Hello everyone,
This is a review and measurements of the OPPO BDP-105 Blu-Ray, DVD, SACD, CD player and transport.
It is on a kind loan from the same friend who owns the
OPPO BDP-95 that I previously reviewed.
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OPPO BDP-105 - Presentation
As wit the BDP-95, this is a Universal everything-Player which add a USB DAC input and removes the rear fan from its predecessor. It was released in 2012.
I'm sure most of you know much more than me about this unit, and I will be focusing on audio performance only.
Of course, you did not miss that this one is a
ModWright OPPO BDP-105 Tubes Mods, with a tube output stage that was sold for a very high $2'495 at the time:
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I see some of you already delighted to know the "
Truth" about this tube output stage. Unfortunately, the external power supply failed on the previous owner who, in rage, threw it away
So, the two main audio outputs are now mute:
View attachment 479094
As with the BDP-95, we have a busy back panel, with an added ESB DAC input and no fan, but ventilation on the top. Note that the RCA on the right are updated too, as part of the ModWright update.
Let's have a look at the dusty inside:
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The tube output stage is positioned on top of the mechanic, there was not much more possibility.
The below is the main stereo audio board which, as opposed to the BDP-95, was physically separated from the multi-channel one:
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This one also received the optional "Bybee Music Rail Upgrade" at $225 and the website of ModWright says:
- This upgrade can be installed on both the 2CH DAC and the MCH DAC.
- The purpose of the Bybee rail is to SIGNIFICANTLY (MEASURABLE!) upgrade the quality of the power feeding a critical voltage to the DAC.
- This translates to lower jitter and a lower noise floor. This is an entirely different technology than Bybee purifiers which we have also used for years now with great success. This is a breakthrough technology!
- The upgrades improves resolution, detail and decay which leads to broader sound stage and a more natural musical presentation, with out edge or glare.
- For more information: www.bybeelabs.com
Since the main outputs are mute, let's hope it makes its magic on the remaining multi channel outputs. It says it does, so crossing fingers because that's all I can test now!
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The below picture shows the upgraded Cardas RCAs, the XLR are stock:
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To finalize the review of the inside, I guess you saw that strange black box on top on the toroidal transformer, which was an additional upgrade at $400 called "The Pulse Gen ZX" and was an internal power supply enhancement to reduce the noise floor:
View attachment 479107
There are only two wires going into it and I don't know where they come from, I'd need to dismantle the unit to know, but I won't do that
The box is sealed and with a lot of efforts, it reveals:
View attachment 479111
The main IC was painted and the top of the box is covered with glued with pink quartz
Does it reduce the jitter too?
User experience
My experience was the same as with the
OPPO BDP-95, so the below in nearly a copy/paste of my feedback:
- It's mandatory to use an external display, at minimum for the initial setup. Once correctly setup, you can use it to play SACD or CD without needing a screen.
- The front display is big enough to be seen from a distance, but some information (such as DSD or PCM play) can only be seen when very close to it.
- The front buttons are painful to use. They are touch sensitive but don't confirm they received an order. I used the remote control as a consequence.
- Some audio options (eg HDCD ON/OFF) will be configurable only if there are no discs in the player.
- It is necessary to read the very long user guide to get to understand how to tune this player, but that's also because of so many functions.
- The drive is slow to load a disc because it will identify in its memory where the previous play stopped. But as opposed to the BDP-95, I found a menu to stop it from identifying the last position, and that devides by more than two the time to read the TOC of my 40+ tracks Test CD (5sec).
- FFW and REW are painful as with all video players. Skipping a track is reasonably fast, faster than with the BDP-95 but the display is not as fast as the drive, so when pressing multilple times on "next" I ended up one too far track many times.
- It is gapless playback!
- It correctly decodes CDA with pre-emphasis without deviation from the expected curve.
- It is much faster to skip tracks with an SACD than with an Audio CD, I don't recall that with the BDP-95
OPPO BDP-105 - Measurements (CD Player - RCA out)
All measurements performed with an E1DA Cosmos ADCiso (grade O), and the Cosmos Scaler (100kohms from unbalanced input) for analog outputs, and a Motu UltraLite Mk5 for digital.
