2. home-theater
  3. 1294289278

New Oppo BDP-95 better than the McIntosh MVP-881?

For the money, the 29 lb. McIntosh MVP-881 Universal Blu Ray player is one of the biggest rip offs in Blu Ray DVD history.
Looking inside the unit reveals not much under the hood for
$ 8K. The power supply is skimpy and it has three cooling
fans. One on the bottom, one on the rear, and one on the inside. Very, very hot! What I call Scrooge engineering.
The Mac uses the Sabre32 ESS9016 24x Dacs. Five total. The new Oppo BDP-95 coming out in February uses the Sabre32 ESS9018's 32x Dacs. Two total with a beefy power supply, selling for $ 1K. I hope the Oppo knocks the hell out of the McIntosh, Marantz, Denon, Ayre, and Lexicon Universal players selling between $4 and $10K. For McIntosh to put out a player that is hotter than any other high end player
on the market, is a sign that their engineering has gone down hill and their glory days are over.
audiozen
jdub39
496 posts
 
Nothing in the same league as the Cary, but over the years I've had a couple Phillips 963, Pioneer 47a, and most recently a Denon 5900. I've had the chance to listen to some pricer players as well. To my ears the Ess Sabre dac are redefining whats possible with digital and the Oppo has brought that down to real world prices. It's just so easy to listen to! I haven't tried the balanced outs yet I've been waiting for it to fully settle and go from there, for now I'm using AQ"s Columbia rca.
no_money
638 posts
 
The 95 is very easy to listen to, and I could live with it. But the MF delivers a much more detailed and solid sound. I will see what happens after a few more days of burn in.
no_money
638 posts
 
Ozzy, at 90 hours tonight it sounding better. I found something odd comparing it to the MF. I put in one disc and it was unlistenable on the 95... odd kind of static noise, kind of thing that when played on the MF player you hear it and think there is no way the engineer would have left that in would he? It's rock (Blind Melons first) I could get by with it on the MF, just barely cause it is annoying but gets better a few songs in to the disc. On the 95 it is really pronounced. Sure enough when looking at the disc there are odd fracture / kind of scatches that start from the center of the cd and go our about and inch or so, all of them perpindicular to the center. I am not sure if the MF is just better at correcting read error? Or the 95 is more true to whats there? Again, it's not like what I am used to hearing on a scratched disc, just a really odd kind of distortion, like a SS clipping static.
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,468 posts
 
Just got my replacement BDP-95. This one does output Component Video like it should and has a much fuller sound right out of the box. So I believe my first one was defective.
jplaurel
9 posts
 
Can't comment on this player vs the MVP-881. But FWIW, I'm using mine as a 2 channel player only, connected via the analog unbalanced outputs as well as S/PDIF coax to my DAC. It sounds great either way. Midrange is a little more forward with the S/PDIF->DAC connection. A little more detail in the high frequencies via the analog stereo outs.

Associated equipment:
McIntosh C22 60th Preamp
McIntosh MC275 Amp
Wyred4Sound DAC2
Harbeth Compact 7ES-3
More to discover