Dead Wallet Walking

Allow me to save you a little bit of grief: SA-CD.net

These people are extremely harsh critics of sound quality. So if you -- like me -- get overly enamored with the sound of DSD...well, it's like the equivalent of a cold shower.

I have many MTT SACDs and they do sound pretty damn good. Better in person, of course, but I assume you know that from your location.

Heh, indeed Voltron and Dusty.

I checked out SA-CD.net before I made these purchases to make sure I avoided clunkers.

Until this week with the BDP-105 and sacds the ol' wallet was starting to feel kind of heavy. Now, not so much.

Edited November 14, 201213 yr by TMoney

Just got the shipping confirmation from Oppo. Looks like it'll get delivered to my office tomorrow and come home with me tomorrow night.

Enjoy!

I'm curious to hear if there are big differences between the Oppo's Red Book and DSD playback. I've been slowly, but steadily collecting HDCDs and SACDs for the last few years, so I'm hoping for some kind of sonic revelation when the 105 arrives.

I'm really happy with the sound from my Arcam FMJ CD36, but it will be interesting to hear if a player 1/3 the price can match it with hi-rez recordings and newer technology. Worst case scenario – it will still be a great video player.

Also, I wonder if hi-fi manufacturers have been able to extract 99.9% of what is possible from Red Book – i.e., is it close to becoming a dead end, marketing hyperbole aside. It seems that almost all the high-end CD players are upsampling designs, including mine.

I was looking at the dCS and Wadia players for a kick last week and I wonder if SACD and hi-res digital files will be the final frontier. The new Wadia, Simaudio, and Meridian players are Red Book only, while Esoteric, dCS, EMM Labs, Luxman, Accuphase, etc. are still selling SACD players.

Edited November 14, 201213 yr by HiWire

Nice, T mo! Looks like you'll be occupied for a while!

Getting my SACD -> 105 -> 009 working... very nice.

Why don't normal redbook CDs get dynamic range like this? Holy smokes!

looks like 17 lbs of disk playing goodness...

I have new appreciation for why Kevin and some of the other heavy-hitters on this site listen to primarily SACDs. My goodness some of these old recordings sound nice. I think my wallet is really gonna hurt over the next few months.

Neil Young Archives on Blu-ray 24/192 ain't to bad either.

And I haven't even tried using it as a DAC yet.

Edited November 15, 201213 yr by TMoney

If the mastering isn't messed up then yeah, high res all the way. Kevin just turns white if you even mention vinyl to him...

Why don't normal redbook CDs get dynamic range like this? Holy smokes!

It's the mastering. Redbook can have enough dynamic range to blow your hearing out.

It's the mastering. Redbook can have enough dynamic range to blow your hearing out.

QFT!!!!!

Oppo Arrivo.

aardvarko wanto for offico

Jeffo waito foro emailo

It's the mastering. Redbook can have enough dynamic range to blow your hearing out.

's'truth. You want to hear some amazing Redbook, check out the Rupert Hine/Thinkman remasters and the Peter Gabriel remasters.

(sorry, love that scene)

My goodness, these Japanese and their direct DSD transfers from the master tapes onto SACD are making a believer out of me. They may cost upwards of $50 a pop but gawddamn do they ever sound great.

I'm listening to the SHM-SACD of Exile on Main Street right now and I've got to say its the first time I've ever heard a Stones recording with dynamic range. On every CD version I've heard up till now Charlie's drums always seem to get buried by the compression. Now, they really pop, like just about every other instrument. Mick's vocals seem a bit farther back in the mix compared to the regular CD releases, but lets be honest, on Exile thats the way it should be.

Really the only downside to the BDP-105 for me so far has been the lack of a Windows 8 driver for the USB DAC. Hopefully that comes soon.

Edited November 17, 201213 yr by TMoney

My goodness, these Japanese and their direct DSD transfers from the master tapes onto SACD are making a believer out of me. They may cost upwards of $50 a pop but gawddamn do they ever sound great.

I'm listening to the SHM-SACD of Exile on Main Street right now and I've got to say its the first time I've ever heard a Stones recording with dynamic range. On every CD version I've heard up till now Charlie's drums always seem to get buried by the compression. Now, they really pop, like just about every other instrument. Mick's vocals seem a bit farther back in the mix compared to the regular CD releases, but lets be honest, on Exile thats the way it should be.

Really the only downside to the BDP-105 for me so far has been the lack of a Windows 8 driver for the USB DAC. Hopefully that comes soon.

Speaking of hi-rez playback, I'm actually a bigger fan of DVD-Audio than SACD, sadly it is no longer available. One can easily rip DVD-A tracks into 24-96 or 192 using a DVD-Audio Explorer Software. I dislike SACD due to copyright stuffs by Sony. Has anyone here successfully ripping their SACDs using Playstation 3?

I have a HDFury2 that lets me take the PCM stream off the HDMI out of my Oppo DVD player. Works pretty well and lets me listen to the DSD but with digital equalization.

I have dozens of PS3 rips (not done be me) and even though they are the wrong sample rate they sound very nice indeed.

I have over 2000 vinyl... Problem is feedback from the speakers right thru the turntable.

I would have to put the turntable in another room to get that to work.

Too much trouble.

ripping sacd's with ps3 very easy once you get all the software pieces in the

right place. trouble is the ps3 is a cheap piece of crap, and once the dvd player

dies, getting replacements is impossible. As is replacement power supplies.

Edited November 17, 201213 yr by kevin gilmore

Some of those SHM-SACDs are very good, and fortunate for us conservatively mastered. But there are also plenty of them that are junk or mediocre for the cost. The packaging is up to the usual Japanese high standards and is gorgeous.

I'll be trying DSD over USB at some point on my DAC.

For those that have one, does the 105 feature digital attenuation of the volume?

Mine won't arrive until Wednesday and I cannot locate any decent documentation to indicate one way or the other.

I believe the volume is handled by the Sabre DAC. Please correct me if I'm wrong.