Oppo UDP-203


I might have an opportunity to trade for an Oppo UDP-203.  Anyone have experience with one for SACD?

My current SACD player is a Pioneer PD-D6-J and it simply can't compete with my current Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2 DAC with WE 396A tube and Sparkos op-amps.

Could I expect the Oppo to be a significant upgrade for my Pioneer?  I know the Oppo UDP-205 was the more audiophile targeted model.

mceljo

@islandmandan tell me more about this linear power supply upgrade,  what are the benefits?  brand and part#? etc.  I have owned my 203 for about a year,  I think its Really Good at everything it does,  but Im not really blown away with Anything it does, esp. cd playback,  although i do Love its speed and features.  I believe the orig. msrp on this machine was approx. $600, and for that price its an AMAZING piece.  Obviously I got mine after the oppo closed its doors and I paid double that,  so for $1200 I guess I was expecting too much.  As for SACD, I don't own any so have no input, sorry.  

I use my 203 as a server.  I have a hard drive connected to it via USB input.  I can access all my music.  Of course you need a video screen to see what's going on and control things.

For a jack-of-all-trades I think it is a good unit.  I've had no problems with it.  I am running it through an external DAC.

I am more than satisfied with my Oppo 203, having previously owned a Linn Unidisk player. I replaced the mains input with one by Kimber and use a Kimber Reference powerkord. The difference between CD and SACD is relatively small although SACD's from Japan bring about a noticeable improvement. However, the latest Blu-ray disc of Eric Clapton's "The Lady in the Balcony" is quite superb IMHO. Having said all this I am listening through a Townshend Allegri Reference/Chord SPM 1050 combo, which does make a considerable difference.

I have a 105, and when Oppo announced they were going to be stopping manufacturing I bought a 203.  It’s been in a secondary system and it definitely bested the previous player, a Sony ES SACD that is pretty highly regarded in this forum.  I actually use the 203 mostly for Blu Rays as the system it resides in is mainly for video.  Occasionally I use its Network function to stream files from my NAS (mainly when the Bluesound Node in the same system decides it doesn’t want to work, which is often).  The 203 front usb panel also will read a 1tb drive I have filled with Historic recordings from Pristine Audio, which from some reason isn’t compatible with my other streamers.

  I use my 105 to output the DSD layer from my large SACD collection into my Bryston DAC 3 over HDMI.  The 105 has a lot more miles on it than the 203 in the secondary system.  If the 105 gives up the ghost I am hoping the much more lightly used 203 can take it place in the two channel system