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DMP vs. Oppomod I2S Board?

Audio Components Transports
#22

He doesn’t use his Bridge anymore… :grin:

At first the Oppo sounded quite “hifi”, subjectively impressive and ticking all the audiophile boxes.
In comparison the bridge was smoother, more musical.
Think hot chocolate vs sharp tasting coffee.

Over time though as all the new stuff in the Oppo had time to bed in, it began changing it’s character.
The hifi shinyness gave way as the sound opened up, and with it the top end got. Noticeably sweeter sounding, the groove much more relevant to what the song actually was trying to say…not what the system was making it out to be.

In short, the Oppo became much more natural and musical sounding, much like the Bridge brought to the table but…and it’s a significant but…with all the excitement, realism and the best of all the hifi stuff, without impacting on the heart of the music.

Had network issues with my Bridge, which Imresolved and did a back to back comparison with the Oppo.
Every track I noticably preferred on the Oppo, it just made the music sound more wonderful.

Hope that helps too. :ok_hand:

#23

Thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. This path seems like the best course in the face of few I2S options, and fewer SACD over I2S options.

#24

your welcome, glad my experience has helped others.

The thing that made me go down the Oppo route was the quality of the new transport, and that it was the basis for some high end transports like the, DMP itself and the uber-spendy MSB.

The base Oppo player is stunning, but the mods take it to another level entirely.

I dont think in terms of how close to the DMP it gets, as PS Audio sprinkle lots of their own magic on top, but how far its came from stock.
And its a helluva long way.

Oh, as an added bonus, its I think as good a 4K movie player now as you hope to get, the mods have lifted the image quality to (what I believe) can’t be far from reference quality.

So…a two for one kinda deal. :slight_smile:
Highly recommended, and will only be retiring from Roon/i2s duties when the Octave comes out.

Oppo will still be in the system obviously, so be fun to compare when I can.

#25

I tried taking out the Dac / analog-card im my Oppo 103. After power failure or disconnecting the player from the mains there is no DSD out from the Oppomod I2S-card. I have to connect the Dac-card to the I2S card (Not to the power-supply card) to get DSD back.
The player sure sounds better without the DAC-card installed, but I had to reinstall it.

Do you have this problem with the 203 ?

#26

Odd…
The dac board in my 203 isnt connected to anything, just the i2s card is powered and all is well.
Not sure what the deal is with the 103 though, fair to say the 203 may be different?

Mines is like this.

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#27

The 103 looks much like yours, but if you don´t experience the same problems there has to be some differences. My plan was to remove the DAC from the cabinet, but as things is now I decided to connect it since I don´t want the job getting it to output I2S every time the unit is without mains

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power.

So far the player is equipped with the I2S-card, and the cabinet and top of the drive unit is damped with Dynamat. Next will be the power supply and the Furutec / Mundorf cable set for power input.

This is a very fun project. I have some skills, but will need help when I order the clock-card.

#28

Good fun, isn’t it? :slight_smile:
End of the day you’ll be rewarded with a very fine i2s transport into your Dac.

Looked initially at trying out different HDMI cables, after trying several online recommendations (I have a drawer full of HDMI cables < 1m long) the best one i settled on (within reasonable budget) was an Apollo AV Lightning V2.


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Similar in construction to the Wireworld way of things (Silver plated copper, separation of signal and power lines) so that got my interest.
Have all Wireworld cabling in the rest of my system so my thinking was if I could get something close without the big spend, it’d be worth it.

Nowadays I’m thinking if I want the best possible connection between my Oppo and DS Snr, especially given all the mod work I’ve done to the Oppo…the way forward is Wireworld.

So can see a Wireworld Platinum Starlight in my future…
Waiting to see if there’s a version 8 round the corner (its all Ver8 cables I have elsewhere) but a strong feeling when budget allows to get the Wireworld, I’ll “stick a fork in it, call it done”.

I can say from direct experience of A-B comparisons between many HDMI’s that the Oppomod card (and indeed the DS) is transparent enough to show differences between HDMI cables.

We want to do it right…right?

1 Like
#29

That HDMI cable looks like just what I am looking for. Allready ordered from Ebay.
I ordered one of the 8K optical HDMI-cables some times ago. The result was no result. No sound from the I2S-card.

I will do some A-B test after my summer vacation.
Of course we want to do it right.

#30

I have probably the same 8K optical HDMI cable you have, didn’t work with the DS.
Then again, the Redmere active HDMI I bought before (and improved my video a long way) didn’t work either.

The 8K Optical cable is by a country mile the best HDMI cable for video quality I’ve ever experienced…its absolutely stunning.
The 8K Optical cable improved the video side of tings substantially, but didn’t work with the DS. however?
Seems audio and video are different.

You want the gold standard, seems it’s the Wireworld Platinum or live with your compromises…

From having tested many HDMI cables between my Oppo and the DS Dac, can say hand on heart the Apollo AV is the best “traditional” HDMI cable I’ve ever tested…the 1K Wireworld may be an endgame solution, and by all accounts is not money wasted.

But I’ve not tried it yet…

#31

Just received all upgrade kits from OPPOMOD following GAZJAM steps. I am using AUDIOQUEST HDMI 3 Cables between PWT and DS Sr. Planning to use another one between OPPO 203 modified and DS Sr.

#32

So, it seems that the more silver content, the better and Wireworld geometry is the way to go?

#33

In my opinion, yes.

All my cabling elsewhere is Wireworld silver, big fan here.
Best I’ve heard.

#34

Operation OPPOMOD done!

DS Sr. Receiving SACD signal as 24 bit 88.2K

Is that correct?

Only fentoclock installation is missing.

#35

Have you tried Revelation Audio cryogenically treated silver HDMI cable? Fair price for all silver.

#36

Nope, your setup is downsampling DSD to PCM. The DS’s screen should show DOP or DSD if you are getting DSD.

#37

Problem solved. Receiving SACD as DSD64. Just set SACD output correctly this time on OPPO203

#38

Now, I can wait for the PS Audio new music server/universal player.

1 Like
#39

Exactly the same position I’m in, and why I modded the Oppo. :blush:

#40

Does anybody knows if these new MQA CDs are playable on OPPO 205 modified with Oppomod and if DS DAC can decode it through I2S HDMI?

#41

Or OPPO 203 with Oppomod? I wanna try it but don’t wanna waste my money