[Wayne1]

OPPO DVD Player Mods

After close to 100 hours of constant use, the audio mods to the OPPO DVD player are finally breaking in. The new Black Gate "N" series coupling caps in front of the op-amps are very well known for sounding fairly poorly at first. It took at least 75 hours for the bass to start to open up.

I am sure the sonics will continue to improve but at this time I have a very good idea of the sound of this little player.

First off, the" Basic" mod I have done to the player's power supply and DVI board improves the definition of the picture quality quite a bit. In comparison to my modded Pioneer DV-S755Ai you can see FAR MORE detail and depth to the picture. The OPPO continues to impress me with it's ability to play any disc at all with NO problems. It is region free and does play PAL or NTSC discs. It has played DVD+R and DVD+RW discs without a glitch.

The latest round of mods done to the player have focused more on the audio section. I added a Bybee Slipstream Purifier in the digital audio signal path. It works on BOTH the optical and coaxial output. It truly makes a fairly major improvement in DVD soundtracks.

 Bubba lent me his copy of the Superbit version of "Underworld" I normally do not hear much information in between the front and surround channels in my system. With the Bybee in place there was some wonderful sound effects that spread from the front to the rear on the sides on my room. I am using a 5.1 system with VMPS 626Rs for mains and surrounds with a VMPS LRC for center.

The one DVD-A audio disc I have (Sinatra, Live at the Sands with the Count Basie Orchestra) has gained a great deal of impact over the weekend. The DVD-A recording now sounds FAR better than the standard DVD informtion.

I am VERY pleased with the results of all the mods I have done. The stock player is pretty damn good to begin with. I do believe, after the mods, it will be pretty tough to find something with better picture quality at anywhere near the price.

The ONLY drawback to the machine is that it only does its magic over the DVI connection. Even with the mods, component video is just okay. If you have a fairly recent video display, I highly suggest you give the OPPO OPDV971H a try. Then send it to me for some mods

I will be shipping the player out to some folks so they can compare it with their stock OPPO. It will be heading up to Seattle for Bubba and Al Garay to evaluate first.

[gongos]

Any chance of you posting a side by side picture comparison of a modded and unmodded player or your website so we can see the difference?

[trekker]

How will the closing of Black Gate, as reported in Stereophile affect the mods?  http://www.stereophile.com/news/080805industry/

"The Black Gate closes: As we reported, Rubycon (the sub-contract manufacturer) has ceased production of Black Gate capacitors. The Parts Connection had expressed some hope that Rubycon might be prevailed upon to continue production if sufficient demand was forthcoming. Unfortunately, this plan did not work out and pcX has announced that the final orders of Black Gate capacitors were made on August 5. The Parts Connection has been stockpiling quantities of the most popular values, but current stock will only last for so long. Audiophiles with a DIY habit should stock up while quantities last."

[Bemopti123]

Oh, man.  That is very unfortunate.  I will need to send my gear for modification fast before they are gone.  Aren't there other available companies that make some decent BG like components?  After all, BG cannot be monopolizing the market on their wares.  

Paul

[Wayne1]

The modded player is currently on it's way to Bubba in Seattle. No pictures of that one for a few weeks. I do not currently have any stock OPPO DVD players.

There is little to no difference from the outside. All you will see is an IEC connector on the back. As for pictures of the circuit boards, that information is proprietary to OPPO. I signed a non-disclosure agreement with them, so I am afraid I cannot post any photos without their permission.

There are 6 "N" series caps used ONLY in the analog audio section mod. I can stock up on them, but I do not expect this to be too popular an option. If it is, I may have to source a different cap and the price will change.

[gongos]

Sorry, I meant before and after pictures of actual performance on a TV.

[Wayne1]

gongos,

Perhaps Bubba and Al Garay can get together and take some pictures.

The player should get up to Seattle by Thursday. Maybe in a week or two someone who has a stock player and a good digital camera would be willing to post some comparison pictures with the modded player.

[bubba966]

If Al's got a camera I'll see if we can get a decent A/B screen shot of stock vs. modded since he's got a stock OPPO.

I don't have a stock OPPO or a camera, so I won't be able to do anything immediately upon receiving the modded OPPO.

[gongos]

I live in Kirkland WA and have a stock Oppo.

[Wayne1]

gongos,

Get in touch with Bubba through e-mail or PM. Hopefully you guys can hook-up and demo the OPPOs together.

[Beezer]

Hey Wayne,

Maybe I missed it, but what do the mods cost?

Thanks,
Beez

[Wayne1]

I posted the link to the mod description in the first post.

Here it is again: OPPO DVD Player Mods

The basic mod is $400.00 plus shipping and the player. Add the Bybee Purifier for $100.00. The Deluxe Audio mod is an extra $500.00.
$1000.00 plus the player and shipping for all the goodies.

[Wayne1]

Bubba has received the OPPO and seem to like it

Here are his comments:
"Well, Wayne's modded OPPO showed up just a few minutes ago. I'm running it in a bit more as he said it could use a little more break in.

But a quick (very quick) demo of the OPPO w/a Nitro PC with Furutech Rhodium plugs and a Cryo'd Bolder Digital with Silver WBT NextGen's against my stock Pioneer DV-AX10 w/stock PC and a Bolder Cryo'd Napalm Ultra Digital cable showed that the OPPO was rather good on the digital out compared to AX10.

Which I'd say is pretty damn impressive that the OPPO is sounding that good. It reminds me a lot of a Proceed PMDT w/topline Transparent Audio AES/EBU digital. For reference the AX10/cable combo was about $6,500 & the Proceed/cable combo was about $8,000. And the OPPO w/the mods that effect the digital out is about $700.

