| OPPO
BDP-95 Universal Audiophile Blu-ray
Player REVIEW
Reprinted with permission from the
Lens-View website located
HERE
The OPPO BDP-95 Universal Audiophile
Blu-ray Disc Player is here. It’s $999. Not cheap.
There’s another new OPPO, the BDP-93, for half the price. A
tour of the specs for both players reveals that the 95 has
all the latest functionality – same as the 93 - e.g. Netflix
and Blockbuster Internet streaming,
Blu-ray 3D compatibility, DVD-Audio, SACD &
Blu-ray Music Disc capability.
Add to this that both players use the same Qdeo Marvell
Kyoto-G2 video processor. So what’s with the extra $500!
The short answer is the BDP-95‘s SABRE32 Reference ES9018
DACs and the Rotel Toroidal Power Supply that supports the
analogue audio section once the digital side of the player
has done its job converting the audio to analogue. And to
put the icing on that cake, the 95 has a pair of dedicated
stereo XLR outputs to deliver analogue music from CDs,
SACD’s DVD-Audio and Blu-ray
Music Discs. OPPO makes a big deal out of its analogue
section, adding that although the BDP-95 shares the same
playback platform as the BDP-93, it is designed from the
ground up with a different chassis and many different
components optimized for the analog audio performance.
For all practical purposes, the BDP-93 uses much the same
audio section as the BDP-83, but with an improved video
processor and updated functionality. The BDP-95 is the same
video player as the 93 (with all its functionality) but
takes the audio improvements of the 83-SE a step forward.
Whether that’s a “step” or a “leap” depends on your playback
equipment. The improvement in audio performance is apparent
IF, and only if, the rest of your playback system is up to
the task of making good on those improvements. And, quite
frankly, most aren’t. But, then, the BDP-95 isn’t targeted
for those who dump their HDMI into a TV or cheap surround
receiver or just about any manufacturer’s integrated
surround sound receiver/speaker system. If this means you,
then read no further. Be honest, now, because $500 buys a
tank of gas and a lot of software.
OPPO promises that the BDP-95 will deliver better audio and
video than what you probably have, even if it’s an OPPO. We
shall see. Let’s start with a comparison of operational
functions against the BDP-83.
OPERATIONS
Right out of the box, we find a heftier, taller player,
whose input and output connectors are all sleeved in
protective plastic. A nice touch. The AC cord is more
substantial than with the BDP-83, though this is more window
dressing than not. On the other hand, the AC outlet is now
3-pronged for better grounding. The faceplate is new,
subtler, more confident. Speaking of which, OPPO seems to
have complete confidence in the remote they had assigned to
the BDP-8x series, for it is here again with identical
functionality. In fact, you can use your old remote
mindlessly in place of the new one if you like. The drawer
mechanism is smoother, and the entire operation is quieter,
including fan noise.
We found that loading and searching is about the same as
with the BDP-83, which is very short, indeed. One thing you
might notice is that the 95 makes curious faint switching
sounds as it goes through the various disc loading and menu
searching operations, which OPPO attributes to its mute
relays that function to mute potential audio glitches and
pops that might occur when a user starts playback for the
first time or switches between disc formats. OPPO adds:
“Lower end players use transistors to perform the same
function. Transistors are electronic parts and make no
sound. Relays offer a higher audio quality and that’s why
the BDP-95 uses them. Many high-end A/V receivers also have
this type of clicking sound when switching inputs or
changing signal formats for the same reason.”
The basic topography and functioning remains much the same
as the BDP-83. The back panel is sensibly laid out, except
that the labels for the audio outputs are below rather than
above the connector, which makes it very difficult to see
exactly who’s who and what’s what once you’ve made the
connection. If, like me, you connect up by peering over the
top of the unit, the only way you can check to see if you’ve
installed the cables correctly is to look at the diagram and
count outputs. You can’t miss the XLR connectors which make
for a dedicated stereo pair for 2-channel analogue
reproduction.
