oppo 205 vs sepearate DAC or CD player.. should I bother?
I am currently using an Oppo 205 as my digital source, and I primarily listen from classic Rock to heavier music. Sound Garden, NIN etc.
Are differences in these recordings even worth going for a stand alone CD player or DAC?
I recently picked up a ML 326S pre, and I am tempted to look for a used 390S to match. The 512 is way out of the budget. I am thinking 2-3k.
System is listed under my systems.
thanks.
Brian
Lowering jitter is always a good thing for digital. This is the main thing that impacts SQ. The only way to improve this is to mod the transport or add a Synchro-Mesh reclocker to the Oppo and a good DAC. The separate transport/DAC will allow you to get the lowest jitter. Here is the jitter from a typical Oppo: https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=154408.0 8psec is very difficult to achieve, even with the clock inside the transport and using the analog outs. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
@audioengr Generally speaking; Do most high end one box transports/dacs (such as Esoteric; EMM Labs) running just analog outs have far less jitter than a a stock Oppo to an external dac? Won't the stock Oppo just transfer that jitter via SPDIF to the DAC? One would need a high end to strip the jitter when it reaches the Dac? |
Which Oppo 205 digital output you plan to use? SPDIF or HDMI? Please note that Oppo 205 SPDIF output is 'scaled' to 48k when playing Blu-Ray or SACD high-res audio, and that's only for 2 channel. Also, there's no DSD output through SPDIF. PCM is limited to 192k when playing from USB media. IMHO, you need more than your budget to have an external DAC better than Oppo 205 built-in DAC, and the external DAC must have HDMI input, something like Bryston BDA-3 (just an example, not recommendation). |
