Oppomod femto clock upgrade Oppo 205

Clocks have gotten so good and so cheap, you have to really really love that DAC to not want to just spend the money elsewhere.

After doing a bunch of mods (including different clocks) on my LKS DAC, the type of clock used for the ESS Sabre chips is quite important and will drastically change the character and sound quality of the DAC. 

I'm not sure what that femto clock does to the Oppo, but it is likely much better than the really cheap stock oscillator.  Keep in mind that Sabre dac uses a global clock at 100 Mhz to do it's timing.  The Oppo does not have two TCXO type clocks for each sample rate multiplier (i.e. 44.1/88.2/172.4 vs 48/96/192).

You should also realize that the Oppomod Femto clock upgrade will upgrade the 100Mhz Sabre DAC clock as well as the DSP/digital main cpu clock which will affect HDMI output timing.  This will improve things across the board for the Oppo unit.

If this were a normal dac using a non-Sabre DAC chip and had two low cost clocks, I would say that an upgraded clock may still help but I would agree with erik's comment on looking elsewhere first.

+1 @erik_squires — there are SO many very good and affordable new or used DACs out these days I’d think you’d be better off directing your funds that way. 

I wouldn’t waste the money, as good as everyone thinks the Oppo 205 is, there really is much better out there.  Hearing people say it’s their last CD player makes me chuckle.  When I see them listed for $3-4K and they sell, well I outright laugh. 

Har har here too!

What’s funny is how everywhere you go on this site you find people har har-ing, and pontificating, and bloviating, about stuff they never did and so have no freaking clue what they are talking about! fuzztone, have you tried one of these mods? stereo5? Erik_squires we know you haven’t, all you ever do is cut and paste ad copy from some of the worst sources on the interzones. soix at least gets credit for saying, "I think" which means, "I don’t know, but" and so at least we know he knows he doesn’t know. All the rest are freaking posers who should be ashamed!

auxinput on the other hand, thank you for being the exception that proves the rule. I can only hope it is clear to the OP the difference between your informative post and the others prattling palaver.

I don’t have that Oppo and haven’t done that exact mod but I did mod my Oppo with a better clock, and more, and it is no joke, they will punch far beyond their class and your money gets you more with a mod than with a whole new component.

So my feedback is if you like the sound you have and want "the same only better" this will get you there. Another DAC will not be "the same only better" it will be "different, hopefully better". Hopefully you can already tell by the thoroughness of his reply that auxinput knows what he’s talking about. Only thing I would add is when he says it changes the character and nature what he means is it gets so much better it sounds like a whole new DAC. To me these things are massive improvements more so than changes but there comes a point where one verges into the other and this is one of those areas. Bottom line: expect a big improvement. No joke.

Ptts,

The Clock upgrades the Oppo sound signature significantly. I own a Modwright 205 and recently purchased an Aurender N20. When comparing the USB vs BNC outputs, the synchronous output of the N20 utilizes the 12.9 mhz clock of the N20. The sound signature become significantly more natural. The soundstage becomes more transparent front to back with small details emerging. 

IMO the Oppomod Femto clock would be well worth the $450 for my Modwright Oppo though I haven’t done it yet because of my soldering skills. I would have to send my module in to have Oppomod do the install meaning I would be without music for a couple of weeks.

Good luck. 👍

I wrote a 1 sentence reply suggesting the OP consider the ROI of the mods he is considering. 

Professor Knee-Jerk then replies with many words accusing me of bloviating.  Ahem...

blo•vi•ate blō′vē-āt″►

• intransitive verb To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner.

Classic projection by @millercarbon . 

I think that modifying an Oppo is not a good use of resources.  For better SQ, better to buy a good DAC, and they are getting better.  A good DAC will hopefully have a better power supply, a good femtoclock(s) and a discrete analog section.  The Oppo has none of these.  At the beginning, use the Oppo spdif or optical output into the DAC and you will hear a clear improvement.

Also, once you modify an Oppo, you'll never sell it.  

Eventually you may find, as other have, that there are better ways to get digital streams into your DAC.

I'll put in my two cents here on this question, I've owned the Oppo 205 with Tube mod by Modwright, before the Oppo I owned  a Esoteric Cd player and a Ayon Signature II streamer/Dac both costing more than double my modified Oppo, all I can say is I no longer have the Esoteric or the Ayon, my Oppo blew them away no joke!