MEASUREMENTS: Oppo UDP-205 DSD Playback (DSD64-DSD512), and PCM 768kHz. Plus CES2019 coverage thoughts...

Alright guys and gals, it has been months since I completed the set of measurements of the Oppo UDP-205 last year (here, here, and here).

In early December, David M wondered how the Oppo performed as a DSD player as I had neglected to measure that.

Over the years, I have measured DSD output performance but remember that this is a little bit of a pain :-). To obtain some results for comparison with PCM in RightMark, what I typically do is take the test signals (originating in 24-bit PCM), convert to DSD using software like Weiss Saracon, and then play back the DSD file through the DAC into the ADC which of course takes that analogue output resampled back into PCM for analysis. Doing this understandably adds other variables to the measurement system which should still be minuscule. Over the years, I have looked at things like PCM-to-DSD converters (here and here) to demonstrate that the conversion programs do have an effect as one would expect with different resampling and modulation algorithms.

GUEST: Future Proofed (and didn't know it) - Adding Streaming to My Existing Hi-Fi.

Every once awhile, it's great to have a guest writer put up their thoughts on the Musings. I've always lived by the principle of "it really isn't what you got that matters, but how you make the best of it". I think Allan's post here is a nice example of that. These days, we have all kinds of products and technologies easily available at good prices, but when mixed with streaming services, sometimes one needs to do a bit of digging to get everything to work right the way one desires. One could spend countless dollars on things that might or might not really be of value. How we use what we have can take all kinds of forms and ultimately is a reflection of us taking control to satisfy our needs while reflecting understanding of how the products and services work... This Guest Post is a nice reminder of that!

Take it away, Allan...

GUEST POST

by Allan Folz

Introduction

Last spring on this humble blog I wrote a guest post reviewing the Sony HAP-S1. At the time I had a number of complaints with regard to the feature set. Indeed, I wasn't entirely sure I was going to keep it for the long-term. My biggest problem with the HAP-S1 was that I could not use it with any of my preferred Internet streaming services. The HAP-S1 has a pair of analog inputs and I bought it thinking I could use those with the headphone jack on my phone and laptop to be able to play back music streamed from the Internet. Also, while I knew when I purchased it that it didn't support Bluetooth, I had planned to get a Bluetooth to analog-out receiver that I could connect to its analog inputs. Unfortunately, after I received the unit I discovered there is a limitation in that the analog inputs can only be used to drive the HAP-S1's internal amplifier. Since I was using the line-out of the HAP-S1 to drive a pair of self-powered monitors, there was no way to get the signal from the analog inputs to the line-out. Instead, I'd have to move the monitor's input wires from the HAP-S1 to the phone or laptop each time I wanted to switch sources, which was a non-starter. (Or purchase a pre-amp, which was far more expense and space than I was interested in undertaking.)

MUSINGS: Thoughts on audio device "modding" (eg. a tube modded Oppo BDP-105). [New Oppo UDP-205 firmware out with MQA USB-B...]

Couldn't resist the similarity :-). I'm sure the sonic output of both devices have been affected by the modifications! Notice that this Oppo is also sitting on a "Base" device that IMO is very much of the Dubiousness Class A variety...

Have a seat and let me tell you a tale, my friends. A number of years ago (summer 2013), around the time I started this blog, I had the opportunity to check out an interesting device that a friend had just received... It was a "tube modded" Oppo BDP-105 Blu-Ray player.

One afternoon, I went over to this friend's house to have a listen to this brand new device. He obviously spent quite a bit of money on it. The BDP-105 at that time was new and had an MSRP of US$1200. He is clearly an enthusiast so he "drop shipped" an unopened brand new player to the mod-shop and it came back to him with tube sockets for the analogue stage along with a fancy new external power supply. As you would expect, the modding itself being laborious, hand-assembled, and using premium parts was rather costly - about twice the price of the Oppo.

That afternoon, I had the opportunity to hook up my old test kit (with the Creative E-MU 0404 ADC) to the device to grab a few measurements. Since another friend already had a stock BDP-105 for me to listen to and measure, it allowed me to compare the results...

MEASUREMENTS: Oppo UDP-205 Part 3: Jitter, some conclusions, discussions, and suggestions.

We've reached the last of the "trilogy" measurement posts I'm planning to make on the Oppo UDP-205 (at least for now!). We've already examined some "microscopic" measurements like the oscilloscope reading of square waves, talked about the filter settings and relative differences. Then we've looked at the RightMark measurements demonstrating excellent low noise level, low distortion readings, good frequency responses, and minimum crosstalk across the different outputs.