Sure, I need to do a more detailed comparison between the OPPO & my AX10. And I need to run the OPPO in a bit more. But the quick comparo was impressive from such a little player (the tray of my AX10 is taller than the entire OPPO sm_lyellow.gif ).

So I'm beginning to see why Wayne speaks so highly of the OPPO..."
_

For anyone who is interested in a "Basic" analog audio only mod, I could do one for about $150.00. It would not be as extensive or sound as good as the Deluxe one, but it would certainly sound better than the stock unit.

I do suggest the "Basic" power supply mod as at least a first step. The other mods can be done at a later date. The PS mod will give improvements across the board.

[kbuzz3]

im very curious about how the oppo sounds as a transport to a dac.....the picture quality being a bonus that comes witht the mods.....

[RoadTripper]

Isn't the main point the video quality? How does it do on movies?

[kbuzz3]

Isn't the main point the video quality? How does it do on movies?

i worded that poorly. I use my current setup for both music and movies  Im interested because id like to take adavantage of the dvi connection on my sammy dlp...never tried it and wondering if its that much better then component via my my current phillips 963.

Since I also use the phillip for audio only (need to let the wife be able to play a dvd without turning on the stereo) im thus curious to know if the oppo could better the phillips as a transport to my meitner dac

[Wayne1]

kbuzz3,

That is exactly what Bubba was commenting on. He was comparing the modded OPPO JUST AS A TRANSPORT playing a CD into his receiver using the coax digital connection. He compared it to his multi-kilobuck Pioneer AX-10 and the modded OPPO did not come up wanting. He thought it sounded similar to the Proceed PMDT, in his system.

I think that is not bad for $700.00 worth of mods and player to go against gear that costs around 10 times as much.

The STOCK OPPO on DVI bettered my highly modded Pioneer DV-733Ai (European DV-47Ai) using very expensive component cables I made with WBT NextGen connectors and Slipstream Bybees in each cable.

The modded OPPO was even better.

[bubba966]

Isn't the main point the video quality? How does it do on movies?

i worded that poorly. I use my current setup for both music and movies  Im interested because id like to take adavantage of the dvi connection on my sammy dlp...never tried it and wondering if its that much better then component via my my current phillips 963.

Since I also use the phillip for audio only (need to let the wife be able to play a dvd without turning on the stereo) im thus curious to know if the oppo could better the phillips as a transport to my meitner dac

I've not had much of a chance to run tests yet. But after a good deal of driving today I was able to hook up the modded OPPO to a very impressive 46" Toshiba RP set via DVI. It was quite an impressive picture.

I'd have to say that I'd bet good money that the modded OPPO on DVI would defintely best your Phillips 963 on component.

Part way into a DD trailer on one of my Japanese DVD's my buddy (it's his system we're running this on) asks why the OPPO sounds so much better than his Toshiba DVD player. I was a bit stunned that within 20 or 30 seconds he'd noticed that. I didn't think he'd notice the audio quality. His gear wasn't the greatest (some Infinity speaks running of a lower end Sony receiver), and most people don't notice such things if they're not into gear.

That re-affirmed my quick initial findings that the modded OPPO is a damn good transport. So far I'm guessing that it's the third best DVD transport I've ever listened to. It's just slightly behind the Pioneer DV-AX10, and damn near identical to a Proceed PMDT. But it's well above the Sony 999ES, Pioneer DV-38A/DV-09/DV-05/DV-333/DVL-700/DVL-909/DVL-919/DVL-91/DV-434/DV-59AVi/DV-37/DV-47Ai/DV-45A, any Toshiba/Panasonic/Philips I've ever heard, as well as a few other Sony's & Pioneer's I'm not recalling at the moment.

So you'll notice that I've had a good many nice Sony's & Pioneer's in my setup at one time or another. And the modded OPPO is sounding better on the digital out than everything I've ever heard but the DV-AX10 & the PMDT. So the little $200 OPPO with $500 worth of digital/video mods is sounding very close to stock PMDT's ($6K) & stock DV-AX10's (also $6K) when I was using a lot nicer digitals on the PMDT & AX10.

Do I think the OPPO has great video? Yeah, from what I've seen so far.

Do I think the OPPO has great digital audio output? Yup.

Not only does the video & digital qualities of this player excell greatly, but it's also played all of the Region 2/3/4 discs I've thrown at it with no problems at all. And the PAL to NTSC conversion is not only done properly, but done very well. It might even be doing PAL conversion better than my $800 stand alone video standards transcoder. I'll have to test that out later when I've got more time.

So far the count is like so.

My Pioneer DV-AX10 ($6K) w/region/macrovision mods ($200) & standards transcoder ($800). Total for that is $7,000.

The OPPO ($200) w/digital & video mods ($500). Total for that is $700.

They both do the same things (Region Free/Macrovision Free/PAL to NTSC Conversion). They sound very close to each other. And they both look great.

I'm quite amazed that the little OPPO that's costing 1/10th the cost of the Pioneer/Tenlabs combo is doing the same things. And the OPPO is in the same performance category that the Pioneer & PMDT are in.

That's damn impressive.

[Wayne1]

Thanks for the update, Bubba.

I am VERY GLAD that the modded OPPO is sounding good and looking good.

Kris Deering ofr Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity (and many other websites) has contacted me. He is interested in checking out the modded OPPO. He is in Seattle. Hopefully he and Bubba can hook up.

Kris was the person that did the initial benchmark testing on the OPPO that gave it such a high rating DVD Benchmark

[ted_b]

Any reviews or early comments on the deluxe audio mods (especially as they relate to DVD-Audio sound)?

Ted