Optimal Setup question Oppo/McIntosh


I'm attempting to get the most out of the equipment I have while making purchases that make the most impact. I currently have an MHT 100 running PSB image line home theater. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with it. I also use this room for music listening, both digital and with a turntable. The digital music is Tidal from a windows laptop=>PS Audio Nu Wave 2=>MHT 100. My Home Theater source setup is through a Plex server, the built in Plex app on a LG 4k tv and optical out from the TV directly into the McIntosh receiver.  Beyond this, I listen to records in my office but do not have an external DAC in there for digital. My one complaint about using the MHT 100 is that it produces a loud unattractive clicking sound between songs and as I pause and restart movies. It's part of a protective process for the speakers that's built in. This only takes place when I'm using a digital input. With analog, I get no clicking. I'm considering purchasing either the Oppo BDP-105 or Oppo UDP-205 and I'm wondering if this will greatly improve my home theater experience. If I were to purchase either, I could move the PS Audio DAC to my office as the Oppo has a Stereo DAC built in. The most intriguing feature of either unit is the 8 channel analog out. SInce the MHT 100 has 8 channel in, I'm hoping to utilize this feature. The MHT100 is from 2001 so my assumption is that allowing the Oppo to handle the digital processing will be an improvement over the Mac, but then again it is a Mac. I'm learning as I go here and I'd appreciate any advice.




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For home theater purposes, the Oppo player will be a significant improvement. The older 105 model does an excellent job of handling any bluray or video sourcing. With the 205, you have the ability to do video scaling/processing at 4K. Audio from any source is always very quickly determined and decoded. There are no annoying clicks or quirks to deal with here. The 205 is a new product and will likely go through some growing pains as they mature their firmware and release additional versions. Oppo has excellent service and support -- they even support and continue firmware on discontinued products (for a while at least). You can get a really cheap video streamer to stream from your plex server: such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku.  You can connect one of these directly to the HDMI input of the Oppo and Oppo will do all video processing and audio decoding.  You can also connect your laptop to the Oppo using the USB input for Tidal streaming or playing any other audio.

 The 205 appears to be a slight upgrade in audio quality from the 105.

That being said, for 2-channel audio, the Oppo is not going to be as sweet sounding as your PS Audio Nuwave DAC. The Nuwave has a significant power supply and uses discrete Class A output stages. The Oppo, while very excellent for a player/DAC, still uses convention op amps and will sound dry "in comparison". This is not saying it sounds bad. I have heard the 105 through a nice Class A preamp and it sounds very good! Using your MHT as an analog preamp here will likely have excellent results. I’m just saying the PS Audio will definitely have an edge over the Oppo.

@auxinput Thank you. That is very helpful. Do you know if I can run a 4k source through the 105 to a 4k tv? Or would it be something like a down-convert into the 105 and then an upscale by the TV after?

The 105 will not accept a 4K source on the HDMI input and it will not play any 4K media.  Anything 4K will automatically be down-converted to 1080p.  However, it will upscale any video to the older "original" 4K x 2K format.

The 205 will both play the new "UHD" 4K format as well as accept a UHD 4K source on its HDMI input.

If you want to support anything 4K, you are better off with the 205.

you can also upgrade the power supply in the 205 - see recent threads