Just a couple quicky comments: I'm at around 5 weeks powered up. Using the Venom power cord, & 90's $200 Tara Analog standard interconnect.
While very sensitive to the mastering quality of what it's playing, on hi res this puppy is STAGGERING. I only better front end I have ever owned was an entry level ($2k in early 90's dollars I think) Well Tempered Record Player with a Blue Point standard; & that's by an OLD memory as I had to sell the TT in 1995.
I haven't done much redbook listening due to time constraints. Did a quicky comparison tonight between my old but beloved Esoteric P-10->Illuminati->PS Audio SL3 & the BDP 95. The comparison was a bit flawed as somehow the PS Audio had been powered down (I don't know for how long). Under those circumstances the Oppo was more refined & had a better soundstage (IMO soundstaging is this puppy's #1 strength).
For the price this puppy is amazing; especially if you look at it as a $500 Blu-ray player & $500 audio player!
At this point I'd say it has 4 main weaknesses, all of which I can live with at this price point:
1. Unforgiving of bad mastering
2. Occasional lock ups & glitches with the eternal computer
3. Apparently parts of the HDCD licensing have changed since the 90's; HDCD red book is AT LEAST the uncorrected 3db quieter than regular cd; it feels like considerably more than 3 db.
4. 1/2 second or so pause between tracks when playing computer files. Usually this is no big deal, but it made side 2 of Abbey Road (as an example) pretty unlistenable!
Oppo tells me this is a known issue that they DON'T plan to fix.
While very sensitive to the mastering quality of what it's playing, on hi res this puppy is STAGGERING. I only better front end I have ever owned was an entry level ($2k in early 90's dollars I think) Well Tempered Record Player with a Blue Point standard; & that's by an OLD memory as I had to sell the TT in 1995.
I haven't done much redbook listening due to time constraints. Did a quicky comparison tonight between my old but beloved Esoteric P-10->Illuminati->PS Audio SL3 & the BDP 95. The comparison was a bit flawed as somehow the PS Audio had been powered down (I don't know for how long). Under those circumstances the Oppo was more refined & had a better soundstage (IMO soundstaging is this puppy's #1 strength).
For the price this puppy is amazing; especially if you look at it as a $500 Blu-ray player & $500 audio player!
At this point I'd say it has 4 main weaknesses, all of which I can live with at this price point:
1. Unforgiving of bad mastering
2. Occasional lock ups & glitches with the eternal computer
3. Apparently parts of the HDCD licensing have changed since the 90's; HDCD red book is AT LEAST the uncorrected 3db quieter than regular cd; it feels like considerably more than 3 db.
4. 1/2 second or so pause between tracks when playing computer files. Usually this is no big deal, but it made side 2 of Abbey Road (as an example) pretty unlistenable!
Oppo tells me this is a known issue that they DON'T plan to fix.