Internet connectivity is also provided, but neither that
function, BD-Live and other Internet streaming, nor 3D
capability are addressed in this review.
CRITICAL AXIOMS
You can’t help but notice that I provide no measurements or
graphs. There are other reviewers who find them useful. I
don’t. I dwell on this because it has everything to do with
how I evaluate audio and video components and systems. In
any case, there is always a place for subjective criticism,
and that’s what you’ll find here.
There are three well-known rules in audio criticism that
apply to a lesser, but still consequential way to video.
The first rule is that measurements do not reveal very much
- at least not to the end user, and can very easily
misinform. There is a thinly veiled assumption that what we
measure is relevant to the experience of listening to music
or watching a movie on video. As of this writing, we have no
reliable way to measure the effects of a recorded music
performance or video movie on the listener.
The second rule is a variation on the adage that you can’t
make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Or: garbage-in,
garbage-out. Ergo, if one’s source component (LP, CD, DVD or
Blu-ray player), is
compromised, the rest of the playback chain will fail to
make music or the movie intended by the filmmakers. And
unless the rest of the chain is without blemish you will
learn little about the component you are evaluating. Worse,
you may draw the wrong conclusions.
The third rule is that a good internal signal transferring
or processing component can be made worthless by careless
management. Thus, a merely fair transformer, processor, or
digital-to-analogue converter in a well designed circuit can
have better results than a brilliant component in a poorly
designed circuit. Location. Location. Location.
THE EQUIPMENT
I begin, therefore, with a strong bias toward subjective
evaluation. And to get there with the minimum of fuss or
disagreement I use only the finest ingredients (borrowed in
some instances for this evaluation - thank you, Nick) and
the most experienced tasters. The amplifier at the heart of
this audio system, I am fond of saying, is good enough that
a deaf person can hear the difference between two masterings
of the same recording from another room with the water
running. The speakers are matched to the amplifier for
accuracy, maximum dynamic contrast and relative absence of
coloration.
The projector is, alas, last year’s darling though, in its
day, quite the bomb. I have since seen better from the same
company. Damn! Ditto for my video screen, which has
incredible value for the money, though I have seen better
for thousands more. More to the point of this evaluation, if
they reveal differences between one player and another then
it will have sufficed, if not to the nth degree. If your
projector, display or screen is better than mine, then you
can reliably expect your results to be that much better.
Projection:
Projector: JVC RS10 1080p DILA
Screen: 104 inch diagonal : Ultra Grey Goo Video Paint on
Sintra
Video:
Blu-ray Player: OPPO BDP-83 &
BDP-95
Audio Processor Preamplifier: Integra DTC 9.8
Audio:
DVD Player: OPPO BDP-83
Audio Note DAC1 (2006) & DAC3 (2009)
Audio Note M3 Preamplifier (2010)
Audio Note Ongaku 211 Amplifier (Japan/1998)
Audio Note Baransu 300B Amplifier (UK/2005)
Audio Note AN-E SE/Signature Speakers (2009)
Audio Note AN-K speakers (surrounds/1998)
Audio Note AN-Vx & Zx pure silver interconnect and speaker
wire
I imagine that Audio Note is not a brand name familiar to
most of my readers - or if familiar, it is by name only.
Suffice to say that all of our panelists spent many hours
with the OPPO BDP-83 and have ears-on experience with Audio
Note components and systems and understand their
contribution. (End of plug.)
The Tasting Panel
As is my practice with subjective evaluations of audio and
home theatre systems, I invite people to weigh in who have
in common a love of film and music, and come with a varied
technical and practical background. In general, my comments
throughout this review reflect a consensus of my seven
panelists but I will fold in individual comments where
appropriate.
AUDIO
The first thing you will want to know is that you aren’t
likely to already own a surround sound processor with DACs
as good as the BDP-95’s SABRE’s which, unfortunately makes
half of your processor redundant. Correction: make that
“useless.”
The BDP-95 has two HDMI outputs (only one of which is
preceded by the Marvell processor), but it is folly in my
opinion to use one for video and the other for audio.
