oppo sonica

[adamdea]

I was about to start a thread about whether anyone had tried this very interesting dac/streamer which, bearing in mind how good oppo's other products seem to be, could be setting the bar.

Highly reviewed all over the internet (including by Archimago)

Then I saw this...
https://www.whathifi.com/oppo/sonica-dac/review

I can;t help wondering what the chances are that Oppo do not spend many advertising dollars with WHF.

Seriously, 3 stars? If I submitted a chicken korma for their next dac shootout, I would expected to get 4 stars with a comment that the finish could be improved.

 

[lennyw]

How can one take a reviewer seriously who doesn't use any classical or acoustic jazz to assess the item being reviewed. WHF has always been a rag.

 

[muzzer]

Well I think classical music is shite

 

[adamdea]

product of the month on Gramophone
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/product-of-the-month-oppo-sonica-dac

I have to admit that I have been thinking about this fellow because I have tired of waiting for ahem another dac. Surely someone here must have tried it. Shame it does not seem to have gapless playback as a streamer (unless it can do it from Tidal)

 

[Bhamer]

A further review from Archimago in his blog which I find to be devoid of hifi foolery.

http://archimago.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/measurements-oppo-sonica-dac-ess-sabre.html

and earlier preview.

http://archimago.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/preview-oppo-sonica-dac-thanks-oppo-for.html

 

[adamdea]

Yes. Quite agree about Archimago I was seriously thinking of buying one of these but in the meantime an itchy finger and an inquisitive nature just landed me an open box benchmark 2 hgc for 1200 on eBay. Which while brilliant price for a new benchmark (last model) dac, is quite pricey compared with a newer ESS dac model and built in steamer.

 

[Cereal Killer]

From reading the WHF review all their negatives sound like positives to me....

WHF (IMHO) have always preferred the initially impressive sounds, the type that grabs your attention but ultimately become tiresome as a lack of refinement becomes apparent.

 

[lennyw]

Shame it does not seem to have gapless playback as a streamer

This is a major failing and something that removes it from any consideration.

 

[adamdea]

This is a major failing and something that removes it from any consideration.

it would be a bit problem for me if I were thinking of using it as sole steaming device. But as a way of allowing teenagers to use Spotify without touching my LMS, it might be ok. On the whole I still feel that steamers are steamers and outboard Dacs are better staying as dacs

 

[mattgbell]

it would be a bit problem for me if I were thinking of using it as sole steaming device. But as a way of allowing teenagers to use Spotify without touching my LMS, it might be ok. On the whole I still feel that steamers are steamers and outboard Dacs are better staying as dacs

So true -- letting boiling water anywhere near your hi-fi is very unwise.

 

[BJP]

Had a private listening at Scalford on the Saturday night , fabulous DAC.

 

[adamdea]

So true -- letting boiling water anywhere near your hi-fi is very unwise.

Ah, yes I clearly don't know my "Rs" from my elbows.

 

[adamdea]

Had a private listening at Scalford on the Saturday night , fabulous DAC.

Thanks. Glad to hear someone has heard it. I can't work out why it seems to have generated so little buzz.

 

[Cereal Killer]

Thanks. Glad to hear someone has heard it. I can't work out why it seems to have generated so little buzz.

£800 is still a lot of money. Normos in the Normo world would think its a little black box that plays MP3s just like all the others but costs 5-10 X as much.

I must admit the reviews showing the softwares shortcoming's are enough to keep my interest away...

 

[dtd]

I know its the cool thing to shoot down WHF reviews, but sometimes they do have a point. I've actually found more times than not that the negatives they speak of do exist. Whether they matter to you as much as they do to them is another question ofcourse. As with all subjective things, read between the lines.

 

[lennyw]

By the way, just tried out my Oppo105D to see whether it does gapless playback and...it doesn't. Not that I plan to use it for streaming, but a tad disappointing. Guess the designers at Oppo aren't opera fans...

[EDIT] I take that back: https://www.oppodigital.co.uk/enabling-gapless-playback.html, though it surprises me that gapless can't be the default playback method.

 

[adamdea]

By the way, just tried out my Oppo105D to see whether it does gapless playback and...it doesn't. Not that I plan to use it for streaming, but a tad disappointing. Guess the designers at Oppo aren't opera fans...

[EDIT] I take that back: https://www.oppodigital.co.uk/enabling-gapless-playback.html, though it surprises me that gapless can't be the default playback method.

Thanks. Maybe the sonica can similarly be made to do gapless with a firmware update.

 

[adamdea]

£800 is still a lot of money. Normos in the Normo world would think its a little black box that plays MP3s just like all the others but costs 5-10 X as much.

I must admit the reviews showing the softwares shortcoming's are enough to keep my interest away...

Sure. But in the hifi mag (or forum) context it's a state of the art dac at a pretty fair price with what looks like pretty decent software interface -if they can sort out gapless playback. As for the latter, I regret to say that, quite incomprehensibly, opera still seems marginally less popular than blues-based electric guitar centred music and the sort of electronic accompaniment that the young people enjoy at their dances.