Hey Two New Flavors of the Oppo BD-83

[Worf101]

If high end audio is what you crave there are and a world class BD player isn't enough reason to by the OPPO, now there's 2 new reasons to check this brand out.

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83SE/
Oppo's "Special Edition" BR player is upgraded audio for about $900.

AND not to be outdone....

http://www.nuforce.com/hi/products/oppo_bdp83se/index.php
Nuforce gives you even more audio goodness for $1,200 samolians.

Who knew?

Da Worfster

[Woochifer]

Seems like they're trying to now lock up the high end of the BD market. They've gone all-in on a couple of audiophile-grade models that still cost at least $700 less than Denon's lowest priced universal BD/SACD player.

Kinda sad though that Oppo has abandoned the value segment of the market by discontinuing their DVD universal players. Their $300 universal player was widely acclaimed as one of the best SACD players on the market, and its audio performance was purportedly superior to their higher end models, including the BDP-83. Now, you gotta shell out $900 to get upgraded audio performance.

[Feanor]

Seems like they're trying to now lock up the high end of the BD market. They've gone all-in on a couple of audiophile-grade models that still cost at least $700 less than Denon's lowest priced universal BD/SACD player.

Kinda sad though that Oppo has abandoned the value segment of the market by discontinuing their DVD universal players. Their $300 universal player was widely acclaimed as one of the best SACD players on the market, and its audio performance was purportedly superior to their higher end models, including the BDP-83. Now, you gotta shell out $900 to get upgraded audio performance.
Why sell a $170 product, (like my Oppo DV-680H), when you can sell a $500 or $900 product. This is audiophile hifi is all about.

By the way, a while ago my 680H quit playing SACDs, after the warranty period of course. I'm pissed off.

[Woochifer]

Why sell a $170 product, (like my Oppo DV-680H), when you can sell a $500 or $900 product. This is audiophile hifi is all about.

By the way, a while ago my 680H quit playing SACDs, after the warranty period of course. I'm pissed off.

Amen to that.

Sorry to hear about the Oppo konking out. Did you ever contact them about repair options?

My Sony SACD changer gradually stopped reading hybrid discs (it would only detect the CD layer), so it got sent back to Sony's repair center for servicing. In my case, it was still under warranty (thank goodness for the 5-year coverage on Sony's ES line), and they wound up replacing the optical drive. Reading some of the posts on other sites, it seems that the optical drive was a problem on Sony's lower end SACD changers (which includes my model). The replacement drive alone would have cost $170 if I'd ordered it from a parts vendor.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

If you stick to HDMI, you don't have to worry about the upgrade. I find CD/SACD/DVD-A playback through HDMI as good as anything out there. I do not know why anyone would rather stick to analog paths and have to go through all of this trouble and expense to get the best out of it. The Oppo gives you the opportunity to shut of all video circuitry during audio disc playback, so there is no reason not to stay all digital from the disc to the receiver or pre-pro DAC. If the analog path costs $400+ dollars to get right, then that is not the path for me.

[nightflier]

Well if you happen to have a McIntosh or McCormack preamp with 7.1 channel inputs, then the analog outs on the player are not just nice, but required. Yes, it took some tweaking but now my system sounds considerably better than any receiver I've heard. Granted, I know that receivers are cheap, even good ones like the Onkyo, so this isn't necessarily the low-cost alternative, even though it is video-less, but the sound quality, or rather purity, is very very good.

Anyhow, for this kind of setup, the Oppo BDP-83se is a significant opportunity. While I'm not exactly thrilled to see they've phased out the other players, I'm also happy that they are addressing the concerns of audiophiles with the new player. There was some grumbling online that the audio quality was good, but not remarkable. It will be interesting to see if this player's audio quality lives up to a higher standard. My player qualifies for the upgrade, so I may just go for it.

[harley .guy07]

I would accually like to see this upgraded player put against some of the other cd and multi disk players out there in the high end market to see how it stacks up. and would like to also see the origional player with a quality dac priced to make it up to the upgraded players price like a musicland md-10 or something like it and see how they compare. It would be an interesting comparison.