Just Got My Oppo 205!

byang12

I doubt browndt is a Modwright employee pushing their mods, but a happy customer. I have not heard the Oppo players with Dans mods but a person who has owned two of their preamps and still own the later I can say they are outstanding and great value especially when you compare them to equipment at twice the price. I do not work for Modwright either but when a question pops up that I feel my Modwright is a good comparison with I happily mention it as I am a very happy customer and highly recommend their product. I’m sure your modded Oppo sounds better than stock unit as a $350 PC would probably make a difference as well. I’ve spoken to Dan several times and shared many emails and can say he’s not out to rip anyone off. I’m sure he’s doing a lot more than your mod, plus extra cost of outboard power supply and power cable; sure it’s a chunk of money but I bet if you add up the cost of the parts he uses, figure in an honest wage for time to do the work and figure in some cost for overhead for running a business you’d be presssed to do it for less. 

Ive personally done plenty of mods to equipment over the years so not bashing people doing their own here but do respect people like Dan Wright. I’m on the list to possibly get a 205 if Oppo makes a last run to see if this player is what many claim it is. I’d be very curious what you did to your 205 if you don’t mind sharing as I suspect many others might be interested as well.

Cheers

byang12

Thanks for sharing what you did to your 205.

I get your point taking a player and spending more on the mods than the original cost of a player. Years ago I recall Lexicon took someone else’s player and basically just throw a thick metal face plate on it and nearly doubled the price, which several reviewers called them out on it.

I would like to think what Modwright is doing is more like taking a base BMW 5 series, the lowest price one can build which is a great base platform to build a M5 upon. Both are essentially built off the same platform, share many parts but a lot of the parts were put in to meet a price point on the base model. Dan saw the 205 was a good platform to start from and instead of building his own player, I’m sure he felt it would cost more than a modded 205. I can’t say the Modwright 205 is the holly grail of players but I would think if it doesn’t hold its own against players of same cost the market would shut him down but I think many praise these players. I too would like to hear one personally.

If if I get a 205 I’ll first see how it stacks up against my current machine and maybe look at modifying it myself or send it to Dan. First I’m curious to see if all these users running it stock really know what they’re talking about. I’ll be surprised if it meets or blows my current player away but hopefully we’ll see. Until I hear one in system I’ll hild off on judging it first.