My subjective testing of Oppo 105
Hi, I read/use audioholics for a long time now, and finally I thought I should return my due. Recently I received the oppo 105 and did some testing, perhaps someone would find it interesting or useful.
My setup includes
Yamaha Aventage 3010 receiver with
B&W DM603 S2 fronts (they are biamped and have active subwoofers, receiving the subwoofer pre out out from yamaha).
B&W LCR6 S2 Center
B&W DM602 S3 -s for surround
The system was calibrated with ypao.
I also used my mac book pro with Fidelia and Izotope upsampling set up to max (192khz if connected to oppo via usb), and PS3 with 178khz upsampling connected via HDMI.
Here are my preliminary tests(subjective of course).
The big formula is:
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L >> J =G >=H >> F > D >= E > > > N > > I >=O
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Here the letters stand for different connections and media I tested:
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Blue ray - Legends of Jazz DD True HD
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A) Oppo blue ray true hd ->bitstream via hdmi -> yamaha decodes the dolby true hd
B) Oppo blue ray true hd ->decoded in oppo, DAC-ed in oppo multichannel analogue out -> yamaha just amplifies the analog input
C) PS3 blue ray true hd ->bitstream via hdmi -> yamaha decodes the dolby true hd
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MP3 256Kbps bought in itunes (Adele 19, 21 and many more).
D) Oppo palying from usb stick ->bitstream via hdmi -> yamaha decodes the stream (44.1khz)
E) Oppo palying from usb stick ->LPCM via hdmi -> yamaha decodes the lpcm (44.1 khz)
F) PS3 palying from usb stick ->upscales to it's max 178khz -> LPCM via hdmi -> yamaha decodes the lpcm
Mp3 from fidelia - note that it was not possible to upsample higher than 96khz in fidela with optical connection I) bellow !!!
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G) Mac fidelia upsamples to 192khz -> Oppo via usb -> bitstream via hdmi -> yamaha decodes the stream
H) Mac fidelia upsamples to 192khz -> Oppo via usb -> lpcm via hdmi -> yamaha decodes the lpcm
I) Mac fidelia upsamples to 96khz -> Oppo via usb -> bitstream via OPTICAL -> yamaha decodes and dacs
J) Mac fidelia upsamples to 192khz -> Oppo via usb -> OPPO multichannel dac -> yamaha amplifies multichannel (only front left and right working)
K) Mac fidelia upsamples to 192khz -> Oppo via usb -> OPPO STEREO dedicated dac -> yamaha multichannel input - > yamha analog amplification only - though I would cheat - use the oppo stero dac for the front left right and the multichannel dac for the rest, somehaow the quality was worse than the case bellow L)
L) Mac fidelia upsamples to 192khz -> Oppo via usb -> OPPO STEREO dedicated dac -> yamaha stereo input -> yamha amplifies the stereo analog input only!
N) Mac fidelia upsamples to 192khz -> mac built in dac -> analogue output to yamaha stereo input -> yamha amplifies the stereo analog input only!
O) Mac fidelia upsamples to 96khz -> mac built in optcial -> optical input of yamaha -> yamha dacs and amplifies
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Blue ray - Results
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A) >= B) this one was seriously pushing the limits of my speakers /ears! very very hard to tell apart, with three likely explanations
1) I guess yamaha does a great job on the DTS master and dolby true hd decoding (it's main job! after amplification) and multichannel DAC-ing,
2) oppo decodes worse than yamaha and even it's DAC's advantage over yamaha does not compensate
3) better yet and most likely - only oppo's dedicated stereo dac part is significantly better than yamaha's, and their multichannel DAC performance are about equal. Kind of makes sense, since yamah is a multichannel receiver, built for multichannel sound, so performs as well as oppo's one chip configuration for multi channel.
On the other hand oppo's dedicated stereo board uses on whole 8 channel sabre dac in dual-differential mode just for those two channels! this level of dac is only seen on expensive dedicated dacs and processors as far as I know.
B)>C) for some reason (maybe subjective)
Also side note - A) allows the use of yamaha's fantastic 9 Stereo hd DSP!
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MP3 Results
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L) is the absolute champion ! Nothing even comes close!
L) > > J) >> K) - something is wrong with K!
J) = G) !!! that is again, according to my notes, it seems
yamaha's multichannel DACs + HDMI transport = OPPO's multichannel DAC + Analogue transport
Of course can be my analogue rca cables, however it is unlikely since they are short and same cables yield better results for oppo in stereo configuration!
G)> = H)
H) > > F) Fidelia is the absolute winner, followed by the PS3, which also does some sort of upsampling
F) > D)>= E) - VERY surprising - PS3 plays the mp3 almost better than the oppo, though they are very close,
even though ps3's upsampling gives a tiny edge to PS3 (ps3 without upsampling is nothing special).
E) > > > N) > > I) >= O) - sorry - even oppo's optical out sucked, the built in one was the worst quality I heard today.
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Best regards,
M-Leon