Fortunately a good surround processor will incorporate a
workaround in the form of “multi-channel inputs” or some
such nomenclature. So all you need do is send your already
decoded, properly formatted and converted analogue signal
via high quality interconnects to the appropriate inputs on
your processor and let it act as traffic cop for
distribution to your 5.1 or 7.1 amplifiers and speakers.
Once you’ve sorted out the surround balance, your surround
processor will maintain master volume control, and you’re
all set. (There is a volume control on the OPPO remote but
you will want to avoid its use if you want the best sound,
so keep it set at “100” where it is effectively bypassed.)
Let’s look for a
moment at OPPO’s toroidal power supply. The function of a
power supply is to supply the necessary low DC voltages
needed for the circuity to operate. The BDP-83, 83-SE and
93, like most other DVD and Blu-ray
players, use switching power supplies with regulating
transistors that are switched on and off very fast to
produce the voltage from the AC. They are cheap, small, very
efficient and lightweight. However, they rely on complex
circuits to supply the regulating transistors with the
correct switching voltage, and they produce a byproduct of
electrical noise that can leak into sensitive audio and
video circuits.
Transformer-based power supplies on the other hand, although
they are less efficient and more expensive, are much
quieter. Using a toroidal power transformer results in much
less magnetic leakage and 60 Hz mechanical vibration
compared to more conventional (E-I type) transformers, and
none of the noise problems associated with switching
supplies. The toroidal transformer can be constructed to be
relatively short and fat and therefore fit neatly into a
case the size of the BDP-95. Other than this there is
nothing particularly remarkable about the “toroidal” aspect
of the design. Laminated E- and C-core transformers are
significantly better with readily perceived sonic
advantages, but are larger and more costly. All of these
solutions assume, of course, that whatever transformers are
employed are carefully designed to start with and properly
configured in the power supply. My tech guru, Nick Gowan of
True Sound in Campbell, California (whose contribution to my
theoretical and practical understanding of circuits is
hereby acknowledged as are his observations as part of the
evaluation panel), gives the BDP-95’s power supply high
marks for using an expensive high quality toroidal
transformer where it matters.
Digital vs. Analogue Audio Performance
I am one of those dinosaurs who do not find CDs particularly
agreeable. They are, pretty much across the board, a less
involving medium than LPs, for all of the older medium’s
foibles. I have a small library of CDs. I don’t take them
seriously as music, but they come in handy. The only CD
player I’ve heard that made music and gave the LP a run for
its money cost $150,000 - and worth every penny of it. It’s
called “The Fifth Element” - probably because in both
performance and cost, it’s astronomical, perhaps even
godlike.
OPPO acknowledges that in the BDP-95 they have not addressed
transport issues such as clocking or jitter, so we were not
surprised to find no differences between the 95 and the 83
when a CD/PCM data stream fed the same outboard converter.
Bottom line here is that as a transport there any number of
vehicles out there that are better, but that to achieve the
level of performance of the BDP-95 as a complete player
you’d have to spend 4 or 5 times the money.
CD/SACD/PCM
As for the tried and accepted CD medium, we listened to
fair-good ones, very good ones and CDs of music whose
recordings were compromised to start with (transcriptions of
78s, and early rock ‘n’ roll, for example). The BDP-95 so
clearly bettered the 83 in this area, we quickly moved on to
more challenging fare. My Audio Note DAC1, while pretty good
at its price (about $1900) and in its day five years ago
pissed all over the 83, whether using the player’s onboard
DACs or in PCM mode, allowing my Integra DTC 9.8 to do the
conversion to analogue.
