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Am anxious to read some reviews on this.
This is all I can find so far.
Cheers!
Jonesy
"I know just enough to get into trouble. But not enough to get out of it."
Follow Ups:
This DAC is right up my alley - I can ditch my Squeezebox touch and my DAC and replace it with the Sonica. And the price seems reasonable. There is one issue - it does not do gapless playback with all sources. I confirmed this with Oppo. Having gapless playback from any source is an absolute requirement for me. I am hoping Oppo will fix this with a software upgrade.
Some measurements by Archimago
The Well Tempered Computer
I have had my Sonica for the past 2 weeks and it has about 100 hours of music driven time on it. My 105 is acting as transport and they are connected by a midlevel Audioquest optical cable. The 105 took about 200 hrs to break-in and the Sonica is acting similar. Each day I hear an improvement and as of right now it sounds like the equal to the 105. Of course I have hopes for an improvement and only time will tell. However bass and overall detail are up and wi-fi feed of Swiss Jazz is big improvement over bluetooth. Haven"t noticed any brightness, but there is some "dryness"(it is digital).
Now at 150hrs and all is well. The dryness is gone. Very musical and I am pleased!!
Appreciate the follow-up!
Cheers!
Jonesy
"I know just enough to get into trouble. But not enough to get out of it."
Form that review, via Google translate:
"The sound quality of LAN is best for listening while drinking alcohol ♪
Dense (?) sound quality from USB Coaxial & optical cable makes it easy to listen to movie speech and no longer needs to use AV amplifier."
LOL!
Reviewer was either brutally honest or maybe meant like a fine wine?
Probably the former.
I was hoping more reviews would show up under that link I found, but I guess it will take a few days/weeks.
Cheers!
Jonesy
"I know just enough to get into trouble. But not enough to get out of it."
Here is something in English:
Thanks John. I've been watching that sight, but no consumer or magazine reviews on there yet. At least none that I can see. Am I clicking in the wrong spots maybe?
Cheers!
Jonesy
"I know just enough to get into trouble. But not enough to get out of it."
There are two threads about this DAC on AVS, and there are some consumer reviews:
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/173-2-channel-audio/2616641-oppo-sonica-dac.html
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/39-networking-media-servers-content-streaming/2736417-oppo-sonica-dac-hi-fi-networked-music-player-announced.html
I just purchased a refurb Marantz HD-DAC1, and I really like it.
Great stuff. And thanks for the tip on the Marantz. Will have to give that a look.
Cheers!
Jonesy
"I know just enough to get into trouble. But not enough to get out of it."
I have had the Sonica DAC for about a week now. I have used it to listen to CDs and to play 24/96 files on a USB stick. Thus far, I am liking what I am hearing. Is there a vast improvement over Sabre 9018 DAC machines? I would say, no. One suggestion to any owners. Do not use silver coated innerconnects. Also, ditch the supplied power cord. Both of those made the music sound thin with a loss of bass content.
One suggestion to any owners. Do not use silver coated innerconnects.
So, it retains the inherently bright characteristic of Oppo players (I have one myself). :)
When I changed over to a custom made power cord and pure copper XLR cables everything improved for the better. If you wish to blame it on the DAC, that is your choice.
a commonly voiced "house sound" with their players. A change with the new DAC would be welcome!
For $800 I find the Sonica a reasonably priced DAC for what it offers. Some may wish to wait for the UBP-205 player to see what occurs when it is released or try some completely different product.
The Sabre ESS 9038 is only offered in a handful of products as far as I know.
For $800 I find the Sonica a reasonably priced DAC for what it offers.
It is more than *just* a DAC! Reading from John's link, it is also a WiFi enabled streamer. Just add your smartphone and free app. Functionally like the Squeezebox Touch / Music Hall DAC combo I use in the garage system.
Pricing looks pretty good, but I wonder which op amps it uses for analog output. The UDP-203 uses veritable NE5532s. There are some modestly priced DACs using a discrete based output stage.
WiFi enabled streamer perhaps. But reports are, Oppo still inserts gaps of silence between tracks when the DAC is used in that way (network streaming). This is a problem, eventually, for most genres of music and most users.
Edits: 05/07/17
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