Don't know anything about your Denon AVR, but I will add this. I owned the Oppo 103 previously and currently have the 203 which does have a better DAC onboard vs the 103. However my Emotiva ERC-4 clearly outperforms the 203 regardless if either are used as a transport to an external DAD, or as a stand alone player. The 203 does have the capability of playing SACD or DVD-Audio however but with CD its not even close when used as a transport or stand along player. The best performance comes from using an AES/EBU cable between the ERC-4 to my other DAC. I've yet to hear a coax or optical cable outperform a 110 ohm AES cable connection.
