[JJinID]

Poobah - you are absolutely right - I did not notice the fact that there is a bent button at first, and you do have to be very cautious about dealing with someone with zero feedback. I would be leary as well but for a high quality unit like the 5900 it is a tempting price and perhaps still worth looking into...

As far as my Modwright Oppo BDP-83, I have been wanting to write a formal review here at AA but have not yet for the following reason: I volunteered my stock Oppo for Dan Wright to develop his modifications on, and have given him some feedback based on my initial impressions of the modified unit after I received it. Dan has since incorporated feedback from me and others (primarily making some minor changes to the analog filtering and the power supply) to the final version production units Modwright is now working on. I have not yet sent my unit back for those final updates (primarily due to holidays and him being at CES earlier this month) so I still need to schedule a time to get those done. Once that happens, I will write a full review which will be based on the final version of Dan's work.

I will say that the analog audio quality of the stock BDP-83 does not even closely resemble Dan's modified version - it really is a night and day improvement in every way. Since I had my unit modified the new SE version has come out from Oppo with the ESS DAC and some improvements to the analog section and power supply (as I am sure you know there have been several threads here at AA about the Oppo SE). Dan is also performing basically the same mods to the SE version as to the non-SE, and based on his impressions after his mods the two units are very close, with the modified SE version being a little more detailed and solid-state sounding vs the modified non-SE version, but both clearly better than the stock SE.

If you are interested in going with a new Blu-Ray player right now vs investing $$ in your Denon 5900, I would take a long look at the Oppo BDP-83 SE, and then deciding if you want to take it to the next level with Dan's modifications. I am extremely happy with my unit so far and I know when I get it updated to the final production version it will be even better!