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

Showing 5 responses by dbphd

avgoround writes, "picture quality alone (which, btw, should be the only real thing that matters for a Bluray player)"

I suspect he hasn't heard music Blu-rays with DTS MA HD or Dolby True HD; in fact, I suspect his experience with the video or audio of an Oppo 105 is nil, and that his posts are just rantings.

db
Tim

I've been experimenting with SE and XLR connections from an Oppo 105 and Sony XA5400ES to a Parasound JC-2 analog stereo preamp -- I need the preamp for the CD/SACD players and a JC-3 phono stage. When I switch between SE and XLR while a disc is playing on the Oppo, the sound is continuous even though the light on the JC indicates the input was switched, no level nor quality change.

When I do the same routine with the Sony, the level is higher for SE than XLR, presumably because of impedance, but if there is a quality change it's too subtle for me to detect.

I concluded that superb sound is available with either the Oppo or Sony with either SE or XLR. The connections are short; the JC-2 output goes to Proceed HPA amps that drive KEF Reference 107.2s; the surround and SW channels go directly from the Oppo to HPA amps and Velodyne SMS-1s.

db
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
Both our 95 and 105 stream Netflix (and several other services we haven't used) from our WiFi network, and the 105 can take high quality stereo from sources like HD Tracks from our Mac Mini via its asynchronous USB port. The 105 also provides superior analog for our DirecTV HD-DVR via an HDMI connection. So even if it doesn't play a single disc, the 105 earns its keep, but, of course, it plays many kinds of discs very well. They also function as processors in our setups, with Velodyne SMS-1s providing ARC in the critical sub range.

db