[wuwhere]

Quote:

I'll be ordering a 105 in the next few days. Does anyone know if there would be any benefit to:
 
a) using XLR outs for 2 Channel on 1 meter or less cable runs?
 
b) using XLR to RCA cables (same length)? Or would any benefit be negated by having RCA's on one end?
 
Any help would be appreciated.
 
Thanks,
Mick.

 
XLR to RCA, you might as well get an RCA to RCA cable.

 

[cfcmick]

Quote:

 
XLR to RCA, you might as well get an RCA to RCA cable.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

 

[tme110]

If your equipment is all balanced then use XLR if not use RCA.  It really just depends on your equipment.  Don't worry about the xlr-rca unless you need it for some specific reason.
 

 

[cfcmick]

Quote:

If your equipment is all balanced then use XLR if not use RCA.  It really just depends on your equipment.  Don't worry about the xlr-rca unless you need it for some specific reason.
 

I don't have balanced inputs on one end, so RCA-RCA it is for now. Thanks.

 

[Iamnothim]

My Panasonic DMR-HS2 DVD player tanked last week, so I went about looking for a replacement.  I always thought the picture was good.
 
Usually I watch AppleTV, my kids watch DVDs.  I discovered that all the BlueRay players only had HDMI out.  That is a problem for me since my AV receiver, Anthem AVM20, only has component video.
 
I was able to get the Apple TV HDMI working using Atlona Cat6 extenders.  But that was it.  I only had one Cat6 run.  btw: Atlona stuff is great and they now power the remote receiver over Ethernet.
 
The Panasonic wasn't cheap when I bought it, but I had a hard time paying $500 for a BlueRay player when I don't watch DVD's or BlueRay.  I found the Oppo BDP-103 had HDMI ports in for the AppleTV to share the link.  That's what sold me.  I also liked all the glowing reviews.
 
Guess what?  The glowing reviews are right.  This player made the picture of older DVD's look amazing.  Far better than the old progressive scan Panasonic over component video.  Instead of using Toslink to my receiver for audio, I used the analog 7.1 inputs.  Oppo said BlueRay may not support Toslink.  The DAC in the BDP-103 is also amazing. The audio is great. There are so many options to make your A/V system primo.
 
I'll be watching a lot more DVD's now.  It's that good, built solid, and worth the price.

 

[ehlarson]

Quote:

Guess what?  The glowing reviews are right.
 

 
Oppo service is really good too. It's really worth emailing them if you have any issues at all.

 

[longbowbbs]

Quote:

My Panasonic DMR-HS2 DVD player tanked last week, so I went about looking for a replacement.  I always thought the picture was good.
 
Usually I watch AppleTV, my kids watch DVDs.  I discovered that all the BlueRay players only had HDMI out.  That is a problem for me since my AV receiver, Anthem AVM20, only has component video.
 
I was able to get the Apple TV HDMI working using Atlona Cat6 extenders.  But that was it.  I only had one Cat6 run.  btw: Atlona stuff is great and they now power the remote receiver over Ethernet.
 
The Panasonic wasn't cheap when I bought it, but I had a hard time paying $500 for a BlueRay player when I don't watch DVD's or BlueRay.  I found the Oppo BDP-103 had HDMI ports in for the AppleTV to share the link.  That's what sold me.  I also liked all the glowing reviews.
 
Guess what?  The glowing reviews are right.  This player made the picture of older DVD's look amazing.  Far better than the old progressive scan Panasonic over component video.  Instead of using Toslink to my receiver for audio, I used the analog 7.1 inputs.  Oppo said BlueRay may not support Toslink.  The DAC in the BDP-103 is also amazing. The audio is great. There are so many options to make your A/V system primo.
 
I'll be watching a lot more DVD's now.  It's that good, built solid, and worth the price.

 
The copy protection people from Hollywood killed the component video on all players after 12/2011 so no one has them going forward.

 

[Iamnothim]

Quote:

 
The copy protection people from Hollywood killed the component video on all players after 12/2011 so no one has them going forward.

So that's it.   I should have known.
I am still marveling at the picture and the iPhone app.
All my equipment is in a closet and I use RedEye to control everything.  The RedEye Oppo codes work well in my activities macros.
 
Now I'm mucking with the HDMI input on the 103 so my AppleTv will share the link to the TV.
It has not been obvious to me but I haven't spent much time working on it.
 
I did find another CAT6 run so I could buy another set of Atlona transceivers, but I don't want to spend the $300 unless absolutely necessary.

 

[longbowbbs]

Quote:

 
I did find another CAT6 run so I could buy another set of Atlona transceivers, but I don't want to spend the $300 unless absolutely necessary.

+1 on that!

 

[tme110]

for the hdmi input all you do is hit input and select 'HDMI in back' or something close enough and the appleTV will immediately come up.  Can't you just run HDMI straight to your TV?  that would be a lot easier and hdmi really is the way to go and like stated above, component video is dead.
 

 

[runswithaliens]

How does this BDP-105 as just a DAC compare to other DACs in the $500 to $1,200 range?  If somebody could describe it in the standard audiophile terms that would be awesome... detailed, smooth, analog, warm, bright, analytical, none of the above, etc.?
 
Concerning the built-in headphone amp, one online reviewer said the Senn. HD600s sounded great, while another with the HiFiMan HE500 describes it as such: "The BDP-105 has such low distortion, it represents the best headphone amplifier I have ever heard".  Reading that quote alone makes me wonder what I am waiting for.
 
Also looking at other new products out from NuForce such as the DAC-100 and Wired4Sound's mPRE. On the other hand, the BDP-105 can also function as a stand alone music center with it's USB drive capabilities... 
 
