Oppo Sonica USB DAC and Streamer Review

[Russ_L]

It’s not the same Oppo company making the phones. Oppo Electronics, the phone company, was separate from Oppo Digital, the universal player and personal audio company. They both had common ownership, BBK Electronics, but were separate operations.

Correct but my point is still relevant.

Russ

 

[Omar Cumming]

Another great review by Amir.
Oppo made some very good products, including this one.
It is a pity that they are out of the audio business.

It is indeed a pity as there was a place for them in the objective audiophile space.

Cheers

 

[anmpr1]

Oppo is still a thing in China. Not sure what that thing is, but I thought I'd post a pic of the latest Oppo Girl. Li Bingbing. It's the least I can do.

 

[RayDunzl]

Yeah, but that's an old picture...

 

[Russ_L]

Oppo is still a thing in China. Not sure what that thing is, but I thought I'd post a pic of the latest Oppo Girl. Li Bingbing. It's the least I can do.

View attachment 52733

Cell phones. See my link on page 2.

Russ

 

[restorer-john]

Yeah, but that's an old picture...

Good one Ray!

 

[carlosmante]

Oppo was a California company, no? Bit perplexed by Euro Football Panther here.

E: I stand corrected!

Perplexed? Panthera spp. are Native only to the Asian, African and American Continents. There are not native Panthera spp. in the European continent. And Foot-ball is the most Popular Sport on the Via Lactea, so long, long time it's not exclusive to Europeans.

 

[SplitTime]

They wanted to sell DVD and BluRay players and that market dried up,that was my take why thy went out of business.

Hummm... I don’t know. I have a BDP-105D and then I received my UDP-203 in December of the year they came out. I couldn’t get an ETA for the UDP-205 and got distracted with other things. 16 months later (April), when I came back to the web site to check on the UDP-205 and place an order they were already closing up shop. I added my name to the “wait list.” They did one more production run of UDP-205s after I was added to the wait list. Yet they didn’t even make enough to satisfy the waitlist demand (I was below the cut line and did not get one). Perhaps the demand only became large once people realized they were shutting down?

A bonus is that there is a very easy way to extract the DSF files from your SACDs using Oppo players - for your own personal use of course. The only other way this can be done (that I’m aware of) is an ancient PS3 with ancient firmware version that was never upgraded. I like to have physical media, but I also like playlists and the ability to take my music with me.

I was very disappointed to see them go...

 

[wwenze]

Actually, Oppo Digital was a California company, with development, design, and engineering done in the U.S. Their parent company, BBK Electronics, is a Chinese company. BBK might have been involved in some aspects of the engineering but at least a significant portion was done in the US.

Probably the final effort by the California engineers to keep their jobs then.

Capitalism says their skills are better-used elsewhere so the invisible hand took them away.

 

[mackat]

Thank you for this review, I think I’m going to procure one of these now! I was looking into the RME ADI-2, but it is both above my price range and includes features that I would never use. I think the Sonica should fit the bill nicely for me.

 

[amirm]

For anyone interested, my son has the Oppo HA-1 which I think is the fancier version of this with headphone amp. The volume control is flakey and requires time to warm up to stabilize. Otherwise in excellent health if someone is interested (PM me).

 

[Milt]

Such a sad shame that Oppo Digital got shutdown by the parent company.
I met all of the main Oppo guys in August of 2013 & talked at length with the designer Jason.
He approached gear design like Toyota & Honda.
Making incremental, tangible improvements in their products with each generation.
They were incredibly open to feedback from customers & expert reviewers in all aspects of the design, functionality, performance & ease of use.
Wrapping all of it up in functionality, performance & price ratio that will never be bested when including universal format playback excellence.
So glad I bought 2 205s & a 203 when they announcement the news.
In all I've owned 6 Oppo players & still own 5.
One was stolen.

 

[trl]

I bought this right after launch and returned it because it didn't have gapless playback support over DLNA and Oppo had no plans to fix it.

Edit: archimago measured this which is why I bought it.

This one of the reasons why OPPO ceased to produce such great products: lack of support from ESS and other companies they used to work with.
Also, OPPO faced another difficulty when some folks asked them why did they used an ES9038PRO instead of ES9038C2M, because the channels are not tided up together (can't find the macro pics for the PCB).

However, a great manufacturer that really cared about the customers.

 

[Milt]

Sorry trl, but the lone reason Oppo Digital shutdown was the parent company wasn't seeing enough profit for dedicating a production line for their products versus cell phones.
Oppo Digital worked closely with all of their vendors.
Just because people think they failed because they used one DAC or anything else over another has no basis in fact.

 

[trl]

I'm sure you're right, Milt.

 

[mackat]

Well, I bit the bullet and just bought one of these a few hours ago. I’m sure I will love it!

 

[Jimster480]

No, they are a Chinese company.

Wrong Oppo. Oppo Digital is a USA company.

 

[RayDunzl]

 

[anmpr1]

Wrong Oppo. Oppo Digital is a USA company.

From the Internet Encyclopaedia of General Know-It-All:

BBK Electronics Corporation (广东步步高电子工业有限公司 or Guangdong Bu Bu Gao Electronics Industrial Private Limited) is a Chinese multinational firm specializing in electronics such as television sets, MP3 players, digital cameras...

BBK Electronics Corporation markets smartphones under the Realme, Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus brands... It also markets Blue Ray players, headphones and headphone amplifiers under the Oppo Digital brand.

 

[frogmeat69]

For anyone interested, my son has the Oppo HA-1 which I think is the fancier version of this with headphone amp. The volume control is flakey and requires time to warm up to stabilize. Otherwise in excellent health if someone is interested (PM me).

The HA-1 has the ESS9018 DAC chip, not the 9038 Pro, came out a few years before the Sonica DAC.