Oppo 95 worth the up grade from Oppo 83 SE?

My comments here: http://www.stereophile.com/content/music-round-50-0

I just bought the 83 SE . To me the picture is great but the audio is crap. Hooked it up first running through my dac Von Gaylord and the sound was amazing . watched avatar and was spellbound wow. Just for fun unhooked the dac to see what it sounded like crap. I guess i am spoiled. My last oppo was the 971H and it has been a great player running it through the dac. Thanks Steve

I own both a 83SE and a 95. I sold a Perfectwave DAC to pick up a BDP95.

Both units sounded like crap until some hours were on them. No surprise there.

So I waited till the ~500 hour mark before I made a direct comparison.

It's not a really a fair AB - 83SE vs 95 because my 83SE is modded, not a major mod but better than your average SE so take this short assessment with a grain of salt.

System was warmed up and both players where using a Allnic L3000 preamp mated to a Pass X350.0 driving Tylers D1's.

I was able to use a remote and switch between the 2 Oppo's but had to adjust volume to match. It was painful. The difference wasn't obvious until one really settled in and listened intently.

What I came away with was this; the modded SE has a slightly more open top end. Call it a bit more air or, depending on material, more noise. It was really hard to assess honestly. The 95 had a bit better lower end but I swear the 83SE went lower. I really need to revisit, perhaps listening to B-Tribe for that bass response
comparison.

I still have both units sitting in my rack and ready to play. This weekend I'll employ my wife (great ears - she's nuts too) and my Dad (93 year old ears)to access their preferences.

What came out of this comparison?

Probably nothing useful to the poster (or anyone else) due to my modestly modded 83SE. So in my own opinion I'll call it a draw. I love the look of the 95 and its build quality. The 83 looks cheap by comparison and that means something to me. I manage to slave my mind purposely forgetting what input was on what player in order to not waste MY OWN TIME :)!

I wish there was more of a clear winner but what else I may have learned was this. I need to get my 95 a similar set of mods. Why not?

My 2 cents

Desalvo,

Would you PM me the modder you used.

Thanks

Well I up graded to the Oppo BDP 95 and right out of the box it was better than the Oppo BDP 83. You have to consider the 83 was all broken in and the 95 didn't have 5 minutes on it.(I run all analog through the unit) Bigger sound stage, better bottom end. I would also like to point out that I have not had any issues with the CD mat at all compared to to oppo 83 as mentioned in another thread.