Hi Matt,
I understand your skepticism.
I took a look at your system and it seems like a high quality system designed to play vinyl through a precision turntable, classic tubed electronics and premium speakers; always a good recipe for pleasurable music listening.
I watched the linked YouTube video you made on my laptop with a usb dac, class A headphone amp and headphones, too. I don't know how you recorded that video but the sound was actually very good on the Eric Clapton Unplugged blues song you played. I don't just mean good for a You Tube video but very good,period. Some deep bass and the smooth, organic sound of tubed playback managed to be conveyed on that video.
Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I'm not a total stranger to the sound of good quality playback equipment and sound. Previous to using my 105 as a preamp, I used a VTL 2.5L preamp with NOS Mullard tubes paired with various mid-level ss amps (McCormack and Aragon) with the 105 used as a CD/SACD and DVD-A disc player for 2-ch music. I loved the smooth, organic, textured and realistic sound stage I thought the VTL and tubes was imparting on my music.
I thought it would be the last component I'd ever remove from my system. However, with the separate VTL preamp just for music and separate Parasound AV-2500 surround processor/preamp just for 5.1 ht surround sound, I found the hookup to be a pain due to the extra cabling required and the operation being a bit complex for my wife to use.
So, I spent a Saturday comparing the sound of my system with the VTL to the sound without it, going direct from the 105 to my amp. I was
very surprised to discover just how good my familiar music sounded connected to my class D mono-blocks I used by this time.
With the Oppo connected directly to my class D monos, I noticed I could much more easily determine the quality of the recordings on my familiar music than I could with the VTL in the chain. All my music sounded at least good thru the VTL. Through the Oppo, poor recordings didn't but good recordings sounded extremely good.
I actually surprised myself by preferring the much more neutral and transparent quality of the sound of the Oppo connected directly to the monos, although I think the accurate and neutral class D monos contributed, too. I had always thought I preferred the euphonic quality of tubes, with their added emphasis on even ordered harmonics, but I had to be honest and trust my ears.
I agree with you, it is hard to believe an under $1,500 Bluray player also has a very high quality audio section but, once you realize that was a primary Oppo design goal for the 105 and 205 and learn of the high quality internal parts used in pursuit of this goal, it's much easier to understand why they performs so well.
Of course, I wouldn't suggest the Oppo for you since you have a music only system and prefer a vinyl source with tube electronics. But the Oppo for brian27b's combo ht and music system is ideal since it's an excellent 4K and HDR10 Bluray player, very good CD/SACD/DVD-A disc player, has a very good built-in surround processor music and streamer/DAC along with its ability to function well as a limited input high quality preamp.
I suggest you may want to check out the sound performance of one in this configuration before dismissing the 105/205 audio sections' competence.
Tim