In the present comparison, the 95 was connected for both PCM
and analogue output. In PCM mode the signal was first sent
to the DAC1 before making its way to my Audio Note M3
preamplifier. Here there were differences but not a clear
winner. Most of the panel was inclined to give it to the 95
on points. But when my DAC1 went up against the BDP-95 using
its DACs straight into my amplifier, the conclusion was
obvious: the 95 was clearer, better resolved, more dynamic
and more open. The difference was not huge huge, but it was
easily perceived. When we performed the same experiment with
the Audio Note DAC3/sig and CDT-Two/II transport (over
$10,000 combined) then the decision went the other way by a
greater margin even though the 95 has what are presumed to
be better DACs on board. This should not come as a surprise
since the 95’s transport is not nearly as good, the DAC3 has
a significantly better power supply and every component part
within is of a higher grade.
I might add, in the interest of full disclosure that none of
us felt that the BDP-95 actually made music that could be
seriously enjoyed for the length of a disc, unlike the
CDT-Two/II / DAC3, which at least kept a couple of our
panelists interested for as long. But keep in mind we are an
extremely difficult audience that do not represent the
general public who would, we believe, be perfectly happy
with the BDP-95, even if hours earlier they could be found
to be listening to MP3 without embarrassment.
Moving on to more densely populated plastic media, we see
that the the BDP-95 permits reading of whatever mixes exist
on the disc - Multi-Channel, Stereo and CD - but in most
cases can only be accessed through the navigation set-up
window on your TV display. OPPO was kind enough to include
2L’s multi-channel reference sampler “The Nordic Sound” for
us to use in this evaluation. “The Nordic Sound” is 2-disc
affair whose nineteen eclectic music tracks (two of which
come from Grammy winning albums for multi-channel sound)
appear in [a] SACD 5.1 surround or 2.0 stereo @ 2.8224 Mbit/sec/ch,
and 2.0 stereo 16 bit/44.1 kHz (DVD), and [b]
Blu-ray in two 5.1 versions:
DTS HD-MA and LPCM 24/192kHz. The tracks are selectable on
the fly with the colored buttons on the remote. The 2L discs
are handy for an unbiased comparison of the two media, and
you might be surprised which you prefer so try them all
without prejudice.
Piano and voice - solo or chorus - in particular, is shown
off to very good advantage, while orchestral ensembles are
just a bit screechy. As expected, the Gregorian Chant track
is totally enveloping and luscious. The harp and strings
excerpt (#4) is as delicate as the chant piece exceeds the
boundaries of your listening space. The Bartok solo violin
sonata, however, seemed uncharacteristically harsh, even for
this composer. We all got through the disc without drifting
off which for us is something of a victory for the medium.
All the same, our panel was divided: While everyone agreed
that the sound was a great improvement over the 83
regardless of configuration, three panelists felt the 5.1
sound to be unsettling, some tracks more than others. They
opined that this might have been due to the multi-channel
nature of the 2L SACD recordings, since the two-channel
renderings were found to be less disorienting, if also less
interesting. They thought that their reaction was in large
part due to the unfamiliar nature of a multi-channel milieu
that placed the listener in the middle of things rather than
at the end of a concert hall. One of our panelists brought a
handful of his own 2-channel SACDs which proved to be
pleasant enough, if not nearly as dynamic or “realistic” as
LPs in general. My own feeling was that the 2.0 versions of
the tracks on both discs were more nuanced even if they gave
up some in airiness.
You don’t have to read very deeply between the lines to get
past my underselling of the BDP-95 in regards its ability to
recover bits of music form plastic media. While its
performance in this area can hardly be considered its strong
point, most people who aren’t nearly as critical as this
panel will accept the player with open ears. For the value,
and considering the damn thing plays
Blu-ray movie movies like nobody’s business, as we
shall see presently, I doubt you can find better.
HIGH-DEFINITION AUDIO
I imagine that this is the area that most potential buyers
will be keen to hear about. So let me say from the outset
that the OPPO BDP-95 met and exceeded my expectations and
hopes for improvement as compared with the BDP-83 - meaning
that I was able to completely and usefully bypass the
digital-to-analogue conversion function of my surround sound
processor.
And now for the good bad news: There is one downside to
improved accuracy, especially with movie soundtracks.
