You have stumbled upon one of the great mysteries of the cosmos. |
Some people belive that a dedicated CD player sounds better on standard Redbook CDs than the multi-function players. It's a "purist" thing. For the most part, I agree with this. I've owned multi-format players costing up to 5K and, IMO, they do not do CD as well as a $3K CD player. This may not be true in the upper ranges, say $10K and up, but I've never auditioned one of these players, so I don't know. |
OPPOs are way over-rated IMO. And Rega's? Phffft....
I agree with Chayro, the simpilar the better the CD player for redbook CDs. |
Why indeed. Audio sound quality is subjective and thus lends itself to magical thinking and imagined distinctions. The Oppo BDP-105 has been well reviewed and is an established product with outstanding support. Buy the Oppo. The "purist" will urge you to take the Oppo output directly to your amp without an intervening preamp or processor, and that's not bad advice. You may want to sell the Dragonfly DAC.
db |
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why God made chocolate and vanilla! |
I bought an Oppo 105 it trounced my Ayre CX-7. So that sort of kills that argument as although the Ayre was getting on a bit in it's day it cost three times the price of the Oppo.
Plus you have the benefits of the new formats-the HD Tracks version of Kind Of Blue is the best I have heard, the new Mofi Dylan Desire SACD is the best version I've heard-Queen's A Night At The Opera on Blu Ray is the best I've heard.
One player and it does a lot of things very well.
Indeed didn't one Audiogoner on here-one of the ones with a system off the scale of us mere mortals tells us that the Oppo was damn excellent in his system? Yes he did. |
The Oppo works very well in my system, both as a CD/SACD player and as Blu ray player. It replaced a Cambridge Audio 840C and to me it is quite a bit better in Redbook. Sure wish someone would buy my 840C. |
As far as I can see, no one has said that the Rega is worth over twice the price of the Oppo (and the Creek has not even been released yet). I'm ordering the Oppo and giving the Dragonfly to my wife for her Mac laptop. This is my office, and I will probably be listinging mosty to Pandora or a disc/thumb drive in the background so why spend the extra money. Plus I'm interested in Blu-Ray audio discs, and the Creek & Rega won't play those. Thanks to all who responded. |
I love my Oppo, but I'm not a huge digital guy. I haven't done the side by side, but in my memory, it doesn't sound as good as my Bryston BDA-1 from a few years back, but better than any of the other DAC's I went though.
Of course, it also plays about everything on earth, and is connected to nexflix, youtube, my network storage, etc....
It's a great piece of gear. |
I can't speak for the OPPO BDP-105 but I do have the BDP-103 and prefer CDs when played on my Marantz SA-15S2b.
Go figure.
All the best,
Nonoise |
On the same note as NONOISE...I prefer the Marantz sound over the OPPO 105. Much more like music than hifi...with the sa8004 or 8005 or sa-11s3.you have the added flexibility of digital inputs (no DSD for 8004 or sa-11s3...yet) including iPod ...I have the 8004 and sa-11s3...they are high value machines in their price points and by far better built...no video but who cares. only other is no multi channel audio...this does not sound like an issue for you |
Nonoise & Rello, I did look at Marantz. The 8400 & 8500 only have one pair of RCA analog outputs. My Creek amp will take balanced and I also hace a Schiit Valhalla headphone amp that only has RCA inputs. The Oppo 105 has balanced and single ended outputs so its a perfect match. |
All good thoughts.
The new Rega Saturn is a killer DAC (for streaming/computer audio apps) 1st and foremost , with a built-in CD transport.
The price point seems to be $5K at the present time, as far as, stepping up to the next level of CD/SACD performance. |
Anybody who has heard the 103 vs the 105 will tell you the 105 is a much better machine for music....go figure. |
