The worst place to store the music file to play is a external hard disk connected (and power supplied) via USB: it is very noisy (several times tested by myself and many, many times read in forums)
The other point to consider is that USB connections are more difficult to manage by the manufacturers than the "internal" connections, that I guess in your Oppo is a I2S.
I do not know if possible, but using an external computer to "play" the file with a good app (Roon, Audirvana, ....) and feed the Oppo as an external DAC, would make a better comparison.