Soundtracks violate just about every real-world expectation
imaginable. They do this deliberately, calculatingly,
manipulatively. And the more accurate your playback, the
more readily you will hear what soundscape designers are up
to. I believe it is not their intention for the listener to
hear how they do what they do, but merely to sweep us off
our feet. It’s much the same as how the high-definition
image reveals more detail than you would ever see or wish to
see in the theater. In short, the OPPO BDP-95 applies a
microscope at the visual and sonic level so acute that the
home theatre is converted into an entirely different medium
for watching movies than was ever imagined by the
filmmakers. I say this up front so that you should not be
alarmed when you start to hear (and see) things that seem
disproportional.
Proportion and balance aside, there are gains that cannot be
overstressed. A few examples:
One of the most telling is Universal’s new
Les Misérables 25th Anniversary Concert which, on
the BDP-83, with or without the AN DAC1, sounded shrill and
compressed. With the BDP-95 feeding the amplifiers directly
from its analogue outputs, the orchestra opened up, the
voices found their chest tone, the choruses had power. An
emotional connection was found at last. True, the sound
engineers would fiddle with balances to distracting levels
with each change of scene or group of singers, but if you
could get past that, there was excitement to be had. On
Blu-ray after
Blu-ray, when the audio had
been felt to be gnarly on the BDP-83, it became glorious on
the 95.
Up to a point, the worse the audio was yesterday, the
healthier it seemed today. But the BDP-95 will give new life
to your demonstration library as well.
The DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix on
Baraka struck some of us as entirely new, so open
and dynamic and rich with previously hidden nuance and
dynamics. The bass here as with every soundtrack we played
(even on Dolby Digital surround mixes. e.g. from
The Aviator Blu-ray
and
The Paranoids DVD) had more authority: deeper, more
solid, more tuneful in some cases (as on Baraka), more open
- so that it did not gobble up nearby lower tones as did the
83 (in the sonic equivalent of black crush).
A particularly good example of how well formed the bass
could be is found under the opening credits for
Sweeney Todd with its whacking good drum and low
brass thrusts over the organ. Great effects mixes are
nothing short of revelatory: the garbage incinerator scene
in
Toy Story 3, the opening 18-wheeler duel in
Fast and the Furious and the engine warm-up in
Tokyo Drift, the explosive, ever-changing immersive
soundscape of Cloverfield and the enveloping
rainstorm of the 2008 Rambo. We ducked for cover when
banging doors and clattering kitchenware attacked Christine
in her house in
Drag Me to Hell; we sat in awe of Danny Boyle’s
overpowering but never overbearing
Sunshine, and gripped our seats during the
staggering T-Rex fight scene in Peter Jackson’s
King Kong - to name a few that put the new player
through its paces. It’s like hearing them for the first time
all over again - only more so, more nuanced, more dynamic,
scarier, sweeter, more powerful.
On a more subtle note, it will be of interest to some of you
that dialogue has been given a boost in clarity such that
those with hearing losses might be able to disengage the
subtitles. How often do we groan when actors mumble their
way through a scene, in character, perhaps? It was clear to
me how rarely I would need to replay a scrap of dialogue, or
worse: bring up the subtitles. Hmmm - a good reason to
consider the BDP-95 even if your playback is of only average
quality.
VIDEO: DVD
There may be no DVD more difficult or more rewarding to
track and upscale than 20th Century Fox’s 50th Anniversary
Edition of
The King and I. Fox supplies an excellent DVD image
to start with (the audio sucks, but it seems you can’t have
everything, not in 1956), and I have often used it - along
with “All You Need is the Girl” from Warner’s 2009
Gypsy, “I’m the Greatest Star” from Sony’s anamorphic
issue of Funny Girl, and, of course, The “Broadway
Melody” sequence from
Singin’ in the Rain - to demo just how good DVD can
look. There are two places in
The King and I that will make any processor cry
“uncle.” The first occurs in chapters 6 and 7 when Anna
first enters the palace to meet the king. Keeping intact the
subtle colors, ornate lines and textures of the walls as
Anna’s huge puffy skirt wafts through the hall is hard to
make out through the mild judder that is still present, but
the BDP-95 succeeds to an extent where the 83 loses its way.
