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Has the Oppo carried the AV industry?

I looked through my last Widescreen Review magazine the other day (March issue), and I came accross the latest Oppo Bluray player review -didn't read it. In fact, I refuse to read yet another all-universe, all-everything, "the end-all-be-all", "greatest thing since sliced bread", "MUST HAVE", "there is none better", "will revolutionize your home theaters picture and sound quality, to world class levels" article, about the mythical Oppo player!!!..can't do it..WON'T DO IT! NO!!!
Over the last 13 years, I probably honestly read two (maybe three) entire Oppo Universal disc player reviews -start to finish -and other articles discussing Oppo mods and upgrades, articles/discussion that REFER to an Oppo player, as part of some reference system, and inevitably, I find that the Oppo reviews will JUST WON'T GO AWAY, APPARENTLY! They're like bunnies! They keep producing more of their kind, whether you want them to or not!
Lol -I'm just simply amazed by how much attention and press that a lowely disc player has obviously gotten over the years! Surely, owning an Oppo player must bee a system transforming experience! ..a "must have" item, no less. I must have missed out..cause I never owned one. In fact, never really cared to own one! I've been dazled by how good the quality of video processing has been in all the plain-Jane disc players, flat pannel display's, and even high end video projectors I've owned continue to supply me wiht! But, apparently, every one else bought the Oppo. Cause I surely, honesly, can't remember a year that's gone by in the past decade, where I don't rememer NOT reading somwhere about an Oppo player!
It's really felt, to me, like home entertainment AV products, and home theater in general, have been on a "demand" slide over the past decade! 7.1 and 1080p, Bluray, etc, have all been around long anough now, that it's kind of a "been there, had that" kind of feeling I get when I think about this hobby anymore. I guess life and priorities has weened me away from being a die-hard enthusiest now-a-days. And yet, I can't get the Oppo topic out of my thoughts, whenever I look at my gear!..and I don't think the hobby is going to let me forget much about it neither. lol!
Anyone else get the oppinion that this product surely has been single most important product in the AV industry, these past 10+ years?! Because it's certainly been the most talked about brand/topic I can remember reading about, if nothing else.
I really do think they'll be making Oppo's for the next 100 years, period! -even if they'll do 4k upscaling, 4k/8k future exact pixel mapping, wifi-HD streaming, toast your bread and make you breakfast, whatever! I'm thinking that these Oppo's just must have been so good, that no serious enthusiest, whatever-phile, or system owner should have ever considered "going without!"...otherwise, they missed out!?
Well anyway, anyone here who's used the Oppo think that the product has been a make-or-break, indespensible, product that really made all the differnence to the picture quality they achieved, or the sonic experience they got using these things? (I'm tickled pink by the digital AV processing advances I've gotten just upgrading processor and displays, year after year) I just want to somehow hear that I really missed out all these years, and the only important consideration I should have made was BUYING the Oppo! Cause at the very least, I'm not totaly convinced that Apple and Oppo aren't the same company, ..secretly.
100 more years of Oppo players?..servers?? -probably
avgoround
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
Avgoround,

You sound a little down. My guess is it's just a cyclical thing and you'll get your a/v mojo back soon. I just wanted to respond to a few of your concerns about the Oppo 105:

1. "Let's forget the fact, for the moment, that the Oppo's don't upscale to 4K resolution, and we got new projectors and displays coming out now that DO JUST THAT! (Why would I pay for scaling and processing in the Oppos, when my display is already processing video signals beyond what the oppo can do?)"

If your monitor/projector can support 4k video, the current Oppo 105 can be set to upscale to 4k or it can be set to output 1080i or1080p if you want your projector to do the upscaling.

2. "Then, we get to the near future, where all these players -AND DISCS - go BYE BYE! ..and then we are all at hard-driver storage/media servers anyway.
You can't convince me that we won't all be condensing our disc collections onto Kaleidascape type Terabyte hard-drive units, and servers, pc storage and streaming, etc, anyway, in the not to distant future."

I completely agree with you about the near future reality will be less discs and more downloaded music files of 16 bit/44.1khz or even better 24 bit/96 and 192khz resolution downloads. One of the main reasons I decided to buy the Oppo was exactly for this capability. I'm using the 105 as a DMR/DMP (Digital Media Renderer and Digital Media Player) and wirelessly streaming music from a 2 TB NAS (Network Attached Storage) to the 105. The Oppo receives the wireless signal through its included wireless USB dongle, decodes the digital signal to analog using its excellent saber dacs and outputs the stereo analog l+r signals to my amp via xlr cables. Everything is controlled via JRiver media center software running on my laptop. Ultra convenient and very high sound quality, the future has arrived.

