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High Quality Universal Player??

I’m interested in a disc player for CD, SACD, and cinema DVDs, Blue-Ray.

It MUST have equal or better sound quality than my current Cal Audio HDCD player.

Ideas? How about the Cambridge Audio Azur 651BD Universal Blu-ray/SACD/DVD/CD Player?

or the newer 751? Also, what is the difference between the 751 and 651?

I’d laos like to buy form a company large enough to stay in business for a while :)
randy-11
reubent
7,093 posts
 
Hey Nutty,

I would get the Oppo BDP105D for a couple of reasons.

First - Name recognition. I'm guessing it is the most popular high-end universal player and you could easily re-sell it if you don't love it and not lose too much money. The resell value seems to have held up pretty well.That's really saying something when it comes to audio/video electronics.

Second - Several mod'rs perform various levels of modification on the Oppo. My Oppo DV-970HD was modified by Ric Schultze at EVS and Ric is still going strong modifying BDP-105Ds.

Oppo also has a strong user base following on audio sites, as well as on AVS forum. 

I'm not as familiar with the Cambridge. I'm sure its a quality player, but I would get the Oppo based on the information I stated above.
randy-11 OP
1,913 posts
 
Oppo has just announced a new player with 4k or 8k video capability.

dunno if audio quality will be better

Cambridge has a good rep, but you'd need to find some critical source material and listen to both I think
nutty
3,092 posts
 
reubent, randy- 11,

All great points. I have pleanty of media and hi rez. I can borrow a CXU from my local vendor over the weekend. I will need to order the Oppo. 

N
reubent
7,093 posts
 
Nutty,

Who is the local vendor that has the CXU? Just curious.

TIC
auxinput
2,921 posts
 

If you're not wanting the balanced XLR stereo outputs of the Oppo 105, the CXU looks to have a very good audio stage.  Different approach than the oppo.  Five wolfson DAC chips, and it looks like each channel output has its own individual SMD op amp (possible a mono op amp).  This could be very good depending on the type of op amp they chose.  You could probable mod this and put in something like AD797 op amps and the result sound would be very nice indeed.  The DAC chips and op amps are supported very well with electrolytic caps all around them.  The only thing is that the CXU uses switch-mode power supply where the oppo uses a linear power supply for the audio stages.

http://www.excelia-hifi.cz/cambridge-audio/img/cambridge-audio-cxu-inside.jpg

Keep in mind that the choice of the DAC chip (wolfson or sabre) has very little to do with sound quality output.

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