Spent time comparing the 93 to my Rotel for music playback

[kelsci]

.( Everything sounds as if it is an octave higher than the Rotel.)

I have never hit this factor on a cd player but I have hit this on the audio quality of vcrs in the past whether it was linear mono,dolby linear stereo or vhs hi-fi units. I gave it my own personal name; "octavasation". It is much like playing the same tune on a piano or accordian but going up an octave or two on the keyboard. I am sure it is possible to hit this phenomena on cd player though so it is not your imagination. This octave phenomena is really never talked about but it does exist nevertheless in some circunstances.

[Hyfi]

.( Everything sounds as if it is an octave higher than the Rotel.)

I have never hit this factor on a cd player but I have hit this on the audio quality of vcrs in the past whether it was linear mono,dolby linear stereo or vhs hi-fi units. I gave it my own personal name; "octavasation". It is much like playing the same tune on a piano or accordian but going up an octave or two on the keyboard. I am sure it is possible to hit this phenomena on cd player though so it is not your imagination. This octave phenomena is really never talked about but it does exist nevertheless in some circunstances.

I could ponder the fact that my ICs from the Rotel vs what I used on the OPPO could be part of the fault but we all know wire is just wire, right?....NOT!

I normally have the OPPO hooked up to my Rotel receiver and piped back to my VAC pre via Tape Out and when I A/B tested that way findings were pretty much the same. But again in that case I was using $60 Tara Labs ICs vs the $400 Synergistic ICs from the Rotel.

[pixelthis]

I could ponder the fact that my ICs from the Rotel vs what I used on the OPPO could be part of the fault but we all know wire is just wire, right?....NOT!

I normally have the OPPO hooked up to my Rotel receiver and piped back to my VAC pre via Tape Out and when I A/B tested that way findings were pretty much the same. But again in that case I was using $60 Tara Labs ICs vs the $400 Synergistic ICs from the Rotel.

The "fault" is that the Rotel is a true piece of audiophile gear.
THE oppo has had its praises sung on this site, but is really a BLU ray player, and probably
plays well in a pinch, but to compare it to a Rotel? Like comparing a Chevy to a FERRARI
TESTAROSSA, IMHO.
Video players, with the exception of some DVDA or SACD models have compromises.
My main CD player is a DVDA player from PANASONIC, hardly "audiophile" grade, until
you consider that its an 800 dollar flagship that doubles the sampling rate of CD's.
We all forget sometimes just how difficult true audio heaven is to achieve.
THE oppo has all sorts of overhead that the Rotel doesn't. ITS A wonder that it sounds as
good as it does.
Crappy CD playback from video players started with LASER. With DVD/BLU players its sometimes said that the smaller laser has something to do with it.
I know OPPO and other "high end" DVD/BLU players are supposed to be different,
but that remains to be seen.

[pixelthis]

CHECK out my "main" CD player. 800 bucks eight years ago.
Not the "best" CD player I have heard but it keeps up with mid line stuff pretty well.
MAIN THING , its audio circuits are built for quality sound.

[Hyfi]

The "fault" is that the Rotel is a true piece of audiophile gear.
THE oppo has had its praises sung on this site, but is really a BLU ray player, and probably
plays well in a pinch, but to compare it to a Rotel? Like comparing a Chevy to a FERRARI
TESTAROSSA, IMHO.

Pix, I mainly did this post for the AVSForums official 0pp0 93 thread. There are many people there asking for CD playback comparisons. Unfortunately most asking are trying to decide if they should buy the OPPO as a Universal Player -DVD-BLU-CD but are graduating from $129 gear. So the answer for them is, yeah it will sound better than what you have but it ain't the real deal in CD playback. Had I not had anything real to compare it to, I may have almost thought it was great.

Funny tho, my wife picked up on it before I ever switched the first disk from the OPPO to the Rotel. She has a great ear for subtle changes let alone drastic ones.

Hills- cool that you also did a little shootout. Would it not be so fun to have as many folks come to your house and hear what decent gear sounds like while they ponder the weekly Best Buy sales for their dream of audio nirvana?

No doubt OPPO makes quality DVD players with many cool features. I am loving the DNLA streaming of all my files from other PCs and NAS. I no longer really need the PC in the mix because I was just pushing that thru the theater while watching the AVIs and such. Last night I didn't want to wait for Serviio to update my files so I watched The Lost Tribe from my USB stick plugged into the front of the player.

It does make all my video files look and sound way better than thru the PC with WMP or VNC. It is also region free for DVD playback so now that PAL copy of Blackmores Night Castles and Dreams plays flawlessly. It has also played back every other DVD that my old players could not.

Their Tech Support and promptness of answering questions is the best I have encountered.

