OPPO BDP-83 Blu-ray player discussion thread*

I can appreciate that.... but is 24/88.2 PCM not good enough for those purposes?

I guess you guys outta wait to answer that until I post my impressions later this evening

 

Sorry - you're right. I didn't initially catch the info in the FAQ stating that it could do DSD>analogue internally. I thought any internal decoding was going to have to be DSD>PCM and thus truncated.
That fact makes this player more attractive to me since I don't currently have an HDMI enabled pre-pro.

Sam, I look forward to your impressions - thanks.

 

A couple of days ago, I made time to hook up the BDP-83 via stereo analog connections to do an involved listening test to CD/SACD.

I must acknowledge that my comments are based on a unit that should be considered pre-production until the actual units are released, and it has beta firmware.

The two discs I used for evaluation were the Audio Fidelity hybrid SACD release of The Searchers - The Collection and Deep Purple - Live at the BBC. Not only do these sound good, but the real reason I use them is that I have duplicate copies of each

I wanted to evaluate the OPPO against my Sony SCD-1, which I use as my reference redbook/SACD player. The SCD-1 has been modded quite a bit for a better analog stage and includes the SuperClock. I find the sound wonderful in every regard. Using the dedicated L/R outputs from the OPPO, I compared to the single ended outputs of the Sony. I have learned that the OPPO outputs 2.4v from the dedicated output. Still, I found the Sony to be a bit louder, but it was easy enough to compensate.

Starting with SACD, I found the BDP-83 to be very well balanced from midrange to the highs. Nothing stood out as objectionable, in fact it had a rather neutral quality to the sound. The most obvious difference compared to the SCD-1 was in the bass area. The SCD-1 had significant more bass below ~120hz. Not that the Sony sounds bloated, but rather it filled the room with electric bass, and bass kick drums gave you a solid thump in the chest when raised to the appropriate volume. The OPPO was simply was simply "balanced". Bass was there, but not enough to really feel it, or make the impression that the music was in-the-room.

Soundstage from the BPD-83 was enjoyable on SACD. Upon switching to standard CD, I found it shrank a bit compared to the SCD-1. Still, I heard an overall neutral sound with redbook. The OPPO plays back HDCD as an added bonus.

For additional test, I wanted to hear how the same disc would sound in my Pioneer DV-59AVi universal player. I have this unit hooked up to my Denon receiver via IEEE1394 firewire, and I use it exclusively for listening to multi-channel SACD and DVD-A. Repeating the same tracks, I found the digital output of the Pioneer to match up closely to the OPPO. The levels were virtually even. So, in reality, I'm comparing the internal DACs (and analog output section) of my receiver to the analog output of the OPPO. I found them very similar in nature! Yes, right down to the thin-ish bass region. After 30 minutes or so of listening, I actually found the two hard to distinguish in any meaningful way.

Here's the real kicker that will surprise some of you, but maybe not others: When I first started listening to the BDP-83 vs. the SCD-1 with SACDs, I accidentally had PCM conversion turned on. In the set-up menu, I normally leave DSD->PCM conversion turned to "On" because my receiver cannot support DSD over HDMI. This settings applies to the analog outputs as well. When I realized this, I made the switch so I could get pure DSD->analog. The kicker.... The sound was the same! I could not distinguish pure DSD to analog vs. DSD->PCM->analog. Either the OPPO does a really good job, or my ears just aren't that good.

Just to make sure that the SCD-1 was not adding bass in an unnatural level, I queued up my Squeezebox with the redbook versions of said hybrid SACDs, which was then fed to my Entech 205.2 DAC. This is a relatively cheap DAC that I got off eBay and found to be better than the analog outputs of the Squeezebox. Sure enough, the bass from the Entech DAC had more bass than the BPD-83. It was not as refined as the SCD-1, and has more grain or fuzz compared to the big Sony, but still enjoyable sound.

