Oppo Digital Universal Player = the best for $149?
Tom Martin -- Tue, 07/25/2006 - 08:07
I've heard that the Oppo Digital DV 970 HD SACD, CD and DVD-A player can hang with the best in the business for $149. This probably isn't quite true, but does anyone have experience with this player? What do you think?
By all accounts, it is extraordinary. We have a short review of the Oppo in Issue 70 of The Perfect Vision, and a longer review planned for The Absolute Sound. It's a little lightweight in the bass, but is a giant-killer through the rest of the spectrum. It has terrific video, with HDMI output, to boot.
Robert Harley
Editor-in-Chief
The Perfect Vision
The Absolute Sound
The Oppo is a serious contender for not much money. It's a trend that bodes well for music and movie lovers with tight budgets.
Barry Willis
I got one last week. It was the replacement of my ten year old twenty inch TV with a thirty two inch LCD that left my non-upconverting DVD player very wanting. I recalled the buzz about the Oppo and ordered it.
I'm not a videophile and can only say it sure was a tremendous step up from my previous player. While using it as a transport for my DAC1 I did hook up the RCA outs, out of curiosity. Initially redbook sounded unfatiguing but fairly veiled, less holographic than the DAC1 with a noted increase in sibilance. This DAC1 is not of the most recent incarnation and I was fretting a bit about it's upcoming absence as it heads back for the $50 upgrade. Yesterday I listened via the RCA outputs again and thought it much better than a week ago. I don't usually bring "burn-in" into the equation but I'm looking forward to getting home and giving the Oppo a good listen again with a range of material.
The Oppo has gotten better. Sibilance is gone as is a raggedness at the top. It is tough to compare as the output between the Oppo and DAC1 are of different volumes. Compensating with remote by ear, the Oppo is really pretty good. The DAC1 is more articulate of items and more holographic, the Oppo is altogether softer in presentation. But when listening with the Oppo it never occurs that there is anything lacking in any way. Only when switching to the DAC1 is it revealed that there is more information available. How important that information is I'll find out as I no longer have any hesitation with being stuck with the Oppo when the DAC1 is off getting upgraded. Actually, I'm looking forward to experiencing all my usual favourites presented in this softer light, rather than that which I've become accustomed to by the sometimes too knowledgeable cartographer that is the DAC1.
I own two OPPO DVD players. I am extremely happy with its vedeo and audio performance. It plays everything that I put into it.
SiliconValley2 wrote:It plays everything that I put into it.It'll even play stuff you don't put into it! :lol:
Play a SACD that should not have gaps between songs such as Dark Side of the Moon and the Oppo will put the gaps in. D'oh! :shock:
I'll be playing with it trying to wring out as much as possible from it. The drawer is frightfully flimsy to behold but the player is quiet and fast so....
For $150 I just can't scold it too harshly for its quirks.
Having owned one since it first came out, here are my assessments of the Oppo. As Robert Hartley said in his post, bass is a bit light but the rest of the spectrum is in line with other players I have owned or heard that costs several times than the Oppo. What the Oppo really lacks for me is a sense of depth to the presentation and a lesser extent, subtle information that is missing vs. high-end players in the over $1000 range on Redbook CDs. What I did to compensate for this in the Oppo was try pairing it with various DACs that I had available to try and compare. It was interesting to find that only mid to higher priced DACs created an improved sound to the Oppo. Using less expensive DACs like the ones made in China or even the MSB LinkDACIII didn't make much, if any, positive changes to my ears. Only when I used a Benchmark DAC1 or the Channel Islands Audio VDA-2 DAC did the Oppo open up and create the depth and detail associated with a high-priced player on Redbook CDs. Listening to SACD and DVD-A discs, the Oppo can compete with even high-priced universal players which pleasantly surprised me. Video performance is excellent. I compared it to the least expensive Toshiba HD player and compared upscale performance. I used a standard DVD movie and upscaled the video and for me the Oppo seemed to be a bit visually better than the Toshiba on my Mitsubishi DLP TV. My home theater includes Magnepan IIIa mains and rears, an Eminent Technology center channel, Velodyne HGS sub and Parasound separates.
I've had a great deal of experience with Oppo's DV-970HD (I wrote the TPV and TAS reviews of the player), but have always been aware that, for some, it presented a dilemma.
On one hand, the DV-970HD was unquestionably Oppo's best-sounding player, but on the other hand Oppo's OPDV971H was generally thought to offer better video performance (in part because the OPDV971H offered DCDi processing by Faroudja).
I thought forum participants might be interested to know that Oppo has just released a new "best of both worlds" player called the DV-981HD ($229). It has all the audio goodness of the DV-970HD, yet has DCDi processing by Faroudja, and it supports 720p, 1080i and 1080p unconversion. The new player's SACD user controls are somewhat more straightforward than those found on the DV-970HD.
I've been playing with a sample of the new DV-981HD for several weeks now, and feel it could be the perfect solution for those who found it hard to chose between Oppo's first two players.
One word of caution, though: The DV-981HD has composite, S-Video, and HDMI outputs but no component video outputs (a strange decision on Oppo's part, I feel, but there you have it). Nevertheless, it's an awfully capable little player for just $229. The fun/$ ratio is off the charts.
Best,
Chris Martens
TPV/TAS
Chris Martens
Editor, Avguide.com/Playback/The Perfect Vision
Nice reviews they were too Chris.
:D
I've got a 970 and it is a very, very good affordable universal disc player.
Musically it is a bit rough around the edges and not as dimensional as my regular CDP but still enjoyable.
Video performance I found it didn't quite live up to the online hype.
Feeding a Pioneer PDP-504 plasma I found best picture quality was with raw 480i/576i over HDMI.
Using video upscaling would washout the colour and reduce black and white levels. Like viewing through a sepia filter.
Upscaling also locks the aspect ratio to 16:9, not ideal when watching 4:3 material, as the Pioneer doesn't display raw 4:3 correctly.
The only other gripe is the Oppo falters a little when displaying PAL signals in Auto mode.
Have you guys looked at the Cambridge Audio DVD89 yet ?
This is an Oppo 970 with better build and cosmetics.
Sounds better with a warmer, smoother balance.
I preferred the DVD89 over the Cambridge 640 v1.
Video performance over HDMI was sharper but more artifact prone than the 970.
So it's Oppo for video, Cambridge for sound.
I know the Oppo claims to have 480/720/1080 output, but the review I think Chris Martin wrote a few issues back when PV compared DVD players, claimed that when he hit the display button all he got was "a circle with a line through it" indicating an error? After reading that review it seemed as though who ever the tester was, left very unimpressed.
I guess I would like some clarification since the Oppo was rated lower than I think the Denon DVD player in the same price range (8's across the board). Forgive me if my facts are a little off but I am doing this from memory.
Are you basing your current impressions on further testing? OR ARE YOU INCORPORATING THE dvd PLAYERS multiplt format capability into the rating on this forum? I just want to know how it performs as a DVD player I guess and if its new older bro (981) is worth it too
To change resolution you have to have the player in "stop" mode, try changing on-the-fly and you'll get the circle with line error symbol.
981 is the latest model.
The older model was the 971.
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