Oppo BDP 93 State of The Art for $500 if you have a DAC

Mobiusman

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May 24, 2010
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To my surprise there is no thread for Oppo, so I thought I would offer a few thoughts. Like most people I am shifting to streaming and downloads for much of my A/V fare. However, I still have hundreds of discs, still receive BR discs from Netflix and have less sophisticated friends who stop by with optical discs of various sorts.

So in an attempt to find a cheap, but a highly effective improvement to my A/V system, I turned to the Oppo BDP 93 at $500 because in some cases it is a better way to go than streaming, especially for conventional DVD's than downloads. First let's get one thing out of the way, the transport and video processing of the BDP 93, 95, NuForce versions are identical. All of the changes in the analog section, which I cannot comment on because I use my freestanding DAC (Bryston-another bargain) for the analog work and connect with Toslink.

I want to make three major points:
1) The video is state of the art with HDMI 1 being the better choice due to an extra stage of video clean-up and enhancement compared to the other HDMI output (2). Even conventional DVD's look better on this machine than most BR discs on other players.

2) The combination of the Oppo transport and my Bryston DAC is certainly better than any player or transport/DAC combo that I have ever owned with the cap on my front being around $5k, but I would not be surprised if it gives $10k units a good run for the money, especially in "pure audio" mode which turns off all of the video circuitry to reduce internal RFI.

3) This is the smartest and most thoughtfully designed audio product I have ever bought. Its manual exceeds any I have seen at any price. The Chinese are starting to get it right and American manufactures should be concerned.
 

mimesis

New Member
Sep 26, 2010
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Another nice thing about the Oppo is that you can play SACDs by converting to 24 bit/88.2 kHz.
 

mimesis

New Member
Sep 26, 2010
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I thought that Oppo is made here in the SF Bay Area not China

After a little digging, it seems that Oppo Digital based in Mountain View, CA is a subsidiary of a Chinese company. The products are made in China but I believe they are fully designed here, although knowing how design and production works, I am sure that the factory side provides input as to what can be produced with acceptable yield rates.
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
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Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
The Oppo BDP-95 Universal 3D Blu-ray player is certainly an audiophile playback source system.
And it costs only $999.


* Kal (Kalman Rubinson) reviewed it in Stereophile September's 2011 issue.
...From his excellent column; Music In The Round, on page 55.

And it received a Class A+ in the SACD, DVD-A, & CD Players & Transports & Music Servers section from the Stereophile 'Recommended Components' of the October's 2011 issue.
--> That is in the very same class as the dCS Scarlatti: $79,996!

It certainly doesn't sound like the Scarlatti, but it also doesn't cost 80+ times more!

Anyway, very good show Oppo!
 

audioguy

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
2,794
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Near Atlanta, GA but not too near!
Count me in the Oppo camp. I have one of the original Oppo DVD players in our family room and the original Oppo Bluray player in my theater. As noted, the up-scaling of regular DVD's is amazing.

And while my primary source of digital music is my server, for playing a single CD, I use the Oppo (digital input) into my TacT into my Antelope Audio Zodiac Gold Plus D to A converter. Sounds great to me.
 

Phelonious Ponk

New Member
Jun 30, 2010
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To my surprise there is no thread for Oppo, so I thought I would offer a few thoughts. Like most people I am shifting to streaming and downloads for much of my A/V fare. However, I still have hundreds of discs, still receive BR discs from Netflix and have less sophisticated friends who stop by with optical discs of various sorts.

So in an attempt to find a cheap, but a highly effective improvement to my A/V system, I turned to the Oppo BDP 93 at $500 because in some cases it is a better way to go than streaming, especially for conventional DVD's than downloads. First let's get one thing out of the way, the transport and video processing of the BDP 93, 95, NuForce versions are identical. All of the changes in the analog section, which I cannot comment on because I use my freestanding DAC (Bryston-another bargain) for the analog work and connect with Toslink.

I want to make three major points:
1) The video is state of the art with HDMI 1 being the better choice due to an extra stage of video clean-up and enhancement compared to the other HDMI output (2). Even conventional DVD's look better on this machine than most BR discs on other players.

