Oppo BDP-95 sounds GREAT?

I was lucky to get one of the first batches of 95's in early March, and in my modest setup It has become a stellar performer!, The 95 will take no less than 500 hours to burnin and sound its best, as it stands now in my system. I listen to much more music than before wiether cd,sacd or hirez files and love its musical presentation. Over the months during its burnin Brass gained byte and snares gained clarity and density, bass became impactful and decayed like a dream. The last thing I noticed about the 95 to date is its purity in the high frequencies ( Audiophile Air)and the player is complete now in my book far exceeding my expectations. To sum it up, its truthful in tonality has weight and extention on all frequencies ( none favored over the other) Cant really call it warm or cool, its a neutral player.

Hope this helps!

Having not heard some of the SOTA digital I wouldn't know but I'd sure bet Mike is dead on based on my impressions. One thing to consider with this unit as I did when I purchased it after hearing it in two different systems is the potential. My bet is that with with some modifications, a tube output stage and an upgraded power supply this unit could be a real contender.

Good news, the unit is extremely resolving of ambient information and excellent at the frequency extremes, actually it is quite remarkable at this price point. Where the unit is wanting in my limited experience is the rather lean nature of instruments, something is missing here so far. I expect an improvement but I'm not too sure it is going to improve enough to my satisfaction. I received mine last week so it is still breaking in. I prefer the OPPO as transport with my Havana doing the processing. What is lost with the Havana is all the great things the OPPO does, resolution and extension. What is gained with the Havana is the image density and tonality. As things stand now I like the latter. What I expect is that I will get tired of going back and forth and will modify this unit to bring it to its full potential. I think at that point it might be best to ask the question.

last spring a friend brought over his Oppo BDP-95 to compare to my Playback Designs MPS-5 digital player. he basically had the same question; how close could it come to the 'big boys' in terms of 2-channel music?

we went back and forth with a number of redbook and SACD's for an hour or so. both players were run thru my darTZeel NHB-18NS preamp.

the BDP-95 was competent. but it was not in the league of the MPS-5. the MPS-5 had lower noise floor, but more important the MPS-5 was much smoother and more refined....by significant degrees. and the BPS-5 resolved ambience and did space at another level more similar to analog. whereas i can listen to my MPS-5, then switch to the vinyl and tape, and switch back to the MPS-5.....and i'm still staying happy and not deflated. with the BDP-95, you are not wanting to go back to digital in that session.

i'd say if you want refined digital from redbook discs, the threshold is around $5k. some digital DAC's i've heard maybe more like $3k. it comes down to the quality of the digital transport. the Esoteric transport in the Playback Designs has a 'parts' cost more than the retail of the BDP-95 and they buy them 100 at a time.

to be fair; the Playback Designs MPS-5 is the best digital i have heard.

i would describe the BDP-95 as a decent redbook and SACD player, and many could be perfectly happy living with it. it may better $2k-$3k redbook players, i don't know about that.

btw; i own an Oppo BDP-93 for my separate Home Theatre system; it's a great little unit. and for around $1k for the BDP-95, it's a great buy for a universal player.