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Post by MikeMusic on Aug 19, 2018 10:15:58 GMT
Read through the thread ... Assume Oppos were made in the 1000s so it was worthwhile to mod them I wonder what we can do with our own kit, having the courage to do it of course. The damping looks relatively easy Mike, I've always felt that kit is built down to a price point. If your handy ( or learn to be) with a soldering iron, swapping wires out or whatever you can make your kit sound better. Why not try it? In a lot of mod situations, if you can wire a plug you can improve your hifi...go for it! Lego work I can do. Soldering I can do if desperate. Not going into any of my hifi with a soldering iron. Need to speak to a competent visitor
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Post by gazjam on Aug 26, 2018 10:09:15 GMT
Actually just found out I'm not done. Oh dear... I'll be done THIS time, honest Guv. -------------------------- Well...THOUGHT I was done. till I read up on on femto clocks... Theres two clocks on the Oppo, the main system clock that runs at 25/27mhz and another on the Dac board that runs at 100mhz. Not concerned about the dac clock as I run the Oppo into an external dac through it’s i2s connection, but found out the main system clock can be upgraded. The high end guys like DCS, MSB and the like invest heavily in clock accuracy...so I’ll take the lead from them. From everything I’ve read, I’m expecting this upgrade to improve everything, significantly, including video. Oppomod to the rescue again, every upgrade I’ve done from him has significantly improved the player and importantly unlike other online companies (with multi tier ‘signature’ editions of upgrade packages and all that marketing BS) is cost effective. He does a replacement femto clock upgrade board to the 203 which improves everything downstream, the idea being a more accurate clock the less jitter and better digital sound. In my experience its Jitter that gives digital its unnatural sounding top end, and if you can fix that...great. Some numbers, and simplifying a bit: the stock Oppo has a clock “jitter tolerance” of 300 PPM. (the number is a measure of deviation from the base frequency, the closer and lower the number the better - and closer to the original sound) A scope trace from Oppomod, the sine wave should be square but its being affected by jitter. A similar scope trace after the upgraded femto clock is fitted. Jitter wise the upgrade clock board measures better than the stock Oppo clock...300PPM and now 0.01 PPM. i.e. virtually no jitter. Some surface mount soldering required, and beyond my abilities so packing main board up and sending it off to Oppomod to fit. Pics and some thoughts when it comes back. What sparked off all these mods was finding out a lot of uber high end digital transports, like my Dacs matching transport from PS Audio, and looking even highter the MSB Reference Transport (STARTING at $18500!!) were based on a stock Oppo transport. Found out I could improve at a comparativly sensible price all the stock Oppos bits that mattered and thought yup, thats the road to go down.
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Post by gazjam on Aug 26, 2018 10:10:14 GMT
*EDIT* Been looking on the DCS website at their high end digital kit? Some specs: DCS Vivaldi CD/SACD Transport - £28,000 www.dcsltd.co.uk/products/vivaldi-cdsacd-transport/Clock accuracy: Better than +/- 10ppm DCS Vivaldi Master Clock - £11,300 www.dcsltd.co.uk/products/vivaldi-clock/specificationClock accuracy: Better than +/- 1ppm when shipped. Typically +/- 0.1 when shipped and stabilised Oppomod OCXO module - £325+ shipping www.oppomod.com/Clock accuracy: 0.01ppmCrikey! I know theres a zillion factors to digital playback, but clock accuracy of your transport is a big one, and given the linear power supply and other mods I’ve done as well the fact the Oppo's feeding a good Dac...I reckon digital's sorted.
MASSIVE bang for buck, taking advantage of how good the stock Oppo player is and building on that within a comparatively sensible budget.
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Post by MartinT on Aug 26, 2018 10:47:37 GMT
I've been wondering if I could get a Femtoclock installed in the SEG DAC. It should be possible.
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Post by gazjam on Aug 26, 2018 10:56:34 GMT
I've been wondering if I could get a Femtoclock installed in the SEG DAC. It should be possible. One for Stan and his electronic gurus Martin, don't see why not? Not heard a SEG but owned several of Stans earlier dacs and I'd say they're good enough reap the rewards of a better master clock.
Throw him the challenge! I know he was looking at FPGA programming a few years back, but couldn't find anyone to work with him, so he'll be open to improvements Im sure.
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Post by MikeMusic on Aug 26, 2018 11:22:36 GMT
Be very interested to hear more from anyone trying this out
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Post by MartinT on Aug 26, 2018 11:22:54 GMT
Stan already does that and has reclocking done in firmware, which is quite a feat.
That means the quality of the clock becomes the limiting factor.
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Post by gazjam on Aug 26, 2018 15:00:16 GMT
Be very interested to hear more from anyone trying this out Me too.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2018 0:01:21 GMT
I did this with my pc server; upgraded clock on the SOTM USB output and upgraded clock on the motherboard.
One of the most worthwhile upgrades I’ve ever made - I’m excited for you Gaz!
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Post by gazjam on Aug 30, 2018 17:36:51 GMT
Wow, good to hear some first hand experience! Sounds terrific playing over i2s into the Directstream Dac, hoping the clock mod will raise it even further. Suspect it will
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Post by Rexton on Aug 30, 2018 19:25:25 GMT
This new DAC clock sounds good
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Post by MartinT on Aug 30, 2018 19:48:06 GMT
I've ordered an extremely low jitter superclock to upgrade my SEG DAC even further. Watch this space!
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Post by Rexton on Aug 30, 2018 19:59:37 GMT
Hi Martin, is this Tony's upgrade?
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Post by MartinT on Aug 30, 2018 20:58:44 GMT
No, it's my own idea using a TentLabs module.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2018 21:18:37 GMT
Wow, good to hear some first hand experience! Sounds terrific playing over i2s into the Directstream Dac, hoping the clock mod will raise it even further. Suspect it will Gaz, when fitting the clocks, Jessie remarked “it sounds worse than without it added” and she wasn’t wrong, idk about your purchase, but mine took a day or two to burn in. After that, there was no looking back. Lowering the noise floor equates to a sense of ease to the sound (as you mentioned, removal of jitter does this) along with ballsier yet more defined and textured bass, greater midrange clarity and an improved sense of air, a real win win situation.
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Post by gazjam on Aug 31, 2018 12:01:25 GMT
Good to know mate, thanks. At the same time I'll be getting the linear PSU in the Oppo kitted out with a circuit breaker rather than a fuse holder. Should be an improvement as well as I'll be able to utilise the SR Blue fuse somewhere else in my system...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2018 11:41:35 GMT
Good to know mate, thanks. At the same time I'll be getting the linear PSU in the Oppo kitted out with a circuit breaker rather than a fuse holder. Should be an improvement as well as I'll be able to utilise the SR Blue fuse somewhere else in my system... Is there anything in there that's original now lol?!
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 1, 2018 15:37:47 GMT
The badge is original !
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Post by gazjam on Sept 3, 2018 18:06:50 GMT
Good to know mate, thanks. At the same time I'll be getting the linear PSU in the Oppo kitted out with a circuit breaker rather than a fuse holder. Should be an improvement as well as I'll be able to utilise the SR Blue fuse somewhere else in my system... Is there anything in there that's original now lol?! Not a lot! Running out of ideas now... Might look at isolation feet again, lined the case though and it weigh's a ton. Stillpoints or something like that worth a punt you think? Its my main digital "Hub" I guess, so dont mind making the most of it's potential.
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Post by Stratmangler on Sept 3, 2018 18:43:08 GMT
Would an electron microscope platform be any use?
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