Oppo BDP-95 - First Impressions

[TommyC]

Music Direct sometimes has 10% off. Try to catch those.

[jwhite613]

Jeff at A/V Solutions (Site Sponsor) now sells OPPO.

[zoraduntov]

I think its a great player . It loads Blu rays super fast also .

[iove75]

Originally Posted by TommyC

Music Direct sometimes has 10% off. Try to catch those.

Oppo is often excluded. Even the current special.

[TommyC]

Originally Posted by iove75

Oppo is often excluded. Even the current special.

Ah I see. Must be the popularity.

[bart]

Originally Posted by iove75

Oppo is often excluded. Even the current special.

But even at 999$, it is a superbargain!
Here it costs 1400€ (close to 1900$), and I did not regret it for one second!

[iove75]

Originally Posted by bart

But even at 999$, it is a superbargain!
Here it costs 1400€ (close to 1900$), and I did not regret it for one second!

No disagreement there. I just don't want another AA left with the impression to wait for a deal that won't come.

I actually replaced a MCD-301 and never missed it. I do miss having a glowing glass Mac stack though.

[Toccata]

I recently bought an Oppo 95 to replace my Sony SACD 5400ES and BDP 550 Blu Ray player--it's superior to both in nearly every imaginable way! The audio is more detailed, and the picture is a bit less grainy. Operationally, I prefer it, too, as it loads much faster and the fast forward/rewind times are faster, too. I do find that the display is a bit harder to read from a distance, and I miss the 5400's use of red LEDs to indicate multi-channel SACDs (all designations are white on the Oppo's display), but those are tiny niggles compared to the positives!

Do most of you connect it via HDMI? There seems to be some confusion as to the ability of the m-c analog outs to pass pure DSD. I contacted Oppo, but I didn't get a solid answer. They recommended using the HDMI with my Sony STR 6400ES A/V receiver, as I'd lose the room correction with the analog connection. Any thoughts on the matter?

[Masterlu]

In my experience the HDMI beats the analog hands down.

FWIW, I was using all Wireworld Gold Eclipse cables for the analog; which was about 6x the price of the player (retail)

Easily beat by a single Platinum HDMI at 1/6 the cost.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Toccata

I recently bought an Oppo 95 to replace my Sony SACD 5400ES and BDP 550 Blu Ray player--it's superior to both in nearly every imaginable way! The audio is more detailed, and the picture is a bit less grainy. Operationally, I prefer it, too, as it loads much faster and the fast forward/rewind times are faster, too. I do find that the display is a bit harder to read from a distance, and I miss the 5400's use of red LEDs to indicate multi-channel SACDs (all designations are white on the Oppo's display), but those are tiny niggles compared to the positives!

Do most of you connect it via HDMI? There seems to be some confusion as to the ability of the m-c analog outs to pass pure DSD. I contacted Oppo, but I didn't get a solid answer. They recommended using the HDMI with my Sony STR 6400ES A/V receiver, as I'd lose the room correction with the analog connection. Any thoughts on the matter?

Toccata.......There is no confusion about the Oppo BDP-95 analog outputs. They pass analog signals to your preamp, not digital, neither PCM or DSD. The DSD decoding is done in the BDP-95 through the ESS DAC's and sent to the analog outputs just like any other SACD player.

I prefer using the BDP-95 analog outputs to my McIntosh MX120 so that I am able to take advantage of the ESS 32Bit DAC's, which in my opinion are superior sounding than the DAC's in the MX120. Using a different processor, like the MX150 or MX151 with their newer DAC's may well produce better sound using the HDMI output from the Oppo, but my experience with my MX120 clearly demonstrates the superiority of the ESS DAC's over the MX120 DAC's, and the only way to use the ESS DAC's in the BDP-95 is through the analog outputs. I would try it both ways and make up your own mind.