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differences can be shown somewhat with measurements

if I wanted to go thru the trouble I could demonstrate lowered clock noise/jitter on the scope, it is there trust me, anyone who does SDI mods and deals with the main 27mhz clock knows that the stock Oppo units are a mess when it comes to the clock, horrible jitter

I also had a professional customer in the past send me some before and after noise floor measurements with some modified pieces I did for them

stuff like this

Roger, I will be addressing the balanced power issue soon, thanks

Can you quantify "horrible jitter"?

Gary, I am quite sure your mods will improve the performance of the unit, but the question is how much of the horrible jitter of the stock unit will survive the dejittering of the HDMI receiver chip, [optionally the fifo of the HD621], the fifo of the G68, and finally the fifo of the DSP speakers?

Any update on timing to the availability of region free DVD and BD units? Many thanks, Adrian

the mods on this unit will shine via the 4x SPDIF output, that is where I would expect the ultimate in audio quality, I can't comment on jitter reduction circuits because I have never seen or heard them in action

Frank, Oppo units always have had pretty bad clock jitter, when doing SDI mods this has to be tamed and worked on before you get a stable SDI image (which uses the main 27mhz clock)

when working on high-end or modified players the clock signal is much more stable and cleaner and much easier to work with than these lower end players, thats why they need mods!!

thanks

This is a critical point though in a Meridian world, not that I'm claiming that jitter reduction at source is unnecessary...

Jay, Stuart and myself conducted a brief A/B test of Jay's unit (a fully modded, fresh out of the box unit) with my partially modded (just the 4 x SPDIF) unit plugged into my G68J... we could definitely hear a difference in blind testing between the 2 units... however, the jury is still out on which sounded better... Jay and Stuart sometimes preferred my unit... I always preferred Jay's unit because I thought it sounded smoother... Jay and Stuart felt that it sometimes sounded more veiled. Of course, I've been living with my unit for a month now... I think it sounds a bit 'bright' at times compared to my 98DH... all of us agreed that the 98H sounded better than my Oppo. We felt that Jay's Oppo deserved a bit more burn-in time before we made the comparison to the 98DH. Jay and I are going to conduct 2 more experiments... Jay and I set up his HD621 and his Oppo (connected via HDMI to the HD621 and via the modded SPDIF ports directly to his 861)... he's enjoying that for a few days while the Oppo gets some run-in time. We're going to do an A/B test this week between the HDMI and the direct connect. We're then going to let another couple of weeks go by so that his ear can become accustomed to the sound of his Oppo. We will then swap players for a week to see which one we prefer 'living' with (as opposed to a bunch of switching back and forth trying to pick out what we like or dislike about the players).

How did you have the audio on the Oppo's set up? Did you run it exactly the way it was received from Gary? In spite of my earlier post I'm experiencing a huge difference in dynamic range between the BD83 and my Shawn modded 980H running a single cable out of the L/R port into my DSP speakers running it the way I received it from Gary. The difference is not in the BD83's favor. Later today it's going into my HT with my G68. I hope that helps.
Ken

Ken
In your 2-channel system, before you move it, could you try running the same Cable out of the regular Oppo Factory Fit SPDIF out into your DSP's (I'm assuming you're currently trying the L/R SPSDIF of the Mod??)

Give it a try and see what you think

Ronnie,

I took your advice and did just that and the results are disturbing. Obviously I couldn't use a SACD so I played Reference Recordings Copeland HDCD. I used Fanfare for the Common Man which has about as much dynamic range as I can find. With the 980 the standard digital coax and modded SPDIF sounded very close, the edge possibly going slightly to the modded output but it's really close. Using a SPL meter the quiet passages were in the 63-65 db range with the drum peaking at about 80-81 db. Very nice lower octave performance--I can feel it in the floor. With the BD83 the modded output is restricted. Again the quiet passages are in the 63-65 db range but the drum passages peak at only 76-77 db and not going nearly as low. The standard coax output does a little better, about splitting the difference between the 980 and the modded 83 output. This is using the same digital interconnect and power cord.

At this point, without the benefit of any audio setup since I don't have a monitor available with my 2 channel, the modded or stock 980 is clearly superior to the BD 83 and not by a small margin.

Ken,

I have an SPL meter... I'm going to perform the same experiment between my Oppo and my 98H... both are feeding into a 68J. I even have the same recording.

There is a dynamic range limiter in the Oppo menu... I have that turned off... I think Jay's unit had it turned off when we unpacked it and fired it up the first time. You should of course check your setup and not assume it's in the same state... it's found in the setup menu under...

Audio Processing
Dolby Pro Logic || Off
Dynamic Range Control Off


We had both Jay's and my unit connected via the 3 SPDIF MCH connection... we had the Oppo's set to downmix to 5.1 (not that we had any 7.1 material). I set both units so that all speakers are considered "Large", 0.0 db trim and 0' distance. You can also find that in the setup menu under...

Audio Processing
Speaker Configuration

Thanks for the tip. I'm starting to install the BD83 and my G68 into my HT system so I'll go through the entire setup menu. I hope it's that simple. I can't believe the BD83 is in any way inferior to the 980, modded or not. Let us know how your experiment turns out.

Ken