many times we say we don't rate a mix when it's maybe because our gear isn't setup quite right or something in the playback chain is detrimentally affected by something like this DSP bug.. I know we don't and can't all hear the same things but there's less of a fighting chance when faults & flaws like this occur.

Outstanding point! I must again go over my music, as I have rated most everything from analog use. Unfortunately, I can't remember what was done with the 93 and 103. Some was with my old ass JVC and my 1st Oppo. No wonder the HDMI sounds better!
 
Just one question, after loading the beta firmware, did you also readiust the trim levels?
This has come up on another forum. The speaker distance settings affect timing. They don't affect speaker volumes. However, I still felt the need to re-measure my trim levels (with a sound meter and the oppo test tones) just because the speakers distance settings are now being applied correctly whereas previously when I had set the trim levels the speaker distances were being applied incorrectly. Measuring one thing when something else in the system is incorrect does not seem like the proper way to do things. As it turned out, my trim levels only need minor changes - no more than a +/- 0.5.
 
This has come up on another forum. The speaker distance settings affect timing. They don't affect speaker volumes. However, I still felt the need to re-measure my trim levels (with a sound meter and the oppo test tones) just because the speakers distance settings are now being applied correctly whereas previously when I had set the trim levels the speaker distances were being applied incorrectly. Measuring one thing when something else in the system is incorrect does not seem like the proper way to do things. As it turned out, my trim levels only need minor changes - no more than a +/- 0.5.

That was the reasoning behind my question as well, thanks for trying out. Will report back once I have some time to play around with the beta firmware.
 
i have the feeling that stereo also sounds better but that could be placebo effect.
If you have different distances for your left and right speakers then it will sound better with the new fw. In fact this is how the bug was discovered - the person was comparing the audio differences while changing the distance settings in his stereo setup.
 
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