Reference disc player...UDP 205 or Marantz?

I haven’t had any of the Marantz disc players but I did own the previous generations of Oppo (105D and 95). I still own the 105D.

I also own a current model sacd player from another manufacturer that lists for about 17x the price of the 105D.
With carefully upgraded power and interconnect cables, I’m not lying when I tell you the Oppo plays in the big leagues. In fact, when I got the SACD player I’m referring to, I was shocked at what I considered a fairly small percentage improvement over the Oppo. In fact, I would suggest some people might prefer the presentation of the Oppo.

I really can’t see you going wrong with either choice, though. I owned a couple of Denon’s last reference disc players that they sold in the USA in the last 10 years, though I preferred the Oppo 95 to those, and sold them. They were well made and enjoyable, though. Although owned by the same company, I don’t know how much in common the Marantz and Denon players have, in terms of sound.

There’s a strong chance that the audio quality on the new Oppo 205 is better than the 105 (which was better than the 95). With their return policy and support, trying an Oppo is compelling.

My b.s. detector is always turned on when I read glowing review after glowing review of a product like the Oppo. How can something that is relatively inexpensive do everything so well, to the level of a true high end disc player, like the Marantz? I think people can become influenced by the never ending hype around it, and not think as critically as they normally would.

The marantz is designed to do one thing well, not walk the dog and do the laundry too. And, they've been making great disc players for decades.

I can’t answer your question directly as I have never compared the Marantz and Oppo against each other. However, I recently purchased an Oppo UDP-205 and could not be happier with the results. 4K picture quality is simply stunning (110" Stewart screen and Sony VPL-VW665ES projector); just about as good as it gets IMHO. Likewise, sound quality is excellent on Blue-Ray disc and computer audio via the HDMI input on the Oppo. Overall I could not be happier with the results, I am there!

Of course the $64k question is how does the Oppo compare to a full dCS Vivaldi stack? Now, that comparison I would love to hear. Interestingly I did hear a full dCS Vivaldi stack at this years Axponia show, complete with some very expensive amplification and speakers (see my previous post on the sound of this $0.5 million system). Ridiculous though this may seem, got home and still preferred the sound of my Gale/Michell/McIntosh system.