Very nice review. I had the opportunity to use the Model 950 for a brief period, so your comparison is invaluable.
A question about the use of your OPPO BDP-103. Have you tried using HDMI 2 output for audio vs. the 7.1 analog outs? [/quote]

Beach, You made me get the Oppo manual out to see what you were talking about. I see where it says superior audio and superior video can be obtained by splitting the A/V between the 2 hdmi's.
I have not tried that. How is the 976 going to deal with two hdmi inputs (1 audio and 1 video) though. How would i set that up?
Thanks for pointing that out. [/quote]

Since I don't have a pre amp that has HDMI, I can't speak from experience. However, I've read many accounts where people have connected HDMI 1 to the display and HDMI 2 to the AVR or pre.
I was just curious to see if you were using either HDMI for audio vs. the analog outs from the OPPO.

After a busy few weeks, I got to set up my new 976 and Oppo 203.
I did the auto set up with the mic for now. It set my speaker levels and distance, there were no phase problems.
The distance was pretty accurate.

I played a couple of movies with both Dolby Atmos tracks and DTS-X tracks...Mad Max and Passengers both have the Dolby Atmos tracks. The 976 plays the core 7.1 channels of Dolby TrueHD
Coming from a 975, the sound is everything I would expect it to be, very impressive.
I also played Lone Survivor with a DTS-X track and that played the 7.1 DTS HDMA core. This sounds great as well.

As for the remote, I don't have a complaint with any of the functionality. I sit a bit towards the left of my room that's 26 x 13. The system is off to the right front corner of the room and I'm usually about 12-14 feet away.

The rear of the area is open to the next room where I can stand even further back than 26 feet- closer to 30 feet away with no problems controlling the 976. I do have a Harmony 750 that I'll be using, but I wanted to try the remote given all that I've read on the Saloon. Plus, I'd rather use the Outlaw remote to do any set up stuff.
I haven't delved into the EQ or REW yet. Need to find the time for that and figure out the best way to accomplish this.

The BlueTooth pairs quite easily and the sound is great enough for me with excellent range.

As for playing music through the new Oppo, I played a few cd's. Some were, commercially mastered, and some I made from my Yamaha CD recorder.

I have a 2 CD set of "Masters of Reggae" that I popped in. The 976 does show the boxes on the right side disappear and re-appear with the track change, but this is quite fast and I don't miss the beginning of any of the tracks, not like what I experienced with the 975. The 976 seems to re-acquire the next track immediately.

As for a sample CD I made, some of it is from live recordings that will continue from one track to the next with the applause helping to lead into the next song. There is no loss of signal with this transition.

I loaded a playlist on a USB stick and played it from the Oppo.
I do hear, on some of the tracks, a slight (quick) fade-in at the start. This depends on the track though, as on some of the songs, it's not evident.

So far, I must say the 976 is performing as I'd hoped it would. I hadn't listened to music much with the 975, so
after reading others experience in the saloon, I wanted to try to duplicate what they were describing.

The experience I have from the 975 to the 976 with playing music via HDMI is like night and day, as I would miss almost the first musical note or word of dialog, due to being about a second late with the 975.

Not so with the 976.

This is a great piece of equipment Outlaw has produced. It may be in my system for a long time, given I have no interest in an Atmos system.

Beachbum..you would put the OPPO primary video out directly to the TV and the OPPO second HDMI to the 976

[/quote]

Since I don't have a pre amp that has HDMI, I can't speak from experience. However, I've read many accounts where people have connected HDMI 1 to the display and HDMI 2 to the AVR or pre.
I was just curious to see if you were using either HDMI for audio vs. the analog outs from the OPPO. [/quote]

Oh - got ya !
No I have not run a separate HDMI for audio and compared to the analog outputs. With the 950, i used coaxial digital audio from the Oppo and ran hdmi video direct to the display from the Oppo.
I was looking forward to finally having a processor capable of switching video without degradation, so i didnt have to switch inputs on my projector. Therefore i only have the one HDMI carrying both A&V to the 976, along with the 7.1 analog.
I misunderstood initially what you were saying. I thought you meant to use two HDMIs from the Oppo to the 976, and i couldnt grasp just how that would work. My mistake !
Im going to leave it as is for now and do some reading about this splitting. Maybe i'll try it and see if it is indeed vastly superior sonically !
Do you recall where you saw this discussed ?

Since I don't have a pre amp that has HDMI, I can't speak from experience. However, I've read many accounts where people have connected HDMI 1 to the display and HDMI 2 to the AVR or pre.
I was just curious to see if you were using either HDMI for audio vs. the analog outs from the OPPO. [/quote]

Oh - got ya !
No I have not run a separate HDMI for audio and compared to the analog outputs. With the 950, i used coaxial digital audio from the Oppo and ran hdmi video direct to the display from the Oppo.
I was looking forward to finally having a processor capable of switching video without degradation, so i didnt have to switch inputs on my projector. Therefore i only have the one HDMI carrying both A&V to the 976, along with the 7.1 analog.
I misunderstood initially what you were saying. I thought you meant to use two HDMIs from the Oppo to the 976, and i couldnt grasp just how that would work. My mistake !
Im going to leave it as is for now and do some reading about this splitting. Maybe i'll try it and see if it is indeed vastly superior sonically !
Do you recall where you saw this discussed ? [/quote]

It's been some time, but probably over at AVS.

If you are using a single HDMI from the OPPO to the 976, can you get Dolby True and DTS Master with that connection?

Is the problem the same if you use the S/PDIF output of the disc player?

[/quote]


It's been some time, but probably over at AVS.

If you are using a single HDMI from the OPPO to the 976, can you get Dolby True and DTS Master with that connection? [/quote]

Yes, Ive watched a movie in DTS Master Audio 7.1 but have not tried True yet.

I *am* talking about the S/PDIF outputs, since there is typically no HDMI on CD players!

The problem exists with all these combinaisons :

CD-audio and CD-MP3 on a Tascam CD-200 CD player, connected by optical or coaxial.

CD-audio, CD-MP3 and files on a USB thumb drive, on a Yamaha BD-S677 connected by HDMI, optical or coaxial.

Any kind of files played on a MacBook Pro connected by the built-in optical output. Bluetooth seem OK with most mp3s (not all) but not with WAV/AIFF files.

DAT tapes on a Technics SV-DA10 connected by optical or coaxial. I'm not using the DAT daily (!) but decided to use it for the test.

Its very simple : as soon as a bitstream is interrupted and/or a digital silence is detected, the 976 will mute, and resume the next song with half a second fade-in. Which happens in between most every songs on most CDs.

A half-second is a long period of time for this discussion. It seems quicker than that to me, so many milliseconds. There is a very brief amount of time in between some tracks on the CDs I tried. Certain tracks that don't start as abruptly, it isn't noticeable at all. Other tracks on the same CD, the quick fade-in can be heard. I think it depends on the CD and how it's mastered, where the 976 loses the audio stream and has to reacquire the signal. I've had the same experience with a USB stick plugged into the Oppo.

I did hook up a stereo cable from my wireless OAW3 to one of the analog stereo connections and checked playing the same CDs and it's not evident at all.

I used this connection with my 975, from my PC to the Aux input (stereo analog). I upmix to all channel stereo. That served to bypass the issue with the 975, which was much more of an issue than with the 976. That will still be my connection of choice for music streaming with the 976.

Of course! This is a problem with a *digital* connection, not analog!

Also, I'm told that Oppo players won't trigger the issue.