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Distortion using OPPO 103 w Streaming and CD's, but not with DVD playback

Hoping someone can give some advice before I tear the rack apart.

Have an OPPO 103 for CD/DVD and streaming from Tidal.  Have owned the unit for years and happy with it.  I really liked the fact that it not only played disks but also had the associated app that allows me to stream from Tidal.

I hadn't streamed for quite a while and when I streamed today there was tremendous distortion (unlistenable), playing a CD seems to also be distorted, but not as bad, playing a DVD doesn't seem to have no distortion at all.

All connections are RCA / Single ended. 

There is one new variable and that is the introduction of a Schiit Freya preamp.

However, vinyl sounds great through the Freya and as I said above DVD playback seems perfectly fine.

So if someone has trouble shooting ideas before I start tearing down the rack and rearranging things I would love to hear them.

Seems weird that some functions sound fine and others are a mess and I would think that a bad wire, connection or even EMF would effect all of the playback media the same way.

Thanks in advance.

Phil

phil0618
phil0618 OP
49 posts
 

Thanks again everyone, did more listening with a variety of CDs and am now convinced that CD's do indeed play fine and the issue is with streaming from Tidal.  I think the first CD I grabbed after finding the streaming issue  was something less than pristine and after having experienced the streaming issues I was just looking for issues.  But after further listening with different CDs I think CDs are fine.

I swapped the ethernet cable between the router and Oppo with no change.

The good news is I've got a Lumin D2 arriving mid week and assuming it works then my streaming problems are solved and I'll just put this to bed.

Will update if I find anything else, but with the arrival of the Lumin imminent and the CDs playing fine this is a back burner issue unless I experience issues with the Lumin.

Thanks,
Phil

designsfx
788 posts
 

Phil-

you mention using single ended rca’s for connections to the preamp- have you tried  going coaxial to the preamp and switching the Oppo’s settings to coaxial out? I run this approach with my 105-D and adjust the internal volume control for matching.

phil0618 OP
49 posts
 

Hi designfx,

My 103-D only has single ended outputs so that's not an option for me.

I have played with the Oppo volume vs the preamp volume and didn't see any difference.

I also ran a speedtest on my internet connection and that seems fine.

And someone else suggested rebooting and I did unplug the unit for maybe 20 seconds and then tried again, but no change with any of these attempted fixes.

Phil

mahler123
3,081 posts
 

I have occasionally had problems with my 105 that went away with rebooting, but sometimes it requires a few reboots.  Seeing as how Oppo discontinued these products a few years ago, and now the problem seems confined to Tidal, it’s possible that perhaps a Tidal update is causing a a compatibility issue.  Practically speaking the Lumin is what you will want to use for streaming anyway

designsfx
788 posts
 

Hi Phil-

I was just looking at the BDP 103 manual and there should be a coaxial audio output near the toslink output. This will allow the 2 channel audio to be sent from the internal dac to your preamp. Tried to send a screenshot from the manual but this sight seems to like web links only.🤔
 

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