I assumed it was you hitting 9 instead of 0 by accident but I just wanted to make sure as Oppo did make 95 and 105 so, in theory, it could have been either.
EDIT: To make it sillier, as I was writing the above sentence, I wrote "9 instead of one".
A friend of mine has an Oppo, I believe it is 105 with Darbee something, player. It is great except that it freezes or crashes relatively often. Sometimes a few times a day. The disc does not eject, nothing works. You have to turn it off, even that becomes more than just quick press on the button, and wait and restart and then, most of the time, it works. Not always, though.
On the other hand, it may play for a month with no problem. Maybe it needs a few cups of coffee to work, too.
Maybe the glitch we have been reading about does have something to do with Oppo software.
You are right, I missed that "105" written lower in the post but did catch "XLR". However, I am far from an Oppo expert (I think I have physically seen only one in my life) and actually have no idea which one has XLR and which one does not. My question about the model, as silly as it seems now when I realize you have written it in the same post as the erroneous one, was to ensure more structure in this "Oppo, SONY, Yamaha, Denon, digital, RCA, Schiit, analog, HDMI" salad. It was really not picking on you or ill-intentioned in any way. I promise.
My friend has not contacted Oppo, he just lives with it, but does have the latest firmware installed. Whatever that really means in practice. Now, when I think of it, I have a feeling that his player has been freezing more and more often. Maybe something is dying in there. These things do have their lifespan. Maybe his is nearing the end despite being very lightly used (I would guess less than a disc a day on average) and he bought it later in the model life cycle.
Reportedly the Sony UBP-x800 will output 176.4/24 thru the coaxial connection playing SACDs. This would be PCM, of course but it would play. I wonder if it would be an improvement on what you have already.
Just remember that SONY UBP-X800 does not have analog RCA outputs, if they are ever needed. However, it may be the cheapest and simplest solution for questions/intentions from the original post.
As I understand it, Oppos (and some other players) have two setting for SACD. One is to set it to bitstream, in which case, the SACD/DSD digital stream will travel over HDMI into whatever the next component is (typically a receiver). Most receivers will play SACD by converting it to PCM and playing it (at varying resolutions, depending on the receiver). Some receivers will convert the DSD directly to analog and play it. There's a great debate on various sites on which sounds "better." Alternatively, you can set the SACD player to PCM in your player. In this case, the player converts the SACD/DSD digital to PCM. If played through the analog outputs of the payer, it will then convert it to analog and play. Or, it can be transferred over coax, optical or HDMI to the receiver and decoded to analog there. Some players (the Oppos, I think) can convert the DSD digital directly to analog. This is useful because you can have the system set to bitstream (which will pass the DSD digitally to the receiver to decode), while if you switch to a different input that has the analog cables, the Oppo will convert and play over the analog outputs. My Cambridge 752bd converts DSD to PCM, but upscales it to 192/24, before converting it to analog, so I have to choose between bitstreaming (receiver decodes) or PCM (the player upscales and decodes). My understanding is that coax or optical cables don't have the bandwidth to transmit the DSD stream digitally - it can only go via HDMI. So I don't think that you can do want you want to (at least without a non-normal process like others here have suggested.
"...converts DSD to PCM, but upscales it to 192/24..."
My understanding, and that one is very very very limited, is that DSD and PCM do things somehow differently. However, the numbers attached are typically in MHz for DSD and KHz for PCM. I remember seeing advertisements for SACD that were comparing CD resolution (44 KHz) and touting that SACD is 60+ (64) higher. That would imply that those numbers matter. In that case, 2.8 MHz would be way above 192 KHz. Why is conversion from DSD to 24/192 KHz called upscaling then? Is there something else at play?
In my experience, I tried SACDs converted to different file formats and different resolutions with the highest ones being 24/192 WAV and FLAC, I cannot tell the difference between DSD and 24/192 with any certainty. It may be my shortcoming or it may really be negligible.
glupson, It’s funny now that I finally got the Oppo to play SACD’s I can set it on DSD or PCM and they both sound the same. Is that supposed to happen or is it my hearing going?
I have everything working and then had family in for the last couple weeks. No listening time at all! Still have one in town, but I should have more time soon.
My Oppo 103 plays SACD and ADVDSs thru the analog outs or thru the HDMI out but not thru a coaxial / optical connection. It explains it in the owners manual.
@curiousjim is quite correct about the Oppo players. I tried to get the best two channel audio, as I listen to both SACD and DVD-A, from the Oppo. Unfortunately the DSD signal gets converted back to PCM when you try to use the XLX/RCA, as well as multi-channel analog outputs.
If you are a DVD-A/ PCM guy then you can enjoy it, but you will have to stay with the HDMI connection to enjoy pure DSD. To try to solve this dilemma I upgraded to a Yamaha CD-2100 player.; which is now in a separate stereo system. You mention you looked at the CD-1000. For SCAD playback the 2100 will play back SACD 2 Hz to 50kHz and the playback range for the player is up 96kHz. It is not entirely clear from reading their O & M and reading the few reviews online, if this in native DSD. I hope so as that is one of the main reasons I bought the player. This player will not play the multi-channel layer on a SACD.
I would think if you wan to listen to higher resolution you would only be able to use the DAC and the optical or coaxial digital outputs only.
Regardless this player sound exceptional playing redbook CD and SACDs. The DAC sounds exceptional as well with the Steinberg.
With Oppo, you have two options: DSD or PCM play out. I can't hear any SQ difference. You can navigate through the setup. Don’t use variable out, use XLR fix line-out which give you the best SQ.
One of the things I hear in some DVD-As or SACDs sounds like congestion, which COULD be because of their much higher frequency range and my 175wpc class D simply runs out of gas in my large room.
I ordered a EVS 1200 amp (class D, 600 wpc, dual mono) check it out if you want to go to the next level class D: currently only $2200, 30 day in home PLUS free return shipping
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