Oppo 105 D vs. DAC-transport combination.


To my great dismay, the more I listen, I’m finding my Oppo 105 is outperforming a very well thought of DAC and transport combination for which I paid 3x the price.  Basically the sound stage is wider and better defined.
Both the DAC and transport are less than a year old.  I thought I was upgrading.
Played by itself, the DAC-transport combo sounds great.  Until I compare it to the Oppo. 
I can’t understand it!
128x128rvpiano
@noble100 

I am indifferent as between good analog and good digital.  I enjoy them both. Most of my listening is to classical.

Dynamic range:  Classical music has the most dynamic range generally.  While the dynamic range of digital is greater than analog, that even of analog surpasses the need in a domestic environment.  In fact, some digital releases have an excess of dynamic range for a home environment.  I can cite many Bis SACD recordings as examples.  So the dynamic range issue is a non-issue IMO

Surface noise. Well cared for records and equipment make this a non-issue and millions of us continue to listen to lps notwithstanding.  We just tune them out, if they'e there, because vinyl gives us a musical experience that the best of digital tries to emulate.

Rumble?  Obviously you have never used a quality turntable.  It is a non-issue though I'm sure some scientist can measure it.  Totally un-hearable on my system.

Speed variation.  Totally a non-issue on a well tuned system.  There is a piano and players in my house and I listen to a lot of piano recordings with notes that trail off into silence (the ultimate test for speed stability).

Channel Separation.  I don't doubt your specs, but as for listening I can discern no difference between the channel separation on vinyl and cd of the exact same recordings. I have many.  It's a non-issue.

Continuous, etc.  I understand the physics so I don't worry about chopped up.  Cartridges can reach well above the 22kHz of a CD as can much electronics.  Loudspeakers, I'm not so sure.

Longevity is another non-issue.  Some of my old records sound as good after years of playing.  It is an old wives tale that they are used up with each play.  Clean and with good equipment it has been written that they are polished by the playing.  I don't know if that is so . . . but they still sound great including those at the top of the pile for many, many years.  Many people report the same.

Some people think that vinyl, with all its issues, sounds more like the real thing, real acoustic music in real space . . and there's nothing you can say that makes any difference.  Vinyl is "better" if it sound more like the real thing, as many serious listeners believe.  In fact, it sounds as though, like so many here, you have never experienced a really good vinyl system in a home environment.  You might be shocked.

As for digital, some of the best, and most consistently outstanding, I have experienced are the SACD transfers of analog originals, the SACDs ripped to hard disk.  There are sound technical reasons why that might be so.  Better than original digital recordings and better even than most other SACDs and other high definition ones.

in fact, and I apologize here for looking at your equipment list, and notwithstanding that you think you've "discovered the true potential of digital," it sounds like you're not experiencing anything like digital is currently capable of if your're still listening through an Oppo 105.  

Cheers.

In saying that I prefer records to CDs I was somewhat overstating the case.
There are some terrible sounding records and some wonderful sounding digital recordings.  Indeed I think quality control is generally higher in the digital domain than in the analog. I just prefer the sound of the best records to the best CD’s, SACDs, etc.  
Also, In using the Oppo 105 as a transport to the Schiit Gumby, I’m getting much better sound than with the Oppo alone.
Many CD or even DSDs are copied form Vinyl so you could imagin the sound quality without more digital processing. Modern direct digital recording improve this. Even the spinning CD has variation from all sources. Digital stream is the new form of music playing. IMHO, music is above all. DAC, amp and speaker are second. As far as 105D as DAC, it is a very good CD/DSD/SACD/Blueray player. Save your money and subscribe to Tidal or even Spotify at $20/month. The $2000 DAC upgrade can buy you 100 months Tidal Hifi/MQA. For two channel music, I will use the the balanced XLR out at line level to get the best SNR. Use balanced all the way to amp. For SACD, I would use the 5.1 analog out to 5.1 speaker setup.it is a totally new music listening experience when you heard 5.1 ( I should say 5.0) when you hear SACD multi-channel.

melm,

     You are correct, I've never owned or used a high quality vinyl setup in my system, just a mediocre vinyl setup that I used during my college years.  I switched to a CD setup fairly soon after graduating in 1980. 
     Side note a bit off topic:  I also used a Super-Beta vcr in my A/V system during the early 80's and recall using it to create custom playlist  tapes by recording my favorite CD tracks on Beta tapes recorded at the Super-Beta recorder's highest speed.  These audio recordings made on Beta video tapes using the Super-Beta machine's highest recording speed not only sounded superior in my opinion to the original CD but also had a lower noise level and higher recording capacity than the typical audio cassettes were capable of at the time.  
     While I've never used a high quality TT setup in my system, I have been and am familiar with the very high sound quality a good TT setup is capable of via listening to hi-end TT based systems of friends and retailers.  
     However, my opinion is that high resolution direct to digital recordings, even played back on my admittedly mediocre system, sound superior to me to vinyl recordings played back on significantly better systems.
     I perceive direct to digital recordings as presenting a more realistic sound stage illusion in general that gives me a greater impression that I'm actually 'in the room'.  I attribute this increased realism being due to hi-res digital's ultra quiet background combined with its fine detail levels and exceptional dynamic range ability. 
     To be fair though, I've never been able to compare the same musical content recorded to vinyl to one recorded direct to digital. and these are just my overall impressions.
     But, as we've all stated before in various ways, which format is 'best' is much less important than which one you enjoy listening to the most.

Tim