Oppo 205 as a music player

The 205 is unlike any DVd or Blu-ray player you've ever seen. It's made of metal, is huge, weighs a ton and is built like a tank.

As well as a USB input at the front, there are a number of inputs and outputs on the rear panel.

For my purposes, at the moment, I'm using just three of them - the RCA analogue outs (connected to a NAC 72 via a Chord Shawline); the main HDMI out, which goes into the back of my telly; and the asynchronous USB for connecting my Mac.

As well as CDs, Blu-ray audios and DVDA-s, I can now for the first time play high-res files and SACDs (I set the machine to play stereo DSD from the SACD layer direct to analogue, which seems to give the best results).

As I said in the first post, the machine is barely burnt in (only about 50 or so hours' play time) but evebn straight out of the box, music - even on bog-standard Red Book CD - sounds amazing. Even on my humble system.

First impressions are of a striking, '3D' quality. I'm not usually one for soundstage depth and all that malarkey, but this machine really does create a three dimensional setting for the instruments. Then there are the sheer levels of detail the Oppo is extracting from discs - even on albums I've played to death, I'm hearing things I've never heard before.

Percussion in particular is rendered incredibly realistically (cymbals sound like bits of metal being hit with bits of wood, which is how they should shoud sound), and the bass, while not quite as good as I get on the LP12, is still better than any other CD player I've heard (except the Marantz SA-10, which costs four times as much). The boogie factor is also very high, with no hint of blandness or politeness: funk sounds funky, swing swings, and rock rolls.

There's no sense of digital fatigue with this  machine, which is perhaps why I've been listening to it almost exclusively over the past couple of weeks, and I've only played a couple of LPs in that time.

Well done Kevin, Oppos are great machines. It's a real shame the compay have decided to quit making them, I've got quite a collection! I don't use analogue outs, just HDMI for surround sound, so I went for a 203, which has the same video and digital output quality as the 205. As you would expect from such a machine, the 4K picture is quite superb. These machines are a real pleasure to use and own. If you want a one-box source that'll play any disc, and stream from network sources, this Oppo is the business.

Another happy Oppo 205 owner here and thoroughly enjoying it.

4K into LG OLED is simply awesome.

Also used to listen to streamed music in living room, and plugging in my Sennheiser HD800S headphones also is a pleasure (great headphone amp on the 205).

ATB.  George.

tonym posted:

Well done Kevin, Oppos are great machines. It's a real shame the compay have decided to quit making them, I've got quite a collection! I don't use analogue outs, just HDMI for surround sound, so I went for a 203, which has the same video and digital output quality as the 205. As you would expect from such a machine, the 4K picture is quite superb. These machines are a real pleasure to use and own. If you want a one-box source that'll play any disc, and stream from network sources, this Oppo is the business.

Thanks Tony. Yes, i understand that the video and digi out capabilities of the 203 and 205 are exactly the same. Although I only have a standard 36 inch HD TV, even I can see the improvement on both BD and DVD over my old £60 LG blu-ray player.

I am hugely impressed with the DACs in the 205, it really is a stupidly good disc spinner for the price, and I'm looking forward to hearing with the machine can really do over the next few months.

I got a UDP 203 a few months before they announced the UDP 205, I might have got that had they been announced at the same time  but I was primarily after a high-end 4k UHD player.

I loved the way the UDP 203 worked but only had it hooked up to a 4k TV.  I gather the video is essentially the same.  Must say I've bought far fewer 4k discs since AppleTV started supporting 4k streams.

I always wondered about the UDP 205 but couldn't really justify it, then Oppo made their sad announcement, and I started reading more in depth reviews of the 205 and what it offered above and beyond the 203 on the audio front as I felt it might be special.

Unfortunately everywhere sold out quicker than I expected.

You could register interest for possible further stock on Oppo's website, so I kept Googling for stock.   One company said they might get more stock but had hiked prices by £300.  From time to time I did a search and then about 10 days ago I also saw Peter Tyson had some in stock, and after some further vacillation went for it as I thought it would probably be my last chance.

I only unboxed the other day and have hooked it up to my Nova via the analogue input, which probably seems a bit backwards as this gets re-digitised, but there are many permutations for listening to this thing, and this was just a quick way to listen until I find some toslink cables.  So far have only compared a few tracks streaming from the LAN and it seems a bit thinner than the Nova doing this itself, but very good sound after only a few hours.  I'll be fascinated to see how it compares playing CDs vs streams of the CD ripped to the NAS.

Whether or not I'll find it fantastic on the audio side I can see me using it for AV duties when I get my projector (or a 4k capable update) set up again in another room - I'll have the 203 in one room for family day to day viewing and the 205 in the AV room for surround sound or stereo audio via my active SBLs.

I strongly suspect this may be the last physical disc spinner I'll ever buy but it's nice to have got a fairly prestigious one.

I also wonder how it'll compare to an older Naim CD spinner - I barely used it, can't remember the model, but it was not that high end and struggled with non-standard CDs.  The puck has also had it I suspect.

