Music in the Round

I'm happy to say that DigiBit's Aria Piccolo + is a well-integrated music server that's delightfully capable and easy to use. With suitable attached devices it will play uncompressed (AIFF, WAV) and lossless (ALAC, FLAC) formats up to 32/384 PCM, as well as DXD (32/352.8), DSD64, DSD128, and DSD256 files in glorious multichannel. It was a pleasure to use, and will suit the needs of almost any aficionado of music and multichannel-sound.

Powering the miniDSP U-DAC8
When I reviewed miniDSP's U-DAC8 multichannel USB DAC in September 2015, I found it well worth its price of $299. I used it mostly in my Connecticut system, connected to the USB output of my Mac mini–based server and the direct multichannel analog pathway through my Marantz AV8802a pre-pro. In that application I've found it gives a small but real improvement over running the server's HDMI output directly into the Marantz. I briefly popped it into my Manhattan system, but wasn't surprised that it didn't challenge the then-resident exaSound e28 DAC; still, the U-DAC8 was pleasant and listenable.

> The U-DAC8 remains the least expensive multichannel DAC on the market; the only others are the exaSound e38 ($3849) and the Merging Technologies NADAC Multichannel-8 ($11,500). Recently, I was approached by a reader who was thinking of buying a U-DAC8; he wanted to know if a better power supply and/or USB source would raise its performance to a level approaching that of its, um, competitors. He was right to ask—I'd discovered that the U-DAC8 did benefit from a better power supply: iFi Audio's iPower 5V wall wart. I decided to install the U-DAC8 in my New York City system and support it as best I could.

I plugged the miniDSP U-DAC8 into one of the 5V outputs of the HDPLEX 400W ATX Linear Power Supply ($795) that powers my Baetis Prodigy-X server. The miniDSP got its input via an AudioQuest Coffee USB link ($350/2m) inserted in one of the USB ports of an SoTM tX-USBhubIN USB repeater board ($350), which has its own clock ($700) and is powered by the regulated 9V output of the HDPLEX supply. As each of these components costs more than the price of the U-DAC8, it would seem silly to consider were there not such a huge price gap between the U-DAC8 and the other DACs.

The result was a kind of success. Indeed, the clarity and balance of the U-DAC8's sound was improved. The bass, in particular, had more weight and impact. This $299 DAC became a much better $2100 DAC weighing over 30 lb! I'd set out to gild the lily and I had, but I learned other lessons. First, the U-DAC8 on steroids was still no competition for the exaSound e38. Second, current and prospective owners of the U-DAC8 would likely benefit from experimenting with similar but more modest tweaking. Third, there must be a better option.

In past columns, I've reported on stacking three two-channel DACs for surround sound, but this depended on specific hardware and/or software related to certain DACs made by Mytek HiFi. What if there were a more generic approach that would work with almost any DAC that suits your ears and budget? I have discovered such a product, and I'm working on that now.

Oppo Retires
As I was finishing up this column, Oppo Digital announced that it was ceasing production of its disc players (although they will continue to offer repairs, service, and support). So startling was the announcement that Oppo delayed its press release until April 2, lest anyone think it a prank. Their products have always been innovative, well made, well priced, and highly regarded, and their service has always been above reproach.

Why has this happened? I'm not privy to the deliberations of Oppo Digital's corporate parents, the Chinese company BBK Electronics, which continues to play a major role in the international cell-phone and component markets; I can tell you only what I see from my narrow perspective.

Oppo Digital came on the audio scene in 2004 with low-priced disc players that supported features of great appeal to audiophiles. These have included the disc formats CD, HDCD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, SACD, AVCHD, and, most recently, BD, BD 3D, and BD UltraHD. While other manufacturers gradually omitted from their players analog outputs for multichannel and even two-channel audio, Oppo's players always offered them, in addition to digital coax, digital optical, and HDMI outputs. They were among the first to add file playback via USB and network inputs, and were the first to add HDMI inputs to their players. Oppo played the audiophile horsepower races by boldly advertising which DACs they used, and by offering regular and audiophile versions of their players, beginning with the BDP-83SE, and continuing with the parallel xx3 and xx5 models until the end.

I never saw any evidence of a loss of demand for Oppo's players. Some say that they were too expensive compared to the ever-cheaper offerings in the BD/DVD-player mass market, but that ignores the fact that their distinctive audio features made them more desirable to many of us. Others believed that they were too cheap to be as good as the players marketed by specialist-audio companies, even though those must sell for more because of their limited production quantities—and several such companies modified Oppo players, or purchased Oppo OEM components, to serve as the basis for their own models. In a few notorious cases, they simply wrapped an Oppo player in a fancy outer case and passed it off as their own. Others argued that the burgeoning of aftermarket modifications for Oppo players was proof of their mediocrity, rather than as proof of the basic quality of their fundamental design and the players' great popularity among demanding audiophiles.

Even as I write this, retail stores across the country are selling out of Oppo's UDP-203 and UDP-205 universal BD players, and Oppo is taking names as it mulls a final production run of the UDP-205 4K Ultra HD Audiophile Universal Disc Player.

Most recently, Oppo expanded into making headphones, DAC–headphone amplifiers, a music streamer, and a wireless speaker, while strangely deleting all the web apps from their last great players, the UDP-203 and UDP-205. All of this suggests that Oppo had already been looking ahead to a future in which fewer and fewer buyers would be playing physical discs.

I have owned many Oppo players over the years, and each one was more capable than and at least as good as its predecessor. But these days I rarely play audio discs. I use my UDP-205 as a multichannel DAC, or to watch films on DVD or BD. I use the streaming apps in the BDP-103 or BDP-105, but more often I use those players to rip SACDs for my file server.

Oppo's players increased in price over the years, suggesting that the company's profit margins were being squeezed as they tried to maintain their distinctive position in the market. Perhaps they've concluded that it was time to graciously bow a farewell, and accept our gratitude for all they've accomplished.

Thank you, Oppo.