Oppo BDP-105 Universal Blu-ray Player Measurements and Analysis

Using the industry's most advanced HDMI Audio Analyzer, the Audio Precision APx585, we proceeded to measure all of the various aspects of audio performance for the Oppo BDP-105.

HDMI Digital Audio Tests

Using a 192kHz / 24 bit 6CH Dolby True HD signal, I measured a ruler flat frequency response from 20Hz to 1/2 Nyquist frequency (96kHz). Next, I ran a Dolby 96kHz /24 bit 8CH signal and plotted distortion.

Oppo BDP-105 HDMI Frequency vs Distortion Test

As you can see the distortion level was virtually unmeasurable, approaching the limitations of my $40k Audio Precision HDMI Audio Analyzer. In fact it was roughly 10 times lower than what I measured on the BDP-95 player which in itself was excellent. You’re really splitting hairs here.

I also ran a Bit Error Rate (BER) test on the BDP-105 using Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD test signals both of which produced a 0% BER which means both players delivered audio via HDMI 100% error free. You can rest assured there are no jitter issues using the HDMI outputs for audio like early generation Blu-ray players using HDMI 1.2 used to suffer from.

Analog Output Tests

For those of you that plan on exclusively using the analog outputs of the BDP-105, I’ve run a complete battery of measurements on the player. With a player like the BDP-105, I could even envision a consumer bypassing a preamp all together and utilizing the BDP-105 as not only the Universal Blu-ray player but as the preamp itself. The BDP-105 has a global volume control and both USB and HDMI inputs to stream music and handle HDMI audio and video sources. Many folks in the high end two-channel world actually prefer using the source player as the preamp and they can easily do that with this player too.

Frequency Response

Using a -20dBFs 192kHz/24 bit True HD signal, I ran a 6CH sweep with all channels set to “large” and found the BDP-105 to be ruler flat all the way out to ½ the sampling rate, as expected. Oppo specifies this player’s -1.5dB point of 96kHz and this appeared to be accurate.

Oppo BDP-105 Analog Frequency Response (multi-channel outs)

I then proceeded to test the analog balanced outputs with a 0dBFs 2CH 192kHz/24 bit PCM signal and found similarly excellent results.

Oppo BDP-105 Analog Frequency Response (balanced outs)

Using the same test signals and player configuration, I measured THD + N in both cases.

Distortion

Oppo BDP-105 Distortion vs Frequency (multi-channel outputs)

Oppo BDP-105 Distortion vs Frequency (balanced outputs)

The BDP-105 exhibited excellent distortion figures for the multi-channel analog outputs (.005% THD + N) across the entire audio bandwidth. This was similar to what I measured on the BDP-95 player.

The balanced analog outputs were just stunningly excellent (.001% THD + N) measuring almost down to the noise floor of my test gear and this was despite the fact I was driving the player at 0dBFs (digital full scale). This is just superb performance.

Oppo specifies distortion as 0.0003% THD + N using a 24 bit signal at 1kHz with a 20kHz LPF. Our measurements were done full bandwidth with no LPF which is why our figures were a bit higher. Oppo confirmed our results using the exact same test equipment, test conditions and signals .

Oppo BDP-105 FFT Distortion Analysis (balanced outputs)

At 4.3Vrms output (rated max output of the player), the FFT distortion plot was crystal clean, rivaling what I’ve measured from most dedicated preamps, let alone Blu-ray players.

Crosstalk

Oppo BDP-93 (left) and BDP-95 (right) Channel to Channel Crosstalk

Using a -20dBFS 192kHz / 24 bit Dolby TrueHD test signal, we measured channel-to-channel crosstalk at 10kHz with all channels set to large and 0dB. The Oppo BDP-105 produced stellar results, virtually unmeasurable via the left/right front channels and >113dB on all of the other channels. This is better than you get with most high end preamps, let alone Blu-ray players. Oppo rates crosstalk as > 110 dB but doesn’t specify frequency. Regardless, their player easily met this specified number. The BDP-105 defied all logic and produced numbers that tested the measurable limits of our laboratory gear.

Signal to Noise Ratio

Oppo BPD-105 Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) with 44kHz/16bit 0dBFs signal

The Oppo BDP-105 produced textbook SNR numbers reaching the 96dB theoretical noise limitation of a 16-bit signal (6dB*16). For higher bitrate signals, the BDP-105 was able to achieve the specified 130db (a-wt, auto muted and 115dB a-wt,non auto-muted). 130dB represents about a 21-bit noise floor resolution, which is as about as good as you can get since Johnson Noise (aka. thermal noise) will always restrict you from doing much lower than this for a 100kHz bandwidth signal.

Bass Management

Setting all speakers to "small" and selecting 80Hz as our choice of crossover point, we measured the analog bass management capabilities of the BDP-105. The BDP-105 does offer variable crossover settings from 40-250Hz (20Hz increments from 40Hz to 80Hz, 10Hz increments from 80Hz to 120Hz, 50Hz increments from 150Hz to 250Hz) just like this model’s predecessor.

Oppo BDP-93 & BPD-95 Analog Bass Management Measurements

Note: The BDP-105 bass management only affects the analog multi-channel outputs. Balanced outputs and HDMI outputs bypass this feature.

We measured the filter slopes using a -20dBFS 96kHz / 24 bit PCM test signal. For the HPF, we measured a -3dB point of 75Hz, which was slightly lower than the 80Hz setting with a slope just shy of 12dB/octave. For the LPF, we measured a -3dB point of 80Hz with a 12dB/octave rolloff. We personally prefer to see a 24dB/octave slope for the LPF like THX recommends, but Oppo said their goal was to meet the minimum Dolby requirement of at least a 1st order filter (6dB/octave) for the HPF and at least a 2nd order filter (12dB/octave) for the LPF. Considering THX informed us they don't even test the analog outputs of Blu-ray players, we are just picking nits here.

Oppo BDP-105 OSD for Speaker Configuration

Oppo still allows the end user the option to set other speaker groups to “large” even if the main front channels are set “small”. Personally I’d prefer the player to auto-default to all speakers “small” once the front channels are set to “small”.