With this post, let's have a look at the J-Test results from the various outputs to make sure there are no issues, and of course in the process examine temporal stability with the various digital inputs including USB, ethernet, S/PDIF, HDMI, and of course as a CD player. We will then close off with some general thoughts, suggestions, and opinions around this device and broader about the features that might be worth pursuing in audiophilia.

MEASUREMENTS: Oppo UDP-205 Part 2: Frequency Response, Noise and Distortion Levels. (Plus a look at the new v60 beta firmware.)

Let's continue today with the measurements of the Oppo UDP-205 as started a few weeks back when I looked at the digital filter settings and output levels for this device.

As promised, this time we're going to dive into some RightMark measurements of this device looking at the quality from the different analogue outputs, whether the digital inputs make a difference and we'll even explore a little around multi-channel.

As I noted in the preview, this device is based on the ESS ES9038Pro DAC, currently the "top of the line" reference DAC available from ESS. The results here I think would be interesting by providing comparisons with other DACs such as with the previously measured Oppo BDP-105.

MEASUREMENTS: Oppo UDP-205 Part 1: Output levels and digital filter settings... (And a few words about recent Munich 2018 MQA interview videos, McGill listening test out.)

Well guys, with this post, I'll begin a multipart look at the Oppo UDP-205 4K Blu-Ray player as an audio component "more objectively". Clearly, as I presented in the preview a couple weeks back, the UDP-205 is very much a device created to appeal not only to videophiles but audiophiles. Why else would Oppo go the extra mile and use dual "reference" ESS ES9038Pro Sabre DACs, provide 2-channel asynchronous USB 2.0 input, both multichannel and stereo analogue outputs plus balanced XLR? It even provides a secondary HDMI 1.4 "audio" output for lower jitter to an external DAC compared to the higher spec HDMI 2.0 which is of course a necessity for 4K/60fps/HDR video; something that I have not seen before. IMO, for home video purposes as a 4K player, the UDP-203 would in fact be very much sufficient - the upgrades found on the UDP-205 are primarily for those who want elevated audio performance. We'll look at whether this is true through these objective measurements.

For the post today, let's start with a few of the "microscopic" measurements that I typically put devices through. The reason I'm breaking measurements into multiple parts is because there are so many ways you could use this device! You could spin disks and make this a CD/DVD-A/SACD/BluRay-Audio player. Hook it up to a streamer/computer through the USB 2.0 interface. Use HDMI input for multichannel audio decoding. Of course it could be used as a S/PDIF DAC with TosLink or coaxial inputs. How about use it as a DLNA/UPnP streamer (works fine with JRiver, even 5.1 multichannel FLAC)? We'll look at bits and pieces in the performance of this device over the next while, concluding in a general assessment of quality and shortcomings once all is said and done...

A Look at the Oppo UDP-205 & The Great Audiophile Debate AK vs. JA of 2005.

Oppo UDP-205 and Black Panther.

Although I have already collected quite a bit of objective testing results from the Oppo UDP-205, I have not had the time to analyze the data or constructed the graphs and charts due to time constraints. Rest assured, the number, graphs, and charts will come :-).

At the time of this writing, I see that while the UDP-205 is in very short supply if even available any more (excluding the speculative price gouging on eBay of course), the UDP-203 is still available.

Today, as a start, let's just spend some time talking about this device and the features. By now there's no mystery since reviews over the last year have been thorough such as from TechHive and Audioholics. Oh yeah, even The Absolute Sound put in a review. In fact, the Audioholics review provides some excellent data on the performance of the Oppo UDP-205 versus its sibling the Oppo UDP-203.

RETRO-MEASURE: 2001 Sony SCD-CE775 5-disc SACD/CD Player (CD test)

Sony SCD-CE775 sitting below the Panasonic Blu-Ray player... A relatively large box - 17" wide, 15" deep, 5" tall.

Every once awhile, I like putting up measurements and thoughts on gear that I either own or borrowed of an older "vintage". I think it's good to have measurements of these older equipment for the sake of perspective! These days, it seems like the moment one buys a new smartphone, wait a few days and we see an announcement for the next generation of product... It was not always like this of course :-).

