Oppo to cease production -- Announced yesterday...

@unsound,

I think you are correct with some of the mfr's out there.  CA has chosen to just share the same MediaTek platform for video and GUI and add their own audio tweaks to the mix.  Not sure about the other guys.

Bill

It's sad, my OPPO 103d is a great player and was a great value

Too much doom and gloom. What happened to OPPO is just a symptom. Weren't they actually the last DVD player manufacturer that did not offer things like "Streaming", and "Apps" other than a remote? None of that and no new innovations? And they were how much?? 
    I knew Oppo was doomed when my friends kid wanted to know why he couldn't use it to listen to "Spotify" while watching "The Lion King", on the screen. He wanted to hear the, "Big, Giant Speakers"
   Most high end audio is seen by the youth of today as unreachable. While the small area specific storefronts have all but disappeared. The youth have no way to listen to anything beyond what is available at the box stores and they, "Big Box", have nothing ever set up that you can actually hear the difference in.  The audio market is simply evolving just as everything else is, has and always will. 
 The "Audiophile" isn't born that way. And it's up to the market to decide what it wants. All that I see is an vast and largely untapped market that everyone here seems to think is unreachable. The people seem to think that the gear is gone that they can afford. And I think they are right. I haven't heard a set of speakers where the masses shop that sounded as though the set was worth anything even near the asking price. And I've looked. Trying to read the market. 
    I believe that it's the industry that has let itself become alienated from most people and especially the young.
   Why is the music still mixed in "just" stereo? Why isn't there 11.2 channel mixed music to download so that I can use my $1500 "State of the ART", surround system with? You still have CD's???
        BEFORE, you all attempt to clobber me to death at once......
  Those are questions I've been asked recently. And I listed those particular questions because each has been asked of me more than once in the last two months. Stereo isn't dead, it has simply become too stuffy.
  So it's "Lead, Follow or get the %$@ out of the way", for the industry I think. 
     But what do I know? .....
    I do happen to own a fledgling audio company that's doing quite well currently. And by the way, I LOVE my Oppo, UDP-205...........

My two cents, if OPPO was going to sell it most likely would of happened before their name and reputation took a PR hit and the panic buying started.
I am holding out great hope that they are just 'cocooning' themselves to ride out the current political environment and 1018 days, at the latest, from now things can get back to normal.

There are a multitude of reasons (or any combination thereof) why a company can choose to close the doors, halt production and/or go out of business - willingly or unwillingly. What a company discloses for public consumption may or maynot encapsulate the entire situation.

Opening a business is a huge hurdle… staying in business is never easy.

I feel a deep loss when companies or dealers close - competitors or not. I agree this Industry narrowed over the years where some are saying High-End Audio lacks younger blood, however we are seeing and hearing from more youthful audiences who are becoming aware of good, better and higher levels of sonic and musical qualities that are available,  just like a lot of us discovered in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.

After spending my lifetime in audio, music and live sound, I remain an optimist.  Based on my experience, people who love music, sound, video, entertainment and the live performance will continue to repopulate the High-End Audio marketplace and for the same reasons we all share in common.

Regards to the statements made here concerning much lesser priced electronics costing in the low hundreds; if cheaper $200 components could “consistently outperform” those offerings from many companies costing tens of thousands of dollars… would everyone of us require a new set of ears or better yet - exactly the same hearing standard? Would the acceptance of this phenomena also include a new mindset to deal with our failed investments and years of working on our systems getting them to sound more musical and closer to the live performance? That $120 amplifier should be in every household, studio, theater, etc… please someone contact marketing!

To say High End Audio is declining or dead is rubbish. The marketplace is just getting much tougher. Any one can observe the multitude of new name brands being presented along with the many historics we have come to know overtime. From our company’s standpoint business has never been better. There was a boom in the nineties, then a loss followed by recession but that’s the way business trends. What goes up will come down and vise versa especially over time and there will always be companies that come and go.

Heck, I’m in my mid-sixties and just getting started. Long live audio and hoping to see all of you in Chicago this weekend.

Robert - Star Sound