oppo's volume control

Anjowin,

I run my Oppo 105 direct to my class D amp via its 'Dedicated Stereo' xlr outputs. Prior to the 105, I used a tubed VTL 2.5 preamp with NOS Mullard tubes. The sound of the class D amp with the tube pre was excellent for music and never thought I'd take it out of my system.

However, I was forced to remove it while I sent it for repairs. I thought the tubes were giving me the touch of warmth and bloom on my favorite music cds. But, to my surprise, my favorite cds sounded just as sweet without the VTL.

I cannot recommend the Oppo 105 highly enough. Mine has turned into my 'master source' component for both 2-ch music and multi-ch ht listening. The 105 is even user configurable so that it plays stereo cds in 2-ch (either with or without sub contribution) and Bluray discs in multi-ch mode automatically, with no system switching necessary. It also serves as an excellent preamp and surround processor/decoder. So, I have eliminated my Parasound AV2500 processor from the signal chain, along with the VTL.

But your question was about the efficacy of the Oppo's remote volume control. Again, Oppo has you covered; the digital volume control actually operates using 32 bit processing to make sure no audio information is lost or negatively affected. This gives you an extra 18 bits to work with on cds and 8 bits on hi-res 24 bit/96 or 192 kHz music files. I've been using the remote volume control on the Oppo for months now and have nocomplaints. It has worked flawlessly and everything is very low noise.

Hope this helps,
Tim

using the oppo straight to powered speakers in home theater . Sounds as good as an anthem receiver I was using for volume control previously . In 2 channel setup not so great, compared to hifi preamps . but what would you expect ! several thousands of dollars worth of kit for comparison .

Ben_campbell wrote:

From what I've read from the main Oppo experts on AVSForums is that the Oppo always sounds better with a pre-amp.

"Always" is a dangerous qualification or lack thereof. For example, any preamp vs direct into any power amp via any cables of any length?

If the output impedance of the Oppo is low enough to drive the input of the poweramp (which it is, as all Oppos I know are less than 200ohms output impedance even less than 100ohms).
If the voltage output of the Oppo is high enough, to give more than loud enough volume in the system. (which it should have no problem in doing)
Then this constitutes a match, with the lowest order of colouration and distortions you can have of controlling the volume within a system.

If adding preamp into the system sounds better to the user, then it's the colourations/distortions of the preamp the user prefers sound of, this maybe making up for other tonal deficiencies somewhere else within his system.

Cheers George

To be more specific to my above comments, lots of Oppo 103 owners have reported pops and clicking when using the 103 as preamp. The 105, and 95 don't do this. The pop or click will occur when the Oppo is given a disc related command and stops, scans, pauses, etc. I experienced this myself and could find no solution.

Also, I found limitations in the SQ that my Oppo 95 does not have. Some have suggested that the clicks or pops occur because of DC bias that may be occurring in the IC's or coax cable connected to the Oppo. The shielding can build up DC bias, apparently. If I had the spare IC's(the kind that drain to one end only) I'd try draining away from the Oppo and then draining to the Oppo to see if that made a difference.

One of the Oppo gurus on the AVS forum thread has said the 103 is not intended to be used direct to preamp as the 105 is. Maybe someone interested can contact Oppo to see what the official word is.