For this post, let's have a look at the performance of one of my favourite budget audio players that I have owned for the last 16 years - the Sony SCD-CE775, one of the earlier consumer-level SACD players released back when the SACD was viewed as the new-kid-on-the-block of digital formats. This specific model was released in 2001, at around the same time as multi-channel SACDs became available for sale - there was a copy of Kind Of Blue multichannel SACD in the box. I picked this unit up new in the summer of 2002 I believe and it has been a constant on my audio rack since then. My thought at the time was that this would be my back-up SACD/CD player, but as history would have it, with the transition to computer audio, I sold off my Sony SCD-555ES at some point back in 2004 and just stayed with this multi-changer and my old DVD player for spinning disks.

MEASUREMENTS: Oppo Sonica DAC (ESS Sabre ES9038Pro based device)

My Raspberry Pi 3 "Touch" on top of the Oppo Sonica DAC - notice the DAC can handle up to PCM 768kHz (and DSD512 / 22.4MHz).

A few weeks ago, I published the preview of the new Oppo Sonica DAC and noted some issues I ran into with unusual jitter and digital filter measurements. Thankfully, Oppo was able to correct the issues within a week with the beta firmware and I see that the official firmware incorporating the improvements is now out - Sonica-33-0511 on the support website (May 15, 2017 date).

With it becoming official, I figure it was time for me to run and post results of objective tests on the device. This should give us a taste of both the capabilities of this Oppo Sonica DAC as well as look at what the "latest and greatest" ESS Technology ES9038Pro 8-channel DAC chipset is capable of... Although I have not seen it specified anywhere, my assumption is that the stereo configuration in this device ties 4 of the DAC channels for each of the stereo pair.

PREVIEW: Oppo Sonica DAC (Thanks Oppo for making it right... On the rationale for technical perfection.)

Usually, I don't post many "preview" type articles, preferring to give you guys "the goods" when I've had an adequate amount of time with a device (usually at least a month or so) including measurements and such. I'll discuss why I'm posting this earlier as we go along...

Well, this is what showed up at my door last week:

That's of course the recently released Oppo Sonica DAC. A "hi-fi" USB, S/PDIF, ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth digital player with DLNA streaming capability, part of the Oppo Sonica "family" of audio devices. The only other device with this moniker currently being the Sonica Wi-Fi Speaker, capable of 24/192 streaming. Coming later this year apparently is the larger Sonica Grand.

Let's have a peek inside the box...

MEASUREMENTS: Oppo BDP-105 RCA, XLR, HDMI, and other stuff for the record (like MQA CDs?!)...

Recently, I was looking at my directory of audio measurement data and realized that I forgot to put up the measurements I had collected on the Oppo BDP-105 Blu-Ray player that I borrowed from a friend in late 2016. I believe the BDP-105 has been discontinued in anticipation of the next generation flagship. The last version of the 105 was the BDP-105D which added DarbeeVision DSP video processing. This would likely not affect the audio side which is what I explore in this article and I'll obviously leave it to the videophiles as to whether this processing is beneficial or not.

As you probably are aware, this device caused quite the stir in the audio and home theater communities back in 2013 when it was first released. For a reasonable price as a universal disk player, it was capable not only of the usual CD/DVD/(3D) Blu-Ray playback but also SACD, DVD-A, and even HDCD decoding. All with flexible digital input choices - USB, TosLink, coaxial, and HDMI. For analogue output, it has single-ended RCA (stereo and multichannel) and balanced XLR analogue (stereo only) connectors. Already in 2013, Oppo had gained a reputation as a good brand with their previous models, but I think this device really put them fully on the map for audiophiles and videophiles alike looking for a reasonably priced (~US$1200 at the time) device that neither sacrificed features nor quality.

For audiophiles, the high-resolution audio output is handled by the pair of ESS Sabre32 Reference ES9018 DAC chips inside. According to the BDP-105 Wiki for those curious: "In the BDP-105's stereo board design, the 4 pairs of DACs in the ESS9018 DAC are allocated as: 1 pair for the RCA outputs, 1 pair for the XLR outputs, and 2 pairs stacked for the headphone amplifier." The other ESS chip is used for the multichannel RCA output.

Years ago, I published some results for this player (along with a DSD followup) and showed that it is indeed a very competent high-resolution device. That was back in 2013 when I was just starting this blog. Over time, I have incorporated a few more measurement and I thought it would be fun to revisit the device. This time, with my newer ADC, have a look at the digital filter in greater detail, explore the difference between the use of RCA and balanced XLR cables, and see if digital input with the USB-B interface differs from HDMI, and the S/PDIF variants... I suspect many of us have heard the BDP-105 over the years, so this might provide a nice opportunity for objective-subjective cross-correlation.

