What's the best Blu-Ray player for 300.-350.

Myraj
On paper sony and reviewers more or less state that, but no the S550 has a substantially heavier structured chassis and transport… IN the box of the S550 you get the USB card included… And even though the S350 is listed as 2.0 profile capable, that’s exactly it, its "Capable" but I guess you have to go and get a USB card and do the firmware updates as it will not be setup out of the box. There is little info on this but seems to be true…

Beyond that they both seem to deep color mode if your display is capable which mostly you need a pretty advanced and new panel to do it, and both have options to actually change your Data out if using the coax or toslink to priority settings and picking 16/48 or 24/96 format…

Other than that the S550 is even a little faster loading, but I don't know if this is simply due to it has the Blu ray 2.0 profile firmware already loaded or not, but I assume even though this is for online menus etc.. that it could be effecting the Blu ray disc load menu as well.. Not sure..

Oh and the S550 has a nice Backlight on the remote, the s350 does not.. So there are a few upscale features just in build and performance it seems beyond just the true HD surround 7.1 modes etc… Also the Entire S550 body is coated in a Very thick and hardened Piano laquer finish (Think Pioneer Elite series) and the S350 is in the basic generic black chip paint. The S550 is a taller and heavier unit however, so for compact and basically the same video performance the S350 may be better for some..

For those looking into the all out performance and the perks of better build (quieter transport) etc… The S550 does that as a nice step up, but obviously is not really marketed that way. Also as you state the S550 does have 7.1 analog outputs, however also has capability of all the newer surround true dolby etc. formats native to blu ray, the s350 does not decode this HDMI OR ANalog.

Congrads to Mcroth66 .His 1st Post on AGon. After lurking for many many years.8 plus years ?A very knowledgable guy with "Golden Ears". Uncle J

Not wanting to start an SACD thread. Just saying that if he has never heard SACD it would be a great OPPOrtunity for him to check it out. Will SACD replace CD? Probably not. IMO SACD it is the best digital format at this time and can be a lot of fun making comparisons. At this point you can search through almost 6,000 SACD titles and find some really good deals, on line of course. Also Blue Note and MoFi are coming out with several new releases on SACD. SACD might not survive simply because not enough people care about that type of sound quality, but it will be a niche market for some time to come (vinyl?).

In regards to Sony not including SACD on the lasest Blu Ray player, I believe it was strictly a cost decision. Sony needed to stay around the $300 price range during these tough economic times. It's all about sales. Sony's lastest SACD player was the SCD-XA5400ES. It was just released a few months ago. Two differnt machines.

Having said that, if SACD means nothing to you then by all means look into the S550. But if you think you might enjoy a wonderful fulfilling digital format called SACD, then I would wait for the Oppo and then make your decision.

Why thank you Uncle J!

Mcroth66
Again that was my exact point driven home… No point of waiting or paying more for a pretty much underground format that has been around for 10 years if you don't own an extensive collection.. Which by the way I am a huge oppo supporter, also was a SACD adaptor, but now in the end you can see where all this is going.. Part of the issue is that in fact if you are big on SACD you already have or can have a killer player or you would not be that highly invested in the format, and guess what Oppos SACD aint all that great, unless you go and do a mystical modded machine available from the various modders out on this site and dump another 1000 bucks to do their recommended advancements into these 300 dollar transports! So from my point of view if your already a OPPO 983 owner, keep it and get a damn good blu ray machine calling it a day, because I can tell you right now most of oppos sales will be based on somebody owning the 983 machine and coming back wanting it all in one again… That’s just silly if your on the consumer end of it!

Interesting thing is that in fact somewhere I read even under their breath oppo would not have even released the 983 had 3 months later they known blu ray would win. Even as we SPEAK you can go on the used sites including this one and see a bunch more 983 units coming up for sale, probably due to a 50 - 50 split of they are either A- gearing up to go and spend double on the new Oppo machine with blu ray to keep up with the jones, or B - because they have finally gone out and seen the capability of Blu ray and decided they will no longer invest in standard DVD…

Which in fact is the next issue that most have put all their stock into oppo over the past 4 or 5 years because nobody had a better upscalling machine to 480p, 720p, or 1080p so it had a good market, but I am here to say don't worry about that, because not only does the new sony machines blow the doors of standard DVD with blu ray, but does the Standard DVD picture as good as the oppo for the most part so you lose nothing. That being said if you need an all in one universal and definitely can not live with having 2 machines on your Rack being one for SACD and standard DVD if you choose and another for blu ray, by all means wait it out and buy a far more expensive player…But even at that point for most today I would HIGHLY recommend staying away from the universal machine because you would be far better serving yourself with an even better sounding stand alone SACD - CD player if your that highly invested in it, and a Good Blu ray player which probably will cost you no more than the new oppo.

There is only 2 reasons most would wait on the oppo to pay for it at this point, 1- the need for upscalling pristine standard DVD playback and fear no other machine due to trust oppo has gained can do it, and 2- because they really NEED SACD and possibly DVD-A which is completely gone much like HD-DVD and in fact supposedly the new Oppo might just drop DVD-A all together but seems to promise keeping SACD on board.

Just my opinion as I have seen the scurry and rush many times now of people wasting time and money especially on audiogon reselling these machines almost overnight!