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

The "SE" unit is pretty well received by those that have indeed used "audio" only units with botique names. I'd still be interested in an A to B shoot-out before I drew a conclusion. I'll surely do that before I upgrade, or it might be a downgrade.

Just because something is sold in HUGE QTY, and can leverage a lower price, does it all of a sudden get you less quality of sound and for that reason. Audio has the opposite problem, to few units sold at high prices isn't making stuff sound better. You can spend much more than on the OPPO BDP-83SE and be worse off real easily.

Dbphd, you're right, while I was not closed minded to the 95s ability, I was at least incredulous to the hype surrounding the Oppo 95. Oh believe me, I wanted it to be true, who wouldn't? A thousand dollar do-it-all source that could actually hold it's own and in fact, surpass the performance of high end players costing two, three times the money! I so wanted to hear convincing testimony that would ease my doubt a move me to give the new 105 a shot, but I didn't get that. I heard from a number of people who were making the most of the units features that would not come into play for me. I get the impression that those who buy the Oppo are approaching this hobby from a different perspective, one that is not necessarily solely focused or the reproduction of the live musical performance.

I can say I have done direct A/B comparisons between the oppo 95, Ayre C5xeMP, and Emotiva ERC-1. The ERC sounded much more natural on cd playback with a deeper soundstage, obviously could not play SACD's. The oppo won out on ERC-1 to oppo sacd playback with details being a little better on the SACD's but still did not match the depth the ERC had. The Ayre beat them all in every category, just a better player. When I took the Oppo 95 into the movie room it shined, creating great dynamics and wonderful picture. As long as you are not needing SACD, if I were you looking for a 2 channel player I would go with the ERC-2

Thanks Harri009. Based on your findings, sounds like with the Ayre being clearly the better player, the myth of a truly affordable giant killer is alive and well. All the hype surrounding the Oppo remainds me of a very similar buzz that was surrounding the Cambridge Audio 851 CD Player a couple of years ago when TAS proclaimed it to be the equal of five thousand dollar units. They took quite a bit of flack for that one and rightfully so, as it didn't take long for that notion to be dispelled. Thanks, J.

...As long as you are not needing SACD...
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Hum, standard CD format is pretty poor compared to SACD high-speed serial (which is roughly equivalent to 24bit/196K high-res files). The only source of digital that is even close to a LP record is SACD and hi-res 24 bit digital.

To me, using standard red book or 16-bit audio as some sort of digital hi-fi reference is pretty lame to my ears. If a unit can't play SACD, I'd skip right over it. There isn't enough in a 16 bit CD to be worth the effort to capture. CD digital is all about what is WRONG with "Hi-Fi" to day...source material is too limited in quality.

Until the music industry settles on a standard for h-res digital, were stuck with 16-bit garbage. I wish SONY didn't shoot itself in the foot AGAIN (beta verses VHS) and limit SACD to almost obsolescence.