Oppo BDP-95 sounds GREAT?

I finally got to do some 16/44 redbook cd comparison between the Oppo & my Esoteric P-10/PS Audio SL-3 cd front end. My tentative conclusion: At less than 1/3 of what I paid for the cd components in the 90's the Oppo has significantly better soundstaging on cd, though I have a SLIGHT preference tonally for the old player (on cd only).

I'm going to do more listening before i make a final decision, but I'm starting to lean towards selling the old system though I'm not sure if I'd be able to get enough for it to make it worth my while (i.e. it may be worth more to me than to anyone else); & also the Oppo doesn't have a straight s/pdif digital input which I may still need occasionally for dat &/or cd recorder.

I have one as well and I've heard the esoteric and wadia, the esoteric and wadia are better but for the price the oppo bdp 95 is a steal. However if you want to spend more money, no one here has mentioned msb which is significantly better than wadia and esoteric.

I have a question related to this thread:

I've been using USB keys for Hi-res flac files. My understanding is that per HD Tracks & others, the fact that USB drives have no moving parts tends to reduce jitter.

I am about to be gifted with a 3rd 2 tb USB e-sata hd that I currently have no use for.

Questions:

1. Would the hard drive's spinning degrade the sound (hi res) as compared to a non moving flash?

2. Does a USB connection require a high quality digital cable like an spdif does? If so, how good? I'm using a $300 Illluminati on my cd front end. Is something this high
quality required for usb?

Just an fyi, having now owned the stock 95 for a little over 7 months, I am very pleased. For the price, it sounds superb on high rez, though it is slightly less refined on redbook than my $3200 (in the 90's) Esoteric P-10-?Illuminati->PS Audio SL3 cd front end.

Also has the best video quality I've ever experienced, & that's through the component out, using the lesser of the 2 video processors.

My only significant complaints/caveats is make SURE you get one with firmware from 12/11 or earlier if you want to play iso's.

It would also be nice if it didn't have the 2 second pause between tracks on .flac playback.

Has anyone here upgraded to the 105D. Comments on CD sound?