Getting Oppo DSD Output to the Direct Stream Dac

Can’t help specifically with your issue, but were you swapping hdmi cables in and out a lot?
Any soldered connecter on a pcb can be fragile, prefer just to plug the cable in and leave it.

Just a thought.

No. Twice at install and once on Nov 27 when I changed cables. Changed HDMI cables many times with the ebay external box, DS and Oppo w/o problems. Shoddy soldering job.

I’m also trying to figure out what kind of solder used, lead, tin, silver, etc. Hopefully, Jaehong will let me know.

Update: Jaehong just sent word not to worry about solder, a replacement is on the way.

Good you got a replacement, but if it were me I’d have gave Jaehong a chance to remedy the issue first before stating “shoddy soldering” on a public forum?
Just a thought.

Issues can happen to any manufacturer, large or small, it’s how they deal with them as they come up that counts.
Sounds like he’s been happy to address your issue quickly, I’d say great customer service.

Wonder if he reads this thread?

If it is shoddy, it is shoddy.

How the manufacturer/distributor responds is a different matter.

Jaehong’s initial response was an emphatic dismissal and claim that I had mistreated the connection, that fixing it was up to me. He eventually apologized. He apparently does the soldering himself, as he mentioned getting good quality solder from Japan when I asked the type. What perhaps led him to send a new one was my question about the purpose of soldering the legs and a photo of the connector pins side. I was correct about soldered legs not being necessary to it working, which likely meant something else went wrong. I had initially suggested as much to him. For awhile, every time I turned on the gear with the DS in I2S input, but not coax, there was a low fluttering propellor like sound, which went away when I started playing music or video with the Oppo. I don’t think he reads the PS Audio forums, perhaps unless specifically directed, let alone subscribe to all the threads where Oppomod has been mentioned.

Thought I’d offer my experience with Jaehong Lee and his I2s board in my system.
I ordered a board from him the first week in November and he replied that if I was willing to wait until the end of the month, he was having a new batch made that corrected the reverse channel issue. I indicated no problem waiting and the board shipped from Korea about 30 days later. Took nearly 3 weeks to arrive due to Customs hold but finally got here Wednesday this week & Installed it next day without issue (he included mounting screws and ribbon cable). After adjusting the settings on my Oppo 203, the first SACD I played showed “DSD 64 1 bit” on the display of my DS DAC Jr. Couldn’t have been easier and I’m very pleased with the sound quality and ability to play SACDs to the I2S input on the DS Jr.


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Good job on the case and thanks for posting about the channel situation being fixed.

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Pity Jaehong doesn’t do a mod for the 205.

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Received the replacement card today. Out of the box, it’s the first one that’s sounded correct: no false atmosphere or sense of tilt toward the top end or brightness. And so far can’t tell any difference between I2S and s/pdif on Flac files, except for a little expected edge in the new card, which is a first. DSD channel issues have been solved.

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Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I have two problems with Jaehong’s I2S card I’d like other owners to chime in on. Jaehong suggested I reach out to the forums here to see if others have the same problem. I’m running an Oppo BDP-203 with the I2S card Ver 1.1 / Rev. C / 2019-02-21.

  1. When you turn on the Oppo from cold start, what bitrate and frequency does the I2S input on your DSD Sr. say? Mine says Rate: 32k / 16 bits.

In addition, if you turn on your amp to a reasonable listening level when it says 32k / 16 bits, do you hear a high pitched whine? Mine has a high pitched whine that’s probably at ~16khz constant until I hit PLAY on a CD or SACD. Then the rate switches to what the Oppo is sending and the background is black.

FYI: I have autoplay turned OFF.

Edit #2: is solved. I’m not 100% w/the solution presented, so have reached out to Jaehong on how to physically test disconnecting HDMI connector PIN 18 (+5V) per Ted’s feedback.

  1. With the Oppo turned on, and I2S cable hooked up to the DSD Sr., and the POWER SWITCH of the DSD Sr. turned OFF, does your DSD Sr. try to power up? Mine does and tries to boot, but fails. When I unhook the I2S from the Oppo, it stops trying to power on.

If you’ve experienced #1 and fixed it – can you let me know how?

Thanks!

Take a look at this thread for issue #2

Ahh, thanks for this link! The solution is in there. Set the Oppo I2S board jumper to EXT power (jumpers 1-2 instead of the default 2-3).

That tackles one item. Thanks!

I have this card in an Oppo 103. So the results might be slight different.

When my player boots with no disk is inside of it, it defaults to: 16/48. But when I play a redbook CD, it changes to: 24/44.1.

And the whole “ghost-lights” issue (as I like to call it) with the DS Senior may be simply resolved by setting the internal/external jumper on the card to “ext”. This keeps your I2S board from back-feeding (I believe) 5V DC to your DS.

The only other weird things out of this board has been that it somehow triggers the deemphasis like on my DS when playing SACDs (only). But since this filter is never applied to SACDs, I know that this is just some weird bug which does not impact the sound.

Also, SACDs (only, redbook and other high res are fine) have their channels reversed through this board. But this only rarely bothers me.

Repowered on my system and the DS Dac shows 24/48 from the Oppo.

I had the flashing DS problem before, changing the jumper on the card fixed it, Ted explained it well (does he ever NOT? :)) on my thread.

No high pitched whine here, all good on that front.

Thanks guys. Will try that jumper change when I get back in town and see if I still hear this whining sound.

I’ve got something strange going on: seemingly out of the blue there is no sound from I2S with the Oppomod card to the DS dac when playing non DSD files or cable TV; i.e., there is I2S sound only with DSD source material, such as DSF files. The Oppo 203 settings haven’t changed — HDMI Audio Format is still LPCM and changing it to Auto doesn’t help. The only possible occurrence since the last time I used I2S with non DSD or DSD is that I unplugged the P15 regenerator from the wall while out of town over the weekend and replugged it from there upon return. But there is a delay in everything else starting, plus the 203 would still be off, only on keeping warm status. Plus, if that had somehow affected the card, why not DSD too. I said possible because I don’t recall if I switched to I2S while watching TV Sunday night (I normally use s/pdif). Any ideas? Anyone run into this?

Update: resolved per post 260

Send Jaehong@oppomod.com (AKA pcaudio@naver.com) an email. He is pretty good about getting back to you pretty quickly.

I’m well aware of that. The purpose of my post is to pick minds here first.

Ok. I wasn’t sure if you had his contact info or not.

Last night before posting about the I2S issue, I turned off the Oppo but not the DS. Today, starting up both, I2S is back in business on all files. Strange.