Oppo UDP-203 vs Schiit Gungnir. Battle of the DACs

[PHC1]

As promised in another thread, here is my take on the DACs of Oppo vs Schiit. The following is a shootout of Oppo UDP-203 vs the Schiit Gungnir Multibit DAC that took place this morning/afternoon.

This shootout featured the Focal Utopia reference grade headphones because they allows me to hear deep into the sound without room coloration or speaker to room interaction. Besides, as of right now, that is my primary listening source anyways.

To eliminate as many variables as possible, I had to level the playing field and keep things similar across the board. That meant that all the components that took place in this shootout got the SAME POWERCORDS, and same IC's even down to the brands and of similar construction. My listening room, aka the "lab" looked like a Python reptilium at a zoo. These FAT, thick conductor, well shielded Guerrilla Audio Power cords with their WattGate terminations were a challenge to install behind the rack but I've been meaning to replace all the stock power cords anyways so glad I finally did it. They have served me well over the years and fought off the urge to upgrade when I auditioned them against power cords of higher price (within reason) they stood their ground over the years and wrestling with these "old friends" this morning was a good workout and brought back memories of the previous systems I've enjoyed with them. Phew...

The ICs used were Zebra Cable Single Ended and Balanced Cables. Another tremendous audio value cables but I don't think either Guerrilla or Zebra are around anymore since they were both run by passionate enthusiasts but both were very small outfits. Keeping their overhead low, they were able to provide the audio community with tremendous value but times change and I don't see them around anymore. Sad.

To keep things simple, I chose a few CDs such as the Lewis Ramsey Trio, Diana Krall, Shelby Lynne and Mark Knopfler.

First part of the shootout consisted of Oppo spinning the CDs and using the Single Ended cables to drive the Bryston BHA-1 headphone amplifier, acting as a CD Player, therefore utilizing it's own DAC section. The UDP-203 features a premium 32-bit DAC from AKM, the AK4458VN, which is an 8-channel DAC with support for formats such as 192 kHz / 32-bit PCM and multi-channel DSD.

The excellent Schiit Audio Gungnir DAC features truly hardware-balanced DAC with two AKM AK4399 32-bit D/A converters, followed by a fully discrete, JFET-input stage for current gain and filtering.

Stepping up to the Multibit option, which is what I have, you get the proprietary closed-form DSP-based digital filter, coupled to four precision Analog Devices AD5781BRUZ digital to analog converters.

Here is the difference:

Oppo AK4458VN uses $5 DAC chips.
https://www.digikey.com/product-deta...2-1-ND/5287011

Schiit Gungnir uses four a $47 DAC chips.
https://www.digikey.com/product-deta...RUZ-ND/2432869


The BHA-1 features both Balanced and SE inputs so I utilized the coaxial digital output of the Oppo to feed Schiit Gungnir and used the Balanced cables to drive the BHA-1.

Switching between the SE and Balanced with the front panel toggle switch on the BHA-1 allowed me to perform instantaneous comparison of both DACs. I made sure to level match between the two settings as Balanced was just a bit louder.

With the CD test/comparison, the Schiit Gungnir easily smokes the Oppo in absolute terms of resolution and dynamic contrast. It was easy to hear the difference with the outstanding Focal Utopia headphones but even switching to the more laid back and not quite as resolving Sennheiser HD600, the difference was still not negligible. Gungnir outboard DAC sound much more transparent, resolving and dynamic.

Gungnir doing the decoding, the Bryston BHA-1 absolutely slammed my Utopia headphones and ears, laying down ultra resolved and powerful bass notes on the excellent Ramsey Lewis Trio "Hide and Seek" track. The drums sounded impactful, tight and lively, the cymbals absolutely sparkled with each brush stroke, the bass guitar came through with each individual string plucking full of harmonic color and individual tone in the background. All the instruments on the soundstage held their individual places and were fully and individually resolved without blurring. The acoustic space captured on the recording absolutely comes alive with the subtle echoes bouncing off the boundaries and opening up a believable window of the acoustical space in which it was recorded. The music was alive, captivating and engaging without breaking out into digital harshness or being aggressive and forward sounding. Foot tapping, head bobbing, body rocking performance that gives you the goose bumps and draws into the music and raises your pulse.

Oppo doing the decoding on the same track gave me a very good glimpse into the same recording but ultimately fails to keep up in the dynamic contrast and trasnparency. Instruments sound just a bit flatter and lacking in dynamic drive, sparkle and that feeling of being fully engaged in the musical experience. The Oppo also sounded less resolving in absolute audiophile terms. It was veiled by comparison. I could not hear as deep into the recording. One quality of the Oppo that I did appreciate is that it did not sound etched, bleached or overly digital as some of the lower end DAC products often do. The Oppo is one smooth operator. Ultimately Oppo is very enjoyable and it is only by comparison to the Gungnir that one realizes that there is more to be discovered in each recording. Otherwise, if the budget does not allow for a better DAC, I'd say the Oppo is a very good, musical DAC that will not rip your face and ears off with harshness or cheap digital sound.

Of course this was not exactly a fair comparison, Schiit Gungnir Multibit is a dedicated outboard DAC and it costs $1249. The Oppo is not only a DAC but an outstanding 4K UHD Blu-ray decoder with- the quad-core OP8591 video processor, which offers the most advanced image decoding and processing technology available for 4K UHD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD. Of course Oppo offers support for UHD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, DVD-Audio, SACD, and audio CD.


