Hey....guess what I’m about to do? [Major Oppo mods]

[Gazjam]

Fair question Brian.

Yes.

A few different combinations of a bit of this and a bit of that.
Oppo wins.

Considering pennies spent not disappointed.
But is what is is.

[brian2957]

Good when a plan comes together

[Gazjam]

After the latest round of tweaks to the system, including ‘upgrading’ CD playback by treating the surface of my CDs with "Magic audiophile liquid" and installing Herbie Audio Labs CD mat, I’ll be cracking the Oppo open again soon.
I realised I hadn’t done all the same mods I did to my old Audiolab 6000 CD transport.

Damping the capacitors and isolating the PCB improved the sound with the Audiolab, a nice tweak, so will pick up some more Silent Coat damping and get to work on the Oppo.

I’ll update my thread here.

[Gazjam]

Took the Oppo out the rack and cracked it open.

Turns out I already did all that internal isolation stuff Senior moment...
On a closer look, there was a couple of bits I missed so took care of them.

Happy to say I can (literally) close the case on the Oppo upgrades, been a bit of a journey, learned a lot, and had a lot of fun and enjoyment.
These things go for silly money nowadays, and there's a satisfaction knowing I've pushed the stock player to its max.

Was a time when I'd wished I'd gone for a 205 over a 203, but the only difference (aside the box) was attention paid to audio output (with better internal Dac, balanced output n stuff) but digital audio out into a Dac its exactly the same.
My Dacs better that the internal 205 one, so happy to not think about it anymore.
That said the 205 looked better!

Compared to 4K streaming from whatever source,
A bluray disk played on the 203 is at least as good, and in many cases actually better?
Standard Bluray seems as good as 4K streamed movie, aside the HDR from a 4K stream.
Sharpness, contrast and clarity a bluray is as good.

Put a proper 4K disc in the Oppo though and it's game over.

Looking back, (when did I buy it again?) really happy to have invested in this thing.
CD playback, SACD playback, file based playback... and its HDMI input for AppleTV streaming and the PS5

Digital Swiss Army Knife, its a helluva thing.
Wish I'd invested in a couple of spare laser mechs at the time...

Grant at the time tried to advise me the old bugger!

[Macca]

yes, I really like my Oppo too. It's the only thing I can play my two DVD-A discs on.

They look pretty cool too. I think it cost me £80 which is a daft bargain. Bought used, but it came in all the packaging like it was new.