Oppo Bdp-95

Wonder if the Outlaws will be selling the Oppo 95 when it becomes readily available (like they did with the 83SE)?

It wouldn't be a bad idea - the BDP-95's an impressive piece of gear. I had mine briefly paired with an RR2150 and pair of Outlaw Bookshelves before I moved the BDP-95 into the den and shipped back my BDP-93 beta sample.

Are you still using the SE? I'd think this would be great in your 2 ch system.

I'm seriously considering one for my 2 channel system, though I'm also looking at the 93. I've read it is pretty good as well. Sold my 83SE a while ago figuring I'd get into this millenium and go with streaming audio for my music. I miss my CD player now!

I've heard only good things about both units. I'm still running the BDP-83SE and don't plan to upgrade, but if I had to switch, I'd go with the 95. You can't go wrong with better DACs and I consider the 2ch output a necessity.

With the price difference at $500, I'm kind of wondering about the appreciable difference of going with the 95. John Johnson over at Secrets tested both (and the NuForce modified 93):

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blu-ray-p...ce.html?start=2

My ears are 'older' too so I wonder if I'd really notice the difference. Sounds like the NuForce Edition did sound different though, and it's 'only' a $400 premium over the base 93!

The BDP-83SE is in the living room two-channel system, where it works very nicely.

As for the differences between the BDP-93 and BDP-95, I do think that the move to the BDP-95 represents a case of diminishing returns. Both are very good players. For a great many people, the BDP-93 will be a great solution. The actual sound quality differences between the two aren't night-and-day sorts of changes, in large part because the BDP-93 is doing a very fine job to begin with. The BDP-95 puts some nice polish on it (both the updated analog section and the front panel design). That being said, if you are in the market for a player and your budget is anything close to or above $1,000 then the BDP-95 deserves consideration.

This reminds me - I need to try to write up some sort of BDP-95 review to keep my BDP-93 review company...

Looking forward to the Gonk take on the BDP-95. I'm glad your enjoying the BDP-83SE in 2ch mode. Mine's in my HT setup, but spends half it's life playing 2ch to the 990 thru a Grant Fidelity tube buffer. I couldn't be happier with the results.

I am starting to think that Gonk has more disc players than I have CDs

Gonk,

When it comes to changes from their previous models, primarily the BDP83, it would seem, among other things, in the BDP 93 & 95, Oppo has dispensed with the ABT video processing and moved over to what seems to be the latest and greatest "Q Video" processing system which is also now installed in the new, just recently introduced Onkyo entry level AVRs.

Up until now, I honestly, had never heard of this company before, however, I would be interested in getting your take on this new video processing which seems to be making quite a substantial breakthrough in the A/V community.

I do have a few around the house right now. Both the DV-980H and BDP-83SE are in the two-channel system. There's the BDP-95 in the surround system along with an old Panasonic DMR-E80 DVD recorder. The bedroom has a BDP-80, and I've got a couple spare players in a closet (DV-983H, OPDV971H, and a Panasonic DVD-A310 from 1998). I've also got a Panasonic BD30 Blu-ray player, but it's on loan to a co-worker.

I talk about this some in my BDP-93 review. Marvell has been around for a while, actually, and they've established a pretty solid reputation. Like ABT, Marvell has several different tiers of processor offerings. The chip being used by the BDP-93 and BDP-95 is the latest to use their Qdeo video processing software.

The main reason that OPPO looked for an alternative to the ABT2010 or ABT2015 is the introduction of new streaming video services, which was made possible by the new System-on-Chip (a customized version of Mediatek's latest chip). ABT's processing was developed primarily for sources like DVD and Blu-ray, and ABT felt that noise reduction in those cases was of limited value. The real-world performance of the DV-983H and BDP-83 support that idea. Streaming services like Netflix introduce much more compression than DVD and Blu-ray, which brings more compression artifacts and more practical need for noise reduction. Marvell's technology includes some very effective noise reduction tools. That's the main reason OPPO shifted suppliers for this generation. Both are very good products, but the Marvell can provide better results with streaming services while still providing comparable results with DVD and Blu-ray.

That "extra" DV-983H would go well with my 990 up north. You can't use em all anyway.

