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Hyfi
01-09-2011, 08:50 AM
Initial thoughts of the OPPO 93

So I finally replaced my first DVD player, Denon DVD-1710, that I paid $135 back in 2004. The player sucked. You could never hear the dialog in movies, it will hardly play copied or custom disks and had no HDMI.

Packaging was very good and the reusable carry bag was sort of a nice touch. The unit is nice looking and solidly made. The power and eject buttons are not easy to find in low lighting and the remote response is quite poor for a unit at this price level. The only other thin I could whine about is the cheesy detachable cable supplied. Again for a $500 unit at least provide a quality cable.

I set it up in about 10 minutes.
HDMI to TV
XLO Digital Cable to HK635 that has no HDMI
Tara Labs ICs from FR/FL to the Rotel

Went through the base setup procedure and everything worked as expected. Without any tweaking I watched Robert Plant w/ New Sensation from PBS on DVD. Great PQ and SQ.

I then watched some Animusic 2 on DVD and was blown away at the improvements I just got.
Avatar on a compressed copy DVD was also still stunning.
Ratatouille was again clear as can be and awesome.

I don’t own a Blu yet so a rental is in order.
Today I setup the DLNA Server and Wireless Networking via the USB adapter that was supplied. Which is a nice touch compared to other players. The included HDMI cable is also decent quality. It is also very fast at loading, menus and ejecting.

I streamed several AVI movies which all looked so much better than going through my pc. Next I tried the music which also works nice.

I’m a pretty happy camper to say the least. Since the old Denon DVD is all I have to personally compare, there is really not much not to like. All the different configuration options and settings are easy if you’re not a 1st timer.

I have been following the 93 thread at AVS Forums and there is a lot of great info about issues and fixes.

Highly Recommended!

Mr Peabody
01-09-2011, 07:12 PM
That's good you get improvement in the DVD realm, now go get yourself some Blu and see what you paid for :)

Hyfi
01-10-2011, 03:14 AM
Yeah, I'm traveling this week so it will have to wait. All the network streaming works great without an N router. (I don't have Netfix or Blckbuster.)

Worf101
01-11-2011, 05:40 AM
As I grovel on bended knee.... please don't forget to tell us of your Blu-Ray experience on your return. I'm glad the first part has turned out so well already. Thanks again.

Worf

Hyfi
01-23-2011, 09:19 AM
So I have finally had the time to watch two BluRays and am loving it.

First we watched How to Train Your Dragon, a Disney animation. Awesome and realistic looking at times. PQ and SQ are everything I had hoped. I can also hear the dialog from the center on both Blu and regular DVDs.

Second movie we watched last night was Splice. Pretty cool Sci-Fi about a couple that slices animals together and then does it with a human and an animal. SQ-PQ just as good.

I do need to rerun the whole setup on the HK since I fiddled with the sub for stereo and changed speakers and placement. I'll be taking care of that soon.

I hooked up the FR/FL to my Rotel 1050 driving JMs in another room with zip cord. I also used the Tape Out from the Rotel to my main pre and system. I will hook it directly up to the VAC when I have time and find my 6' ICs.

The sound for music disks is quite good for a DVD player. I played Red Book, CDRs, HDCDs, and MP3s both in tray and streaming wireless. CDs are revealing, detailed, laid back and quite tubie sounding, much to Pixies dismay. Notes are not rushed and nothing is in your face. I will say that the overall playback of any disk appears to be an octave higher if that makes sense compared to my Rotel CDP. Bass on the OPPO is very articulate but not deep. Plenty of mids and highs.

My only two complaints for a unit at this price range is the cheesy power cord and the remote. They may have well just hard wired lamp cord or provide none at all. It's no dif than a pair of black and reds.

The remote is lazy and unresponsive. I think its a teenager. You have to wake it up first all the time with a double click or hold down the buttons for a long time. Luckily my Harmony One covers almost all the normal functions and is super responsive. The bad thing is that I just found out that I suffer from the latest Harmony defect, the swollen battery. Thats right, it gets so fat you cannot remove it without damaging the remote. I have an email in to TS for a replacement. Wish me luck. I just recently found out about the problem over at AVS Forums in the User threads.

Anyway, for anyone that has the $500 for a player that will play anything you throw at it, stream it all from the net or your DNLA server, which works great, I highly recommend this Universal Player.

pixelthis
01-23-2011, 01:11 PM
So I have finally had the time to watch two BluRays and am loving it.

First we watched How to Train Your Dragon, a Disney animation. Awesome and realistic looking at times. PQ and SQ are everything I had hoped. I can also hear the dialog from the center on both Blu and regular DVDs.

Second movie we watched last night was Splice. Pretty cool Sci-Fi about a couple that slices animals together and then does it with a human and an animal. SQ-PQ just as good.

I do need to rerun the whole setup on the HK since I fiddled with the sub for stereo and changed speakers and placement. I'll be taking care of that soon.

I hooked up the FR/FL to my Rotel 1050 driving JMs in another room with zip cord. I also used the Tape Out from the Rotel to my main pre and system. I will hook it directly up to the VAC when I have time and find my 6' ICs.

