AV Product of the Decade

By Clay Swartz

There has been much anticipation of this product since it was announced last October. Finally there is a player, which would play most audio and video formats, at a reasonable price. A few years ago I reviewed their up sampling DVD combo player and called it the “Budget Product of the Decade. It had a great picture and very good digital outputs. Plus it played SACD and DVD-Audio, for less than a couple of hundred dollars. The construction of the unit was somewhat flimsy. The analog out puts were better than most under $500 players, but not audiophile quality. For several years now the Oppo players have been the darlings of the video and audio modification worlds. All kinds of modifiers were offering modes to the analog output and power supply sections of the players. People, including myself, had hopes for a player with better analog section and the new audio and video formats. Oppo sent their new player through a very unusual beta testing. They sent 350 units out to people who wanted to be early adaptors. They gave them a $100 off the player and required that they give feedback on how the players worked and any problems that might come up. They posted the comments of these early adaptors on their website, as they came in. This is a very open way of doing beta testing and wouldn’t be done by most manufactures. This was a very real world beta testing scheme.

My history with play back devices has been long. I started out with a number of drive units and out board DACs. I then moved to a Marantz DV-8300 combo player, that has been modified by Mod Wright, into a DAC, with the exception of SACD and DVD-Audio. My use of outboard DACs was ended with Outlaw 950 Preamp/processor. It was a $1300 direct internet sales unit that I had heavily modified. I have over $700 in wholesale audiophile parts added to the unit. I then discovered to Oppo and started using it as a drive unit, except for SACD and DVD-Audio. It had much better digital outputs than the Marantz. A couple of years later I went to the Samsung BDP -5000 player. It had Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, CD and DVD play back. The Samsung became my drive unit, digitally feeding the 950. It had slightly better digital outputs than the Oppo DVD player. Then the Oppo BDP-83 arrives in the picture.

Unpacking the Unit

The first thing I noticed was that it was much heavier than most current players. It was very well packed. It came in a cloth carrying bag rather than wrapped in plastic. It also came with a very decent detachable power cord. This is first time that I have not immediately thrown out the supplied power cord on a player. The older Oppo came with funky small power cord that I replaced. The Samsung came with a 16 gauge zip cord power cord that was non-detachable. The build quality and finish seems more like players costing much more. There was also a very decent HDMI cable provided. The analog cables were an immediate throw away. The remote was large, well designed and back-lit. The manual was large and well written. They also included the 2L Blu-Ray/SACD Sampler and the Spears & Munsil Benchmark Disc. I understand that the 2L Sampler disc will not be included in the standard shipments.

Setup

Setup went effortlessly in all the systems I tried it in. Using HDMI into a Preamp/Processor took less than 5 minutes. Using stereo analog to preamp and HDMI to projector took less than 10 minutes. Using 5.1 analog and digital to Processor and HDMI to the monitor took a while longer because you need to do a multi-channel audio setup. This is the one area that the Oppo could have been better in. The distance settings of speakers were somewhat limited. You could not place your center channel speaker farther away than your front speakers. You could also not put rears or side speakers at different distances from your listening position. There was also not test tones built in, to balance the speaker volumes. The Marantz had the tones. I used the tones on an AIX setup disc for the purpose. The Oppo has video setup controls that the Marantz and Samsung didn’t have. I found that I needed some tweaking on the video settings.

What It Does

The 83 plays almost all modern audio and video formats. It plays CDs, SACDs, DVD- Audio, DVDs, Blu-rays, CD-R, DVD-R, Kodak picture discs. It also decodes the new lossless audio formats and HDCD. It can also read certain data discs. It also supports BonusView and BD-Live. It has a source direct mode to output data to outboard audio and video processors. It also has a special high quality stereo direct audio output. Conversion of PAL discs to NTSC for playing on non PAL TVs is done. The Oppo can also zoom in on the picture at different levels. It can output these audio formats by analog or digitally. It can receive software updates by Ethernet connection to the web. Updates can also be burned to disc, on a computer and then played on the Oppo. Updates on USB memory can also be used. Picture can be output by HDMI 1.3 or component video. It uses the Anchor Bay VRS processor to up samples DVDs to 540P, 1080I or 1080P. It also has the capabilities for 24 frames per second and deep color decoding. Sound output is in stereo, 5.1 or 7.1 channels.

