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

I am not a Modwright employee either but I can speak to the sound quality of the Modwright 205. It’s a world class player/DAC. This DAC bested my 6K PS Audio DS.

I admire the DIY crowd and do a little of it myself but for anyone to say their mods beat Dan's does make chuckle.

Adg101,
Please do not tell people spening more than the cost of a equipment to do a mod is not getting ripped off,unless you change definition of rip off from englih dictionary.
That put aside, let us focus on what i weak points of 205 as a dac.
1. Bad rectifiers for +-15 volts audio ic power supply. That is why 205 stock sounds lean and slow. 
2. Power supplier for digital path is not properly filtered, too much noise causing timing issue.
3. Single ended audio buffer path uses 2 stages of cheap capacitor coupling, total screwed up high frequency timing and response curve. That is why balanced audio outputs are strongly  recommended for 205 as a dac/dsd/cd player.
As mod goes, level 1 mod is obvious:
1.replace bridge for 18v ac to dc with fast recovery diodes. 
2. Bypass 3v, +-5v and +-15v dc with silver mica caps.

Level 2 mod is more personal:
1. Simple and right way is to build a dedicated preamp outside 205, get balanced analogue signal from dac chip pins directly bypassing internal amplify circuit. You can build a k&k audio style ultra path pre amplifier using nickle input transformer as IV driver.
2. If you only using balanced output, you can just roll ic chips. Since level 1 mod already solves the dynamics glitch.
3. I need single ended output since i connect 205 as control center hooking directly to my ultra path pre amp.  So i bought best v-cap to bypass 4 cheap coupling caps, which sweatens high frequence nicely. I likes national ic chip, but folk could roll opa627 or muse family ICs as you wish.

Enjoy diy if you walk this way. 

If you bought it to replace a DVD player— why not compare the DVD aspect? Why criticize CD sound when you knew it wouldn’t/couldn’t live up to the gorgeous dedicated player you have. Seems strange to me. Fwiw. 

Lancelock,
You should be shamed of not chuncking.the so called dan wright mod is fundalmentally flawed from cost no object mod  point of view as i pointed out in my othet post. 

With this amount of money, first of all, any tube amplication should be using shunt regulator to sound good. Since shunt power regulation tends to dispatching a lot of heat and has to have short return loop, amplification circuit  has to be out of 205 box, reside with tube power supply. 
This wright rip off does not do that, i am sure it is less musical even than my not so dramatic mod since he cant fit shunt power regulator into 205.  Go figure if he does what i described, how much would it be??