The sound for music disks is quite good for a DVD player. I played Red Book, CDRs, HDCDs, and MP3s both in tray and streaming wireless. CDs are revealing, detailed, laid back and quite tubie sounding, much to Pixies dismay. Notes are not rushed and nothing is in your face. I will say that the overall playback of any disk appears to be an octave higher if that makes sense compared to my Rotel CDP. Bass on the OPPO is very articulate but not deep. Plenty of mids and highs.

My only two complaints for a unit at this price range is the cheesy power cord and the remote. They may have well just hard wired lamp cord or provide none at all. It's no dif than a pair of black and reds.

The remote is lazy and unresponsive. I think its a teenager. You have to wake it up first all the time with a double click or hold down the buttons for a long time. Luckily my Harmony One covers almost all the normal functions and is super responsive. The bad thing is that I just found out that I suffer from the latest Harmony defect, the swollen battery. Thats right, it gets so fat you cannot remove it without damaging the remote. I have an email in to TS for a replacement. Wish me luck. I just recently found out about the problem over at AVS Forums in the User threads.

Anyway, for anyone that has the $500 for a player that will play anything you throw at it, stream it all from the net or your DNLA server, which works great, I highly recommend this Universal Player.

No dismay on my part.
ANYWAY, another BLU convert. WAIT UNTIL YOU TRY 96KHZ music, nothing
on the planet will prepare you for that. SOUND QUALITY on this level will leave the
"tube heads" behind even father than they already are.
Congrats on your player, and thanks for the great review,:1:

Hyfi
03-01-2011, 03:40 PM
I have been hanging out over at AVS Forums, in the OPPO threads for a while and was given some real nice help getting my 93 to perform better for 2CH Analog Playback.

Turns out I needed to change a few settings.

From my last post at AVS>>

OK, so after adjusting several settings and tweaking my sub a bit, I have to retract many of my earlier observations. I'm glad a few of you kept at me.

I had two main settings incorrect. I had all but the 6th and 7th speaker set to On and not just the Fronts. I thought it would effect the 5.1 output.

I also had the Mix Down set wrong. Without a thorough understanding, I mistakenly thought that if I was using just the FR/FL out that the corresponding setting would obviously be LT/RT as in Left and Right.

I also changed my volume and crossover on the sub a bit as well as testing now with the phase. That change is so subtle it's tough to tell the difference sometimes. I'm leaving it flipped from where it was for now and there is no bad sound.

I will still have to say the 93 is a little brighter than the Rotel, but the drastic differences I was hearing are largely subsided.

So far I have spun my Marcus Miller M2, Bela Fleck - 3 flew over the cuckoos nest, and a Marillion Sampler.

Now, if I didn't know it was a Blu player, I would have to say it's a really good CD player.

I'll update after some listening and a few HDCDs.<<


The OPPO 93 is not that far behind the Rotel and may very well be the giant killer of $500 Universal players.

YBArcam
04-03-2011, 10:36 AM
I picked up the 93 not long ago. I echo the OP, in that the build quality is excellent, and DVD playback looks great. Much better than my old Cambridge 650BD and Denon DBP-1611UD (which is a new player by the way). Oppo just seems ahead of the curve, and offers the best value in a budget player.

I have not tried CD playback, or Blu-Ray for that matter. I expect the latter to be excellent, and the former at least decent. I do have a dedicated CD player however, and I think I will always prefer that to a universal. However, I am considering selling my Apollo and using the 93 as a transport feeding into the new Rega DAC.

Hyfi
04-04-2011, 04:40 AM
I picked up the 93 not long ago. I echo the OP, in that the build quality is excellent, and DVD playback looks great. Much better than my old Cambridge 650BD and Denon DBP-1611UD (which is a new player by the way). Oppo just seems ahead of the curve, and offers the best value in a budget player.

I have not tried CD playback, or Blu-Ray for that matter. I expect the latter to be excellent, and the former at least decent. I do have a dedicated CD player however, and I think I will always prefer that to a universal. However, I am considering selling my Apollo and using the 93 as a transport feeding into the new Rega DAC.

I'm not sure if it's the DACs or how they are now mixing down the multi channel to Stereo but the player is lacking life for CD playback. It's good, but not great and not par with my Rotel.

I would try the dac/oppo combo first before getting rid of your Standalone CDP.

Sir Terrence the Terrible
04-04-2011, 12:51 PM
I purchased one 95 and two 93's. Both models are stunning performers, and aside from a HDMI handshaking issue with my processor(which was quickly handled with a firmware patch) they have provided trouble free pleasure since getting them.

pixelthis
04-04-2011, 01:12 PM
I'm not sure if it's the DACs or how they are now mixing down the multi channel to Stereo but the player is lacking life for CD playback. It's good, but not great and not par with my Rotel.

I would try the dac/oppo combo first before getting rid of your Standalone CDP.

NO SURPRIZE THERE.
Its axiomatic that Videodisc players as a general rule stink on ice for CD playback.
AN 89 dollar changer from the kmart can beat any of em handily.:1: