oppo udp 203

[Verdinut]

I was hesitant to buy the Oppo, had done well with other players but the day they announced ceasing production of the disc players I decided to go for it and had a use for one more bluray player anyways, so thought I'd give it a whirl to see if they were as good as their reputation. Been very happy with it, I like the ergonomics and generally quiet operation and capabilities for inputs/outputs, etc. I played with the onboard dacs for a while but they didn't offer anything particularly and preferred the audio processing of my avr and simpler connection too. If I were to buy a player now the upper level Sonys look good (my Sonys are more middle of the pack, have two S5100s and an S6700). The Sonys don't do dvd-audio tho I have few of those discs anyways, do use the players otherwise for cd, sacd and bluray for the most part (and do get multich dsd decoded by my avrs too). I guess I can always sell mine at a great profit still....but I wouldn't buy one at going prices.

Some Sony Blu-ray players read DVD-A discs. I have the X800 and it does.

 

[j_garcia]

Yes, mine is the BDP 83 as well. It is fine in the 2.2 system, but I really only use it as a CD player, occasionally put in a video disc. It is fine for that duty. I do not think it is worth paying a lot of money for any OPPO player, which many seem willing to do.

I also had the 83, which Alex now owns. It was a very good player for audio, but the subsequent players were significantly improved from the 83. The 93 not so much, but the 105 and 205 are considerably different animals. The 83 came at a time when DVD was still a factor, and it had some of the best DVD handling at that time. I had the Denon 2200 and 2900, considered to be excellent players at that time too, and the Oppo did an equal job with audio (SACD and DVD-A in particular) and was better with DVD video than them at half the price. The analog output portion is what people are interested in I think, for those who have large media collections. My 105 mainly gets used for audio and the 205 is for the occasional 4K disc and audio.

They are great players but the prices that people are paying for an off the shelf 205 are ridiculous and I agree, I would not pay a super premium price for one.

 

[Alex2507]

The analog output portion is what people are interested in I think,

I just got through calibrating everything and giving the old girl a go.

I think I just hit that point where I believe I can hear a difference from bitstream over HDMI and the fancy DACs you had Oppo put in the 83. I'm never letting this thing go. I feel like it's letting me enjoy the SongTowers on a fun factor of eleven.

Was there an upgrade in the DACs for later models?

 

[j_garcia]

I just got through calibrating everything and giving the old girl a go.

I think I just hit that point where I believe I can hear a difference from bitstream over HDMI and the fancy DACs you had Oppo put in the 83. I'm never letting this thing go. I feel like it's letting me enjoy the SongTowers on a fun factor of eleven.

Was there an upgrade in the DACs for later models?

Yes, the 105 had improved DACs vs the 83SE. 205 were improved from there, but the difference is not so audible from the 105 to my ears. The cost of the 105 was about 2x that of the 83 though. I had no complaints about the 83SE and probably would not have sold it had I not had the opportunity to buy the 105.

 

[Alex2507]

the difference is not so audible from the 105 to my ears.

It's taken me these years of ownership to finally notice something special about the SE. And that was done with Venus Hum belting out "I Feel Love" after a calibration that was 100% money seat oriented.

Really for the first time ever I was able to appreciate that the Dolby Stereo layer decoded by the SE, created a better sound stage through imaging than Dolby Surround (not Dolby Digital) did through the use of a center channel. Then going from analog audio outs to bitstream over HDMI was a noticeable downgrade.

I have an older unit I bought when they were all the rage. It could not be made to work with my newer 4K rig.

So you threw that 4K rig right in the trash, right?

My 4K gets choked out by either streamers or rec'rs not being current so the Oppos still have a place in my heart.

And if any a y'all out in web world want to buy my Oppo 83SE for an astronomical sum ... call me.

 

[Pandaman617]

It's taken me these years of ownership to finally notice something special about the SE. And that was done with Venus Hum belting out "I Feel Love" after a calibration that was 100% money seat oriented.

Really for the first time ever I was able to appreciate that the Dolby Stereo layer decoded by the SE, created a better sound stage through imaging than Dolby Surround (not Dolby Digital) did through the use of a center channel. Then going from analog audio outs to bitstream over HDMI was a noticeable downgrade.



So you threw that 4K rig right in the trash, right?

My 4K gets choked out by either streamers or rec'rs not being current so the Oppos still have a place in my heart.

And if any a y'all out in web world want to buy my Oppo 83SE for an astronomical sum ... call me.

I believe we’ve reached that point in our “here buy my stuff and than I’ll buy yours” friendship where I would like very much to give you an unreasonable amount of money for that SE.

 

[Alex2507]

I believe we’ve reached that point in our “here buy my stuff and than I’ll buy yours” friendship where I would like very much to give you an unreasonable amount of money for that SE.

I found prices for the BDP-83 around 250 ish maybe without much extra thrown at the one SE I saw. That's hardly unreasonable. I'm really a bad person to buy from because I love that player but I'll let you define unreasonable.