Opus 3 Digital Audio Player Review
Opus #3 Player
$899.99
Pros
- Extremely responsive screen/GUI
- Articulate signature with a smooth character that is fun, supports diverse musical styles and is accessible. Balanced and single ended ports supported
- Decent elegant thoughtful design, strong build and excellent value package
Cons
- Lack of google play support means, application install and support a little fiddly/limited
- Volume dial wobbly/looseness may frustrate some users
- Difficult to drive some fullsized headphones
We have now spent some time with the latest Opus 3 digital audio player produced by theBit company from Korea.
Our team at earphonia.com was pretty impressed by the Opus 2 player so we have high hopes for this new DAP from the The BIT Co.
Lets see if the impressive specifications below are done justice by this elegant looking DAP.
Specifications:
- Native DSD Playback (X-MOS Include)
- 24bit / 192kHz High Resolution Sound
- 4” Touch display (IPS Panel)
- Burr-Brown PCM1792A DAC
- ARM Cortex-A9 1.4GHz, Quad-Core CPU & DDR3 1GB
- Internal Memory 64GB
- External microSD card up to 256GB
- Metal Body ( Tempered Aluminum ), Metal Wheel Volume
- WI-FI : 801.11b/g/n ( 2.4GHz )
- Bluetooth 4.0( A2DP, AVRCP )
- Ultra Power Saving Mode
- Supports 3rd Party Streaming Application
Unboxing/Build Quality/Accessories:
The player is well packed for transit in strong cardboard packaging, well protected.
The player has an elegant design and is quite compact.
On the side and rear pyramid-shaped protrusions machined with sophisticated CNC equipment provide a welcome tactile grip as well as great visually appealing reflective aspects when viewing at different angles.
The back has a dial for volume calibration, it does not protrude but is in perfect alignment with the dimensions of the player. It is easy to access and feels smooth when in use, providing 1-150 steps the volume precision should be more than adequate for user preferences. Again the pyramid protrusions are present along the edge of the wheel, helping with grip and keeping a consistent feel to the overall design. One point to note is that the wheel feels a little loose at times and wobbles, this has not caused any functional issues with my experience so far.
The left side of the player has the standard control buttons(Left navigation, Play/Pause, Right Navigation), easy to use with just one hand and nicely spaced apart.
The players body is made from tempered aluminium metal and has a solid feel and weight to it. Some elements, primarily the side pyramid style plates and back plate are made of strong plastic, however it all inline with the overall design, I don’t see this as a major negative aspect as the player feels very sturdy and well built to me.
Review samples came with a great looking blue leather case that feels well made and has precision cuts and stitching.
It fits very snugly on the Opus #3 player and has a circular section for the back volume dial to be accessible.
Imprinted on the back is the model name along with official website address and the proud ‘Made in Korea’ imprinted at the base.
The top of the case is left free for the power button and the headphone outputs, 3.5mm single ended which doubles as the optical output also. Next to this is the 2.5mm -balanced out socket, 4-pole support, made popular with the Astell and Kern DAPs.
The bottom has the cut out for the micro-USB port that can be used for charging, data transfer and for USB DAC fuctions.
USB micro cable and a screen protector is also included.
I am a fan of the build quality, design and tactile nature of the players surfaces.
