OPPO BDP-103 (NON Darby)

I wasn't actually being tough on you wcc10 - I was trying to make light of the fact that you were given a recommendation for a piece of gear 4x the price of the one you were asking about without asking about your budget, and I think it's nonsense to use terms like "soul sucking" in regards to musical gear.  I could have been more serious and criticized those recommendations blatantly, but I opted to use humor and sarcasm instead.   If that means I'm not a grown-up, I'm ok with that.  As someone who's done the stand-up comedy circuit here in Phoenix the last few years, I will often resort to humor as that's just my personality, but I understand that not everyone likes that.

No problem bcgator. I understood where you were coming from with the quip about the check & all. And the soul sucking went right off my back! ;-)

Sorry about the comments, but the point is, if you have 3 different sources and still aren't happy it may not be your sources at all.

The common demonstrators are between the preamp and the room. There are less expensive solutions than the Mytek Brooklyn, obviously, I threw that in there seeing it as the 1 solution to improve the sound of your existing 3 sources.  Compared to a single source, yes, it's pricey, but thinking of it solving 3 problems at once, not so much. ;)

In any event, if you aren't happy now, I don't think any Oppo player will make you happy. The issues are elsewhere.

In a year come back and tell me I was totally wrong and it was the Oppo you needed, or that you ended up trying a bunch of other things until you finally got a different preamp. I'll be quite curious to see which you end up feeling was most satisfying.

Best of luck (really!)

Erik

Regarding the Emotiva comments, I have had extensive experience with Emotiva equipment. I have not heard the new gen 3 amp, as it is a completely different beast using a switching power supply, but their previous generation amps have been excellent. However, I have found their dac/pre equipment to sound very closed-in and dull/subdued. This may be described as gutless or soul sucking, so I can generally agree with Eric’s comments. There are definitely better dac/pre equipment to select, though the Emotiva stuff is cheap.  

@wcc10 - which specific Marantz player do you have? I have heard the oppo 105 (which is a lot more money). Overall, the oppo is excellent for the money for everything it delivers (video, audio, processing, features, etc.). There are probably better options if you are shopping only for a dac. I highly suspect that the Marantz that you have is going to sound a lot warmer/richer than the oppo 103/105. The 105 is great, but may sound a little sterile compared to the Marantz stuff. The 103 is not going to sound as good as the 105, of course.

Thanks for the comments, everybody. They all make sense. I have two Marantz pieces; UD 7007 which I am returning now as I was not aware I could not play DSD via thumb drive and NA 8005 which does accept DSD via thumb drive. (the price of these two & I could afford the Mytek!)
When I bought the Emotiva(s) I wanted to pair the pre/amp same brand. I thought of doing a tube pre but as has been said, the Emotiva(s) are "cheap" compared to others.
My room has a lot of furniture in it and I know this affects sound. Also speakers are now B&W CM5 s2, small book shelves but put out a lot of sound for their size. Maybe this is the place to start although everybody is really impressed with how they sound.
My biggest desire now is achieving separation between the instruments I am listening to. Position is critical with these speakers but still just can’t get it right!