How it works

Disc access is fairly fast on Blu-rays and even faster on CDs and DVDs. It is faster than my Samsung, which was one of the fastest at Blu-ray access. Track access once you are playing a disc is very fast. One feature I really like is that it has direct track access by number on CDs, DVDs and SACDs. The Samsung could not do this, which was a small problem. The remote is large, well designed and back-lit. The player can be a little sluggish at times responding to commands from the remote. It played almost all the discs I put in it. The only disc that it would not fully play was the Elvis Presley 30 Greatest Hits DVD-Audio. It would not bring up the menu and only recognized the first six tracks. Oppo knows about this problem and hopefully fix it with a up-date. The Marantz played all 30 tracks. I played a lot of DVD-Audios because that was one of the problems noted in the beta testing. This is the only disc it had problems with.

The Picture Quality

The first thing I noticed was a very big increase in black levels. This was obvious as soon as you saw the Oppo logo screen. I had always thought that black level was almost entirely a function of the video monitor. The Oppo showed me that the player can also play a big part. It practically doubled my black level on my Sony XBR-2. The Oppo showed the Samsung to be a poser of a player, even though it is considered one of the best in picture quality. On good quality DVDs like Grande Old Opry at Carnegie Hall and Once Upon A Time in the West, the picture looked nearly HD. On Blu-Ray discs the picture was totally engrossing on good discs. On the alien ships coming to the mountain scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the picture was detailed and three dimensional even though it was in low light. On Star Gaze - Universal Beauty the star formations were more three dimensional, had more texture and a blacker background than with the Samsung. Individual star were more defined. On concert video you can see every pore on the performers face, along with every bead of sweat. It will also show that all Blu-Ray are not created equal. Good ones look great and mediocre ones come off disappointing. I would have to say that the Oppo produces the best picture I have seen. I have not had the $2500 Marantz or the $6000 + Denon in my system however. I have seen the Marantz in stores and have not been blown away. This player will make you able to look at your DVDs and enjoy your Blu-Rays to the maximum.

Audio (The Adventure Begins)

