Has anyone bought the OPPO 105 and has an opinion

Not a comment, but rather a question. Why can you not believe that the $1200 Oppo can sound better than the $3500 Ayre? Does price rule all? Reviews of the Ayre were middling. TAS review of the Oppo was a rave. But don't expect a full review of the Oppo in Stereophile. Their objective measurements of it might embarrass very expensive advertising competitors.

Whmuckley & Melm: Thank you for your comments on the Oppo 105. I assumed the Ayre would sound better but, based on the above, maybe not. The Oppo 105 looks very interesting. Does any one else have a comment on the Oppo 105?

I had mentioned on another thread that I bought one to use as a transport via coax output only and its been doing a good job of that. Last night I decided I should try it alone just to get a feel for it so i put it on repeat (feeding into my [on] preamp) and will try to get the required 200 hrs or so on it for break in and then make an assessment about it.

"Reviews of the Ayre were middling."

Oh really?

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/ayre_cx7e.htm

http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/840/

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0503/ayrecx7.htm

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/ayre-acoustics-cx-7e-cd-player-and-ax-7e-integrated-amplifier-1/

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue4/ayrecx7.htm

There's nothing wrong with preferring something else, but you lose credibility when you misstate what reviews have to say about the product.

P59teitel, I really have no dog in this fight, but that I prefer a company that has a marketing plan that includes me, to wit, price competitively and sell a lot of units..

First, when we speak about modern reviews, no one gets a bad review these days. It's all about advertising and all about how many adoring words the reviewer can dig out of the thesaurus. So all modern reviews have to be read between the lines IMO. And I look only at those in the paper mags as having any real value at all.

But actually, let me admit an error here. I was really writing about the $9950 Ayre DX-5 which in its features is the Ayre directly competitive with the Oppo 105. In fact, it is based, in part, on an old Oppo design

In its review Stereophile includes the following about this $10,200 (in black) player:

"The Ayre DX-5 was a pleasant-sounding SACD player, but its performance wasn't spellbinding.

"The Ayre's soundstage was also smaller than I expected from this SACD in both width and depth.

"Bryan Ferry's voice seemed diffuse and recessed through the DX-5, perhaps because the reverberant backdrop blended with his voice instead of separating out in space.

"but I could get only a blue screen, and the default audio mode was DTS-HD Master Audio. It appears that there are still glitches to be ironed out of Blu-ray–Audio."

There are similar caveats in the (now 5 and 10 year old) reviews of the CX-7 and CX-7e in the paper mags for these $3000+ CD only players, this in a very fast moving field.