That first master shot of the throne room with the king at
one end and his audience kowtowed around him is riveting.
With the BDP-95, there’s hardly a line or shape out of
joint. Colors remain true in that wonderfully pastel way
that this movie’s art direction is when it wants to be. For
a moment, it’s a painting.
Keep your eye on the decorations of Lun Tha’s jacket as he
moves, turns and exits; also the king’s shiny pearl buttons
against his black shirt. With a lesser processor the
geometric shapes of Lun Tha’s beautiful garment will lose
their integrity, and the king’s buttons will shimmer even as
he just sits there. Once in motion, as when the king turns
to face Anna, and especially in a medium long shot where
there isn’t much for the processor to grab hold of, any
processor less than the Marvell could not help but give off
a few of those telltale jaggies. It’s not like the 95 nails
every button or moving shape no matter what, but the
difference between the 83 and the 95 in this scene is
something to behold.
The other major problematic scene in
The King and I is just about anywhere during the
jaw-droppingly gorgeous and relentlessly inventive “Uncle
Tom’s Cabin,” which offers dozens of impossible hurdles.
Once situated at her recital position, Tuptim is seen in
medium shot along with her musicians. We see that her collar
is laced with precious stones of various colors never before
made apparent. “Eva’s Escape” is death to processors:
Once the “rain” is thrown onto the dancers, already moving
this way and that with costumes and silks of reds, golds,
oranges, greens and blues, it’s all over. Look again with
the 95. It’s enough to take the breath. I won’t claim that
The King and I DVD has miraculously turned into
Blu-ray, but I can attest to
its fooling anyone who isn’t looking to be critical.
The “Broadway Melody” ballet from
Singin’ in the Rain is probably the most vivid live
action color sequence on DVD, exquisitely preserved by
Warner in their 2-disc Special Edition. Thanks to MGM’s art
direction and the BDP-95, it beats all to hell many a
Blu-ray for sheer
mouth-watering eye candy. All those bold slashes of color
and nuanced detail are so stunningly revealed, you won’t
want to play anything else for an hour while your brain
tries to make sense of it all. The spectre of a
Blu-ray of this movie is a
fearsome thought.
Classic Black & White movies from the late 1930s through the
early 60s especially are known for their breath of tonal
scale and their dimensionality. They are imbued with a
reach-out-and-touch-it quality that few color movies from
any period possess. Our interest in using such films on DVD
for comparison is one of the trickier and more subjective
pieces of evaluation. Here we’re not looking for errors;
we’re looking for involvement, seduction. We want the
experience to transport me convincingly, compellingly, into
another reality. We employ some of the best B&W transfers to
DVD, among them:
Citizen Kane,
Now Voyager,
Only Angels Have Wings,
Sunset Blvd.,
Ordet,
Rebecca,
La Dolce Vita.
The Apartment, too, dark as it is, has its
pleasures, and the opening scene of Jack Lemmon sitting at
his desk in the midst of a sea of typewriters makes for a
good upscaling test as well. Without belaboring the point,
it was hard to let go of any of these movies once into them
for a few minutes - a true test of the system, and the
player.
VIDEO: Blu-ray
Moving right along to Blu-ray
reproduction, and after setting up the BDP-95 to handle the
“scaling” to my JVC DLA RS10 1080p projector, the first
thing we all noticed was that lettering was sharper,
cleaner, clearer, regardless of how and from where the text
is sourced – studio announcements and logos, movie titles
and credits, print or script, even the subtitles – they are
always crisper. In fact, everything is better delineated to
the point that images from the 83 look kind of wishy washy
by comparison.
The next thing we all noticed was that colors are richer:
reds, blues, greens especially are deeper, as are, not
surprisingly, blacks. You might want to use this opportunity
to recalibrate your display.