The 983H is probably the one DVD player that I don't plan to part with...

I'm thinking of the bdp-95 vs the bdp-93. Its really unfortunate that the 95 does not have a digital input because then this would be a no-question buy. Do you guys think the audio is worth the extra 500, especially if I'm going to be using my setup for 60/40 HT/Music. Maybe I should get the 93 and a dac with the extra 500. What do you guys think?

It's so hard to say what value a certain performance increase has, since it's very much a matter of opinion. The BDP-93 is an overachiever for its price range, as is the BDP-95. If you're really not sure, you might get a BDP-93 and use the 30-day return period to try it out and decide if it makes you happy. If it does, you're good to go. If you still feel an upgrade bug, return it and switch to the BDP-95.

I will say that getting a BDP-93 and a $500 DAC would not be as good a solution as getting a BDP-95, mainly because I suspect that any $500 DAC you find will not be as good as the BDP-95 (probably not much better even than the BDP-93) and will only be useful with CD's - there's no way to feed digital audio from Blu-ray, DVD-A, or SACD into such a DAC.

I am pretty much in agreement. Having a HDMI input so that it could process signals from a cable/satellite box through its video and ESS DACs would have been made it a much more attractive device.

Lets not forget what the BDP-95 is. It is not a processor to be the center of attention of a system. It is a PLAYER of material and an excellent one at that. I am surprised no-one has complained about its lack of 9.2 or 11.2 connections. I am sure Audiovox or some other Walmart system has all the devices in one box so we don't have to worry about the individual components and what they don't do. I am sure there are high quality cable boxes out there with great DACs and video processing for about $500 to help us decode all the 9.2 and 11.3 material.

I wasn't forgetting what it is. I was looking at the price difference between the BDP-93 and the BDP-95 and thinking of what could make me "splurge" and get a BDP-95. I was also looking at the various trade-offs between pre-pro costs and player costs. For example, if the 978 or 998 have excellent DAC's equal or equavalent with the DACs of the BDP-95, then it makes little sense in my mind to buy the BDP-95 if the only advantage is the difference in video quality that the Marvell system offers for streamed video only. On the other hand, those with a lessor pre-pro than a 978 or 998 might well be better off with a BDP-95 if it could use it DAC's and video processor on sources like a cable or satellite box. Finally, it didn't strike me as being something that would be that expensive for OPPO to offer.

I agree that the extra $500 for the 95 vice the 93 is a bit much for my blood. I doubt I would hear or see a difference anywhere but my wallet. It just would not be a cost effective solution. The extra cost would be better spent on making the 93 into a combo DVR/Player/Streamer. That way the DACs could be used on the cable/satellite shows. The biggest problem I see with it, is we would be relying on broadcast quality to be able to use the DACs to their potential. Directv and Netflix still do not have the capability to broadcast a signal worth using the higher end DACs to translate. They struggle with 5.1 Dolby much less the lossless codecs we would want from them. Maybe once everyone has 24 MBPS bandwidth it would work.

It would also turn it into a completely different product, with an entirely new layer of control. The logistics of implementing that are significant, which is why neither a coaxial/optical input nor an HDMI input are included.

The Oppo 95 is what it is...an amazing and versatile universal player capable of playing every shiny disc under the sun - minus HD-DVD, is gaining capability as a good streamer (expect to see firmware updates to add stability/file types/etc in the future), and has the ability to play files off an eSATE/USB drive. Not sure what capability Oppo would need to add in today's market that makes economical sense to add...specialized capability that few will use but all will pay for??? Cable/Sat is highly compressed and most pre/pros receivers do an adequate job with that duty. If you have recorded source material, there’s a good chance you can find a way to get the Oppo to play it. There’s ample opportunity to tap into the player’s DACs…disc, LAN, Wifi, USB.

FWIW… the SQ of my streaming digital file library through the 95 exceeded all expectations...it's becoming more of a hassle than it's worth to search, pull out, file the redbook CDs. DVD-A/SACD's another story, but the availability of high rez FLACs are increasing by the day and may prove to be a great option in the future for replacing/adding to the varied high rez audio disc formats. This players meets and exceeds all my needs, but to each there own.