ESL, 5.1, OPPO 105D, Anthem A5... What am i missing?

Anybody have any experience using the OPPO 105d without a receiver and going directly through the amplifier?

OPPO claims that one of the benefits of the 105d is its analog outputs and the 105D can be used as a pre.
Is there a component I am missing and should consider?
I am curious what any body knows....

ESL = main
Motif = Center
Motion 4 = rears
Dynamo 1000 = Sub
OPPO 105D Blue Ray
Anthem A5 Amp

I'm using the OPPO 105D Balanced XLR outputs to my amplifier and they work very well for stereo.

However, the pre-amp outputs are ONLY for stereo. Notice the preamp output XLR jacks on the left rear separate from the 7.1 channels across the top right.

If you want to drive a surround sound system, you will still need a surround capable pre-amp.

More importantly for a surround system to sound right you will want it to calibrate to the room.
You have speakers firing from different locations and no two rooms are the same.

Typically your AV pre-amp will adjust the volume of the different speakers relative to each other and balance the speakers to the subwoofer.



FWIW, I built a USB -> trigger input. When I turn on my Oppo 105D, it generates 5V on the USB ports and fortunately my amplifier will trigger on 5V-12V rather than just 12V like most do.

I understood that the oppo 105d analog output is where the magic takes place And sending it straight to the amp is ok.
Yes I lose room correction... but I am not ready to plunk another $3k for the anthem avm60 (play-fi ready!!!)
So again... what else am I missing besides for room correction by going straight from oppo to amp?

roleplay said:

I understood that the oppo 105d analog output is where the magic takes place And sending it straight to the amp is ok.
Yes I lose room correction... but I am not ready to plunk another $3k for the anthem avm60 (play-fi ready!!!)
So again... what else am I missing besides for room correction by going straight from oppo to amp?

Click to expand...

I stand corrected. OPPO specifically mentions this as an option. My apologies for the misdirection.

Option B - Multichannel setup
Connect the OPPO's FL output to your multichannel power amplifier's FRONT LEFT INPUT.
Connect the OPPO's FR output to your multichannel power amplifier's FRONT RIGHT INPUT.
Connect the OPPO's SR output to your multichannel power amplifier's SURROUND RIGHT INPUT.
Connect the OPPO's SL output to your multichannel power amplifier's SURROUND LEFT INPUT.
Connect the OPPO's C output to your multichannel power amplifier's CENTER INPUT.
Connect the OPPO's SW output to your active subwoofer's LFE INPUT

I haven't looked into how this functionality works. Hopefully it allows adjustment of each speaker to get the room balanced. That seems like it would be a bit arduous to do by hand and ear.

I do find this interesting since even with matched speakers, I found the difference after my receiver calibrated the system to be pretty substantial especially in how it drove my subwoofer. The sub was a much more natural extension of them afterwards, and the receiver knows to increase the volume to my rear channels which are further back than the fronts where I watch movies.

Good luck!

RCHeliGuy how have you connected oppo to desktop. Are you using usb on both end cable.

Thanks for your reply.

M15 said:

RCHeliGuy how have you connected oppo to desktop. Are you using usb on both end cable.

Thanks for your reply.

Click to expand...

I'm using this cable.
http://www.amazon.com/High-Speed-Male-Printer-Cable/dp/B010V68PGI

I downloaded the OPPO Asynchronous USB driver, connected my Media Server to the OPPO, then installed the driver.

JRiver can even upsample to 192kHz if you like.

RCHeliGuy said:

I'm using this cable.
http://www.amazon.com/High-Speed-Male-Printer-Cable/dp/B010V68PGI

I downloaded the OPPO Asynchronous USB driver, connected my Media Server to the OPPO, then installed the driver.

JRiver can even upsample to 192kHz if you like.

Click to expand...

Thanks for info.

I think starting out using the Oppo as a pre is good. But does not keep up with a good pre just does not have enough voltage to drive a amp at it best capability . I have a cat SL1 ultimate. And a Casse Omega pre they both smoke the Oppo as a pre. And they should they are 10 times the cost. Even my old classe CP50 smokes the Oppo as a pre. You can get a CP50 and CP60 used for very little money if you can find one. They are true balanced from input to output. And fabulous sounding preamps. Also Audible Elusions (SP) are great preamps as well. Again trust your EARS ONLY! This just my opinion.

Norway84 said:

I think starting out using the Oppo as a pre is good. But does not keep up with a good pre just does not have enough voltage to drive a amp at it best capability . I have a cat SL1 ultimate. And a Casse Omega pre they both smoke the Oppo as a pre. And they should they are 10 times the cost. Even my old classe CP50 smokes the Oppo as a pre. You can get a CP50 and CP60 used for very little money if you can find one. They are true balanced from input to output. And fabulous sounding preamps. Also Audible Elusions (SP) are great preamps as well. Again trust your EARS ONLY! This just my opinion.

Click to expand...

FYI the signal that comes out of the OPPO 105D is just as clean and good as that of any preamplifier.

There is almost NO difference in putting out a standard RCA output to a preamp vs. driving an amplifier in terms of electronics needed and in the case of the OPPO 105D it has a fixed amplification going out and just adjusts the signal with the DAC.

HOWEVER how well it drives an amplifier is very dependent on the input impedance of your amplifier.

Many Pre-amps and amps are matched and an amplifier can have an input impedance from around 20 kohm up to to 2 Mohm.

For example the Wyred4Sound have a 100kohm and 96kohm input impedance.

A Bryston has a 20k ohm balanced and 50k ohm single ended.

My amplifier has a 33 kohms balanced input impedance and the OPPO works very well with it. OPPO suggests a perfect match as a 47kohm amplifier input impedance.

I tried a Bryston BP6 which is about a $3,000 preamp and it did no better than my OPPO 105D did.

The OPPO 105D will NOT drive all amplifiers well. That is very true, but if you have an input impedance that matches well it does a great job.

That said ideally you have a matched amp/preamp