Is OPPO worth the inflated price?

There is the Sony 1000 that is very good ,and Yamaha has some 
very good players as well as Pionerr elite for under $1000

Please excuse me for breaking into this discussion.  Hearing this discussion about your OPPO 205 reminded me of my situation.  However, I do not know how to originate a discussion.  

I have an OPPO UPD 203 connected to an ARCAM AVR550 with a pair of Paradigm Prestige 85F towers.  When I set up my system I decided to stream TIDAL.  To eliminate signal breakup, I have direct wired the modem in my family room to my Apple TV in the family room by using CAD 6 cable and I direct wired the Apple TV using CAD6 to the back of my ARCAM.  Since then, I do not find myself using my OPPO to play CD's.  I wonder if anyone knows if I am sacrificing sound quality by streaming TIDAL as compared to playing CD's through my OPPO.  Also, when I do use the OPPO the dealer I purchased the ARCAM from suggested  I  connect the OPPO  with an RCA cable when playing CD's to improve sound quality.  However, doesn't this utilize the DAC in the OPPO rather the DAC in the OPPO?  This said, which has the better DAC, the OPPO or the ARCAM.  I also have the OPPO connected by HDMI to watch movies and I wonder when listening to CD's if I would improve sound quality by using the HDMI connection?   

Oppo Repair Service NYC/Long Island?

When it became clear that decoder boards were unavailable to repair my Cambridge 650BD player I purchased a used Oppo 95. The ad said it works fine and should arrive next week. I got the 95 because I presently need analog video connectivity until upgrading to OLED TV or better (otherwise I'd have jumped on the 105 and its neat headphone amp for monitoring movie sound quality). Oppo Support has no phone but said via email that they still service all Oppo BD players. Presumably therefore all of the most failure prone parts are still available.

 

But when repairs are needed rather than shipping to Menlo Park might there be authorized Oppo or otherwise highly experienced service companies in the New York metro area or Long Island? Ideally, they will also be knowledgeable and aggressive enough to quickly troubleshoot circuit faults to the (non-proprietary) component circuit level-which CA's outsourced factory service https://www.panurgyoem.com/ was apparently unwilling or unable to do with the now discontinued decoder boards they said killed my player.

And thanks to Panurgy and Cambridge I also ended up initially wasting very serious money on a new transport mechanism which obviously didn't need replacing on this brick.

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=K3b5XJvLFOeyggfw75ugCw&q=panurgy+oem&oq=panurgey+&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0i13l7j0i13i30l3.2173.6041..7757...2.0..0.116.824.12j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131j0j0i10.twEWogap-sk#lrd=0x89c3097c4ac5fc35:0xee6485492353ef8a,1

Of course, I'll ship the 95 to Oppo if that's clearly the best move though it’s nice to have more local but very reliable options.

And please share any feedback and experience about Oppo US Service Support.

Oppo currently provides communication via email only (unless it changed recently which I doubt).  So if you have questions, there is a need to detail the problem and send them an email.  As noted earlier, I have an Oppo 203 that sees little use.  Considered selling it (and wouldn't ask what some are insanely asking and I don't think the players are worth it at the insane end of pricing - maybe a little premium).  Mine is just used for video in a spare HT with a UHD TV.  I hope to get a slightly bigger TV within the next several months and the 203 will be moved (along with the 55 inch UHD set to an upstairs bonus room which is basically a guest room).

 I contacted Oppo Service hoping to acquire a replacement LASER sled in advance of a failure. They said "no". I hope the Oppo will last more than five years as this is when service will cease.