High Quality Universal Player??

unh... not a fan of McIntosh (except the looks and build quality)

a quantitative assessment is impossible, esp. to 0.1 level

now... Oppo has a wonderful 30 trial policy and it is very fair - you only pay shipping one way

also, they are working on new players

and as a universal player, it will handle video too

you might want to do what I am doing - assembling some program material to really test things carefully

e.g. rip 2 copies of a favorite CD; you will put one copy on each player with a few seconds time lag on one of them and then listen to the exact same passage twice - right after the other one

for material, I usually pick female vocals, something with snare drums (listen for that first impulse 'hit') and high quality recordings/mastering

e.g. I use the famous jazz at the Pawnshop for part of it, even tho it is not my favorite jazz

I have not evaluated the 103D vs the 105D. However reports suggest the 105D has superior "audio" circuitry. In addition , the 105D includes a headphone amplifier which is pretty nice. The 103D does not. The 105D also includes 3 digital inputs, Coax, Optical and USB. The 103D doesn't appear to. The 103D does not include XLR connections either. The 105D chassis larger and heavier and the faceplate design is different. I would say that if auditioned simultaneously you would be able to pick a wimner. Not saying the Oppo is the best spinner on the market. Just saying it's going to meet my immediate needs for multimedia.  

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To all the New oppo HD 231 coming out in early Dec, will be Oppo new flagship.
the 105 is excellent .the 231 will do everything a bit better still.
price wise Init set yet but count on at least $1600. I know of no player that can  compete evrn at double the cost . Oppo does it right just engineer only a few great products.  Similar to Schiit Audio, except a Oppo is not modular .they want the$$  for future engineering  they said.

They are "out of stock" for all the BDPs now. If you want to buy direct you have to wait for the new models.

You may be able to locate units at Oppo vendors. I found mine at Audio Advisor after speaking with Oppo. There may be others out there, but they may only have silver.

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