Oppo BDP-95 as a pure two channel audio source?

Jay...Do not worry about the Balanced and Unbalanced scenario...its all relative to your distances from units to amplifiers and picking up noise...Read this thread and hopefully it will shed some light on the subject...the second and especially the third posts are on spot...

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-42977.html

Jay asks, "Will I be sacrificing to much of the Oppos' capability by not going balanced?"

I'm not sure, but I think the XLR stereo may get special DAC treatment. Oppo tech is very responsive and helpful. You can turn off video with the PURE AUDIO button on the remote. It may be an option in the setup menu as well, but my BDP-95 serves both music and HT so I haven't tried that.

Before limiting yourself to two channel audio, you may want to explore music on Blu-ray with the lossless codecs. The BDP-95 is spectacular with those discs.

db

When taking advice on this topic, don't listen to anyone's comparison of two different units UNLESS they have played them side by side, at the same time, in the same system, with the same disk, with a level-matched preamp. Too often you'll hear "XYZ is sooooo much better than abc" by someone who may never even have heard both of them, or not in the same system, let alone the rest of it. Often they will sound very similar. The only definitive review I have seen (and I'm sorry I don't recall where) was a session at Mike Lavigne's where they did properly compare two players (in this case it was the Oppo as well) with his Playback Design piece at $15k, and while they said the latter was better the Oppo still sounded very good. I have compared (side by side) the Ayre CX-5 against the Meridian G08, the Oppo against a cheaper Denon, a Sony SCD-777ES against some other cheaper players, and always the sound was much more similar than it was different. Don't always buy the hype.

Your point is well taken Jimmy2615, however, while that type of head-to-head would certainly be ideal, I'm not sure how accessible a comparison of that nature would be to most potential buyers. Realistically, I think most of us are left to judge a particular components' sound based on what we've heard previously, which admittedly, is most certainly fallible. That said, not having heard either the Oppo or the reference piece you cite in Mikes' comparison above, I'm not sure what that that tells me about either player, i.e. is the Oppo that good or is the $15K piece that bad? For the sake of curiosity, which did you like better, the Ayre or Meridian? Also, just to be clear, was it your impression that the Oppo sounded to be on par with the cheaper Denon? Thanks

Distance isn't the only consideration when talking about balanced. Ask anyone with an Ayre AX7e. It depends on the design.