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Review and Measurements of Oppo UDP-205 UHD Player

gvl

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There's (was) the Sonica DAC, it uses 9038PRO as well.
 
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amirm

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duo8

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According to Wikipedia, this unit is identical to the UDP-203, but comes with more features. The 203 is much cheaper though with a MSRP of $549.
I also think it's worth mentioning Oppo is chi-fi :cool:
This Oppo is US based apparently. Doesn't have much to do with the Oppo making phones in China.
 
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A bit odd only using one DAC chip for stereo & the other dedicated for 7.1 surround. Guessing that the Sonica is identical to the stereo portion of the 205.

1531067044442.png
 

duo8

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What made you saying so?
Oppo digital is based in US IIRC, this is the company making BD players and audio equipments.
The other Oppo in China makes phones.
Both are under BBK.
 
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amirm

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Here are the unbalanced RCA measurements (using same USB input as balanced).

Dashboard:
Oppo UDP-205 UHD player Unblanced Dashboard Measurement.png


Same excellent performance as balanced output. Maybe a dB less.

IMD distortion vs level:
Oppo UDP-205 UHD player IMD distortion Measurement.png


A bit less good at low levels.

THD vs frequency:

Oppo UDP-205 UHD player distortion vs frequency Measurement.png


Here we see a clear step down in performance (but still in very good category).

Jitter and noise:
Oppo UDP-205 UHD player jitter and noise Measurement.png


Noise level goes down actually with unbalanced but so does the output level. Eyeballing the difference, dynamic range is reduced versus balanced. And so has jitter sidebands around our main tone at 11.05 kHz.

Finally linearity:

Oppo UDP-205 UHD player linearity Measurement.png


Most excellent.

Conclusions
The unbalanced/RCA outputs of Oppo UDP-205 produces almost the same superb performance that it delivered using balanced connection. Clearly it is a well engineered unit with proper design verification for both of its outputs.

NOTE: My company is a dealer for Oppo. "Dealer" is a stretch of the term here as the discount for dealers will buy you a cup of tea and not the usual margins that exists for audio. But you should take this account in reading my review here.
 
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derp1n

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Noise/jitter graph should read "unbalanced" for red.

Impressive results again. Benchmark, see, you can have good balanced and single ended output! ;)
 
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amirm

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And here are headphone results. First, the really bad news: output impedance:

Oppo UDP-205 Headphone Output Impedance Measurement.png


Yes, it really is 120 ohm output impedance. Unloaded it is over 4 volts output but drops like a rock to below 1 volt when loaded with 33 ohms.

EDIT: the owner sent the unit in to Oppo for testing and they measured the output impedance at 0.4 ohms. I am at a loss as to what went wrong but tend to trust the data from Oppo given how high my measurements were.

Here is the THD+N versus output level:
Oppo UDP-205 Headphone Distortion vs Output Power Measurement.png


That large output impedance keeps it from clipping badly. But noise level and distortion remain very high. Probably one of the worst I have measured.

There had to be some bad news and this it. :) So best to use an external headphone amp with it. What is there is a "checklist" item.
 
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n2it

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It is tempting but boy, is a cheap looking box for a $250 DAC. :) As I noted in another thread, is there no resellers of this anywhere? I only see their own store.

It definitely is not a pretty device. They only sell in their store - that is their mode of business. The also have a US storefront, but unfortunately, this DAC isn't being sold there. I took a chance and ordered one. It should be here early next week. I'll listen to if for a few weeks and then PM you when I can send it for your review.
 

Veri

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It definitely is not a pretty device. They only sell in their store - that is their mode of business. The also have a US storefront, but unfortunately, this DAC isn't being sold there. I took a chance and ordered one. It should be here early next week. I'll listen to if for a few weeks and then PM you when I can send it for your review.
I believe amir mentioned he bought it himself, too in another thread.
 

Fitzcaraldo215

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This Oppo is US based apparently. Doesn't have much to do with the Oppo making phones in China.
I don't know about the 203/205, but It is my recollection that all prior Oppos were designed and manufactured in China. Oppo USA, I believe, is a marketing, distribution and support subsidiary of the Chinese company for the North American market with no manufacturing in North America. But, I might be wrong on that.
 

PuX

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Yes, it really is 120 ohm output impedance
wow, nwavguy once said headphone impedance should be at least 8 times the impedance if the amplifier. I don't think there are any modern headphones with 960 Ohm impedance :)

it would be cool to see pictures of the internals, maybe there are some clues on what makes it a competent DAC.
 

helloworld

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Is it possible to add airplay feature to uhd 205? I know it supports dlna? If I use hdmi to connect it with my apple tv, will it increase the noise? Could you please test it?
 
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