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Oppo 205 modification

I wanted to reach out to people with the Oppo 205 unit who are considering getting it modified. For the last two years I was looking into a DAC to replace my Sony SCD-XA5400ES. I was going to use my Sony as a transport for the new DAC. We'll in doing a lot of reading on forums and on the Internet I decided to get a modified unit by Ric Schultz of EVS. He raved about the Oppo Sonica with his mods but then production on the Sonica stopped and I was unable to get one. Ric then switched his focus to the Oppo 205 and discovered that it was even better. So I got an Oppo 205 when the the closing of Oppo digital was announced (Ric helped me to get one of the last ones when there was a run on them). 

We'll it's been about a month with my Single Super Single Ended version of the EVS mod plus the optional power supply that Ric makes for the unit. Total cost for the mod plus the optional upgraded power supply was $1300. I am extremely happy with the result. The main attributes I noticed with the stock Oppo 205 was soundstage size, detail retrieval and the openness of the player. With the mod these strengths of the stock unit all get significantly better. The decay of instruments is incredible. The end of a track takes like forever for it to decay into nothing. Timber of vocals and instruments is just so natural and organic sounding. Everything also has a texture and three dimentionality to it. Instruments are very precisely located in the soundstage now. The sound has a very black background where you hear very faint details in the background come out more. Definite increase in the depth of the soundstage as well as heighth and width. Shocking how much information is actually on those Redbook Compact Discs! Though every disc sounds pretty darn good so far, I have tried probably 60 to 80, the soundstage and fidelity on each still varies greatly with the recording. Most discs sound wonderful with a good amount just sounding way what I  ever expected from any disc.... SACD included The sound is just so coherent as everything just fits into place so nicely and cleanly.  I heard a lot of good Dacs and equipment at AXPONA and audio shops througout the years and my system is way above what I thought it could be without buying really expensive components. I always liked the Sound of the Salk Sound speakers,  most recently their model Song 3 Encore speakers at AXPONA the last 2 years,and this sound rivals that sound, maybe betters now, and my speakers are the 15 + YEARS OLD Hales Design Transcendence 5's. Although still pretty good I would bet, I would love to hear those Salk Sound Song3 Encores speakers with this setup.Trust me the sound is so good I am not in a hurry to change speaks for a while though.

When you first put the modded player in your system you will instantly notice that the soundstage is noticably bigger with more detail. Everthing just keeps improving. I only play my system on weekends so yours may break in even faster. The bad side is I used to be content with 2 to 3 hour listening sessions...now it's 3 to 5 hour sessions. Obviously no digital fatigue. In fact you find yourself listening to songs on discs you skipped over in the past because you hear so much more. I listen to all kinds of music. I found the better my system got the more types of music I like. From folk to hard rock and  bluegrass to classical.

  The rest of my system consists of a heavily modified Bada Purer 3.3se Hybrid Integrated amp (165 watts with first 30 in Class A), Core Power Technology 1200 balanced power conditioner, 2 Teo Audio Ultra RCA's run in parallel (see Doug Schroder method thread here in the forum). Silnote Anniversary biwired speakercable, Synergistic Black UEF power cord, Cerious Technologies Extreme Yellow  power cord, Audio Archone Blue powrr cords. OPPO and BADA PURER sit on Starsound Sistrum SP-4 stands.

I would say the stock Oppo 205 is about a 6.5 or 7 and the EVS modified unit I now have has to be close to a 9 on a scale from 0 to 10. Big,  big increase in audio performance over stock. The Oppo 205 stock probably competes well against 2 to 3k Dacs. The EVS mod has to take the Oppo 205 to the 5k and up range (i.e. ... I heard the Denafrips Terminator Dac demonstrated at Axpona this year and it didn't sound this good to me). With the DACs you also have to buy a Transport another power cord and more cabling! Sorry if this got a little long-winded!
tuffy72561
bar81
791 posts
 
@caphill
I’m using my 203 for only movie playback - I only use the primary HDMI and audio is SPDIF out to my DAC.
The improvements that made a difference (in the order magnitude of improvement):
  1. Digital only power supply (meaning the whole analog board is disconnected and only the digital board is powered) ~$200
  2. Suspension of the player - I replaced the feet with 4x HRS Nimbus footers ~$240 (prices have doubled for these if you buy them new today)
  3. Upgrading the IEC and internal wiring of the player ~$140
The only other improvement that made sense was an upgraded clock but given the substantial price for the best clock and the fact that this requires soldering (I’d have to send it off to someone) I’ve avoided doing that one.

None of these mods change the sound of the unit. What they do is substantially lower the noise floor of the player and significantly improve detail retrieval.
caphill
666 posts
 
@bar81

Thanks for the recommendations.
I’m only interested in modded HDMI outputs (both HDMI outputs) of my Oppo 205. That’s the only outputs I’m using to my AV processor in my dedicated HT room. I’m only using my Oppo 205 strictly for 4k UHD & bluray disc playbacks mostly for movies and some bluray/4k UHD musical films or movies and some bluray concert films. So, basically it is strictly for HT (surrounds). I don’t listen to stereo music through my Oppo 205. This is a dedicated HT room. I do have a separate dedicated stereo setup and system in a separate room.

As for my Oppo 205, which is in my dedicated HT room, I’m using a Shunyata Research Sigma power cable for the Oppo 205 and my Classe SSP 800 AV processor, which will be replaced by a Lyngdorf MP-50 very soon. I have ordered the MP-50 and still waiting for its arrival.
I have custom made footers for the Oppo 205 and the AV processor.
bar81
791 posts
 
That was exactly my point. For movie playback, those are the mods that will make the most difference. I’m not quite clear what you are referring to - you keep talking about modding an HDMI output. There are no mods for the HDMI output itself - the mods are to the digital components of the player (the power supply, the digital board and the transport) that in turn produce a cleaner digital video and audio output from the player’s digital board - which encompasses the HDMI outputs and the SPDIF output I was discussing above - they all improve together.

The two most effective mods as I understand them are a linear power supply swap and a clock mod. As I said, for the linear power supply, in conjunction, I would disconnect the analog audio board from the analog power supply to avoid interference on the digital. For the clock mod, there are several options but they all involve precise modding of the board and are quite expensive when you get up there with femto clocks and then there’s install charges and shipping them to a modder. Then there are various other mods that have varying additional degrees of improvement - suspension/damping of the transport/entire unit and swapping out internal wiring.
caphill
666 posts
 
What I meant was the mods for digital outputs which includes HDMI, spdif & Toslink. But I only use the HDMI outs.
melm
1,057 posts
 
Sorry to be a party-pooper, but I think these kinds of mods (and the $1300 or more spent on them) are not a good way to find better performance.  Much better IMO is to find a good performing separate DAC and let the Oppo feed it by spdif.  That way you keep the Swiss Army Knife qualities of the Oppo and improve the sound considerably.  The money spent on the mods will get you  a very good DAC, easily better than the modified Oppo. Of course doing that, the 203 is about as good as the 205.

If you should later decide to sell I think you will do better, proportionally, with a factory Oppo than a modified one.  Also a  DAC will have several inputs and you can build a more flexible system.  Finally, digital technology both regarding input to a DAC and the DAC itself is running very fast.  With a separate DAC you will be able to upgrade at will.

Just my $.02 after having considered a mod of my own Oppo.
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