First, the good news. This will be my last post regarding the Oppo UDP-205 player. I decided to reread this post from the beginning. The OP asked about the diversity of pricing regarding the Oppo products. He mentions seeing pricing of $3699.00, $4999.00, and $5295.00 for UDP-205’s. Having owned one, I thought I would reply with my opinion regarding those prices. I was not impressed with the sound quality of my unit. That is my opinion. I may have been too harsh in my description of the sound quality for some people. Later, I mentioned that I did agree it was a reasonable unit for its original MSRP. I also mentioned in my first post that I didn’t recommend it for playing CD’s. DVD’s and multi-channel are a different story. If you carefully read my posts (that means all the words) it is very clear that I am talking about the value of the player in the context of the current pricing. I have been accused of bashing Oppo, having an sinister motive, etc. I have nothing personal against the UDP-205. I’m wasn’t enamored over it, so I moved on. The point I was “trying” to make was that I felt the current pricing of the 205 was absurd considering it’s performance. That was my opinion to the OP’s original question.
Apparently that hit nerve of every Oppo owner here. I was challenging your purchasing decision and you were going to let me know. That’s fine. If you like your 205, please enjoy it. It’s your ears you have to please not mine. However, I still encourage everyone to listen carefully to the 205 before shelling out the dollars apparently required to purchase one now.
Milpai suggests that I make alternate suggestions. Thanks to him, he already has. His post on 1-12-20 recommends Technics, Marantz, and Yamaha. I concur. I would also recommend Cambridge.
Regarding DVD’s, I would also highly recommend tvad’s recommendation of the new Panasonic player.
Now on to my last comment which is very telling of riaa blah blah blah’s last post. In it he mentions that he still has half a dozen Oppo’s laying around. In pdn’s post on 1-5-20 he mentions that he finds it crazy that riaa sold 12-15 UDP-205’s at those inflated prices. This may explain his aggressive comments on 1-14-20. Does somebody have more than just an opinion here. Does he have, oh say, about half a dozen reasons to aggressively defend the 205.
Look up his comments under the post about modifications to the Oppo players. He mentions what a fine job Dan at Modwrights does regarding his modifications to the Oppo players. Keep in mind that Modwrights full mod to the 205 is just about double the cost of a 205 at MSRP. Why is Modwrights doing such a brisk business modifying these? Also on display are several interesting comments he makes using his people skills. Interesting, very interesting.