USB DACs that outperforms OPPO 105D's internal DAC?
I have some music on an external USB drive.
I connect it to a USB input on OPPO, and it sounds good.
OPPO is connected to a TV and I select songs using OPPO's remote control.
The problem is, there are hundreds of albums and thousands of songs in the USB drive, and it takes time to scroll to the albums or songs I want to play.
I am thinking of two ways to solve the problem: Purchase a wifi USB dongle that will connect the USB drive to an iPad, and browse music using iPad. Another option is to connect the USB drive to a laptop and purchase an external DAC to sit between the laptop and a preamp. The laptop's video output will be connected to a TV and I can use a wireless mouse or keyboard to browse the music.
The second approach will be more expensive because I need to purchase a new DAC. Which DAC would you recommend that outperforms the OPPO's internal DAC at under $1000 used or new?
Would there be another option to play the music in the external USB drive?
@ihcho I have the Oppo 105 no D. I access songs quickly, via phone, using the Oppo app. I run the Oppo digital out to an Ayre Codex DAC. Recently bought an Aurender N200 streamer. It sounds better than the Oppo hooked to the same Ayre DAC. Probably not the Oppo's fault. This is comparing a superb optical cable to USB on the Aurender. Enjoy your new streamer, aldnorab |
I put a $799 D.BOB with my used $200 OPPO. The OPPO has a bit of mechanical noise and what I have is a low-end device. The D.BOB takes HDMI out from the OPPO and allows me to route decoded SACD DSD and CD into my DAC of choice. In my case, a $2200 Schitt Yggi+ Less is More. This is an excellent way to keep your disc around and also stream. The Ygggi+ is interesting in that it sounds great and also has 3 outputs. I have 2 headphone amps hooked up by RCA and my 2-channel Benchmark LA4 preamp taking XLR out from the Yggi+. I have Sonore OpticalRendu providing a beautiful fibre stream to the the Yggi+. I can stream and listen to disks on all the 3 endpoints.
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I went through this years ago and understand your concerns with the Oppo. The Schiit Bifrost is a popular dac and retails for around $800- there are others out there as well. I cannot recommend Topping. Personally I would lean towards a device that allows you to rip your music to an internal drive (as mentioned above) and that handles D/A conversion as well. Keep your Oppo for playing movies- |
It’s not really a question of what under $1k dac will sound better than the oppo as much as what under $1k dac won’t sound better than the oppo. One of the reasons I put off getting into serious streaming was the poor sq I got when streaming Tidal with my 105. It wasn’t until I finally broke down and bought my first “real” dac did I realize what streaming was all about. |
Just get a streamer. Life will be better. You can use tidal connect (and others) and be done with it. Tidal connect will let you use your phone, tablet or computer to pick songs. When you click on them the streamer is actually pulling and playing the data.
I have never heard the blue sound node but the ifi stream is $400 and sound better according to these guys (link below). I am using one and it was easy to setup and has had no trouble. The only add thing is sometimes after I connect I have to skip a track before it plays when booted up. Amazon sells them, if you don’t like it send it back.
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@tonydennison -- have to admit that 50% over the top line of the OP's budget is better than 200%. Always entertaining to read these forums. |
@mlsstl Just to get a response from you. Oh and if the manufacturer is selling something for $3K, I can imagine a civilian selling one for $1.5K. Hey, wait a minute.....that's not a real badge! |
@tonydennison -- just curious -- why are you recommending a $3,000 DAC to a fellow that asked for suggestions under $1,000? |
Most likely the best solution is to share your music using a protocol called UPnP. Here’s an overview of UPnP from Cambridge Audio - link. You also might read another term - DLNA - mentioned in the same sentence as UPnP. DLNA is a set of guidelines established by consumer electronics companies for interoperability between media devices. However, it uses UPnP to implement those guidelines. You can consider them interchangeable for streaming purposes.
The UPnP protocol is lossless and bit perfect. Virtually all the streamers on the market use this method for control and playback. Even if you don’t follow the approaches I outline below (for example, if you decide to add the Bluesound N130 to your system), I highly recommend reading the overview to understand how this type of setup works.
The good news is that you most likely don’t need to buy anything to try out streaming with UPnP.
You will need to connect the BDP-105D to your network. See p.44 in your manual for details. This will turn your Oppo into a UPnP renderer.
If you feel you need something more advanced than SWYH, then setting up a UPnP server to share your music with the Oppo would be the next step. This can also be done with a Windows PC. If it has enough capacity, I recommend copying the music off your external drive and into the ’Music’ folder on the PC. This will simplify setup.
To turn any Windows PC into a UPnP server, you need to enable ’Media Streaming’ from the Control Panel. Here’s a guide - link. This will share all the files in your Music, Pictures, and Video directories using UPnP.
Now you can download an app to your mobile device to turn it into a UPnP control point where you can browse your shared music as well as stream from services like Tidal and Qobuz. I use BubbleUPnP (link) on my Android phone and mConnect HD (link) on my iOS devices. |
I use a PSAudio DSD Dac. I feed it with a macmini using Audirvana which removes all of Apples audio fuckery. I use macbook and ipad as a remote, and it works great. Since you’re using USB, I would remove the PSAudio’s bridge (everything sounds better without it in the system). Also Supra usb cables are worth the little bit of extra dough.
PS Audio sells the DSD dac for $3,000 presently.
Just my 8cents. Good luck ! TD |
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The Oppo is getting older now and DAC's have come a long way in the last few years. I'd bet a good many newer DAC's will out perform the internal one in the Oppo. Schiit Audio, a whole host of Asian DAC's, and so many more. I'd bet any DAC above $300 will out perform the internal DAC. R2R / multi-bit is what i would look for if it was me. The other option is a dedicated streamer that can organize your files / meta data. They can organize all your files/meta data much easier then laptops and External DAC's and players and simplifies the whole lot. |