At the same time, mass is more accurately rendered. Heavy
objects seemed heavier; light things, from bubbles to
clothing, were lighter, water seems more fluid – wetter, if
you will. What really surprised us was that this was true
even in the fantastic world of animation, as in:
Ponyo. Notice Vicky’s layered skirts as she spins
about in the opening scene of The Red Shoes Ballet –
how light and buoyant they are now, working with her instead
of against her, each layer moves interdependently with the
others.
The more work the image required, the more valuable the 95’s
contribution. Perhaps nowhere is this more manifest than
with the
Battlestar Galactica series. With the 83 a fine dust
seemed to settle over the image, along with poorly resolved
faces – not only Adama’s – lacking sufficient continuity and
density of flesh. We now see we see dustless continuity,
detail, and in place of blotchy skin we see something
resembling flesh. The same goes for all surfaces, fabrics
and metals. It’s quite revelatory.
Animation sources, whether CG-sourced, like
Toy Story, or cell-animation, like
Pinocchio, or anime, like the
Ghost in the Shell television series, are all
cleaner, as if that much closer to the source. We are used
to thinking that CG-sourced material is rendered onto
Blu-ray without any
translation; ditto, its realization to your display. The
BDP-95 demands a rethink. One such moment comes in Pixar’s
Up when Carl’s balloons first break from their enveloping
skin - itself seen as if for the first time - and they burst
into a living organism tied to the house by scores of
delicate strings. Note how much lighter the balloons are
now, yet even more colorful. Each balloon has an independent
life absent before. We can almost feel the skin tension as
they rub against each other.
Mass is rendered more accurately:
heavy stuff has weight; light stuff floats.
The panel noted numerous times how this or that detail was
made apparent with the BDP-95 that they hadn’t noticed with
the 83. This was true with Blu-ray
as well as DVD, but surprisingly so on
Blu-ray. When we would return to the 83, such details
were present but not apparent, as it were. You could see
them if you looked for them, but they did not register as
they do with the 95. This is one of the the BDP-95’s most
subtle and most profound pleasures. Keep in mind that such
benefits are just as present with the BDP-93, but without
the 95‘s excellent audio for support, in a sly way, the
details are not as evident. My hypothesis is that the better
the audio, the less the brain has to process to make sense
of, and is thus free to “see” what else is there. I call
this the “Mourning Adonais Effect.”
A couple of brief examples: We noted that during “The Red
Shoes Ballet,” Vicky’s slippers are the same red in
every shot, or nearly. They always were, I suppose, but now,
our attention is drawn to them like a magnet. Our
appreciation for the art and science and discipline of
Technicolor just rose several points. In
Baraka the slow pan across Emperor Qin’s terracotta
soldiers revealed a meaning of historical import: that each
face is different was always apparent, but that their
uniqueness meant something - this was new.
The awareness of perception is
followed by the reception of meaning.
More surprising to us was how transcendentally meditative
Baraka’s whirling dervishes were felt to be. We knew
this was the intent of the whirling, but never before had
this quality been transmitted to us in a way that welcomed
us to join in their meditation. The OPPO allows us to
immediately forget that the technical aspects of player,
amplification and electronics and we are lost in the unique
space of the movie.
There was no question in the minds of our panel that what
they were seeing and hearing was the best they had
encountered. Rich Green, a leading international figure in
CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association),
declared the picture from the DP-95 “flawless” and that he
had never felt a living room disappear so quickly and
effectively. (Rich also very much liked the OPPO’s Speaker
Configuration diagramatic menu. Me, too.)
A Unique OPPOrtunity
Many audiophiles, like myself, have been slow to embrace
home theatre, not because we don’t like movies – far from it
– but because the sound sucks so. Well, the OPPO BDP-95 may
offer a solution.
It is customary to configure one’s home theatre system so
that the audio signal from the DVD or
Blu-ray player feeds the surround processor directly,
usually via HDMI. The processor may or may not incorporate
its own amplifiers and it may or may not be part of one’s TV
(in which case you shouldn’t even be reading this essay). As
has already been pointed out, the BDP-95 is likely to have
DACs of higher quality than those in your surround
processor, so it’s best to bypass those if you can and use
the processor only for the purpose of sorting out surround
balance and master volume.
