Oppo Sonica DAC coming Fall 2016

[sdolezalek]

Uses new ESS Technology's ES9038PRO 32-bit HyperStream Chipset, fully balanced from the DAC chip all the way to the XLR outputs, also a high resolution network player that can decode audio files up to 24-bit 192 kHz from formats such as FLAC, WAV, and Apple Lossless, as well as DSD64 files from DLNA servers and connected USB drives, Asynchronous USB mode uses Sonica's own high precision clock and supports PCM up to 768 kHz 32-bit and up to DSD512. Price $799.

 

Will be interesting to see how this sounds with upsampled DSD512 from HQPlayer...

 

Will also be interesting whether the upcoming UDP-205 just implements these specs for its audio side or goes them one better.

[sdolezalek]

The Sonica DAC is a Stereo DAC while the Oppo UPD-203 has Stereo and Multichannel playback. So the UDP-203 already "goes them one better".

 

Brian: My Oppo 105D will play multichannel DSF files from my NAS via the Ethernet connection, but the quality is not as good as those played through the asynchronous rear USB input (which only plays stereo). What I am curious about is whether in the UDP-205 Oppo will upgrade the full multichannel playback or whether it too will put its highest quality on the USB input (which is where it might just duplicate the stereo performance of the Sonica DAC).

 

If the UDP-205 offered the Sonica's full asynchronous DSD512 capabilities on a multichannel basis that would be something, but I'd be hugely surprised.

[sdolezalek]

I received the Sonica DAC last night. After a couple of hours of burn-in, I did some informal critical listening. I used HQPlayer upsampling the same material to DSD256 to both the Sonica and an iFi IDAC2 driving a Schiit Lyr2 headphone amp and Sony MDR-Z7 cans.

 

In every test, I much preferred the iFi. The Sonica always had a stridency to it that I was unable to mitigate by selecting different HQPlayer noise shapers.

 

I will continue burn-in in the hopes that the stridency mellows. But I now know what people mean when they talk about "Sabre glare". I was hoping that ESS had taken some of this criticism to heart with the new DAC chip. So far, this appears to not be the case.

 

Thank you for your willingness to jump in and try. I have been watching the pending arrivals of the Sonica, the UDP-205 and the iFi iDSD Pro wondering the same about the ESS stridency. I do know that it took well over 100 hours of play time for the chips in the Oppo BDP-105D to smooth out, so I'll be curious how your Sonica behaves over the next couple of weeks.

[sdolezalek]

I assume you are asking what mods I intend to do......well, the sky is the limit. Check out my website for possibilities. No tubes.....Modwright will do that for you, if you like. But fet zero feedback buffers, transformer outputs, super clocks, damping, shielding, WA quantum chips, better regs, better jacks, caps, resistors, diode bridges, isolating and damping the transformer, twisting wires, on and on into infinity.

 

Ric: earlier in this same thread you opined that even with mods the Oppo would never sound as good as a Gustard Pro. Would you care to elaborate why?

[sdolezalek]

4 hours ago, MemoryPlayer said:

Audirvana with iZotope has harsh and too bright sound!

I can't listen Audirvana with iZotope for more than 15 minutes..., fadigue comes very soon!

Try Apple Audio Core that for me sounds much more smooth.

It all depends on what your iZotope settings are, settings that are fine for one DAC will sound too bright, or too mellow on another.  It may take a while to find the right settings for the new ES9038PRO chip.  I have found that the ESS chips often sound terrific when you upsample and convert everything to DSD256 or DSD512, but even then the right filter settings matter.