How do think the Coffee compares to the Vodka. Same basic cable but Coffee has DBS…
I was using the coffee for I2S on the Oppo. I haven’t had the vodka in my system long enough to make a comparison but yes they are the same specs minus the 72v dbs so they should be very close performance wise. I upgraded the coffee to Diamond. I’m using I2S on my Oppo and on my Matrix Spdif. I moved the Diamond to the Matrix because it’s getting more use in my system. I put a Vodka on the Oppo to save a couple bucks.
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I’m new to this discussion. I’m using an Oppo 205 as a transport to feed Directstream DAC. If I get this new Chinese board then I can play SACD with two HDMI cables connecting to HDMI in and I2S out, right?
You can go to oppomod.com there you can get a new board that has a HDMI (I2S) port. It connects the ribbon cable going from the digital output into the oppo Dac so the card sits in between.
It does require cutting a small hole on the back of the oppo. I believe the cards are on eBay also.
Thanks! I’ll check it out.
That’s for 203 only. They don’t have it for 205.
You’re right, I didn’t find one for 205. I guess I can get one with an external box (saw one here earlier from eBay). That will not require any mod on the Oppo.
By the way, if you need extra HDMI cables, BestBuy has the AQ Vodka 70%off on Black Friday sell now. Get them soon before they run out.
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I apologize. I didn’t Realize it doesn’t work for the 205.
They have all other Oppo mod except for the 205. So an external I2S adapter box is the only option. I may order one just to try. It should work for 205 if it works for 105/203.
The outside boxes are seem affordable and if they work worth the risk in my opinion. Good luck.
Hi Paul,
No need to apologize. I was disappointed when I found that they don’t have an option for 205.
But then, 205’s analog out (XLR) sound quality is astonishing. It can’t be underestimated, IMO.
If you haven’t done it already, it’s IMO well worth doing the Oppomod ,LPS and stabilizer upgrade and 200 hours of burn in, it still amazes me to this day on how good the oppo 205 is with the upgrades.
I’m sure the digital out on the 205 from the optical drive to the DAC is more substantial than a ribbon cable on the 203.
Has anyone been able to passthrough 4k video with one of the chinese boards? The board I have won’t, but I’m wondering if there’s a newer model that will. The ebay description for the current board mentions 4k.
The oppomod board is a dedicated audio only. I’m not sure about the outboard versions. You’d think they would do passthru video but does it compromise the quality? Good question.
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The chinese board I have will only pass 1080P and doesn’t seem to affect quality. Really just wondering if anyone who’s ordered one from ebay recently has tried it from the HDMI 1 port from their Sony UHD player and passed 4k video? I’ll buy the newer board if it’s capable. 
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So I used to have this issue, what I used was a HDMI switch to get the video into the OPPO and the HDMI audio out of the OPPO into the board to the DAC. This way you can keep 4K throughout the chain.
I have used both the pro and the S versions, they are both good and provide full 4K through to the OPPO.
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Thanks for the reply Veneet! I use an HDMI switch as well. The only device I have with an HDMI audio only out is the Sony, and it doesn’t have an HDMI In port. Did you run other 4K sources into the switch, then into the Oppo to seperate the audio/video out of the Oppo? I’ve been searching but I haven’t found a stand alone box that is able to seperate audio and video via hdmi, except the I2S board, which isn’t 4K capable. Ugh!
So with the splitter can’t you put all your sources into the splitter, going out to the OPPO and use the HDMI out audio from the OPPO to the i2s board and the video out from the OPPO to your projector?
If I am misunderstanding feel free to PM me and we can chat on the phone if needed.
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I just realized I’m in an Oppo specific thread. Apologies for going off topic all. I don’t own an Oppo, just a Sony X700 UHD player. You understood correctly though, that would work if I had the Oppo. When I was running 1080P sources only, until recently upgrading to 4K, it worked like a charm running all sources through the HDMI switch, through the board, and out to the DAC and projector. I’m able to get hi res sound from everything including my Rasberry Pi, Shield, ect, just not with 4K video.