2) The combination of the Oppo transport and my Bryston DAC is certainly better than any player or transport/DAC combo that I have ever owned with the cap on my front being around $5k, but I would not be surprised if it gives $10k units a good run for the money, especially in "pure audio" mode which turns off all of the video circuitry to reduce internal RFI.

3) This is the smartest and most thoughtfully designed audio product I have ever bought. Its manual exceeds any I have seen at any price. The Chinese are starting to get it right and American manufactures should be concerned.

I suspect the Oppo is pretty excellent, even without an external DAC, but I have to be amused sometimes by the ethos of WBF -- "So in an attempt to find a cheap, but a highly effective improvement to my A/V system, I turned to the Oppo BDP 93 at $500" -- most people consider $500 very high for a blue ray player and wouldn't apply the word "cheap" until it dipped below a hundred bucks. Different worlds...

Tim
 

naturephoto1

Member
May 24, 2010
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www.nelridge.com
I suspect the Oppo is pretty excellent, even without an external DAC, but I have to be amused sometimes by the ethos of WBF -- "So in an attempt to find a cheap, but a highly effective improvement to my A/V system, I turned to the Oppo BDP 93 at $500" -- most people consider $500 very high for a blue ray player and wouldn't apply the word "cheap" until it dipped below a hundred bucks. Different worlds...

Tim

Tim,

I have an upgraded NuForce Edition Oppo 83SE which betters the stock Oppo 93 and 95 and gives the upgraded Oppo 95 a real run for its money. No question though I use the "naked" upgraded NuForce Edition Oppo 83SE via HDMI for multichannel playback of Blu-rays and SACD and DVD-A, it performs better for Redbook and other CDs through coax out with my upgraded Lavry DA10 DAC.

Rich
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
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435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
Think about it for a sec; we get excellent music players for less than a thou.

And not only that; but they also excell on SACD, DVD-Audio, CD, Blu-ray (BD-Video),
DVD (DVD-Video), AVCHD, HDCD encoded CD (with internal decoder), CD-R/RW, DVD+-R/RW,
DVD+-/R DL, BD-R/RE, MKV, DNA, DLNA, Kodak Picture CD, SACD+-R/RW, ...and a multitude of other audio/video formats!

And they have all the latest High Res Audio decoders. With Excellent DACs zoom configuration...

And they even have built-in 1-GB splash/flash memory, and they are updatable, upgradable, and 'affirmable'. :cool:

And that is without mentioning all the audio/video streaming from the Internet, plus USB sticks, plus HDMI sticks, plus digital Coax/Opt sticks, plus Components sticks, plus iTunes, plus iYoudoin, plus iHowareyoumynameisOppo...


Just WoW! ...I think you got the 'picture', the melody by now.

And with the 95 it ain't just Digital we talkin' here, but also Analog!

...But then, on the digital side, watabout Jitter? :( :p ;)
 
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Phelonious Ponk

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Jun 30, 2010
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Tim,

I have an upgraded NuForce Edition Oppo 83SE which betters the stock Oppo 93 and 95 and gives the upgraded Oppo 95 a real run for its money. No question though I use the "naked" upgraded NuForce Edition Oppo 83SE via HDMI for multichannel playback of Blu-rays and SACD and DVD-A, it performs better for Redbook and other CDs through coax out with my upgraded Lavry DA10 DAC.

Rich

What does Nuforce do in there, Rich?

Tim
 

naturephoto1

Member
May 24, 2010
820
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What does Nuforce do in there, Rich?

Tim

Hi Tim.

I am not sure what you are asking. NuForce had prior to the newest units made upgrades/modifications to the analog side of the Oppo 83SE (the same side of the unit that Oppo worked on from the Oppo 83). My unit had further upgrades throughout both the analog and the digital sides of the machine.

