If you can get an Oppo 205, it has the best analog out and uses separate power supplies. I had the 203, then sold it after I heard the 205.
Best 4K Player in Terms of Transport Mechanism
I was a late adopter to a 4K display, as the last TV I bought was right when they were coming out and I wanted to let the technology mature and come down in price. It was also a Panasonic plasma and looked better in many ways to what was out at the time. I finally moved up in size and recently bought a 4K OLED. Now that physical media is dying, I’ve begun to collect some discs and want to upgrade to a 4K player (Oppo 105D now).
I have a fairly nice HT setup and will probably never go back to a separate 2-channel system due to space and money--Vandersteen Quatros, VCC-5CT and VSM-CTs, Theta Casablanca 4a, Theta amps, Acoustic Zen Absolute cabling... My emphasis has always been on audio over video, and I still have a substantial CD collection. My question is which 4K player I should be looking at in terms of having the best transport and digital output components (jitter), ignoring the internal DACs (assuming the Extreme 3 cards in the CB would best anything in even a current high-end player, which they had darn well better for the price!). To be honest, I have no idea why they even make BDPs with DACs since every AV receiver or processor already has them. My BDP will also function as a CD transport (separate topic, but I might someday invest in a strictly CD transport, although I would just assume rip them and be digital at that point and eliminate the mechanical elements).
I guess I am down to an Oppo 203 (unless the 205 is better from a transport standpoint and not just for its DACs), the Panasonic 9000, or these Magnetars, which I never knew existed until recently. I’m assuming Arcam is never going to make a 4K version, Levinson, or anyone else high-end. I haven’t gotten too much into hi-res audio simply because most of the music I like to sit down and listen to isn’t available in higher than 16/44. There is some, though, and I might start getting into streaming or downloading files. Thus, having the BPD also function to stream or be a server interface would be a plus so that I don’t have to get a separate box. Oh yeah, HDCD decoding would be great, as the CB doesn't do it but can apparently recognize it in the bitstream. I have more than a few and can definitely tell the difference
I appreciate anyone’s thoughts/experiences/comparisons.
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Thanks, adsell . I won't be using the analog outs or its DACs. I did see where the 205 has a better clock and supposedly less jitter. Could you tell any difference between the digital sections? I think I'm going to do a Panasonic 9000, but if I ever found a cheap enough 205, I'd probably still get it. |
I own Oppo 105 and 203. The transports seem identical, and I would assume that the 205 is identical but perhaps a 205 owner can confirm that. I just bought a Sony OLED. For comparison I played a DVD of the musical The Music Man and compared it with the stream on Amazon. The display (using the Oppo 203) was preferable on the DVD. The colors were more vibrant, and there was much more low level detail (such as with patterned clothing) with the DVD. The sound was better as well; the clarinet bass line on the song ‘ Marian The Librarian’ was much bouncier and woodier. Rest of the system is Anthem 5.1 AVR; Apple TV; speakers are Silverline Menuets as fronts and center with a Paradigm sub and Paradigm in walks for rear surrounds. This system is basically for Video; I have another surround system in the basement mainly for Multi Channel Audio, and a 2 channel system upstairs.. So it’s a limited sample, however I suspect that a decent disc player is capable of better quality than streaming, both video and audio |
Actually, it's not. Not yet anyway. 4k bluray media has grown over the past several years when comparing year-over-year sales. But I don't disagree with your take on streaming. I rip all of my movies and put them on a server and then stream remotely or locally via my Zidoo or Nvidia Shield.
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