I would answer this way. Oppo is a very respectable company that, mostly through direct sales, operates on a relatively small retail mark-up. Given that and the fact that as they go from a 103 to a 105 they ditch the 103 analog board, I would guess they have about a retail $1000/unit to spend in China building the 105 analog board. The question was for me, how much quality can good engineers get out of spending that kind of money in China? The proof is in the listening if you have a system capable of taking advantage. I sold my DAC which essentially made up for the price difference, and I am very pleased.
oppo 105 vs 103
Im interested in the oppo 105 as a source for cd and sacd in an two channel stereo only capacity. Recently I read in stereophile in an article by Kal rubinson that the oppo 103 also had good sound quality. It is five hundred dollar cheaper so I was wondering how close to the 105 it is? Can anyone who has heard both tell me the difference.