Re: ? for John C Aussie about the Oppo DV-970HD PCM abilities

Digital Drive

Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

In Reply to: ? for John C Aussie about the Oppo DV-970HD PCM abilities posted by 2chJunkie on October 25, 2006 at 13:28:12:

I am extremely pleased with my new Oppo 970 universal player that I recently purchased online from the company. It has a great sound right out of the box, especially after it broke in for a few hours.
Correct setup of the rear channels is a must for the surround soundfield to lock in.
The 970 uses the Crystal 4360 decoder chip that handles all current audio formats, including HDCD CDs. I have always been a fan of Crystal DACs, having had the 4303 DAC in a Marantz CD63 and in an Audio Alchemy DDE 1.1. Their DACs always seem to have an extra bit of musicality as compared to the presentation of others. I hear that it converts DSD to PCM internally, but in this player this is not a liability as it has the best SACD reproduction I have heard. DVD- Audio and video discs sound phenominal too. I understand the video performance is also quite good.
I couldn't resist opening it up to take a look and immediately found a very simple and easy to get to mother board. There are 14 10uf @ 10 volt coupling caps on both sides of the output opamps (4558s)and next to the 4360 DAC. I replaced them with 22uf @6.3 volt Black Gate NX caps and replaced 2 1000uf @ 10 volt power rail caps near the connecting cable on the mother board with 2 2200uf @ 10 volt Nichicon caps for a bit more umph.
The effect was a gain in richness and detail that was a major step forward in overall sound quality. I haven't had this good of a sound from my system since I had the SACD1000 several years ago. Redbook recordings are reproduced quite well. With current mutichannel DSD recordings, the speakers and my real wall seem to vanish and are replaced with instruments and the original recording venue. Spatial cues are handled with aplomb. Loud parts are clean and clear with no congestion or compression. I have previously modded a Pioneer 578, a Sony NS775V, and a Toshiba 4960,and none of them sound as good as the Oppo 970. This player just has a certain "rightness" to the sound that lures me into listening for hours on end. To say that I am pleased with my $200 investment ($150 player and $50 for caps) would be an understatement. I am now looking for more new multichannel discs to audition on it. This player is highly recommended, especially for the price.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - ? for John C Aussie about the Oppo DV-970HD PCM abilities - 2chJunkie 13:28:12 10/25/06 (3)

Re: ? for John C Aussie about the Oppo DV-970HD PCM abilities - Rpower 06:58:50 10/26/06 (2)

thanks for the reply, could you tell me........ - 2chJunkie 10:45:46 10/26/06 (1)

No - dwk 07:04:57 10/27/06 (0)

Follow Ups

Re: ? for John C Aussie about the Oppo DV-970HD PCM abilities - Rpower 06:58:50 10/26/06 (2)

thanks for the reply, could you tell me........ - 2chJunkie 10:45:46 10/26/06 (1)

No - dwk 07:04:57 10/27/06 (0)

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