Multichannel SACDs (usually) have FL, center, FR, RL, RR and sub. The RL and RR come off of the 2nd or third bottom RCA of the Vanity HD board. I always use a channel test SACD to make sure everything is in the right places. The Telarc Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture etc. / Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops (Multichannel Hybrid SACD) has 6 tracks of channel id on the end of the Multichannel “layer”
If the NDX ends up accepting DoP you’ll be in business.
NOTE: the Vanity HD card has eight RCA outputs but the top row of four is unconnected, but… with some setups they almost play correctly. Be sure to use the bottom connectors and if things sound a little fuzzy or there are rare fffth’s check that you didn’t accidentally use the top RCA connector.
Switch 3 – dedicated filter sets for 176.4 kHz enabled or disabled (OFF)
Switch 4 – conversion filter characteristic #1 / #2 or #3 / #4 (I don’t remember)
Switch 5 – DSD via DoP (ON) (written instructions: onboard 4.0 DSD down-mix enabled or disabled)
Switch 6 and 7 – compatibility setting of the S/PDIF output (both OFF)
Switch 8 – no function, leave OFF
If memory serves switches 1, 2, 3 and 4 don’t matter if switch 5 is ON. You can switch all of them (but 5?) on the fly to see if they make a difference. Switch 6 and 7 need to be off for compatibility and reliability with the DS.
I’m using an Oppo 103 with the Vanity HD card with my DS. I love the ability to have a two-box state-of-the-art universal disk player. However I’m curious about one thing:
Have any other users with this hardware combination also installed a linear power supply into their 103? I’m very curious to know if this has made any audible difference to the sound when the Oppo is simply acting as a transport.
It seems to me that there is the possibility that any common-mode HF hash which might be generated by the Oppo’s stock power supply could be a potentially compromising factor to the performance of the DS. But that is just theory. What really counts is the sound.
Like you, I too have Oppo/Vanity combination and am investigating Oppo upgrades. One successful upgrade that have achieved is replacing my perfectly well made Cambridge coax cable with a Audiosensibility Statement Silver coax. The different was significant. How best to describe it is perhaps as being a perceivable increase in the soundstage. What does that mean you may ask. I find a lot terminology used to describe performance of audio equipment very subjective and subject to various interpretations. Maybe if we compared the stages of improvement in audio performance in a way that can be done with viewing a television. On the end of the scale there is a 32" CRT/VHS combination and at the other is the latest 65" LCD/4K Bluray. Within that range are improvements that though important, are not immediately obvious. Others can be staggering. As experienced by countless millions, DVD was a huge visual improvement over VHS that made larger tv screens viable and as they got larger, so bluray came along. To me the depth and detail in the audible soundstage I experienced when replacing my NAD M51 DAC with a DS was at the minimum like switching from DVD to bluray but not quite as much as VHS to DVD. Maybe adding the Statement coax to the Oppo/Vanity to DS is more 4K.
I read a bit about some of the Oppo upgrades available, but not convinced by any. I’ve seen mods offered by the Upgrade Company but on looking at their website, I couldn’t help being cynical. One thing is upgrading a mass produced product is that’s made to price as it is positioned is a highly competitive market, but offering upgrades on high end products just seems to be exploitation. They even offer a mod for the DS. The DS costs £5,250 in the UK and the market for it is proportionally minor. Who is bothered in buying a DAC let alone one costing over £5k. The answer is a few thousand that can afford and BE ALLOWED to spend that kind of money, and many thousand more to whom is a case of “maybe one day”. I’m afraid that appears to me that it would make very little difference if the DS cost a few more hundreds and included all those alleged supermods the Upgrade Company offer. If PSA felt they made a difference then they would have included them. I own a Linn LP12 and have for years followed the sub chassis improvements on the market. Saved my money and bought Linn’s improved sub chassis as its better.
I belong to the Mac Mini/iTunes/Bit Perfect camp of computer audio. The improvement to that set up I read most about is the replacement of Apples’s stock mode power supply. As its the type of power of power supply that charges my electric toothbrush, am not surprised why people talk of raplacing the Mac’s PSU with a heavy bulky external toroid. The Oppo uses a stock mode supply yet only seen one upgrade that am not sure is ideal and so not worth money. Perhaps some readers might help us out.
Reading your post above got me thinking about the SP/DIF cable that I have been using. I’m not a very tweaky person, and I generally do not hear huge differences between cables. As a result I generally don’t spend very much time messing with cables. I was just using a good quality true 75 ohm cable that I purchased probably 20 years ago.
But I decided after reading your post that I needed to try another. Being too cheap to just go out and spend a bunch of money on a silver cable without hearing it, I decided to throw-in a SP/DIF cable that I’ve had kicking around for almost as long which was designed and built by a local RF engineer.
And the results are shocking. My soundstage instantly got about 6 feet wider! I had no idea just how crucial the choice of SP/DIF cable could be! This is dramatic enough that I’m thinking that I’m going to have to give Yale a try again with this cable.
I believe getting the spdif right is critical, also you don’t tune the sound – you try to get less errors (that effects the analog sound in a variety of ways) – to ultimately get to what your system really sounds like. If you don’t get this right, you end up tuning everything else to try and cover up the real problem!
How exactly does one tune for less errors? I totally agree with this approach in theory. But I know off no means of actually testing for this. And I have a full test bench inside of my listening room. What is your procedure for testing for this?
yuppi said
Any SACD player can be used as a SACD transport now.