I also have a Nac 72 - what does that feed Kevin-W?

I've wondered about trying the Oppo directly to a NAP 250 using the variable volume output:

https://forums.naimaudio.com/t...putting-as-a-pre-amp

Alley Cat posted:

I also have a Nac 72 - what does that feed Kevin-W?

Hi Alley - it goes into a HiCap and a NAP180. I understand you can use the 205 as a pre-amp, but never tried it (I wouldn't really know how to go about it, nor do I know if Naim would recommend powering one of their NAPs with the Oppo).

Kevin-W posted:

Alley Cat posted:

I also have a Nac 72 - what does that feed Kevin-W?

Hi Alley - it goes into a HiCap and a NAP180. I understand you can use the 205 as a pre-amp, but never tried it (I wouldn't really know how to go about it, nor do I know if Naim would recommend powering one of their NAPs with the Oppo).

See thread I linked to above, there's a link to an Australian Oppo support article there.

I'm only intrigued really as I'm currently using my Nova feeding a NAP 250, and would love to compare Nova streaming to NAP 250  to Oppo 205 direct to NAP 250 - really comapring the streamer prowess and maybe separately the CD playback from the 205.

There are just so many permutaions to consider just for the heck of it!

Hi Alley Cat, Kevin-W - any plans for mods for the 205? I bought mine 3 weeks ago and have yet to setup due to travelling schedules. Not sure if it is worth the efforts or if the improvements are night and day. 

No plans for modding my 205, [@mention:73230012253761869] - not got any US DVDs or Blu-rays, and I am pretty happy with the sound so far, as is.

Glad you like it. I had a 105 before but the 205 really builds on it in every way. Fabulous build quality too. Mine’s almost exclusively used with UHD discs into an OLED TV but streaming and CD playback including SACD and DVD Audio is excellent too.

bnc1863 posted:

Hi Alley Cat, Kevin-W - any plans for mods for the 205? I bought mine 3 weeks ago and have yet to setup due to travelling schedules. Not sure if it is worth the efforts or if the improvements are night and day. 

Currently no.

Wondered about multi-region, but it's not an issue with 4k I believe.

I have been using a 205 for just over a year now for both cinema and hifi duties. I have nothing to compare it with for hifi as I’ve never had a CD player but it seems fine. No idea what some of the settings do though.

Picture (1080p) and sound for cinema is first rate. Both a (marginal but noticeable) step up from the Pioneer LX52 it superseded.

Only issue I have come across is streaming 24bit from a NAS. Quite often there is a delay of a minute or so between tracks. Don’t know if that’s the 205 or the NAS or the combination. NAS to Muso has no such issue.

Oppo pulling out of this market is a shame, not unexpected, but earlier than I would have thought.

S.

My unit is, now it's getting some decent burn-in time, really starting to open up.

Quality on bog standard CDs is remarkable. I've played some hi res (96/48) files and I am not sure they're hugely better - but that said, the rest of my system (especially the speakers) are comparatively humble so maybe that's a separate issue.

One format where I've definitely noticed a difference, though, is SACD. I play the SACD layer in stereo, DSD straight to analogue, and I must say it sounds amazing.

All the SACDs I've played - Floyd, Can, Roger Waters, Goldfrapp, several classical titles on Jordi Savall's Alia Vox imprint - sound significantly better than their red book equivalents: tighter, better bass, more space/imaging, heaps more detail.

I've tried a couple of DVD audios too (Goldfrapp's Tales of Us, How The West Was Won by Led Zep) and been very impressed with them too.

Now that I've been using this for three months, and it's had plenty of burn-in time, I have to say that I continue to be amazed by what this unit can do, especially for the money.

I think in terms of a source unit, it's the best thing I've bought since I purchased an LP12 almost 31 years ago. Of course it's more versatile than the old fruitbox, and I have been enjoying hi-res files (24/48, 24/96, 24/192 and DSD) on disc and via USB and I think I might be coming round to the virtues of hi-res.

I'm looking forward to replacing my six year old Samsung HD LED telly with some sort of 4K UHD OLED in the near future so I can really check out its video capabilities...

Kevin-W posted:

Now that I've been using this for three months, and it's had plenty of burn-in time, I have to say that I continue to be amazed by what this unit can do, especially for the money.

I think in terms of a source unit, it's the best thing I've bought since I purchased an LP12 almost 31 years ago. Of course it's more versatile than the old fruitbox, and I have been enjoying hi-res files (24/48, 24/96, 24/192 and DSD) on disc and via USB and I think I might be coming round to the virtues of hi-res.

I'm looking forward to replacing my six year old Samsung HD LED telly with some sort of 4K UHD OLED in the near future so I can really check out its video capabilities...

Blimey. That's some compliment, Kevin.  I've got a couple of Oppos myself but only used for home theatre purposes, though they are capable of much more. Shame they've stopped making them.

Mike  

Some HDR content can be just a little too real - especially to these eyes! The upscaling is so good I often prefer the bundled Blu-ray version to the UHD one. The audio performance is excellent and it’s not a bad streamer either.