Perhaps I wasn't clear enough about my Technicolor dream although I did mention in terms of sound quality (SQ). The Oppo BDP-95 obviously has a better video processor in the Marvell Qdeo over the 978's Anchor Bay processor (similar to the Oppo BDP-83). That aspect doesn't bother me as I have an Oppo BDP-83 and I'll eventually upgrade to a BDP-93 or higher when the need arises and I intend on bypassing the 978's video processing in favor of the Oppo's. When you're playing Blu-ray material, video processing becomes much less of a factor as it's a format that essentially plays the same on all BD players, unlike DVD with all its video processing requirements (de-interlacing, DNR, upconverting to 1080P, etc.).

As for the DACs, Outlaw hasn't explicitly mentioned which model number from the ESS Sabre DAC family they're using. I hope it's the ES9018 from ESS' Reference line (the Oppo BDP-95 uses two of those - one for stereo and a second for multi-channel), otherwise as you said, I'll be disappointed.



Good point. One other thing one must consider is that the Oppos have a relatively high cost part, which is the Mediatek universal optical disc transport that you won't have in the 978. The BDP-95 also uses a high quality linear power supply with a nice toroid transformer made by Rotel, those are quite a bit more expensive than a switching power supply like the one that the 978 uses. I wish Outlaw had specified a liner power supply, at least for the analog audio section. Of course the 978 has 7 more balanced outputs along with a multitude more of connectors and a bigger case.