New Owner of BDP-83: Some Observations

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

I finally was pushed over the edge to buy the Oppo 83 last month, because of a Blu-ray disc I authored which has so much dynamic range that my Sony BDP-S301 is too noisy to allow the ambient sounds on the disc to be heard without a lot of hiss and hum. The disc has well over 85dB of dynamic aperture and was mastered from a 24-bit recording. In case you're wondering what could have so much dynamic range, it's a recording my company was commissioned to make for an international fireworks/pyro company and we made it from the launch site, where the maximum loudness was achieved.

The disc presents many challenges. The slightest noise in a system will mask the ambient sounds before the explosions begin. Having a -100dB noise floor is simply not good enough to properly enjoy this disc.

Naturally, when I read that the Oppo has -110dB noise floor and the ability to trim each output to +10dB, I figured this would gain me an extra 10dB of s/n ratio. Unfortunately, the Oppo cannot use the full potential of the output op-amps. The D/A converter clips when the op-amps are only at 2.4vrms output, even though they are capable of 9.8vrms, having 14 volt rails. That was a disappointment.

Prior to installing the new firmware, I was able to keep +trim values in the speaker configuration and control the clipping with the main Oppo volume control. After the upgrade, any small amount of + trim will now cause the Oppo to clip. Never use + trim values if you have the May 2010 firmware. I don't know why Oppo bothers to put positive values on the trim because of this.

On the test bench, I was dismayed that the Nyquist filtering is a throwback to 1983 and the first-generation CD players. With a 400Hz square wave test signal on CD audio, the Oppo rings throughout the entire period of each half cycle. In contrast, my Sony Blu-ray player damps out the oscillations about 1/3 of the period of one half cycle and the overshoot is about 2% vs. 6% for the Oppo. This is not good performance for a DAC made after 1986. It should be no surprise that the SE version, if it's square wave response is better, would sound audibly better than the base model.

Gripes aside, the BDP-83 performs admirably on the visual side. Evaluating images on my 60 sq ft projection screen, the deblocking, mosquito noise removal, color accuracy and dynamic range are all superb. And for DVD playback, it really does make them look their best, almost film-like. I have one terribly-mastered DVD video from Central Park Media, which looked unwatchable on my Sony, back when it was driving a 47" LCD. It was endurable on the Oppo, even on a much larger screen.

If Oppo has chosen to make full use of the output capabilities of the analog op-amps, they could have had the ability to put out +20dBm, making itself a leader in getting above the noise floor with extraordinary program material. As it stands, I find myself in the position of wanting to modify an in-warranty unit, because it bugs the heck out of me that the unit is only able to put out +9dBm at DAC clipping. Oppo could have used that extra headroom by allowing +10dB trims before clipping. No digital apparatus should be designed such that through volume and trim settings, the unit could be made to clip. That's just poor design. I wonder how many people have + trim values and are wondering why the music sounds distorted?

The BDP-83 is a decent player, but I'm not all that impressed with the audio section.

[vinylphilemag]

My understanding is that the SE and Nuforce SE editions are designed specifically to address the shortcomings in the audio section you've identified.

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

I could almost sense that Oppo intentionally junked up the standard edition Nyquist filtering just so they could sell the SE model with a properly-done Nyquist with oversampling. But that seems preposterous in this day and age. Oversampling CD players existed in the mid 1980s and had better square wave response than the must highly-touted Oppo 83. In my opinion, one would have to intentionally make a DAC that bad, as off the shelf DACs perform better than this today. My Sony player is one example.

I have not heard anything about the SE model having any hotter output than the standard model. Oppo quoted me 2.4vrms for the standard model. I would have bought the SE model had it been capable of 9vrms output.

[naturephoto1]

Oppo offers a program to upgrade the 83 to an 83SE. The cost to upgrade the 83 to the 83SE is $399. The cost would be the same had you purchase the 83SE originally.

Rich

[Bruce B]

I just got an Exempler modified 83 for our Post room. I had a previous one for about a month and ran it through it's paces. It's good for the price, though I was comparing it to my Playback Designs MPS-5.

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

I'm not all that impressed with the sound of the Oppo 83. How can something that rings like a first-generation CD player from 1983 sound good? It must be 1X-sampled filtering. It's okay, but I think the Denon DCD-590 sounds better. At least when it's working (mine developed a fault in the DAC on the left channel recently).

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

As part of my scientific inquiry into the sound quality and accuracy of equipment in my listening room, I measured the much-vaunted Oppo BDP-83 audio outputs with a 400Hz square wave on a test disc.
I also output a 400Hz square wave from my reference DAC. The test is stacked a bit against the reference, as it passes through a mixing desk AND my preamp, whereas the Oppo was measured off my preamp, without the additional cabling and audio stages of the mixing desk in the way. I can state that I've measured the Oppo outputs in the lab, directly, and they look the same as what I'm seeing off the Oppo --> preamp hookup.

The main issue here is that the Oppo's Nyquist filter rings like a bell.

Let's compare. Here is the Oppo:


Now here is the reference DAC, which is also running through my entire chain, plus 50' of poor quality cable (and still almost faithful to the original) to my preamp:


Needless to say, the Oppo's square wave response is very much remeniscent of first-generation CD players from 1983.

So why are people so worked up about the sound? It's probably because the Oppo is adding something to the sound, perhaps a series high frequency overtones which, for some reason, are harmonically-related to the music and thus not unpleasant. But I can't say that it's a faithful representation of the source signal.

With complex musical material, this sort of distortion may color the sound in ways that would be hard to predict.

[Kal Rubinson]

I have not heard anything about the SE model having any hotter output than the standard model. Oppo quoted me 2.4vrms for the standard model. I would have bought the SE model had it been capable of 9vrms output.

Hotter wasn't the point, Mark.

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

Hotter wasn't the point, Mark.

I know that, Kal. At least from Oppo's perspective. However, I have an unusual application where an extra 10dB of output would make a dramatic improvement in s/n ratio. It always irks me when a manufacture uses only a small portion of an op-amp's headroom, thus effectively raising the noise floor of both itself and everything downstream. Anyway, my application is a pyrotechnic event with more than 85dB of dynamic aperture. Digging down into the ambient sound levels, bring them up to lifelike levels means any hum down around -100dB becomes a major part of the audio program. I would much prefer a s/n ratio of 25dB over that of 15dB (which is all that's left before the pyrotech explosions begin.
I'm actually considering modifying the 8 op-amp buffer stages on my BDP-83 to enable them to swing their full potentional when the DAC is driven to it's threshold of clipping. If the "SE" upgrade accomplished that, it would be worth it to me. It probably doesn't, so I'll end up doing it myself.

[Kal Rubinson]

Unusual applications demand unusual efforts and I was just about to suggest that you modify/replace the analog stages. I'll sitck with HDMI.

Kal