I'll explain, can you see how many connection points there are on the boards? I can only assume and imagine how many further connection points there are along the analogue chain before it hits the speaker output terminals, the more terminals, the more noise you'll have, soldering is much better. There is much less knowledge about the circuits within these A/V receivers than the UDP-203/205, the OPPO units are much more common and famous among enthusiasts who like to tweak and improve their device they use as transport, in my case I plan to use it as a preamplifier, no less knowledge, nonetheless.
I see no voltage regulation circuits, or voltage regulators on the D/A boards, meaning, I cannot only send in the D/A board from an A/V receiver and have it improved, the whole unit needs to be shipped to measure the complete circuitry, with the UDP203/205 it's enough to send in the analogue board, the voltage regulation is done locally. The capacitors seem to be of inferior quality that what many prefer to put into their units, I hear a lot Panasonic, OS-CON, ELNA, Vishay, WILMA etc, I can tell you there's none of that in these AVR's.
The UDP203/205, in my case, the 203, seem like a much more simpler, leaner, solution as a preamplifier, everything I do in the OPPO will lead to better analogue performance if measured correctly, I plan to hire Cinemike (
www.cinemike.de) for this labor, if you doubt his work, well, nice talking to you, I would never ever spend money on trying to modify (perhaps the word 'upgrade' is a word I should use instead) a D/A board from an AVR, there are so many boards that would need improvements in order to fully rectify the whole signal chain, for the same amount of money, if not less, I can get further in terms of improved SNR and distortion levels, and my usage that'll consist of a mixture between movies, concerts and music, I am a firm believer that the changes made, or effort put into the UDP-203, overlooking its performance, will be of a greater impact than any A/V receiver of choice.
Manufacturers don't sell pristine units, there are always improvements to be made, you shouldn't doubt it, secondly the UDP-203 measures better than most A/V receivers out there, which tells me it's a better platform to start looking into further improving the aspects of a multichannel output than any other device, I mean I already own it, no loss on my end, no extra expense. If you don't believe things can be done better, I don't know what to say to you, you're basically telling me I can purchase the cheapest A/V receiver out there and still not have issues, that's just not correct. Thirdly, why do you think, the more expensive of an AVR, the more components are put into the D/A boards? With only logic at hand, one could easily tell that the more components that's put on, the more thoughtout the circuitry has been made, compensating for what not, stabilizing, or filtering the circuit/circuits, i.e. channel/channels.
If there's any board within an AVR that should be compared to the UDP-203, it's the boards I've been posting, and looking at the UDP-203, I see no competition until you spend quite a bit of money on an AVR, I could purchase a dedicated power amplifier with a lot better specifications than the AVR would ever offer, unless spending a hilarious amount of money on something that I'd only be using to 50%, seeing all the unnecessary features I wouldn't be using, or simply turning them to OFF.
I mean if I'm on the wrong track here, you tell me straight.