[Jack in Wilmington]

Pix, I mainly did this post for the AVSForums official 0pp0 93 thread. There are many people there asking for CD playback comparisons. Unfortunately most asking are trying to decide if they should buy the OPPO as a Universal Player -DVD-BLU-CD but are graduating from $129 gear. So the answer for them is, yeah it will sound better than what you have but it ain't the real deal in CD playback. Had I not had anything real to compare it to, I may have almost thought it was great.

Funny tho, my wife picked up on it before I ever switched the first disk from the OPPO to the Rotel. She has a great ear for subtle changes let alone drastic ones.

Hills- cool that you also did a little shootout. Would it not be so fun to have as many folks come to your house and hear what decent gear sounds like while they ponder the weekly Best Buy sales for their dream of audio nirvana?

No doubt OPPO makes quality DVD players with many cool features. I am loving the DNLA streaming of all my files from other PCs and NAS. I no longer really need the PC in the mix because I was just pushing that thru the theater while watching the AVIs and such. Last night I didn't want to wait for Serviio to update my files so I watched The Lost Tribe from my USB stick plugged into the front of the player.

It does make all my video files look and sound way better than thru the PC with WMP or VNC. It is also region free for DVD playback so now that PAL copy of Blackmores Night Castles and Dreams plays flawlessly. It has also played back every other DVD that my old players could not.

Their Tech Support and promptness of answering questions is the best I have encountered.

I have the Rotel also and was seriously considering getting a DAC. Do you think its a wise move or won't I notice that much of an improvement?

[Hyfi]

I have the Rotel also and was seriously considering getting a DAC. Do you think its a wise move or won't I notice that much of an improvement?

Depending on what dac and the rest of your chain, I have no idea. Make sure you can send it back or try first.

The Rotel is a contender but by far not near the best. Some of it also comes down to the transport too.

[Jack in Wilmington]

Depending on what dac and the rest of your chain, I have no idea. Make sure you can send it back or try first.

The Rotel is a contender but by far not near the best. Some of it also comes down to the transport too.

I've been looking at three DAC's. The PS Audio Digital Link III, the Simaudio 100D, and the Music Hall DAC 25.3. The PS Audio and the Music Hall are sold at Quest for Sound so there is no problem taking one home for a test. The Simaudio doesn't seem to have a local distributor, so I would be buying on reputation only.

[frenchmon]

I have the Rotel also and was seriously considering getting a DAC. Do you think its a wise move or won't I notice that much of an improvement?

I have an older Rotel CDP and compared it to a DAC Magic and the D-Magic had a tad bit more sweetness in tone that was hardly noticable over the Rotel...I prefered the Rotel over it. I also took the Rotel to Mr Peabodys and did a shoot out with his Emotiva ERC-1 CDP and I felt the ERC-1 was more lively and played a bit louder than the more warmer sound of the Rotel....thinking back the ERC tonal abilities where not as noticable as the Rotel and it seemed the detail was more pronounce on the ERC-1. But I felt the Rotel had more character.

[pixelthis]

Pix, I mainly did this post for the AVSForums official 0pp0 93 thread. There are many people there asking for CD playback comparisons. Unfortunately most asking are trying to decide if they should buy the OPPO as a Universal Player -DVD-BLU-CD but are graduating from $129 gear. So the answer for them is, yeah it will sound better than what you have but it ain't the real deal in CD playback. Had I not had anything real to compare it to, I may have almost thought it was great.

Funny tho, my wife picked up on it before I ever switched the first disk from the OPPO to the Rotel. She has a great ear for subtle changes let alone drastic ones.

Hills- cool that you also did a little shootout. Would it not be so fun to have as many folks come to your house and hear what decent gear sounds like while they ponder the weekly Best Buy sales for their dream of audio nirvana?

No doubt OPPO makes quality DVD players with many cool features. I am loving the DNLA streaming of all my files from other PCs and NAS. I no longer really need the PC in the mix because I was just pushing that thru the theater while watching the AVIs and such. Last night I didn't want to wait for Serviio to update my files so I watched The Lost Tribe from my USB stick plugged into the front of the player.

It does make all my video files look and sound way better than thru the PC with WMP or VNC. It is also region free for DVD playback so now that PAL copy of Blackmores Night Castles and Dreams plays flawlessly. It has also played back every other DVD that my old players could not.

Their Tech Support and promptness of answering questions is the best I have encountered.

So, for being a DVD player, it plays CD rather well, but is not audiophile grade, more
like casual listening grade. EXCEPTING music BLU.
Funny, can't beat an audiophile CD player, but of course the new BLU formats blow CD
outta the water.
I WOULD LIKE to say thanks for the comparison, I know you did a lot of work on it, and
did find out some good info.