I also own the OPPO DV-983H. While I have it currently hooked up in another room, my sonic memory of this unit parallels what I heard from the BPD-83. Listenable, but not a giant-killer. In other words, doesn't do any harm to the sound, and may even make the perfect match depending on other system components.

I have had conversations with OPPO regarding the development of the analog section of this unit. They obviously pay real attention to getting the best sound that can given the price point they have to work with. The BPD-83 has a dedicated stereo audio board/output. I have seen it, but it is mounted upside down within the player, so without taking it completely apart, it is hard to get a view of the actual components used.

So, to sum up: I found the BDP-83 to be very neutral, with no obvious flaws. You may consider the lack of satisfying bass as a downside, but maybe this is a realm that only dedicated audio players can really excel at? For the $499-599 price point, I think the value is tremendous. Unquestionably state of the art DVD and Blu-ray. Respectable CD/SACD playback is just a bonus from this price IMO.

 

Thanks Sam for the comments.

 

+1 Thank you Sam!

 

Ditto - thanks for taking the time to post an interesting and balanced review, Sam.

 

Sam,
Have you tried using it as a transport for redbook CD (i.e., using the S/PDIF out instead of HDMI)? If so, I am interested to hear your impressions. If I buy one of these, that is the way I will use it for redbook.

 

I have not tried it like this. You're not going to use the SACD/DVD-A capability of the player?

Try as I might, I've never really been able to distinguish the sound of different transports being fed into my DAC or receiver.

For those of you new to Blu-ray, I really want to recommend just how good Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD-Master Audio can be via this player. Since it has internal decoding, you can listen to these via 7.1 analog, 2.0 stereo, or decoded to 24/48 LPCM and sent to your HDMI 1.1 receiver. 24/48 can be very remarkable. I have several music/concernt Blu-rays, and they sound every bit as good, and in most cases better than, ordinary DVD-A discs.

 

Yes, I will. However, for redbook and PCM DVD tracks, I'd like to output via S/PDIF to my Musical Fidelity X-DACv3, using the player as a transport.

 

Here's a link to someone's page who has taken pictures of the unboxing and taking-apart of their BPD-83.

http://vtbsd.net/bdp83/

 

I really want this player.......damn region coding!

 

Don't get too worked up about this yet - recall that the official documentation for Oppo's previous players also indicated that they were locked to a specific region, but it turns out that there's a way around this. Perhaps a similar 'workaround' will emerge for the BDP-83.

 

No workaround. This player is region locked for both Blu-ray and DVD. Has to remain like that so OPPO can keep their BD license agreement.

 

From the Oppo BDP-83 spec-sheet:

Does this mean I can plug in an external USB Hard Drive and play HD Video files? It seems yes, but has anyone tried it?

 

An external USB hard drive may not get enough power from the player (5V), but you can definitely plug one in hooked up to an external power supply.

Yes, you can play HD files. There are dozens of different types, so if you want me to test something specific, PM me with the details.

 

Sam,

Any comments on how the SACD sound quality compares to other SACD players? Ditto on DVDA playback?

Average, above, excellent, etc?

 

DVD-A isn't implemented.

 

You mean in addition to what I reported on here?

DVD-A coming soon.

 

Talk about timing

OPPO just announced DVD-A support coming next week. EAP program expanded to another 300 participants:

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/EAP.aspx

 

Sweet!

 

I wasn't one of the first 50, but hopefully I'll be one of the next 300.

 

What a shame...I guess there will never be a PAL version

 

The BPD-83 plays PAL just fine, but only R0 (R1 too-but those are rare).

 

One other benefit to the ABT2010 chip in this player, it converts PAL to NTSC and NTSC to PAL very well. I don't know how those of you in PAL territories would go about getting one of these, but the performance is definitely there.

The votes from EAP program are universally in support of this player's immediate release. The video performance is really without flaw. The DVD scaling in particular borders on remarkable at times. That ABT2010 chip is truly state-of-the-art.