I am now consistent with my specific measurements for CD Players, as I described them in the post “
More than we hear”, and as I reported them for the
Onkyo C-733 review. Over time, this will help comparing the devices I reviewed.
Because the main audio board is now mute, I had to use the secondary board the measurements which as shown with the BDP-95, is not really an issue since it performs really well, if not better.
The multichannel unbalanced RCA output 2Vrms. The channel imbalance was 0.03dB in SACD mode and a
massive +3dB in left channel with Audio CD!
This is my standard measurement of a 999.91Hz sine (without dither) @0dBFS from the right channel:
View attachment 479113
It's an OPPO, so we get the best of the Audio CD! This is basically a view of the original WAV file that was used to burn the CD.
Now, bad news, as this is the left channel:
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Because of the 3dB more in this channel, it clips the output channel (we see only 1.3dB more here at the output for 3dB more requested by the digital stage, so that is more than the headroom of the analog output stage).
As a matter of facts, at -6dBFS it does not clip anymore, but I see it outputs 2.97dB more than the right channel. The left channels outputs that near 3dB more at all levels, weird!
EDIT: After investigation, there is a probable bug in the Sample Rate Converter, and the issue is the same if I force the OPPO to convert DSD to PCM. See more here.
So, let me quickly continue with the Right channel.
This is the same at -6dBFS (Right Channel ok):
View attachment 479117
Again best in class here.
And the left channel is now good but shows 3dB more at the output:
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Volume control of the player does not change anything. I though this could come from the PCM interpolator so I tested with DSD and DSD to PCM convert, but no issue when the source is an SACD. So I don't have an explanation.
Ok, again, I'll focus on the right channel only for the rest of the review.
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I usually have a look at any potential PS related leakage, and you saw it before, there are none, even if I zoom:
View attachment 479120
No PS related leakage, very good.
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Next is the bandwidth:
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This is very flat within -0.1dB.
And let's have a look at the job of the oversampling filter, with a wider bandwidth:
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Very nice! I had to increase the vertical scale down to -170dBr to see the noise floor, out of band! The attenuation is minimum -110dB, no signs of noise shaping. This is a sharp filter fully active at 24kHz. The artifacts of the dual tones are attenuated by -120dB, best in class, again.
Please appreciate the visual near absence of intermodulation distortion. Actually the software calculate -116dBr (4dB better than the OPPO BDP-95, noise floor being the one of the Audio CD.
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Let's have a look at the multitone test that a lot of you like very much:
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Nailed! Left channel is massively distorted on this test, because of the increased output.
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Oh yes, the jitter test:
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Started with the
Teac VRDS-20 review, and on your request + support to get it done (more
here), I'm adding now an "intersample-overs" test which intends to identify the behavior of the digital filtering and DAC when it come to process near clipping signals. Because of the oversampling, there might be interpolated data that go above 0dBFS and would saturate (clip) the DAC and therefore the output. And this effect shows through distorsion (THD+N measurement up to 96kHz):
The above results are nearly identical to those of the OPPO BDP-95. So my comments are the same. Basically, the oversampling interpolator does not have any headroom. But this player has volume control too. And look, if I reduce the volume by 2dB, then I get the best results so far, all dominated by digital noise due to the limit of the 16bits bit depth. Decreasing the volume by one more dB gives the same best result with 11'025Hz test file.
As with the BDP-95, it does not impact the performances to reduce the volume by 2dB.
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Let's continue with the good old 3DC measurement that Stereophile was often using as a proof of low noise DAC. It is from an
undithered 997Hz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the smallest symmetrical sign magnitude digital signal:
View attachment 479132
Again similar best in class result as with the OPPO BDP-95. There's nearly 0 noise added to this most fragile 16bits signal. The linearity is of course perfect. State of the art that so many recent dedicated CD players do not achieve...
