OPPO 980 h dvd mod?

"Same thing goes for cars. Want prestige and speed, buy that BMW or Benz. Dont care about prestige but only care about performance, then buy a used dodge neon and throw a turbo and some other parts on it and blow right past the BMW down the road. Its all in want you want." I hate car analogies because they can be twisted so easily. I want speed and comfort and reliability, so I'd choose a BMW or Benz. If I was less concerned about these other aspects or couldn't afford to be, I might consider fixing up a street racer. Entirely different experiences.

As for the 980, it is a more than decent player but is even more competitive when used via the HDMI outputs (or, in my case, by a 3xS/PDIF mod output) into a high quality external DAC/processor. I would not bother playing with its DACs or analog stages when there's so much better for that already out there.

Kal

Pedrillo-

In my May column, I compare the 980 with the 983 and the BelCanto, but mostly on SACD multichannel, if that's an issue for you.

Kal Rubinson
www.stereophile.com/musicintheround

Yep I have a oppo too.. Excellent.. Hate to say it but its 95% as close to any of my really costly players were.. Missing a little midrange bite and clarity but thats about it! And I have countered that with a good power cable and interconnects even dropping a really Sweet sounding dac for the built in circuits! Took about 25 hours to really open up from new, but after that it just does everything well, including concert DVD's, SACD, HDCD etc... And its well built, fairly fast, and reliable.

As for mods.. I have done them to higher end players with varying results, its a crapshoot and there is no guarantee, sometimes it seems to take away the organic sound of some players.. Best bet is first invest into a good DA convertor and you can always go back, and a DA convertor will be fairly universal with really good future options, including you can buy one with a USB input to handle the fastly growing transportless computer based audio.

Good Luck

QUESTION: In order to benefit from the 980's excellent sound quality, do you need to use the analogue outs?

That is, if I use the 980 in my HT where I use optical out to the A/V receiver (not hdmi), would I really benefit from the 980s sonic improvement over my old 970?

Thx
Art

Artmaltman
Most likely not, the best thing is the two outputs your are skipping which is the HDMI and the ANalogs, a standard optical out will more or less probably sound like the same transport.. However it will give you better picture, much better features like it will memorize your last 10 dvd movies, better adjustments, and faster read times over the old model. For the price its still worth a shot.