Greetings, everyone!

I've yet to decide on a decent source, for my audio/video experiences. However, knowing how popular the Oppo 981 is and given my recent discovery, that these players are often highly modified, I thought I'd share the information with anyone that might be interested:

http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/

The mods, it seems, are on the order of nearly 4x the price of the unit. Is it worth that? I certainly have no idea, but thought it interesting that they actually manipulate these players so extensively.

Anyway ... there ye go.

John

I've heard a bit about these "extreme" mods for OPPO players. There is certainly some potential for improvements in the analog audio output (inevitable considering OPPO's price point), although the DAC's are a fixed value that can't be changed. I'd expect much more subtle changes on the video section.

Gonk,

what do you think of the Denon 3910, doubling for audio and video? I may be able to get a deal on one.

John

The 3910 is a significant piece of hardware. If we're talking about digital video (HDMI) output, the video performance will probably be very comparable between the two (both use Faroudja DCDi). In some cases, the 981HD may actually come out on top since it offers 1080p. Audio, on the other hand, is going to be a somewhat different story - or analog audio, at least. The 3910 originally listed for $1500 if I remember correctly, and that sixfold difference in price brings with it more expensive DAC's for the multichannel analog output.