Just pulled the trigger on an Oppo 105D.

[TomDac]

Update...

I've played with the 105D more since first getting it and I have some more results to share:

When you plug in a USB hard drive and then access it thru the 105's menu and try to use metadata tags (artist, genre, etc) to access music files, it starts building an index. This index is loaded into the 105's memory and is not stored anywhere on the drive... What that means is when you turn off the 105, that index is lost and needs to be rebuilt again when you access the USB hard drive again... This seems like a mistake of some sort... It took 5 hours to create the index for my 1TB USB drive... Grrrr. I emailed Oppo and they confirmed it and also confirmed that there is no plans to change this functionality. This is a weak point for me, as I really wanted to get away from using my wi-fi to stream to the 105 from my computer.

The solution is to get the 105D hardwired into my network and I could just access my music files from my Synology NAS. Unfortunately, I didn't want to run ethernet cable from the router to the other side of the house where my 105 is.. it would've been very difficult, and if I planned on staying in this house for more than a year or two, that's what I would've done.... But, I have read about connecting to your network thru your home's electricity wiring... I purchased a NetGear Powerline kit that allowed me to do that and it seems to work pretty good, so now the 105D is on the network instead of wi-fi.

There are apps on the Synology NAS that will handle all of my music and direct it to the 105D, just like my Squeezebox setup... I tried minimserver and that seemed to work OK, but I preferred the Synology DS Audio app on the NAS and using the DS Audio app on my iphone to control it. Still not as nice as iPeng, but better than the Oppo Media Control app.

More to follow as I continue to experiment with the Oppo.

 

[amey01]

This seems like a mistake of some sort... It took 5 hours to create the index for my 1TB USB drive... Grrrr. I emailed Oppo and they confirmed it and also confirmed that there is no plans to change this functionality. This is a weak point for me,

It is more than a weak point - it's an outright defect in my book.

Storing the index on the disk itself is one solution, but if the index needs to be stored in the device for any reason, then that memory should at least not be volatile and immune to power outages.

So what they're basically saying is that the device is outright not immune to power outages. Did they disclose that before purchase? Hmm.

as I really wanted to get away from using my wi-fi to stream to the 105 from my computer.

Why?

 

[MiTT]

It is more than a weak point - it's an outright defect in my book.

Storing the index on the disk itself is one solution, but if the index needs to be stored in the device for any reason, then that memory should at least not be volatile and immune to power outages.

So what they're basically saying is that the device is outright not immune to power outages. Did they disclose that before purchase? Hmm.

Well I think that is a little harsh. Guys, you're talking about a Universal player that just happens to have a USB input. They built a rudimentary ap to allow your buddy to come over and plug in his USB stick and access a song he wants you to hear. They never marketed the product as a music server. To say it's a defect is akin to saying that your Squeezebox is defective because it doesn't play Blu-Ray's.

 

[TomDac]

I didn't want to stream music via wi-fi because coverage in that part of my house isn't very strong and dropouts with larger files (ie DSD and or movies) were frequent.

What Tim says is spot on... Oppo never intended this to be used as a music server, but if a friend comes over with some music on his thumb drive, he can plug it in and listen to the files on it.. That seems to be the purpose here.. Maybe their next super duper universal player will have that ability... until then, I'm ok with playing stuff off my NAS...including hi res files.


Those of us who have gotten used to how awesome the SqueezeBox/iPeng combination is will be hard pressed to find something as good. Logitech really should have kept developing this.

 

[amey01]

To say it's a defect is akin to saying that your Squeezebox is defective because it doesn't play Blu-Ray's.

I do see your point - it is designed as a item of convenience rather than a core function - but I still disagree sorry Tim.

If the Squeezebox was:

1. Sold containing a BluRay drive sitting proudly on the front
2. Marketed as "able to play BluRay discs"
3. Couldn't do anything of the sort.........(or required a 5-hour init sequence after every power outage)

.....then I would say it was defective.

If they market the player as being capable of "X", then "X" needs to be functionally usable and operational -- to a certain level -- to a reasonable person.

 

[amey01]

Those of us who have gotten used to how awesome the SqueezeBox/iPeng combination is will be hard pressed to find something as good. Logitech really should have kept developing this.

So true; So sad. We all keep waiting.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

FYI, I've been playing with media tools and no longer use the OPPO in any way except with the asychronous USB with music fed from a small PC.

This is a synopsis of what I've looked at.

Free
FooBar 2000 - Lots of skins, but some work to get it "right"
MusicBee - Favorite Free app - works well out of the box does a very good job.
WinAmp - Really enjoyed having the Milk Drop visualizer running on the 65" TV between my speakers.

I finally settled on JRiver and really like it a lot. It feels a lot more polished than the others. It's $50, but after using it for 5 minutes I registered my copy. It was obvious that they were putting their development dollars to good use!

JRiver is beautiful to look at and use, very flexible, works great right out of the box and only gets better with use. Customization is easier than the others and it has direct tie ins to steaming audio, video, organizes all forms of media that I've tried very well.

I'm currently working on getting VoxCommando to work with JRiver to drive it by voice command. Apparently it's not enough to have everything nearly instantly at my fingertips. Now I want to eliminate my fingers from the equation.

I'm using a small Windows 8.1 computer and the asynchronous USB input to the Oppo 105D to play all my music.
I still have the OPPO 105D directly driving my amplifier and I'm very happy with the sound quality.
It did take me some experimentation to finally get my Ethos placed right toed in and sounding properly. The imaging is fantastic. More importantly it sounds much better at lower levels than it did before.

Anyway, I'm pretty tickled with how everything is working now.