OPPO BDP-95 Universal Audiophile 3D Blu-ray Disc Player

I have to admit, I've been very impressed with this product. I consider myself an "audiophile on a budget" and always try to get the best bang for the buck when I invest in audio components. Also, I suppose I'm a bit of a throwback in that I prefer two channel stereo sound over surround sound and have always preferred the warm expressive sound, imaging, and dynamic range of a good vinyl recording over digital sound. In particular the blueray player I've had connected to my Denon PMA 2000IVR has always sounded terrible playing CDs. Having demoed a few SACD players here and there and been relatively impressed, I decided to give this unit a try based on the reviews. Here are my impressions.First, the unit is very substantial and generally looks and feels like a very high quality unit, one that would be right at home in an audiophile's collection. Initially, I was a little disappointed once I had it hooked up to my amp and speakers. I tried a collection of my CDs to test out the players performance and one of my limited SACD collection. The sound quality was definitely better than my old player, but only to a minor degree and the bright, somewhat harsh sound I've come to associate with CDs was still present.As I came to discover, out of the box, this unit is not very well optimized for two channel stereo. I suppose many people will use this unit in a surround sound system, so Oppo seems to pre-configure it for this kind of setup. You have to modify some settings but the user manual and the onscreen guides make it fairly simple (I disabled the surround sound speakers, turned off automatic volume control, changed some stereo processing settings, and also modified the setting that allowed two channel audio to be processed through the "high quality DAC" mentioned in the manual). Most of these settings are under the "audio processing" menu if I recall correctly. If your really interested in exactly what I did, make a comment and I will elaborate on the exact steps.After the changes where made, I was blown away at the difference. The unit allows CDs to sound remarkably warm and musical. The dynamic range which has always been one of the sore points for CDs in my opinion is wonderful and the sound stage is as alive as anything I've heard on vinyl. I could not be more pleased. CDs sound like SACDs and SACDs (the 4 that I own!) sound sublime. I have a feeling my vinyl collection will be getting a bit dusty as I re-experience my CD library over the next few months.There were also some added bonuses that I didn't anticipate. Blueray video looks terrific, quite a bit better than my old player. Another bonus is the ability to be able to link via DNLA to my computer to play the digital collection stored there. Unfortunately, this technique doesn't seem to be compatible with the lossless flac files (although the Oppo certainly can if you burn them to disk or have a thumb drive) but I *am* able to convert those to high bit rate mp3s, and the sound quality is completely acceptable, almost indistinguishable from the CDs themselves. DNLA can be a little flaky in general if you've never used it before, but that is no fault of the Oppo. There are plenty of articles on the net about the ins and outs of DNLA that can explain the nuances way better than me. By the wya, you can also get netflix and other streaming channels. Netflix looks pretty good but the initial video buffering can cause the initial for seconds of any video to look a little pixlated. I consider these all bonuses though and the outstanding sound quality is why I rank this buy 5 stars.

Here recently I have been in the position to acquire some really nice equipment for my home audio/visual system. I picked up some Polk RTi A9's, CSi A6, and a Infinity Entra base. I have Bose 701's in the back (purchased in 2002 by way of a double blind comparison, the sales person didn't know which speakers switching was done by a third party)those speakers have always been great as long as I positioned them correctly. The reciever an Onkyo TX-NR5009 and the monitor is a Toshiba 55 inch LED/LCD. OK so I have some nice equipment to really get a sence of how this Oppo 95 really does. Running the 95 in digital audio and visual (HDMI)is great DTS-Master and Dolby HD are incredible. I listen to a lot of Bluray concerts and movies; the sound and picture quality are great. I also have a Samsung C-6500 Bluray player. Is the oppo95 better; yes, but not overly so not like Oh my God what have I been missing. Am I glad I spent a grand;HDMI,eh...ya.I finally set up the analog 7.1 and it is indeed a very different experience. This is not to say better, just a very different "presence." Understand that all of my equipment is very nice; no weak links (any more) as such nothing stands out as vastly superior. THis may be a duh statement but analog is a direct analog signal path, no processing such as DTS or Dolby. The reciever simply says "Direct."I am listening to the Eric Clapton Guitar Festival 2010 Bluray and man this is as good as it gets IMO. I've listened to it on my Samsung (digital), the Oppo95 in both digital and analog, through my computer's sound card (Halo XT) and Nvidia GTX 580. Yep, a lot of redundency. Every system is good, probably good enough. Each as its own "presence." My latest platform, this Oppo95 in analog (7.1), is different, is real neat and a truly different sonic experience that I have never encountered prior to today. I am pleased with my purchase and I would do it again. BTW, Oppo is very nice to deal with and immediately responsive even on the weekend. In summary, no this player does not stand head and shoulders above all else I have in my system. It is nice and the build quality is a definitely several cutts above the Samsung as it should be at 6 times the cost. It all come down to your personal decision, but if you do I don't think you will regret it Oh ya the Oppo 105 is on its way out sometime in the next few months, the big difference is a more advanced GUI and internet capacity. It will also function as an external DAC if you don't already have one (which I do). I have heard people complain about the fan noise; give me a break! I'm thinking about using a more powerful one if it will work (I will discuss it with Oppo) I have two 140's cooling my Onkyo. High output equipment that is driven at it capability PRODUCES HEAT! don't be afraid to cool it, it will live longer.