MEASUREMENTS: Oppo BDP-105 does DSD.

Well, it's out...  The March 26, 2013 BETA firmware for the BDP-105 that allows native DSD playback from this unit's USB ports as DFF and DSF files on a USB stick. As far as I know, there are no plans currently to allow computer playback connected to the USB port as a DSD DAC.

With this recent development, I headed back to my friend's place to run a few more tests...

Here's the basic premise of what I did...

Using the freely available KORG AudioGate 2.3.1, synthetic 24/192 test signals from RightMark 6.2.5 were converted over to DSD64 (2.8MHz sampling) and DSD128 (5.6MHz) for testing. We soon found out that the DSD128 files created could not be played back properly by the Oppo (it would play but the DSD128 files had timing issues - played too slow). Presumably there is a bug here somewhere with the beta firmware or the AudioGate converter. As such, I was only able to test DSD64 playback.

The first thing done was to go through the Oppo's settings menu making sure there were no volume settings, bass management, etc. active. I believe if any of these are turned on, the DSD will get converted to PCM.

The hardware setup is similar to what I did with the original BDP-105 tests (only difference being use of the front USB connector):
Patriot Rage XT USB2 memory stick 16GB with test files --> front USB port of BDP-105 --> shielded 6' RCA --> E-MU 0404USB --> Win8 AMD X4 laptop

RightMark results:

The first 3 columns are the tests done in PCM mode at various hi-res sampling rates. These essentially measure <1 dB different compared to my original tests using the Oppo's USB asynchronous DAC. Nice confirmation of inter-test reliability.

The last column is with the 24/192 test signal converted to DSD with the KORG software. As you can see, it's almost the same. Note however that RightMark is calculating these parameters just within the audible spectrum between 20Hz - 20kHz (AES17 standard).

Frequency Response:

First hint/reminder of the DSD effect. There's some high frequency noise breaking through up in the 70kHz range. Otherwise, the curves are relatively comparable with -5dB extension out to around 40kHz for DSD and 50kHz for PCM 24/192.

Noise:

Demonstration of the DSD noise shaping through the Oppo. From 20kHz onwards, the noise level rises quite remarkably as you can see. It's all ultrasonic of course so unlikely to cause an audible problem and would only matter if this creates any strain on your amp/speaker system or if nonlinearities cause distortion in the audible spectrum.

Although also not a problem, notice the noise floor from about 12kHz to 20kHz is not as flat with DSD.

THD:

Another view of the ultrasonic noise.

Jitter:
The J-Test cannot be used with DSD of course. This is just for completeness. I've already shown previously that jitter isn't an issue with the Oppo...  Here's just what the 24-bit Dunn J-Test looks like going through DSD transcoding.

If we compare it to the PCM:

Note the loss of the regular modulation pattern. Basically this is telling us that the LSB in the 24-bit signal has been affected and effectively dithered over by the conversion process to DSD.

Analogue Output:
Lets now have a look at what a 1kHz -6dB sample looks like after going through the DSD process. What I did here was record a few seconds of a pure 1kHz test tone in 24/192 to have a look at the waveform zoomed in.

PCM 24/192 FLAC played back:

DSD64 KORG transcoded DFF file played back:

The high frequency noise in the DSD signal can be seen (you might have to click on the images to get a good look). Not a big deal in that this is not audible but a reminder that DSD64 cannot reproduce a simple 1kHz sine wave as smoothly as that produced by the reconstruction filter in the PCM domain.

Impression:
As I had hoped when I wrote that piece on the Pioneer DV-588A last month, here are some results from a device that performs "pure DSD" decoding.

Within the audible spectrum, DSD64 produced by the KORG AudioGate software looks good. Standard measurements like dynamic range, noise floor, distortion are all looking great and reminds us of the high level of performance the Oppo BDP-105 is capable of. I was disappointed that I could not get the KORG-encoded DSD128 test signals to play properly. I don't know if this is due to the KORG software or the beta firmware. Maybe I'd have better luck with Weiss Saracon if I had access to this conversion software... Oh well, maybe next time :-)

As a reminder, all the tests I've shown were converted from the 24/192 PCM domain into DSD64 and therefore will be subject to the limitations of the conversion software and PCM source (note that at 24/192, this is not likely a technical issue).

An interesting observation; even though the encoded DSD128 could not play, free downloads of demo material from 2L worked just fine on the Oppo! They sounded great with a wonderful sense of space, timbre, and dynamics.

