I have an intent to buy an Oppo-205 - anybody have any thoughts?

[Norton]

I guess the answer to your question partly lies in what you want the Oppo for and what your budget is.

 

if you want a competent SACD player that's also a multi channel DSD DAC, network player, 4K home theatre component, DLNA renderer etc, then it's pretty much the only game in town AFAIK. If you just want a stereo DAC then maybe it can be bettered at the price, but then again I was struck recently by how good my  Oppo 105 sounds simply as a USB DAC fed by HQP (up and downsampling everything to 24/192)  or by my Bryston BDP, compared to its own file player capabilities.

 

I also have an Esoteric K07x.  Used as a stereo SACD player or DAC, the Esoteric is certainly better than the Oppo, it's a noticeably  quieter and more refined presentation, but whether it's vastly better is a matter of opinion.  I'd describe it more as a significant incremental improvement.

[Norton]

13 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

 

 

That's a comparison to your 105, right?

 

Have you heard the 205?

Yes, my  comparisons are with the 105.  I haven't heard the 205 but I doubt it's inferior SQ- wise.  Of course if you want to rip SACDs and play HDCD then maybe an old stock or s/h 105D might be better?

[Norton]

13 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

HDCD is far from obsolete (in the sense of not being used)

 

Agreed.  I've bought a number of HDCD titles from Reference Recordings in the last year or so.  Sound excellent on the Oppo or ripped using the DBPoweramp plugin.

[Norton]

2 hours ago, GUTB said:

 

No, but it's widely seen to be inferior by the audiophile community. For example:

 

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/oppo-vs-esoteric

 

"Had a Oppo  and the Esoteric crushed it."

 

"My Ayon Cd5s is several leagues ahead of my Oppo105D - so much so that the Oppo on SACD is far beneath Red book on Ayon. So I use my Oppo to listen to the audio tracks of DVD and Blue Ray movies only."

 

"I then took an Esoteric K 07 for a spin, and that was the end of the Oppo, the baby Esoteric is just in a different league"

 

"I agree with most posters here,having owned several Esoteric now for 8 or 9 years and heard OPPO stock and modified...thers no comparison,none"

 

"OP....I have an Opp 105 which I use as a transport into 2 DACs, the Mytek Manhatten and the Bryston BDA 3.  Both DACs clearly smoke the native Oppo DAC."

 

"each year I compare my  (10 -15 year old) wadia 861se to my oppo 105, and they are not even in the same county."

 

"I have an OPPO 103D and it's a great machine for the money....  but it's no Esoteric...   not even close."

 

"I had a parasound cd1 and it ran circles around any oppo machine. Oppo is good for the price but the other stuff is next level."

 

"However, I put it up against an older Bryston player and it lost, up against the parsasound cd 1 not even close. Luxman d06 not close. Ayon cd2 not close. Solutions 540. Not in the same building!"

 

 

 

 

 

Just to repeat, I own both an Esoteric K07x and an Oppo 105.  The Esoteric is better, but I certainly wouldn't describe the degree of  difference as being anything like on the hyperbolic scale outlined above.  In fact before I owned the current Esoteric I bought an ex Dem example of the earlier k07 unseen and sent it back simply because it didn't offer an all round improvement on the Oppo..

[Norton]

22 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

Ah, but there is no way to "push" content through the Ethernet interface to the 205.  You would need to "pull" it using the 205.  So Jriver, etc. is out.

 

Isn't the 205 a renderer like the 105? 

 

Also not sure why you mention having to have  TV  connected to browse  network  shares etc, doesn't the 205 use the same Oppo app as the 105 either?

 

I thought it was just stuff like iPlayer and the HDCD chip that the 205 lacked. 

[Norton]

On 22 November 2017 at 9:04 PM, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

So is this just jriver acting as a remote control for the DLNA client in the BD player?  Because that's not how we started this.  We started this with the idea that some network protocol would allow the 205 to be a "network playback device" that content can be streamed to from some other network device.

 

If this is just remotely controlling the DLNA client inside the BD player (including the 205), that's not the same thing.

 

An  Oppo 105 (and I guess your sonica) can act as both a DLNA client and (unlike the previous 95 model and germane to what you are discussing) a DLNA renderer.  

 

In the latter case, for example, I have a PC holding my music library and running JRiver on the network.  I use the JRemote app on my IPad to control JRiver on that PC (the DLNA server) telling it to push music to the Oppo as a DLNA renderer.  Alternatively, you can use the Oppo app to control the Oppo as a DLNA client, pulling music from JRiver.  In the latter case I'm more likely to just use the Oppo app to pull music from a SMB share instead.