Oppo 83 SE Sound in Absolute Terms ?

"I thought I did that with my comment above. Not even close. The Oppo BDP-83 SE is nice for the price but it is not a SOTA player in any shape or form."

I thought you did too, Cmalak, and I appreciated your response - and those of others.

i own several cd players. the oppo 83 se is one of them. it seems to be very line cord sensitive.

i prefer my 1990 audionote cd2, a tube unit and my consonance sacd player to the oppo.

the point is that newer players may or may not be preferred to much older player.

i don't think one can make a general statement as to cd players based upon age.

there are very few current production cd players which i would want to own--but that is just my preference.

I’m curious what the response would be if Jfz had asked "Does anyone have any thoughts on how an Oppo 83 SE that’s been modified by among others RAM, ASI, or Modwright would compare to a truly *stellar* CD (or universal) player?"

if all the talk about digital improving “at a rapid pace” are true, there’s a possibility that a brand new $1,000 player with 2010 technology might best an “old” $5,000 player.

In my experience, yes. My $1,500 Sony XA5400ES beats the previous $5,000 players and DAC I used to own including Bel Canto, Linn, etc. I don't have any experience with Oppo though.

I have a Perpetual Technologies P-3A that has been heavily modded by Empirical Audio. My Oppo BDP-83SE comes in a notch lower in performance for a third of the cost of the P-3A (as modded).