... on the other other hand (thats 3 hands now I know), I auditioned a Marantz PM8004 integrated amp with my Senn HD650s yesterday and I just can't get it out of my head how smooth, refined, and pleasant it sounded.
 

 

[Iamnothim]

Quote:

for the hdmi input all you do is hit input and select 'HDMI in back' or something close enough and the appleTV will immediately come up.  Can't you just run HDMI straight to your TV?  that would be a lot easier and hdmi really is the way to go and like stated above, component video is dead.
 

Thanks for the tip.
 
All the cables are in the walls (CAT6, Component Video, Speaker) and the equipment rack is 25 ft away in a closet.  HDMI hadn't been invented when I did the buildout.
Panels on the right are Lutron Homeworks Ineractive lighting panels.  There is also a Crestron controller in the rack.
 
 

 

[runswithaliens]

Doing research so you don't have to; here are the Headphone amp specs for the BDP-105:
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz: ±0.3dB into 300
  Signal-to-Noise Ratio: >98dB into 300 (A-weighted, no auto-mute)
 THD+N: <0.001% or -100dB into 300 (1kHz at 48k/24b, 0dBFS, 20kHz LPF)
Output power: 17mW into 600 , 34mW into 300 , 63mW into 150 , 77mW into 120 ,
120mW into 60 , 187mW into 32 (1kHz at 48k/24b, 0dBFS, 20kHz LPF, one channel)
Dynamic Range: >110dB
Channel separation: >90dB
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Not as powerful as say a typical Audio-GD amp for example, but is it enough?

 

[tme110]

It is a low power amp and for some reason they artificially limited it's power output more than they had too.  They said they didn't want to get blamed for damaging people's headphones but I don't know why they would have issues with that when no one else worries about it.  It does sound very nice though. I admit that when listening to classical with LCD-2's I can get to 100% volume.  It's loud but not crazy loud and obviously that's not an issue with Rock and some other music.  This however is a very different and unique amp design which makes the being at 100% irrelevant (unless you just need it to be louder).  But the amp operates at it's optimal gain 100% percent of the time no matter what you're listening to and what the volume is set at.  Always.  The only thing that changes is the output from the DAC.  So there is no way to overdrive the amp and it's always ''in the sweet spot''.  The DAC uses all 32 bits of the Saber32 for volume control so there is no loss in SQ or compression when using the digital volume. 
 
The DAC is great and the USB DAC, unlike other USB DACs that I've used, simply works and works well and I've never had to mess with it and never had to screw with settings to make it work.  I sold my $1032 Audio-gd Ref-32 after I got the 105.  I'm not saying it's better or that anyone else will get the same results but I like it and it helped me simplify my system.
 
 
Even though I've been using the 105 as a preamp for the last several weeks I haven't actually compared it until this weekend.  Comparing the oppo directly to my emo XPA power amp over XLR and the oppo thru HDMI to my Marantz AVR and RCA to the XPA produces a very very very large and unmistakable difference.  Granted my AVR is fairly low end but I picked it because I only have 1 input to it so though I had more money to spend I didn't see the point in it.  But you don't have to even be looking for a difference let alone doing some real critical listening (in my system) to hear a vast improvement in going directly from the OPPO to my power amp.  It's like getting upgraded speakers.  You may not hear a difference if you have a d2v or similar but I'm willing to bet most people will hear an improvement by skipping the pre/pro.
 

 

[cfcmick]

Quote:

It is a low power amp and for some reason they artificially limited it's power output more than they had too.  They said they didn't want to get blamed for damaging people's headphones but I don't know why they would have issues with that when no one else worries about it.  It does sound very nice though. I admit that when listening to classical with LCD-2's I can get to 100% volume.  It's loud but not crazy loud and obviously that's not an issue with Rock and some other music.  This however is a very different and unique amp design which makes the being at 100% irrelevant (unless you just need it to be louder).  But the amp operates at it's optimal gain 100% percent of the time no matter what you're listening to and what the volume is set at.  Always.  The only thing that changes is the output from the DAC.  So there is no way to overdrive the amp and it's always ''in the sweet spot''.  The DAC uses all 32 bits of the Saber32 for volume control so there is no loss in SQ or compression when using the digital volume. 
 
The DAC is great and the USB DAC, unlike other USB DACs that I've used, simply works and works well and I've never had to mess with it and never had to screw with settings to make it work.  I sold my $1032 Audio-gd Ref-32 after I got the 105.  I'm not saying it's better or that anyone else will get the same results but I like it and it helped me simplify my system.
 
 
Even though I've been using the 105 as a preamp for the last several weeks I haven't actually compared it until this weekend.  Comparing the oppo directly to my emo XPA power amp over XLR and the oppo thru HDMI to my Marantz AVR and RCA to the XPA produces a very very very large and unmistakable difference.  Granted my AVR is fairly low end but I picked it because I only have 1 input to it so though I had more money to spend I didn't see the point in it.  But you don't have to even be looking for a difference let alone doing some real critical listening (in my system) to hear a vast improvement in going directly from the OPPO to my power amp.  It's like getting upgraded speakers.  You may not hear a difference if you have a d2v or similar but I'm willing to bet most people will hear an improvement by skipping the pre/pro.
 

 
Interesting comments about going straight to an amp. I don't have that option at this time, but will certainly look into it at some point.
 
I have just ordered a 105 and have a hook-up question if you don't mind. I'll be running:
 
Analog outs from the 105 to my Onkyo 3009 Receiver.
HDMI (1) from 105 to my plasma.
HDMI out from Digital Cable Box to HDMI IN (back of 105)
USB from iMac to USB (Digital Audio In) on Oppo.
 
I don't need to connect anything else to the OPPO at this time.
 
Does anything else need to be connected between the Oppo and Onkyo, or am I good to go?
 
Thanks,
Mick.