Reference disc player...UDP 205 or Marantz?

@boneman73, Interesting, thank you!

Tom

A little late here but compared a black friday oppo udp-205 deal vs. my rega apollo cd player and the rega apollo (sub $1000 cd player) is a far superior cd player. I’m sure oppo does well in many ways but it was no comparison to dedicated rega cd player. I cannot speak for the Marantz SA-14S1 cd player but in my opinion there’s a lot of hype behind oppo's sound quality.   I would agree though oppo is very versatile but master of none.

Additionally, in my comparison with Sony’s ability to play the 4K movies vs oppo, the oppo udp-205 had slightly better movie image but could not justify the price tag vs the cheaper sony 4k (UBP‑X800 player $149 BF deal down from $299).  

2 channel set-up:
Rega apollo cd player
Mcintosh mc275 tube amp
Mcintosh c2300 pre-amp
Wilson Audio Sophia3

Additionally, in my comparison with Sony’s ability to play the 4K movies vs oppo, the oppo udp-205 had slightly better movie image but could not justify the price tag vs the cheaper sony 4k (UBP‑X800 player $149 BF deal down from $299).

Oppo UDP-205 could definitely justify the price difference.

Fact be told that video - just like audio - is an expensive hobby where subtle, marginal and incremental gains are indeed expensive.

I agree with your audio appraisal that it’s versatile but master of none (albeit it is no slouch in the audio department) but as far as video is concerned really nothing even remotely close to its price tag can beat it. Combine its video performance with very good (and in some circles extremely good) audio and the overall effectiveness is such that from a value perspective its impossible to beat (currently and in today’s market). If you’re happy/content with the $149 player that’s fine too.

     I consider the Oppo 105's  CD playback to be very good thanks to its overbuilt power supply with large toroidal transformer, separate and isolated CD playback circuitry and excellent Sabre 9018 and 9028 dac chips usually found in much more expensive players. 
     I believe its CD playback performance would fair very well in comparisons to a wide variety of CD only players from a wide variety of price points.
     However, I think it's important to point out a few facts that readers of this thread should keep in mind, especially when comparisons are made to components that are much less versatile such as the Rega Apollo CD player which can only playback redbook CDs.
     The Oppo 105 and the current 205 are 'virtual Swiss army knives'.  They are both primarily high quality Blu-ray players with impressive video processors, HDMI connectivity and surround sound processors with up to 7.1 channel decoding to analog audio outputs.  They both are able to play back virtually any silver disc: CDS, SACDs, DVDs, DVD-As and even CD-Rs.  They both can be used to stream high resolution audio files (up to and including DSD) either via hard-wire or wireless connections through their very good internal Sabre dacs.  External hard drive storage units can be connected to store ripped CDs and downloaded hi-res music files.
     Just something to keep in mind when comparisons between these Oppos and less versatile  players are made.  Others may dismiss this extreme versatility with comments such as "Jack of all trades, but master of none". 
     After using the Oppo 105 for about 2 years, however, the original unshortened quote seems more appropriate to me:

    “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

Tim  

Oppo does not play SACD-Rs ( DVD or USB stick with ,iSO on it or via DLNA) due to copyright restrictiions, but does play DSFs "cut" from SACD-R,