Warming: Oppo 105 Owners

Posted by: Mr Underhill on 08 March 2016

I killed my REL Strata III last week. This was my own fault as I set up the system without properly appreciating a point in the manual, covered here:

Oppo Issue

Bottom line, set up your speakers based on setting the least efficient at 0db, and use negative trims to set the rest - DO NOT HAVE ANY POSITIVE TRIM VALUES.

M

Posted on: 08 March 2016 by Adam Zielinski

S**t!

Thank you Mr Underhill - I will re-set the speaker settings. Currently my Naim dreaven ones are at +3 dB and Rel at +6dB.

Adam

Posted on: 09 March 2016 by MDS

Ouch. That's bad luck, M.

Still, we both know a man who's an expert on sub-woofers and could probably provide an even meatier replacement for the Rel   

Posted on: 09 March 2016 by tonym

Sorry from me too Mr Underhill. I've managed to blow up two subwoofer amps in the last couple of years, it's a real nuisance!

Posted on: 09 March 2016 by Mr Underhill

Thx Guys,

Pain, I have consoled myself with a larger more powerful sub.

I do tend to agree with shreds in the above thread, if positive values in the Trim can lead to issues in certain circumstances then I would like Oppo to update the firmware and not allow it!

Hope that this saves any of you suffering a similar fate - Tony, perhaps we should design a club tie.

M

Posted on: 11 March 2016 by Mr Underhill

A thought:

In the same way as CDs are being mastered to 0db, with clipped waveforms, are movies being mastered similarly?

M

Posted on: 12 March 2016 by tonym

I don't think so Mr Underwood. Certainly when it comes to music DVDs/BluRays, when ripped their sound quality is far better than their CD equivalents. I recently compared my rip of Jeff Beck's "Only One Night" concert on BluRay to the CD & the former was considerably better & less compressed.

 

Posted on: 12 March 2016 by Mr Underhill

Hi Tony,

I'll take that as a recommendation. What do you use for BluRay ripping (MakeMKV?).

The OCD part of me will end up extracting some audio streams and examining them in Audacity!

M

Posted on: 12 March 2016 by tonym

I've got a PC laptop for the purpose, and use Any DVD HD to remove copy protection (it isn't available for a Mac unfortunately) then either Handbrake for BluRay/dvd movies & DVD Audio Extractor for just soundtracks.

Posted on: 12 March 2016 by Mr Underhill

Thx Tony

Posted on: 13 March 2016 by Mr Underhill

I took my first look at an 5.1 audio track, simply because I bought a 2nd hand copy of the High Society soundtrack as an LP a couple of weeks ago, to compare with my mono copy. Having digitally recorded it I then extracted the audio track from my mkv, converted the 5.1 to stereo (remembering to dither it) and then played the three.

The mono is somewhat harsh on female vocals, but the track is dynamic.

Stereo as mono, but with the vocalists placed on one channel, unless it is a duet in which case they are placed on opposing channels.

Movie - not as dynamic as LP BUT more relaxed on the ear for female vocals, and all singers placed centrally.

For info I bought a CD ...which was dire.

Looking at the recording levels, they are very well set for the movie, peaking for 'Now You Has Jazz'.

There are to soundtracks I will be examining - Mad Max Fury Road and Interstellar; the latter apparently has issues.

M