Once I bought the Oppo for $1,219, I was able to take advantage of its computer audio capabilities with a modest $400 outlay for the Synology 2 TB NAS and 2 TB Seagate backup hard drive. My system has never sounded better and I now find myself just concentrating on finding good music for downloading and listening to the music collection I already have.

Yes, I have turned into an Oppo fanboy, but only because the 105 is such a stellar performer at a very reasonable price.

Wihing you the best,
Tim

rgs92
974 posts
 
Will the Oppo (105)'s digital volume control work if I connect it via the analog outputs to my preamp if I choose this method?
Does using this digital volume control detract from the sound quality in anyone's experience?
Thanks.
(It would be nice for me because I have a preamp without a remote, so this would give me a remote volume control.)
Ag insider logo xs@2x
dbphd
1,631 posts
 
Rgs92,

Yes & no. In my setup analog stereo from an Oppo 105 goes through a Parasound JC-2 analog preamp. The Oppo controls the volume when its input is selected; the JC-2 is set to unity gain. Sound quality does not seem degraded. A Sony XA5400ES and JC-3 phono stage share the JC-2 with the Oppo, and when either is selected, the JC-2 controls the volume.

db
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
Rgs92,

"Will the Oppo (105)'s digital volume control work if I connect it via the analog outputs to my preamp if I choose this method?"

Yes, the Oppo's digital volume control will adjust both the 'Dedicated Stereo' balanced and unbalanced outputs as well as all the unbalanced surround analog outputs. I'm not sure what kind of preamp or pre/pro your thinking of using, but the Oppo eliminates the need for both in most cases. I no longer use my 2-ch preamp with ht/passthru and my high quality separate surround preamp/processor since inserting the 105 in my system.

If you let me know what type of preamp, I could tell you if you could do the same.

"Does using this digital volume control detract from the sound quality in anyone's experience?"

The Oppo's digital volume control utilizes 32 bits for that exact reason; not affecting the audio signal. In my 1 month experience with the 105, I can verify that the volume control does not detract from the sq using any input and the Oppo 105's sound quality as a preamp is excellent. I found that when my good sounding VTL preamp was included in my system, it did detract from the sq when compared to removing it and connecting the 105's 'Dedicated Stereo' outputs directly to my main amp via xlr cables.

This was a hard decision since I've loved and enjoyed the sq of my VTL, with nos Mullard tubes, in my system for the past 5+ years. But my goal for my system has always been sq 1st so I made the choice as objectively as possible based solely on sq performance. I'm not actually complaining, though, since I now have better sound and sold my VTL and pre/pro for about the same $ I paid for the Oppo.

If you buy the 105, you'll probably be making a tough decision, too.

FWIW,
Tim
mcbuddah
93 posts
 
I bought my OPPO 95 two years ago to use exclusively in a headphone system i was setting up. I selected it on-line without audition because it could play SACDs. I already owned a Blue-ray player from Denon that cost twice as much as the OPPO and had no expectation that the OPPO would be nearly as good on videos. I was happy with it at first in this limited role, but I got bored one day and swapped the Denon into the analog system and my new headphone systems and just for kicks, decided to see how close the OPPO could come Blue-rays. I was blown away at the improvements to the picture, especially in terms of its color palette breadth and the level of details. Many subsequent improvements to all three systems only proved to increase the level of superior sound and video from the OPPO. This player really is an overachiever in any role I ask of it, and its extra features have made it an important tool to help me fine-tune my other set-ups. Its versatility allowed me to establish a test of several different connection schemes to get get the best sound in a 7.1 HT. At one point, I had wired it to compare 2 brands of HDMI cable (Ps-Audio I2s and Mapleshade Vividlink) against a Toslink and silver SPDIF connections and a card of RCA's from the analog outputs, all by switching inputs on my receiver remote. This enabled me to answer for myself some of the age old audio questions about what sounds best, where is the best place to decode lossless sound, the receiver or the player, and to discover that Mapleshade's $170. HDMI dances circles around the PS-Audio that cost 14x as much.

While this OPPO model is the only one I have experience with, I a truly delighted with it in every way. I read that the 105 is even better and has even more features yet and some folks are using them to replace the preamp and DAC in their digital media systems. This model is not enough to tempt me to upgrade from the 95, even though the unusually high resale value for it would let me sell it for enough to cover up to 80% of the new one. This is because I probably would not be able to pull the trigger on actually selling it, since i think i really need three of the.

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