This is sensible and advisable, and seems at first blush to
be the only solution left to us – but, in the immortal words
of Obi-Wan Kenobi, there is another. Alternatively, you
could feed the OPPO’s multi-channel outputs directly to two
pairs of high quality preamp/amp/speakers, folding in center
and subwoofer channels into your front L/R and using your
volume controls there to sort out balance. Depending on how
good your amps and speakers are, while some work to sort
out, this could be a dynamite solution for the clearest and
most exciting audio.
So here you are with this little toy OPPO and suddenly your
home theatre takes on dimension, clarity and dynamic scale
like you wouldn’t have believed possible. This is not Bose
territory we are talking about here. I kid you not.
OPPO’s BDP-95 is not without its faults, if you can call
them that:
Just as with the 83, the 95 is not entirely projector
friendly, since the set up routines are not possible without
first turning on the projector. I like that the display
window is less bright than the BDP-83. In fact, it’s
perfect, if a little smallish. At a distance of greater than
12 feet you could be in trouble - unless you have your TV
display turned on. I suppose this is all very well if you’re
going to then watch something, but not so good if you want
to play a CD with the secondary audio program function
turned off for optimum sound, or if you want to access the
various SACD layer choices. OPPO is of the opinion that most
users will decide form the get-go how they want to set up
their player in this regard, and they’d be right. However,
it does not follow that another choice might not be
preferred if access were made easier.
For those of us who will want to perform a custom set-up, we
find that we must rely on the Speaker Configuration Menu
for, among other things, rear channel delay. This is
calculated behind the scenes, as it were, once the distance
from the listener to the various speakers is entered. In my
case this turned out to be an unreliable calculation and I
had to set that distance to the rear speakers the same as to
the front instead of half that, which is what it measured.
Your mileage may vary.
I like that I no longer need the services of either a
surround sound processor or my 5-year old outboard DAC, good
as it was in its day. I have to go through some hoops to get
there and, while I find the result well worth the trouble,
it seems that OPPO may not have realized its potential to
completely eliminate the need for a surround processor, and
stopped just short.
As thorough as the User Manual is, it has no index, only a
Table of Contents. I should also mention that this player is
region-locked for DVD and Blu-ray
playback, as was the BDP-83.
RECOMMENDATION:
The question of value can be a knotty one. A general rule of
thumb is that when you have a good system to start with it
takes a lot of money to obtain an incremental increase in
performance. Buyers often consider the matter in terms of
the absolute cost or, if they’re being generous, in terms of
the relative cost of the new component against the old. So,
in the case of the BDP-95’s being twice as much money as the
83, we ask if it is twice as good? But this is the wrong
question, in my opinion. The proper way to sort out value is
as a proportion of the overall cost of the system. So, if
you are in the market for a new
Blu-ray player or wish to upgrade from a BDP-83 or
83-SE and feel the need for a better picture and/or
streaming capability, buy yourself the BDP-93 and be done
with it.
But if you have first-class audio playback and surround, or
are willing to pay for whatever gain you can find to avoid
subtitles - if you want the best value in a universal
Blu-ray/DVD/CD player, with
superb digital-to-analogue reproduction, whether from high
definition video sources or tried and true CD or SACD
sources - if you want to breathe new life into your video
library - if you want more than technical excellence - if
you want an emotional connection to and lose yourself in
your movies, then look no further than the BDP-95.
Leonard Norwitz
© LensViews
April 14th, 2011
Many thanks to:
Rich Green, Stan Head, Paul Healey, Tom Larsen and The True
Sound Gang of Three for their support and critical openness
throughout the audition of the OPPO BDP-95. I would also
like to thank Jason Liao at OPPO for his technical
assistance and product support. - LN
Reprinted with permission
from the
Lens-View website located
HERE |
