Oppo 105D (Darbee Edition) Review

aarmath

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Jun 25, 2014
Messages
73
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Location
Mumbai, India
OK!!!
So I finally took the plunge in splurging on a gorgeous Oppo BDP-105D. I purchased it from Avenue Sound, Kemps Corner, Mumbai. The proprietor Ashish was helpful & overall it was a great experience dealing with him.

The 105D has a fantastically solid build, well, at least solid enough to justify the Rs. 1 lakh + cost so far.
I have connected the 105D to my Yamaha A-S2000 using the balanced XLR connections between them.

Now here are some important observations from my end so far about the 105D:
- You HAVE TO HAVE TO connect the 105D to your LAN setup using ethernet simply because of the awesome Oppo Controller app that is available for Android & iOS. This unlocks the media streaming potential of the player at its finest without using the player's television video ouput. The reason being: The damn remote is a friggin Jedi light saber, heavy & using it for navigating the on-screen GUI to your media files is a bitch. This is my personal opinion. The remote also has two massive hot buttons for Netflix & another video streaming service, which, well is totally redundant since there are applicable territorial limitations in accessing the services. That is unless you subscribe to a great VPN service.....
Though the 105D ships with a Wi-Fi USB adaptor, I would recommend wired ethernet simply because of the much much faster speeds.

- If you have any other player that has HDMI outs, feel free to connect into the 105D's HDMI inputs. The 105D is a great upscaler for internal & external visuals (Via the HDMI 1 input).

- You Gotta GOTTA really have an amplifier with XLR balanced inputs that is TRULY Balanced. In my case, I have connected the 105D to my Yamaha A-S2000 using the balanced XLR connections between them. To the best of my knowledge this is a truly balanced combination. Please feel free to add in valuable inputs.

- Connect the 105D, preferably, to a pure sine wave quality inverter like APC.

- While playing over the LAN network or Internet video streaming (Using Youtube) the player response may be slightly sluggish. Well, give the puppy time to breathe & you will be rewarded.
Also the player supports pretty much all network streaming protocols like DLNA, UPNP, SMB et al. But now therein lies the challenge: You have to know what option to pick depending on what you want to do with the player. Much of my video content (MKV + SRT Subtitle files) reside in my Popcornhour C-200 media player, which functions at the moment like a NAS system.
Since the C-200 supports a multitude of network protocols itself, both devices can handshake. But you gotta pick the right protocol. For instance when I went to the Network option on the 105D & connected to the C-200 via UPNP, I could see my video files, stream them & have the 105D play them, I could not view the relevant subtitles.
It's only when I connected via the SMB protocol is when I had the video + subtitles streaming in perfectly.
When you play audio, ofcourse, you can pick up whichever handshake protocol you are comfortable with.
Now this is where the Oppo remote play software comes into play from my 1st point. The software accurately displays all hard disks connected to the 105D including network connectivity protocols for different devices that are connected on to the LAN network. In my case I have my PC, C-200, PS3, Xbox 1 (1st Gen) shod with XBMC, standalone PIVOS media player shod with XBMC & my smartphones, which I have music content in various formats. The Oppo software can detect, control, stream all permissible files (Audio & Video) with a flick of a finger elegantly without any aplomb. Absolutely gorgeous!!!

- The DAC capabilities are truly astounding. Been playing a few DSF (64 & 128) files of the PC using FooBar & they sound great using the 105D's DAC. BUT when you try to play DSF files that are higher than DSF 64 sampling directly through the player, well, it doesn't play. So that sucks. For some strange reason I tried playing a few DFF files & the player skipped those. So Im presuming they will play off my PC & use the 105D's DAC capability. But again that sucks.

- I have a huge collection of FLAC, APE, M4A, WAV, Advanced Resolution Audio, OGG, AAC, MP3 files at high bitrates & they all played well far exceeding my expectations. One of my favourite tracks is Steve Vai's Mullach a' tS from the 2012 album - The Story Of Light. The player has a razor sharp hold on the high frequencies showing no signs of premature roll-offs. Solid.

- It managed to impressively upsample the stereo audio of my C-200, which was connected to the 105D via HDMI.

So why the hell do I still have the C-200 connected???

That's because the 105D does NOT play .ISO files. It's a HUGE Suck but then again Oppo had no choice what with the Hollywood cartel forcing Oppo to take this step.
Having said that there is apparently a hacked firmware version that allows playback of ISO files. BUT be aware that this may break compatibility with the Oppo remote software (Smartphone), which I have grown to love & respect.
THAT's where my beloved C-200 comes into the picture, literally! It plays ISO files without any fuss & it plays Blu-Ray BDMV rips super smooth. Ergo, when I connect it to my 105D, I gain better analog audio processing via 105D's HDMI input interface as well as the Darbee video processing capabilities (If at all I use it...)

Win-Win for one & all.

The current setup is:

Oppo BDP 105D
Yamaha A-S2000
Wharfedale Dentons (80th Anniversary)
Blue Jean balanced XLRs with Neutrik connectors

Connected to a Logitech z5500 setup & an AOC 32 inch telly.
 
Is your 105 d region free modded or is the unmodded version. There is a hardware hack to make 105 region free for DVD and bluray.
 
Yes mate. It's hardware modded. Haven't tested it since I don't have conflicting Blu-Ray region coded discs. Once I get them, will test & post my observations out here.
Apart from that would be great if someone could confirm that there is a hacked firmware for the 105D that allows it to play .ISO files.
 
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