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EVS modded Oppo 95

Recently, while looking for mods for my new Oppo 95 player, I ran across tweakaudio.com. After reading a bit and viewing some basic photos, I followed up with Ric Schultz at EVS to discuss his mods for the 95. After several calls and discussion about what Ric had achieved with the basic 95, I decided to send him my unit; just a couple of weeks prior to Christmas. For reference, I had about 125 to 150 hours of play time on my machine so I had a good reference point for my system. Burn-in for the stock unit, from my experience, was about 50 hours of playing time. Two weeks later I had my 95 back from EVS, and immediately out of the box the sound was better. I left the unit on 24/7 for break-in and listened every couple of days to the same source disks for sonic change. After a couple of weeks, I called Ric and told him I was blown away... pure and simple. I've had numerous modded, tubed players and this was by far the most dramatic result I have encountered. Fast forward to six weeks later and the sound just keeps getting larger, cleaner and more dynamic. The musical range continues to expand and the sound stage is even more lifelike. All I can say is that I haven't heard anything, at any price, that compares with this unit. For $1000 the Oppo 95 is a great machine, for another $1200 bucks, Ric has transformed this beast into an incredible machine. I will also note the video portion of the 95 improved modestly as well. I have made numerous tweaks to my system as well as source material and listen to a variety of music genres.

My system:
EVS modded Oppo 95 digital player
Jud Barber, Joule Electra LA-150 Signature Edition (SE) Line Stage Pre-Amplifier
Spectron Musican III Mk2 fully modded Bybee MONOBLOCKS
Martin Logan / Spire Speakers, modded
Remote Sense RS Mk2 Signature Loudspeaker cable
Harmonic Technology MAGIC Link Two, interconnects
Dedicated circuits, power conditioner, premium receptacles and power cords.

D.C.
Kennesaw, GA
dclevr
jdub39
486 posts
 
My stock 95 needed upwards of 500 hrs to burn-in, at around 125hrs it did fill out across the frequency spectrum with nice bass, beyond 125hrs I became amazed at the transformation the sound took on. Only mod's for me on this one may be upgraded fuses, as I already have good Ic's and aftermarket Pc. I may buy a second one to mod one day but as is, its hard to improve upon! Thanks for the great post!
ricevs
1,539 posts
 
In my experience with several 95s most of the burn in occurs as the unit is just "on". If you have the unit on for 500 hours (20 straight days) the thing is about 80% burned in. Some additional improvement comes with playing and with extra hours, but not that much. There are no coupling caps in the stock or EVS modded Oppo that need burning in. Coupling caps, especially Teflon films require tons of hours of playing for them to burn in. None in the Oppo. So, just leave the unit on all the time and you are assured of pretty fast burn in. If you turn the unit off after you play each time then it could take forever for it to burn in. There is no reason to turn it off, unless you are a super energy conservation person (power consumption around 50 watts max when playing a Blue Ray....much less when idleing).
jdub39
486 posts
 
Hmm! interesting! I've had my 95 since March of 2011( first batch) and the method of burn in I used was 24/7 of actual play time not idle, I gave the unit 30 min of rest between the playing of a Dts test disc with various tones. I did this with great attention to the evaluation of the player as it settled. It stopped improving at around 600hrs ( it developed a since of air)it just might be a good idea to judge the player after idle time and actual playtime!
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