Upgrade for Oppo 93

[DonH50]

Hi Don. OCXO and TXCO are two methods of stabilizing the oscillator. OCXO is an oven heated osc. where as the TXCO has a compensation for temperature change. I.e. the first makes the temp consistent, latter tracks it. At least this is what I recall .

Duh, thanks. Most of the equipment I have used actually uses OTXCO, just spaced the name. Dratted senility... - Don

p.s. The ocillator drop-in shown is TXCO, not OTXCO, not that it matters all that much in this application.

[MarinJim]

Duh, thanks. Most of the equipment I have used actually uses OTXCO, just spaced the name. Dratted senility... - Don

p.s. The ocillator drop-in shown is TXCO, not OTXCO, not that it matters all that much in this application.

Why is that? I am not a tech expert like you.

[DonH50]

Oven-controlled crystal oscillators (OXCOs) include a heater of some sort to keep the circuit at a constant (warm) temperature instead of varying with ambient temperature. The advantage is stability; oscillators are sensitive to temperature, and by keeping the temperature (nearly) constant frequency stability is improved. Older designs actually enclosed the oscillator circuit in a small heated box, and "oven". Modern designs may use the box, but are also available in small modules with a built-in heater, often a simple resistive heater (think small electric heater).

Temperature-compensated crystal oscillators (TXCOs) do not have a self-heating circuit, but are carefully designed to be stable over temperature. This includes circuit design and layout that allows the oscillator to maintain its target frequency over temperature.

Temperature stability does not help jitter, noise, or other oscillator artifacts, and there are plenty of oscillators accurate and stable enough for consumer audio/video. Going to a better oscillator may provide lower clock noise and jitter, temperature-compensated or not. Better oscillator designs tend to be temperature compensated, one of the attributes that makes them "better".

HTH - Don

[welwynnick]

Sorry, I thought wrongly that I needed a group buy. Turns out I do not, so I am going solo.

Me too. I've been modifying Meridian processors, to change their SMPS to linear supplies. This has been very successful, both with the analogue outputs and the digital outputs (for meridian DSP speakers).

Since then I've tried to find players with pure linear supplies, but even the Denon A1UD and Oppo 95 (both of which which I currently own) have linear supplies for the analogue boards, but SMPS for all the digital boards.

Dr Lee's linear PSU powers everything, so I'm looking forwards to hearing how that works out. I've bought (yet another) Oppo 93 to play with, and I've ordered a linear supply from Lee. I'll probably get the NuForce audio board as well. It should make for some interesting comparisons....

Nick

[MarinJim]

Me too. I've been modifying Meridian processors, to change their SMPS to linear supplies. This has been very successful, both with the analogue outputs and the digital outputs (for meridian DSP speakers).

Since then I've tried to find players with pure linear supplies, but even the Denon A1UD and Oppo 95 (both of which which I currently own) have linear supplies for the analogue boards, but SMPS for all the digital boards.

Dr Lee's linear PSU powers everything, so I'm looking forwards to hearing how that works out. I've bought (yet another) Oppo 93 to play with, and I've ordered a linear supply from Lee. I'll probably get the NuForce audio board as well. It should make for some interesting comparisons....

Nick

Hi Nick- You just read my mind, as I am also looking at the NuForce audio board! Well, it's been about 3 weeks with Dr. Lee's linear power supply upgrade, and all I can say is WOW!. Best $XXX mod I have ever done. It is still breaking in, but the pq was really improved the last week. The images on my Runco are so real as to be spooky. Even Netfix hd looks great. I do have to mention, and is also a big improvement is I upgraded my Runco processor for Vivixx2 (720p) to the Vivixx3 (1080p). Also, the sound has also greatly improved. The mod only takes 10-15 minutes. Nice to meet another "modder". Years ago before Conrad Johnson started to use superior caps, I upgraded my CJ Premier DAC9 caps and it made a huge improvement. What do you like about the NuForce board?

[welwynnick]

I'm confident about what this will do for audio quality, but video quality is another thing, and I noticed how adamant Lee was that his PSU improved PQ over HDMI. Its not difficult to see how analogue video can be improved, but digital video? That's a big ask, and I think you're about to get lynched by the mob for daring to suggest that you can improve the digital video quality of an Oppo. I've heard this argument before, notably from Charles Hansen about his DX-5 player, and more than one credible reviewer has confounded their own expectations in this area. Have a look at the Home Theater review of the DX-5.

I know my comments on the HDMI video output looking better than other players will be met with skepticism. I get it. That’s how I felt before I saw the DX-5. But after I spent time with it and went back and forth between it and the other players I had on hand, I unequivocally looked forward to watching movies on the DX-5 more than with any other Blu-ray player I’ve ever used. I know a lot of us like to think that it’s all just 1s and 0s and that digital is digital. And often, that can be true in good and bad ways. But this is something different. Be brave and experience it before you pooh-pooh it (and me for writing this).

I tried hard to persuade David Schulte to drop the claims of improved PQ with his modifications. It doesn't matter if he was right about that, but it would be quite impossible to overturn everyone's suppositions and reasoning about this. Digital is digital, and as long as the data is right, then there's nothing you can do about it. Of course, people said the same thing about digital audio, until they took into account the integrity of the digital audio clock.

Digitial video is different, as we have fixed-pixel displays, and we just have to ensure that the right bits arrive in the right slots. I think video jitter matters if you have a CRT display, where each pixel might be randomly dancing around along each line, but thats analogue video anyway. I did try to speculate a year ago about how modifications to a player could improve the performance of a digital display; it depended on what the display technology was, but it was pretty tenuous. I'll see for myself when I get the linear PSU, and I'll try not to make my mind up before I see for myself.

Nick

[MarinJim]

^Actually, it was more than $180, that is a typo. And regarding the pq improvement, I don't care what other people think. I like what Dr. Lee and Charlie Hanson have done for the 93. And I use a Wadia DAC, and I still can hear a improvement. Even if they might be psychological in nature, I don't know. I just know what I perceive to be better. Right or wrong, I am happy as a puppy on a teet.

[MarinJim]

I will also upgrade to 27 Mhz OZXO


http://blog.paran.com/blog/list/list...?pmcId=pcaudio

[amirm]

I will also upgrade to 27 Mhz OZXO


http://blog.paran.com/blog/list/list...?pmcId=pcaudio

Don't know about the mod but I sure love the pictures of them enjoying freshly caught fish on that page!

[MarinJim]

LOL. It does sure look fresh and tasty! The mods are based on the $10K Arye DX5 which have gotten rave reviews for pq and sq. But, with the Oppo 93 instead of a 83.