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Oppo 205 modification

I wanted to reach out to people with the Oppo 205 unit who are considering getting it modified. For the last two years I was looking into a DAC to replace my Sony SCD-XA5400ES. I was going to use my Sony as a transport for the new DAC. We'll in doing a lot of reading on forums and on the Internet I decided to get a modified unit by Ric Schultz of EVS. He raved about the Oppo Sonica with his mods but then production on the Sonica stopped and I was unable to get one. Ric then switched his focus to the Oppo 205 and discovered that it was even better. So I got an Oppo 205 when the the closing of Oppo digital was announced (Ric helped me to get one of the last ones when there was a run on them). 

We'll it's been about a month with my Single Super Single Ended version of the EVS mod plus the optional power supply that Ric makes for the unit. Total cost for the mod plus the optional upgraded power supply was $1300. I am extremely happy with the result. The main attributes I noticed with the stock Oppo 205 was soundstage size, detail retrieval and the openness of the player. With the mod these strengths of the stock unit all get significantly better. The decay of instruments is incredible. The end of a track takes like forever for it to decay into nothing. Timber of vocals and instruments is just so natural and organic sounding. Everything also has a texture and three dimentionality to it. Instruments are very precisely located in the soundstage now. The sound has a very black background where you hear very faint details in the background come out more. Definite increase in the depth of the soundstage as well as heighth and width. Shocking how much information is actually on those Redbook Compact Discs! Though every disc sounds pretty darn good so far, I have tried probably 60 to 80, the soundstage and fidelity on each still varies greatly with the recording. Most discs sound wonderful with a good amount just sounding way what I  ever expected from any disc.... SACD included The sound is just so coherent as everything just fits into place so nicely and cleanly.  I heard a lot of good Dacs and equipment at AXPONA and audio shops througout the years and my system is way above what I thought it could be without buying really expensive components. I always liked the Sound of the Salk Sound speakers,  most recently their model Song 3 Encore speakers at AXPONA the last 2 years,and this sound rivals that sound, maybe betters now, and my speakers are the 15 + YEARS OLD Hales Design Transcendence 5's. Although still pretty good I would bet, I would love to hear those Salk Sound Song3 Encores speakers with this setup.Trust me the sound is so good I am not in a hurry to change speaks for a while though.

When you first put the modded player in your system you will instantly notice that the soundstage is noticably bigger with more detail. Everthing just keeps improving. I only play my system on weekends so yours may break in even faster. The bad side is I used to be content with 2 to 3 hour listening sessions...now it's 3 to 5 hour sessions. Obviously no digital fatigue. In fact you find yourself listening to songs on discs you skipped over in the past because you hear so much more. I listen to all kinds of music. I found the better my system got the more types of music I like. From folk to hard rock and  bluegrass to classical.

  The rest of my system consists of a heavily modified Bada Purer 3.3se Hybrid Integrated amp (165 watts with first 30 in Class A), Core Power Technology 1200 balanced power conditioner, 2 Teo Audio Ultra RCA's run in parallel (see Doug Schroder method thread here in the forum). Silnote Anniversary biwired speakercable, Synergistic Black UEF power cord, Cerious Technologies Extreme Yellow  power cord, Audio Archone Blue powrr cords. OPPO and BADA PURER sit on Starsound Sistrum SP-4 stands.

I would say the stock Oppo 205 is about a 6.5 or 7 and the EVS modified unit I now have has to be close to a 9 on a scale from 0 to 10. Big,  big increase in audio performance over stock. The Oppo 205 stock probably competes well against 2 to 3k Dacs. The EVS mod has to take the Oppo 205 to the 5k and up range (i.e. ... I heard the Denafrips Terminator Dac demonstrated at Axpona this year and it didn't sound this good to me). With the DACs you also have to buy a Transport another power cord and more cabling! Sorry if this got a little long-winded!
tuffy72561

Showing 4 responses by ricevs

ricevs
1,543 posts
 

Oppo will be supporting this player for years. They built their company on great customer service. The parts will be available for years down the road. The latest Oppo models are super reliable, as well.

People have said the 205 has a slightly better picture than the 203 (probably due to the heavier dual chassis bottom and the low jitter HDMI out that only the 205 has).....and with the power supply mod and transport mods the 205 has an even better picture. The better HDMI output would make the HDMI audio out better too.

There really is nothing like a modded 205.......there is no "better product" that I know of. It has great 2 channel sound for all forms of music (CD, DVD, DVD-A, SACD, Music Videos, DSD512 and 24/192 via usb DAC input, usb inputs to play usb sticks or usb drives, etc. It has a great headphone amp, it has multichannel outs, and it plays all video with better picture than most anything. And you have only one machine with one power cord.

There is one person who said his stock LKS DAC was better than the Dave DAC......well, my modded LKS DAC is even better and when playing CDs.....the modded 205 is even better than that. I was using a modded Oppo 103D (with $1300 mod) as transport with my own custom digital cable and a heavily modded IFI Spdif Ipurifier into the modded LKS or modded Sonica DAC. I thought I was in heaven. Then the 205 came in and I was shocked. Even stock it did a couple things better than my reference combo. Once I did the mods to the 205 the DACs were now history for playing discs. Now it could be that one of those modded DACs might sound better via usb in than the 205....but that is not how I am currently listening. What I do know is this is the best these discs have ever sounded.

Have you seen the prices used and new Oppo 205s are selling for?  Has there ever been anything like this ever happening?  The 205s are really good stock.  If you are fortunate to own one or are on the Oppo waiting list you have or will have soon a really nice machine.
ricevs
1,543 posts
 
If all you care about is having the latest video codec then you have a point.  However, the modded 205 can play so many things and do them so well that most people will not feel like it has become a boat anchor in even 5 years.  How many more new codecs and formats do we now need?  We are talking about a player that has incredible 2 channel sound (with mods) and plays tons of stuff.  It costs very little for what you get.  You are not buying a $20,000 DAC that will outdated in a year.  You will be using this thing for years and years.  The 205 is a serious 2 channel audio machine.......that is the main point of modding it.  What other $2500-$3000 machine can play CDs, DVDs, DVD-As, SACDs, has a DSD512 capable DAC, can play usb sticks and usb drives, etc, with this level of sound?  Nothing!  Heck, what CD player, SACD player or DAC at this price is even as good?  Probably nothing.  And you get a fantastic 4K video machine, great headphone amp, multichannel outs thrown in for free!  Have you ever watched any of these high res (both audio and video) music videos?  Wow, are they fun!  You get it all with this thing.
ricevs
1,543 posts
 

The mods that effect the HDMI/spdif out are the removing of the toslink connector, the damping of the heatsink on the main processor, the transport mods (when playing discs) and especially the linear power supply.

Yes, I think my mods have always been warm/natural.

Analog balanced out versus HDMI/I2S into another DAC?  That would be hard to say, you would have to A/B them.  The modified DAC and custom output stage I use give some pretty great sound.

The modded 205 plays whatever files it naturally plays.  My mods do not effect what it plays.  I believe the regular usb inputs can play single speed DSD.  The DAC input can do up to DSD512.

ricevs
1,543 posts
 
If you need info about mods, etc. then please contact me through phone or email via my tweakaudio.com website.
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