What NuForce did to the Oppo 83SE followed by a review are:

http://www.nuforce.com/hi/products/source/oppo_bdp83se/index.php

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual/blu-ray-players/oppo-bdp-83se-nuforce-edition-917549/review

In the current line, NuForce has also worked on the Oppo 93 as both the NuForce Oppo 93 Edition and the NuForce 93 Xtreme Edition:

http://www.nuforce.com/hi/products/source/oppo_bdp9395ne/index.php

Rich
 

Mobiusman

Well-Known Member
May 24, 2010
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I apologize for my use of the term cheap to apply to a BR player, but I use the Oppo for CD playback, not to mention its ability to download movies through its standard WiFi adapter. I bought it more for its transport for my CD's than as a BR player and figured improved BR was a bonus. What I got was way more than I bargained for with regard to Redbook CD playbavck, standard DVD, and certainly the BR is at the top of its category. Saddly, due to copyright limitations, SACD cannot be played using an optical output to my DAC so on that front the NuForce or BDP 95 would be better.

However, one of my key points for starting this thread is just how good the Chinese products are becoming, just like the crappy Hyundai's of yesterday have now taken over Japan and soon Germany.
 

Kal Rubinson

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May 4, 2010
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Saddly, due to copyright limitations, SACD cannot be played using an optical output to my DAC so on that front the NuForce or BDP 95 would be better.
While there are ways to get a coax/optical output from the Oppo, I prefer to use the HDMI to feed my system. I understand that there is an upcoming NAD Master Series DAC with HDMI input.
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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I suspect the Oppo is pretty excellent, even without an external DAC, but I have to be amused sometimes by the ethos of WBF -- "So in an attempt to find a cheap, but a highly effective improvement to my A/V system, I turned to the Oppo BDP 93 at $500" -- most people consider $500 very high for a blue ray player and wouldn't apply the word "cheap" until it dipped below a hundred bucks. Different worlds...

Tim

Tim-Most people aren’t audiophiles. $500 spent on any component for an audiophile is a fairly cheap expenditure. Remember, this is WBF, not What is Cheapest. So yeah, the average Wal-Mart shopper would balk at paying $500 for a world-class CD/DVD/SACD player and would be looking for the $30 special, but not audiophiles and not the majority of people on this forum (I believe).
 

LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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I run an Oppo 83 that has been modd'd a bit thru a Valhalla BNC cable into my Zanden DAC. a lot of people think i'm crazy...but i get to play movies thru Zanden, etc and it works blooy well while i wait for SOTA transports to come down in price, or music servers to improve in quality/ease of use. And if/when i do go SOTA transport or server...i've still got an Oppo that can play movies thru my zanden DAC. i like the flexibility.

the question is...has anyone actually compared the Oppo transport (via digital out) to higher-end transports? believe it or not, i have not done this yet. I have been told categorically, this is a big weakness in my system.
 

Phelonious Ponk

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Jun 30, 2010
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I apologize for my use of the term cheap to apply to a BR player

No apologies necessary, I just got a kick out of it in context. *** Oppo is an excellent player and the price is reasonable.

Tim
 

MarinJim

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Feb 2, 2011
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However, one of my key points for starting this thread is just how good the Chinese products are becoming, just like the crappy Hyundai's of yesterday have now taken over Japan and soon Germany.

In regards to disposable blu-ray players yes, I agree. But for serious quality and performance without cost cutting measures, I will keep my German car (BMW) and amplifier (Burmester). To a few :))), the savings of a Chinese product is meaningless. I do not for one moment wish to throw money away, but some of us can still appreciate and understand state of the art. The Chinese have taken the art of coping to another level though. I do see a lot of desiged in the USA and made in China also.
 

lasercd

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Oct 28, 2010
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I am auditioning the MSB Technology UMT which is, at it's core, an Oppo 93. For SACD playback it sends out a 24/176.4 stream over all digital outputs. I have it hooked up to the Bricasti M1 and I'm rediscovering my SACD collection. I've been told a stock Oppo 93 will output the same 24/176.4 signal as well.

On a brief tangent, The UMT is an impressive piece of gear. On Redbook playback it was easily as good, if not better, than the Accustic Arts tranport I've been using the past 4 years.
 

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