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Other measurements (not shown):
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Analog" (18kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -112.3dB
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Digital" (17'987Hz & 19'997Hz 1:1) : -115.6dB
- IMD AES-17 MD (41Hz & 7993Hz 4:1): -117.7dB
- IMD DIN (250Hz & 8kHz 4:1) : -106.7dB
- IMD CCIF (19kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -111.9dB
- IMD SMPTE (60Hz & 7kHz 1:4) : -108.1dB
- IMD TDFD Bass (41Hz & 89Hz 1:1) : -125.9dB
- IMD TDFD (13'58Hz & 19841Hz 1:1) : -126.2dB
- Dynamic Range : 98.9dB (without dither @-60dBFS)
- Crosstalk: 100Hh (below -135dBr), 1kHz (below -135dBr), 10kHz (-127.9dBr)
- Pitch Error : 19'997.47Hz (19'997Hz requested) ie 23.5ppm
- Gapless playback : Yes
The IMD scores are best in class, a little better at low frequencies, a little worse at high frequencies, compared to the
OPPO BDP-95.
The Dynamic range is the best that can be measured (unweighted) with the Audio CD.
Crosstalk also improve a little to be nearly hidden at all frequencies
But the pitch error is a much higher 23.5ppm (4ppm for the OPPO BDP-95). This is surprise. It's still more than enough for the Audio, but surprisingly low for OPPO.
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Last and not least, I like to run a THD vs Frequency sweep at -12dBFS as it shows how the conversion has evolved over time. I am currently using the beta version of REW and I discovered that this sweep gives better and more reliable results than before. I did not overlay with other CD players, because it's the best trace I got, again, and actually it is the same if I run the test from the digital output:
View attachment 479136
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As I did with the
Sony CDP-597, I continue with a not so new now "max DAC resolution" measurement. It's performed from a 999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither. I restrict the THD+N span to 20Hz - 6kHz not to account for the noise of the shape dither beyond 6kHz. That gives me a local max resolution, which should be higher than 17bits as a proof that the CD Player can actually resolve more than the Audio CD.
Here are the results of the OPPO compared to others:
The BDP-105 does not repeat the excellent result of its predecessor, but that's not from the main stereo outputs, so I guess we can accept that
OPPO BDP-105- Testing the drive
Before going to SACD and 24bits specific measurements, let me talk about the drive tracking capabilities, since these tests are performed from a CD Audio.
What would be good measurements if the drive would not properly read a slightly scratched CD, or one that was created at the limits of the norm? The below tests reply to these questions.
Here are the results:
| Test type | Technical test | Results |
| Variation of linear cutting velocity | From 1.20m/s to 1.40m/s | Pass |
| Variation of track pitch | From 1.5µm to 1.7µm | Pass |
| Combined variations of track pitch and velocity | From 1.20m/s & 1.5µm to 1.40m/s & 1.7µm | Pass |
| HF detection (asymmetry pitch/flat ratio) | Variation from 2% to 18% | Pass |
| Dropouts resistance | From 0.05mm (0.038ms) to 4mm (3.080ms) | 2.5mm |
| Combined dropouts and smallest pitch | From 1.5µm & 1mm to 1.5µm & 2.4mm | Pass |
| Successive dropouts | From 2x0.1mm to 2x3mm | 2.4mm |
Again, the BDP-105 does not repeat the perfection of the BDP-95, but the above are very good results.
OPPO BDP-105 - Digital Output (from Audio CD)
So we have a very good performer, unfortunately very sick. Hopefully, after setting HDCD OFF, we get a perfect digital output:
View attachment 479142
With HDCD off, the bitstream is therefore "perfect". My ultimate proof is when I reuse the intersample overs test at 5512.50Hz, with a phase shift of 67.5°, like I did for the
TASCAM CD-200 review. This signal generates an overshoot of +0.69dB and so if the signal would be modified before being sent, it would show either a reduction of amplitude or we'd see some sort of saturation/increase noise/distorsion. So here we go, and it's the same as the original WAV file:
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Partial conclusion (As a CD Player)
I was initially happy to get to test the BDP-105. Alas, this one suffers many issues.
But despite the rough life it had, we can still see some very good, best in class measurements.
I don't know what to think about this modified player and being from Switzerland, I'm into neutrality. But it is very sad for me to see what little remains of what certainly was an amazing universal player.
I'll continue in a next post with 24bits PCM tests and SACD too.
PS: I forgot to test the headphones output. It’d be interesting to know if it escapes the issue. It could be the case if it does not share the same output stage and I guess it doesn’t.
