Papabear:

Did you get your 970h yet? Want to know your opinion re: SACD playback (quality).

I posted a quick review at avsforum + I am having an issue with the SKIP button while playing SACDs.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7851074#post7851074

SB

I ordered the OPPO 970 last Monday, the told me it would ship the following day Tuesday....
Has not shown up yet
I will let you know when it gets here.
Infact I plan to give OPPO a call on monday.

The OPPO 970 arrived yesterday. Hooked up last night to play with it. My My how the hours pass when your having fun.
Connected the 6ft hdmi cable that came with the player to my 990 via a hdmi to dvi adaptor.
Picture is good and I am happy with that. I do not understand what the issue on picture quality is via a large display, but I have a 8ft screen with a sharp DLP projector and it is as good as that Samsung 841 if not better, and that samsung picture was no slacker with the video. No its not Hi Def but this player is just biding my time untill I get the BluRay/SACD/HdDVD type player to do it all.

Audio connection is optical to the 990 and sacd is via 5.1 connections into the outlaw.
So far my impressions of the audio and sacd is wonderfull. OPPO told me that the audio would shine, and he was correct. Actually I was pretty much blown away as to what I had been missing in upper end Hi frequency, detail and seperation on sacd and cd information compared to that pos samsung's poor audio. This oppo 970 is a great deal and I may actually order a second one as a back up. Yes the cd tray is floppy but is no big deal. I thought that the remote had back light on it, but mine either does not have that or may not be working.
Of course I need more time to get a handle on the players best settings, but so far its a keeper.
Oh I will report in more detail the sacd/dvd-A
soon.
Video=good
Audio=great

Thanks for the feedback, PapaBear - I'm glad to hear that the 970 is performing so well for you.

If it's like the 971's remote, the buttons glow briefly (no backlight).

Encouraging to read your intial feedback of the OPPO 970. The scheduled delivery date for my OPPO 970 is this Thursday 6/22/06. Just in time for the weekend Can’t wait to hook it up and give it a run down. Anyone know if Harmony has the codes up for the 970?

I think the 970 is using the same remote as the 971 (the black remote, not the 971's original white remote) with only about three minor buttons different, so even if the 970's missing from the Harmony database I bet the 971 codes will work.

I was thinking that might be the case. That makes it easy either way, I'll just program the different buttons using the direct mode from the 970 remote.

My son Kane an accomplished 11 year old audiophile for his age, (he's been listening to dad's Rhapsody classic rock and jazz files) has better ears than his old man ya know, and a kido who picked the B&W 703's out over many other speakers. Yes he know how to spend dad's $ already,and know's when I'am no longer on this earth will get all my toys, put Maynord Ferguson (Jazz) into the OPPO 970 last night.
Well Kane was grinning ear to ear. He said this new player just leaves the old samsung in the dust.

Then we put his favorite sacd Elton John's Captain Fantastic in. His look was priceless as he was hearing details from the surround speakers that were not present on the old samsung.

I guess my point here is that I spent all this money on my B&W speakers and Outlaw gear and failed to support it with a audio player that was able to reproduce the music to its fullest detail & frequency. I also have a pioneer cd/dvd recorder and a sony 5 ch cd player and neither of these players from an audio respect can compete with the OPPO 970.

Outlaw 990 Pre
Outlaw 7700 Amp
B&W 703's
B&W HTM7 Ctr
Sony SAWX700 Sub
Jvc's Surround
Sharp XVZ-90U DLP Projector
OPPO 970DVD

Papabear:

Did you get your 970h yet? Want to know your opinion re: SACD playback (quality).

I posted a quick review at avsforum + I am having an issue with the SKIP button while playing SACDs.

SB

SB, You are correct the skip will not work to move to the next song in SACD as it does in CD. This is how you do it: use the OPPS up and down arrows to scan to the next song, you will see the tracks change on the OPPO then push Select button in the middle. This works just fine and lets you change sacd tracks in the event you dont have the TV/Projector turned on.

Papabear,

How is the sound from regular CD's compare to the Samsung H841? I had the Samsumg 841 and like the picture quality, but not audio quality. I'm thinking about buying this 970.

Thanks,