Nope - I’m not going to bother watching the video, but that’s simply not true. There are plenty of players where the DSD isn’t even available on a wire internally, let alone being available externally. Most players will offer 16/44.1 or 24/88.2 PCM when playing SACDs, but that’s not what we are interested in.
Scott Kramer said
I believe getting the spdif right is critical, also you don't tune the sound -- you try to get less errors (that effects the analog sound in a variety of ways) -- to ultimately get to what your system really sounds like. If you don't get this right, you end up tuning everything else to try and cover up the real problem!
Errors over S/PDIF are almost never a problem with a reasonable cable - run the bitperfect test and see how often it fails - there's a big timeout for each failure so you'll notice any errors. In addition if errors were common DoP would fail quite often since it requires that the top 8 bits of the audio follow a very specific pattern - when you fall out of DoP it's not just one sample that fails, it's many so it's audible.
Scott Kramer said
I believe getting the spdif right is critical, also you don't tune the sound -- you try to get less errors (that effects the analog sound in a variety of ways) -- to ultimately get to what your system really sounds like. If you don't get this right, you end up tuning everything else to try and cover up the real problem!
Errors over S/PDIF are almost never a problem with a reasonable cable - run the bitperfect test and see how often it fails - there's a big timeout for each failure so you'll notice any errors. In addition if errors were common DoP would fail quite often since it requires that the top 8 bits of the audio follow a very specific pattern - when you fall out of DoP it's not just one sample that fails, it's many so it's audible.
First of all, Ted, I have to say that I admire what you've done with the DS DAC. It's gotten to the point (one year later) that I almost always prefer the Oppo 105D/ PSA DS DAC combo over the Oppo solo. The main difference being SACDs and even then...
I do disagree with you on one point and it may have nothing to do with transmission errors. I’ve tried any number of cables used as the coax connection between the 105D and the DS DAC and they all sound different to me. And not just in a quid pro quo type of way where one cable does this better and another does that better but in a way where the one I’m using now just sounds better to me in all ways. Perhaps the operational phrase is “to me” and given all the caveats in this hobby of ours that’s a valid caveat.
Sorry to ramble but I feel that cables do make a difference and sometimes it’s not all that subtle.
PS: In an apparent contradiction to my comment that coax cables do matter, I’ve found that I can’t hear a difference (no matter how hard I’ve tried) between the coax connection and a glass TOSLINK connection between the 105D and the DS DAC. This may be evidence that the DS DAC is relatively impervious in sound quality to connection type. Just sharing.
Ted can more than speak for himself, but I do not read his post as stating that S/PDIF cables cannot sound different, merely that decent S/PDIF cables do not typically cause errors.
. . . the one I’m using now just sounds better to me in all ways.
Note that I didn’t say that cables don’t make a difference - I merely stated that errors are almost never the source of any such difference.
If you take a particular source, the Oppo or the PS Audio Transport and connect more than one connection from that given source and the DS then there’s very little difference when switching DS inputs. That’s because most of the audible differences in your system are caused are in the radiation from the cables, the reception of radiation by the cables and groundloops caused by the cables affecting the rest of your system - not errors in the transmission by the cables. Anyway leaving them connected leaves these sources of interference on the DS and/or your system the same no matter which input is being used by the DS. To properly test the audible differences caused by different cables you need to remove one cable entirely and put another in for each part of an A/B test - you can’t just leave them both connected (on either end.) You’ll probably find that removing all non TOSLink cables between a source and the DS sounds better than any of the cables with copper - if you aren’t trying to use sample rates higher than your TOSLink transceivers and/or TOSLink cable support. I have some TOSLink cables that can’t (reliably) do anything higher than 96k, some that do 176.4k but not 192k and some that do 192k just fine - in these cases errors may indeed color the sound but they also would make a bit perfect test fail.
Ted, I’ve have a ground loop hum I haven’t been able to eliminate with a cheater on any of the power cords, is it possible switching to balanced IC’s would fix it ?
Elk said
Ted can more than speak for himself, but I do not read his post as stating that S/PDIF cables cannot sound different, merely that decent S/PDIF cables do not typically cause errors.
. . . the one I’m using now just sounds better to me in all ways.
Spill. Which cable?
Elk: Silnote Poseidon Signature II. Take the list price with a grain of salt and I have no axes to grind here. Just my ears and my system.
Ted: I’ve read before your comments regarding disconnecting all other connections when evaluating. I realize this is the better way to do the comparison but have never tried it. I do know that my Silfatec TOSLINK fails above 96/24 but I was never sure if that was due to a failure of the cable or my Oppo. Thank you for your comments regarding others that do better.
TarnishedEars said
I'm using an Oppo 103 with the Vanity HD card with my DS. I love the ability to have a two-box state-of-the-art universal disk player. However I'm curious about one thing:
Have any other users with this hardware combination also installed a linear power supply into their 103? I’m very curious to know if this has made any audible difference to the sound when the Oppo is simply acting as a transport.
It seems to me that there is the possibility that any common-mode HF hash which might be generated by the Oppo’s stock power supply could be a potentially compromising factor to the performance of the DS. But that is just theory. What really counts is the sound.
I have the Special Edition linear power supply from Dr. Lee (oppomod.com) it’s very nice. I also use a Equi=Tech 2QR. Balanced power is the hot ticket. I think this 103/VHD is a absolute giant killer.
rogerdn said
Ted, I've have a ground loop hum I haven't been able to eliminate with a cheater on any of the power cords, is it possible switching to balanced IC's would fix it ?
Try an isolation transformer, something like these are relatively inexpensive.
]