Bottom line: The Oppo did a great job with DSD playback just like it did with PCM. Limitations of DSD are clearly seen (ultrasonic noise pollution mainly). From a purely technical perspective, within the 20Hz-20kHz audio spectrum, there's really nothing to differentiate all these hi-res formats. However, if you include ultrasonic characteristics, PCM is definitely cleaner.

Given the frequency response curve demonstrated, this KORG DSD64 conversion + Oppo playback system can likely be encapsulated within the parameters of a good 24/88 system.

MEASUREMENTS: Oppo BDP-105 as USB DAC.

Thanks to a good buddy, I got a chance to hook up the test kit to his newly acquired Oppo BDP-105 player last week...

(Yup, that's his Vitus Audio amp under the Oppo.)

As many of you know, this is the new "jack of all trades" Blu-Ray player from Oppo. Apart from the video wonder this device is capable of (including 3D, 4K upconversion...), for audiophiles, the internal DAC is the well-respected "ESS SABRE 32 Reference ES9018" in dual configuration (quad differential stereo) and also has surround playback. The fact that it has a USB2 interface for audio clearly adds to the flexibility something like this could be used as in a HTPC setup. I believe there is also talk of being able to play DSD files from a USB stick with a future firmware update (looks "official" now, not sure if this will be possible with the computer USB2 input).

Setup used to test:
ASUS laptop running Win7 --> 15' USB cable! --> Oppo BDP-105 --> 6' Shielded generic RCA --> E-MU 0404USB --> 3' shielded USB --> AMD Phenom X4 laptop (Win8)

This is a similar setup as what I used to test my Transporter previously. The laptops are being run on battery (if that makes any difference, could reduce AC adapter noise I suppose).

Oppo currently does not have a Windows 8 driver for the USB2 port; that's why I had to use the ASUS Windows 7 laptop. We did not have any trouble with the driver so it seems reasonably stable. I actually tried to install the Win7 driver on Win8 but it refuses even with "compatibility mode".

I would have liked to measure the XLR output but it was too much of a hassle to move the setup around, so here are the RCA results at the various sampling rates:

As you can see, the results even from the RCA with a 6' cord looks nice. If we had hooked up the XLR, no doubt it would be even better! A few observations:
1. I'm impressed by that 24/192 measurement. To have it not deteriorate compared to the 24/96 result speaks highly of the DAC quality. Most DAC's I've tried at this sampling rate shows deterioration compared to an "optimal" result at 24/96.
2. These are the lowest THD and IMD numbers I've been able to measure thus far. Obviously the BDP-105 is hitting the limits of my ADC.
3. I suspect the Essence One's -103dB stereo crosstalk is a result of the fact that a much shorter 3' RCA cable was used in that instance, rather than inherent superiority (Transporter was measured with similar 6' RCA cable).

Frequency Response:
24/96:

24/192:

Really nice 24/192 frequency response curve (ahem, ASUS Essence One...).

Noise:

Jitter:

Dunne J-Test 16/44:
Removed. Was able to confirm that LSB dither was being added to the signal so the J-Test was invalid. May retest in the future...

Update: Redid this on April 5th, here it is and it looks very nice and jitter-free:

Dunn J-Test 24/48:

Nice! The peaks are looking like J-Test modulation only...  If there's jitter here, it's totally irrelevant when playing music.

Conclusion:
Well, I got to spend an afternoon gathering the measurements and listening to this unit. What can I say... It sounds wonderful and is completely consistent in this regard with the measurements obtained. Genres sampled included vocal jazz (Melody Gardot), pop (recent Britney Spears / will.i.am :-), classic jazz "Kind Of Blue" SACD, among others -  they sounded dynamic and detailed.

As is, in stock form, even just measuring the unbalanced output, there's really nothing to pick at whatsoever from the measurements. I think it's fair to say this is "state of the art" (lets see if folks like John Atkinson can find fault with the pro AP gear!).

Realize that these measurements were obtained without any fancy cables. In fact, the USB cable used for playback from the Windows 7 laptop to the Oppo BDP-105 was 15 FEET long, thinly shielded, generic eBay purchase probably straight from Asia for <$20... Please explain to me, why do audiophiles need fancy USB cables costing hundreds of dollars again? (BTW, we did not decide to use this 15' cable purposely to test, rather it was already conveniently connected so didn't bother switching it out; if the results were looking bad, this would be the first thing I would have suspected.)

With regards to the BDP-105, the best part of all this is of course...  It's only $1200USD! Fantastic job Oppo and an amazing value even just as a high quality DAC!