I do not presently have a HDMI 1.3 Pre-amp/Processor in my system (still anxiously waiting). On my way home from picking up the unit, I stopped by a local stereo store to test out the units HDMI audio output. The store had an Integra 9.9 preamp and a Marantz multichannel amp. The Oppo passed the new audio formats and multi-channel SACD with no problems. With an unknown system and lack of tweaking I can only say that both the audio and video were promising. The Oppo was also not broken in. My main amp was not going to be back from the manufacture for a couple of days. So I then hooked up the Oppo to my TV so test the picture quality over HDMI. The real surprise here was that the Oppo made my television sound much better than the Samsung had. It was a fairly big difference and very promising for sound. The next day I took the Oppo over to a friend’s house, to try it in his system. He was using a Pioneer Elite Combo players analog stereo outs puts to a passive preamp. We played a couple of discs on the Elite and then hooked up the Oppo. It took about 6 notes to tell the Oppo was vastly superior. It was tighter, more dynamic, more detailed, more layered, more three dimensional soundstage and much better transient ability. My friend said he would buy it for just its CD playback. We played DVDs, SACDs, CDs, DVD-Audios HDCDs and Blu-rays. All played with the same results and no problems playing them. We hooked up his Sony Front Projector via HDMI and noted a better picture on DVDs than the Elite. One thing is that the Oppo had a lot more output volume. With the Elite he would play with the volume between two and four o’clock. With the Oppo he plays it at the 9 or 10 o’clock level. He got his own unit a couple of days later and has been happy, as a clam, with it. He has even started listening to classical recordings that are now more enjoyable to listen to. He has spent days rediscovering his disc collection. A couple of days later my amp gets back and I can finally get down to my real audio testing. I hooked up the Oppo to my Outlaw 950 by the 5.1 analog outputs. I have never particularly liked the analog outputs of any player under $2000 dollars. On the $1800 Marantz I only used them for SACD and DVD-Audio outputs. The Analog outputs of the Oppo DVD player and the Samsung were basically non usable. From the very first disc I was impressed with the sound of the 83’s analog out puts. The sound was very well focused and very dynamic. There was a new sense of layering of the music. Images were better placed and more realistic. Listening to music made you just want to sit back and listen rather than review equipment. At times I just got lost in the music. Differences in recording quality were ruthlessly exposed. On Cosby, Stills and Nash Greatest Hits each song had the character of its recording session. Some were fairly good while others were mediocre. One very good thing the player did was allowing me to access the menu on Neil Young Harvest Gold DVD-A. The Marantz only allowed me to play the multichannel tract that is one of the worst mixes I have heard. With the Oppo I could get to the stereo track, which sounded very good. The Oppo allowed me to hear the lossless audio tracks on Blu-rays for the first time at full resolution. These new audio formats show some promise to take the place of SACD and DVD-A for music. The 2L Sampler and Divertimenti produce some of the best sound that I have heard on a disc. The player also does a great job with 96/24 and 192/24 discs. I really like the audio button on the remote that allows you to change audio setting without having to go to the menu. This makes comparing different audio formats on a disc very easy. I then compared the digital output of the Oppo and the Samsung. The Oppo was the better output. I then compared the digital output and the 5.1 output of the Oppo. This was a mixed bag. On CDs I felt the digital output produced a better sound most of the time. The sound of each has its own character. The 5.1 has a bigger and more forward presentation. The digital had a more pin point image, with a bigger sound stage. On DVD sound I usually preferred the 5.1 because of the Oppo’s better decoding of AV formats. At first I thought that the Marantz may have a little more detail on SACDs. I decided to even the playing field, by adding some of the tweaks that were being used with the Marantz. I first added the Avalon isolation feet. The Oppo jumped ahead of the Marantz in sound quality. My friend and I also had noted, in his system, that isolation feet made the player sound much better. I consider it very important to use isolation feet under the player to get the best sound out of the unit. I then added a Shakti Stone under the unit and another good sized improvement occurred. The Oppo was now substantially better than the Marantz. I have not been able to put a lead sheet over the Oppo, like I had the Marantz, because I ran out of shelf height. This would have probably have brought even more out of the Oppo. The tweaks are not making up for any problems in the Oppo, and work on any player. The better the player, the better the tweaks work. To calibrate my hearing I decided to go to a stereo shop that had really top equipment. The electronics were from one of the most famous high-end manufactures and included separate expensive CD drive and DAC. The speakers were one of the highest rated in the world. The system was in excess of a $100,000 dollars. The question was whether I was getting as good of sound as I thought I was. Did I get more sound quality from this very expensive system? I noted. I do not blame the equipment itself as it had many compromises. Neither the equipment nor the room were tweaked and the speakers were too big for the room. I am not saying that the Oppo is better sounding than this expensive DAC and transport. I am saying however that the Oppo is capable of putting out very good sound that can reach high-end levels.

Summary

The Oppo is a player for the people. It is affordable, especially by audiophile standards. It plays almost all audio and video media. It produces the best pictures from DVDs and Blu-rays I have seen. The analog outputs rival high-end players for sound quality. The digital outputs are as good as or better than others I have heard. It has some very nice features. To play all the formats that the Oppo plays you would have to step up to the $6000 Denon and I am not sure it would sound as better. Could you get slightly better sound out of a high-end stereo SACD and CD player? Probably, but you would have to fork out 5 to 10 times the price. You would also need to buy other players to do the other media. To get the most out of each player you would need to spend more than $500 dollars per player on tweaks (power cords, isolation feet, mass loading, Shakti stones, interconnect cables). If you have more than one multi-channel player you would need to buy a multichannel switcher also. Buying manufacture direct allows you to get more for your money, because there is no retail markup. I find the new audio formats very promising for sound. I have some hope for better sound in the future now. A few CDs can sound nearly as good as a good SACD but they are limited in number. Blu-Ray with uncompressed sound could bring us nearer audio nirvana. We can have a much better visual experience and vastly better sound than a live concert and be sitting in comfort at home. When I get my new Pre/Pro I can comment on the analog outs verses the HDMI outs for sound quality. For the first time I do not feel the need to run out and have modifications done to a player.

From this very positive review you might suspect that I have some connections to the company. My only connection with the company is admiration for a company that puts out a quality product at a reasonable price.

Very highly recommended