Modding a Oppo 103


I recently bought a used Oppo 103 from the Bay to tinker with a few SACDs of jazz albums I couldn't find on Tidal or Qobuz. This was a deliberate purchase as I wanted to use the HDMI out into my Bryston BDA3 DAC. While the HDMI route works and plays back native DSD, I'm wondering whether the Oppo can be improved. I've read some older posts on various audio sites about modding the PSU that can level up the sound quality. I came across this: OPPOMOD. I was wondering if anyone has experience in this area? More importantly how likely will the sound improve if I'm already bypassing a lot of the Oppo internals and using the Bryston DAC?  

Thanks!

tee_dee

I used to have an Oppo 93 with Exemplar mods, it sounded very nice for the money. I believe it had the usual stuff like power supply upgrade, nicer opamps, all the regular mods that different companies did with Oppo players over the years. However I think it almost exclusively helped the analog outputs. Because I never noticed an improvement when using the 93 as a transport with external DAC. Granted I only ever tried coaxial digital out and not HDMI but one would think the same applies for both.

That Oppomod power supply is $380 so not the end of the world if you wanted to experiment. I just wouldn't do it expecting major improvements as you might be disappointed.

I did something similar to that with a ready made piece from a different make and it went smoothly with the install. I forget if there was a big enough of an improvement and it ran rather hot to the touch all the time so I took it out and put the old one back in. 

I just use the OPPO for movies anyway and really didn't concentrate on any sound improvements. 

All the best,
Nonoise

I had an Oppo 103 and then upgraded to a 205. I couldn't hear much or any difference in SQ so sold the 205 and still have the 103. So I doubt the mods would make much difference.

Modwright has been doing this for years. I have a UDP 205 of theirs that has a single tube auxiliary power supply and in the main unit Dan Wright added two tubes to the audio side of the unit; the video side, which apparently runs in parallel, was left untouched.

If Dan will modify your oppo 103 ? It will sound good. My 9000es he modified it sounds amazing. I was able to use it for 10 yrs. But He is expensive.