Moving on to Roon. Let's get ready to rumble!

Schiit Gungnir is not ROON ready. Oppo UDH-203 is.

Of course I had to play around and see how things will shake out in this part of the shootout.

Firing up the new to me Roon which I have been discovering, I set up 3 "zones".

Zone 1.Roon to USB to Gungnir to BHA-1.
Zone 2. Roon to Wifi to Oppo to BHA-1
Zone 3. Roon to Wifi to Oppo to coax digital out to Gungnir to BHA-1

Zone 3 obviously allowed me to experience the Lossless "Supernova Light" mode of the Roon RAAT (Roon Advanced Audio Transport)

In a nutshell, "RAAT is plumbing. It gets the audio from point A to point B without screwing it up, and without bringing limitations to the table that might compel the software/hardware on either side of it to screw things up. It's an enabling technology for "doing things right" everywhere else in the system. Otherwise, it shouldn't get in the way.

Support all relevant audio formats today and for the foreseeable future. We don't publish a list of formats that RAAT supports because it is not the limiting factor.

Stable Streaming over Ethernet and WiFi networks. We take this for granted in 2016, but it's easier-said-than-done, and a huge set of implementation choices are driven by this requirement"


Back to the shootout.

Zone 1 is the Roon to USB to Gungnir which had to battle with "high quality" stream instead of lossless. Not a huge difference all things considered but... I was playing the FLAC ripped music from my external 1TB hard drive and using the Tidal tracks of the same music used for direct comparison. Tidal was used both within the Roon and outside of Roon all by itself.

Switching back and forth between the zones and I'll spare you the nitty gritty details, the Oppo and Gungnir difference starts to fall apart here. Gungnir having to battle from behind or gain the edge back again if used with Tidal alone, of which I honestly prefer the Roon interface now! There is less of a difference when Gungnir is operating from the "high quality" stream via USB.

Switching to the Zone 3 where the Oppo is running on ROON RAAT and providing the "Lossless" stream but feeding the Gungnir from its coaxial digital output, the Gungnir once again pulls ahead with its more dynamic and resolving capability. All in all, this made me very happy.

So there we have it, the swiss army knife Oppo UHD-203 proved to be a worthy competitor in the battle even if it did not succeed at emerging victorious in this battle of the DACs but as I mentioned before, it was not an exactly fair battle. Considering the price difference and the focus of these two very different products, it is quite amazing the Oppo did not fall too far behind either! It can be easily enjoyed as a UHD video and audio player while providing the Roon compatibility as a Roon Ready endpoint.

Of course Oppo also offers the "audiophile grade" UHD-205 which brings a whole different set of heavy artillery in its DAC section. I do not own a 205 model but I suspect it would have been an even more interesting shootout.

[Puma Cat]

Wow, another terrific review, Serge! I really liked thoughtfulness and protocol you used to structure the comparison to level the playing field as much as possible.

Your comparisons between the two DACs are pretty similar to my experience of moving up to a multibit DAC from a D/S DAC; everything is more transparent, cleaner, cleare, resolved, articulated, accurate, rendered with greater precision, better harmonics, timbres and overtones, with improved and more precise imaging, spaciousness, etc., etc. but also sounds more analog at the same time.

Both products represent pretty amazing values.

You've had your Gungnir Multibit for a while now, I imagine it is sounding very good as it has been burned in pretty well by now.

[PHC1]

Thank you Stephen. I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast two products coming from a small audio boutique company like schiit vs a more known and mass produced Oppo.
That the Schiit DAC sounds great is a known fact and yes, it has been in constant use and has stopped evolving sonically. I will consider it broken in st this point.
Oppo did surprise me with coming in rather close behind all things considered but in this passionate hobby of ours, where there was s a steep curve of diminishing returns and we pay dearly for the last 5% of performance, it is a solid value for sure. Great DAC and an outstanding 4K UHD video player.

[bart]

Serge, you are one of our star reporters!

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by bart

Serge, you are one of our star reporters!

Glad you enjoyed Bart and thank you. Have you decided on a headphone amplifier?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by bart

Serge, you are one of our star reporters!

Agreed.

[Mikado463]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Oppo did surprise me with coming in rather close behind all things considered but in this passionate hobby of ours, where there was s a steep curve of diminishing returns and we pay dearly for the last 5% of performance, it is a solid value for sure. Great DAC and an outstanding 4K UHD video player.

great review Serge, to that, what quoted you above sums it up perfectly !

I do wonder if the Oppo 205 would have faired batter ?

[bart]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Glad you enjoyed Bart and thank you. Have you decided on a headphone amplifier?

Serge, I think I'm going for the Valhalla 2.
But I'm first going to listen to my friend who also makes headphone amps (Cédric from Halgorythme). With his Focal Utopia.
They're a fair bit more expensive though.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Mikado463

great review Serge, to that, what quoted you above sums it up perfectly !

I do wonder if the Oppo 205 would have faired batter ?

For sure the Oppo UDP-205 is a different beast with two ESS Technology ES9038PRO 32-bit HyperStream DACs. Would have been interesting to compare but I don’t have a 205 to play with.

[Puma Cat]

It would be an interesting comparison as the 9038Pro is a much more expensive DAC chip, however. it is still a D/S DAC. The other factor to be considered would be the analog output sections of each DAC as well. Might come down to whether you like one single-malt scotch over another...