Universal Players vs. Dedicated CD/SACD Players

I bought a McIntosh universal player (MVP-871) and it was nothing but problems, and it was eventually replaced by an Oppo 105D. What a difference! The Oppo was truly plug and play with any type of disc. It has balanced, RCA and HDMI outputs. No, it doesn't have the beautiful green-led faceplate like my other Mac components, all it does is sound great and put out ultra clear video. To me, it seems to be the biggest value in A/V.

So, if you have only one system, including audio and video, you would be hard pressed to match the performance of the Oppo 105D at anywhere near its price. However, for headphone listening I'm using a transport and DAC combination. Things are changing so quickly that today's SOTA equipment can be tomorrow's boat anchor. But today, it's definitely Oppo!

mahler123,

I also have a Pioneer Elite BDP 09 that I use for video. The audio through the "Pure Audio" mode is great, however, initially it wouldn't play Blu-Ray until it had a firmware update. Who invents this stuff? It's like buying a car that won't run unless you take it to the dealer for the 30-60-90,000 mile tune ups. It reminds me of the "universal" players that will only play SACD, but not DVD-Audio (or the reverse). My Oppo 105D doesn't have that problem, as it plays everything!

Jafant,

No, I bought the Pioneer BDP09 used several years ago from a dentist in Connecticut. It worked great with DVDs, and I only used it recently for Blu-Ray and found it wouldn't play them. Remembering that the dentist had included about six discs, which he explained were "firmware updates", I called Pioneer and they sent me the latest firmware update disc (without charge). Now, it works great but the idea of having to regularly update the player seems ridiculous to me. I could understand if each update improved the performance, but in the case of the BDP09, it simply refused to play Blu-Ray until the update was complete. A beautiful player though!

jafant,

Incredibly, there was a Pioneer Elite BDP 09 on C***list in my area for months, at $500. The seller offered to sell it to me for $450, but it still took another month to sell it. Whoever bought it got a genuine bargain. It wasn't me since I already have one (and an Oppo 105D), but I was tempted at the ridiculous price. I paid $1100 a few years ago and thought it was a bargain then.

jafant,

Just FYI, there is a Pioneer Elite BDP09 on C***list here in the SF Bay Area for $450 (that's very low). He even offered to sell it to me for $400. If I didn't already have one I'd have jumped on it long ago. It's still there today.