Has anyone heard the new OPPO BDP-83SE

Well, I suppose Oppo will allow anyone to update their 83 later on for the difference between the SE and std versions following the cut off date to save the $100, right?

My thinking here on all of this is so..... yeah, a Ben Franklin is a Ben Franklin... for sure.

also, to date oppo has a business ethic or plan, which says, 'extreme overachiever' from their very start.

Didn't nearly everyone who had any exp with the modestly priced value orieinted units initially produced just go cats & critters over the next upcoming launch, well before that ever happened?

it too turned out well indeed when the std 83 was shipped.

then too the Blue Ray oppo made and sent along to it's subscrived owner base, and that went along quite well too, and bugs were fixed and so forth prior to the public insertino of the BDP 83.

So to date, each step forward Oppo has done has been a well thought out, careful step onward and upward. Each occassion has shown itself as both a performer and value laden proposition.

Why then, should this next, upgrade be any different?

consider this... it's done, one of us says "heres what i am finding out ...." in likely a premature run in period, or even if run in (and God knows how that could happen in so short a time), then what?

We are then where we usually are... hearing a piece with someone else' ears, in a system dissimilar from our own.

pretty much just like always.

What's it sound like?

Then the prerequisite folow up Q's, and preponderances of system ambiguities.

I'd bet more heavily on past efforts of Oppo and simply spend the $300 for the upgrade.... if you find yourself chosing to use hundreds or thousands of bucks for analog cabling and can't or wont, use HDMI.

one might also think to take the $300 upgrade costs or the $400 later ones, and apply them to a better AV proc using HDMI 'IF' there is little or no faith presently for this stepped up analog enhancement from Oppo.

I'd not fear my money was not well spent given the OPPO history so far.

If the upgrade is bought.... MAKE NUMEROUS COPIES OF ALL THE PAPERWORK AND KEEP THEM IN THE ORIG BOXE!!

SOMEONE most likely will figure out a way to coin that sticker further on down the road, so for no mistakes, keeping on the up & up, SAVE THAT PAPER WORK!

The last thought is, if you already got a better CDP and/or DAC... why bother with this upgrade?

I found the stock 83 to be a little bright. Especially when listening to SACD. It is fatiging and I can really only listen for about 1-2 hours before my ears hurt. I wonder if the new DACs will correct this? Already Redbook and DVD-A playback via the Stereo output sounds amazing (if a bit clinical)

With no "audiophile" gear in my system, I am looking seriously at this upgrade.

Why is it the more you upgrade your system, the more aware you are of its deficiencies? :)

Affejunge

How many hours of playback do you have on the SACD DACs? Are you running out PCM or DSD on your '83?

SACD on my previous Sony SCD xa777 had to be run in seperately . It used separate DACs for both SACD & CD, separate lasers too.

I'd answer your question with one word... accuracy. Another is resolution. With some exceptions, the more you spend the closer you get to the truth in the recording.

The trick, if there is one, and I feel there is, will be to gain both resolving and involving... at that point quit following the shampoo instructions..., Listen, buy something else, repeat.

Just listen for the pleasure of it.

Then in a year or two, get another bottle of shampoo.

Blindjim, I agree, I am at that point now.. just enjoy the system. As for SACD playback, I maybe have 10 hours on it. It does lessen the 'brightness' when I use LPCM to the DAC as opposed to straight DSD. That said, I am intrigued by the idea that spending only $300 more, I can alleviate the brightness and increase sound fidelity, though the current 83 seems a step up from the 980 I had. (The 980 did not suffer the brightness though)

Hi all

OK so I have had the SE upgrade for 24 hours now. I was lucky enough to work from home today so I just played "music to work by". DVD, CD and SACD. Probably in equal amounts about 12+ hours total time on it.

Previously, I used the DAC in my Cambridge Audio 840C when using the OPPO. I found the stock OPPO rather forward with an artificial cast. I could listen to it, it is definately not crappy but much preferred the 840C. On dual disk, both DVD and SACD, I found I would rather listen to the CD side in the 840 than the higher resolution in the OPPO. On movies and such I would use the dac in the 840C.

But I need to say the stock OPPO broken in was good and if I didn't have a dedicated cd player I could live with it. OK Maybe...

So before I brought it in I did listen to some music through it. It was about the same. For example, do you know The Who album has a bass guitar on it? I have the dvd-audio of it and through the 840 the bass is very very distinct and at times pushing the rhythm and at other times acts like a lead. Voices sounded more there and the guitar picking was distinct and the acoustic guitars had that depth of sound that comes from a hollow body--It just sounded like real people making music. The record, whether on vinyl, cd or DVD had always sounded very processed to me.

On the OPPO, like every other player I have heard, The voices and instruments sounded "artificial" which has always been digital sound until I got the 840. The bass was fat and not very rhythmic. The pace and timing just weren't the same.

I will put my system here cause I always want to know what the reviewer uses when I read reviews. Along with 840c I use an VAC Avatar (standard) integrated amp and a set of Dali Mentor 6 speakers. Speakers spiked and the equipment is on a Salamander Synergy Twin 30.

So I get home yesterday, plug it in, stick a disc in and hit play and then went to make dinner, hang with the wife, while listing to XM.

So about 2 hours later I start to listen and...

WOW this is pretty bad. The bass was so loose that all the pace and timing were gone. I knew it had to break in but jeez. Voices were disembodied, it sounded flat and 2 dimensional (and I am using a tube amp!). Cymbals were undifferentiated white noise. It felt like torture. Really!

After about an hour and half I couldn't take it anymore and decided to tweak it. I found my BDR cones and put the ones that warm up the sound under it.

Ok it is now listenable. I put on SPYBOY and listen for awhile. Yes better but I was still not sure better than it was. At this point it was time to watch TV with the wife so let it run on repeat for 2 hours or so. I took a short listen before I turned it off for the night. It was getting better as I listen to the Spyboy choir.

During the as I listened while working I noticed that the bass was now a little boomy which I know are those cones so I switch them out for the ones that are more neutral.

At one point during the day I sat in my listening chair while doing some work on my laptop. When the piano entered in one of the songs I was struck by its clarity. Then I started listening the Trumpet and saxes and noticed how clear their tone was. The trumpet had real bite and the two saxes had very distinct tones. The bass had tighten up as well...

So I have had a couple of hours after work to listen again seriously. I removed the cones cause I didn't use the them on the standard one and I wanted to get a feel on how much better the SE sounded. As this was an upgrade I couldn't do any comparison to the standard model and so I decided not to compare it to the 840C and listen to it as if it was the only player I had.

It is sounding much better. I listen to "Tommy" again as that was what I listen to before I brought it in to be upgraded. The SE is not as forward, there is more depth to the sound. Soundstage was always wide but now it has more layers. The tone seemed to better as well, the acoustic guitars getting that depth.

I am not great at describing the sounds but what I do know that I found myself listening to the music more that the sound.

So I will listen some more but I am thinking the BDR cones maybe mandatory which makes sense. This is still a $500 player and if there was a place to cut costs it would be in the external isolation.

Well back to listening. I may update this after some time has passed and it is well broken in. But I wanted to get his published as there are little or no reviews of it on the web. Least the last I looked.