OPPO Closing?

TJ-Sully · « **Reply #40 on:** 4 Apr 2018, 11:43 pm »

I believe Oppo is looking to the future...... and sees the writing on the wall. Might as well go out as a Gorilla.
It's better to burn out than to fade away, as Neil would say.

I think James' question about the future of the BCD is a good one. Even if Bryston completed exhaustive research - like some folks have suggested - things can change quickly.

Let's face it, the future is streaming. And with MQA busting on the scene, with more and more streamers and DAC's supporting MQA - will push physical media formats off the shelf. Rightly or wrongly.

my 2 cents.

TJ

CanadianMaestro · « **Reply #41 on:** 5 Apr 2018, 12:07 am »

Quote from: OzarkTom on 4 Apr 2018, 12:48 pm

I like the yard sales. 10-50 cents each.

Just make sure to clean the cases with Purell....

Timslim18 · « **Reply #42 on:** 5 Apr 2018, 01:29 pm »

Quote from: James Tanner on 4 Apr 2018, 12:15 pm

Hi Folks,

It's a sober reminder of the every changing times in this industry.

One minute you are the 800 pound Gorilla and the next you are extinct !

james

One has to be blind not see the writing on the audio industry wall boldly proclaiming... "STREAMING IS THE FUTURE." The audio source 800 lb gorilla is "streaming."

Whether streaming is better or worse from an audio quality perspective is irrelevant, it is where the consumer is being directed, or is directing, for at least the next five years. It is what it is.

Prudent businesses will allocate resources as OPPO has done, by walking away from CD and DVD player manufacturing.

No matter how small, there will always be a market for physical media playing hardware; be it cylinder record, vinyl LP, tape, cassette, CD, DVD, etc. Do manufacturers chase after a bigger share of a shrinking market or do they adapt to their core customer demands? In this instance, consumers will seek high quality audio sourced from the most common high quality supplier which is now certain streaming services.

Consumers are streaming to their handheld devices and look for continuity to their home-based systems. As streams are demanded, audio equipment manufacturers must be quick and adept in capturing those streams with their hardware at the risk of eroding their customer base.

Audio equipment manufacturers who postpone tying into as many streaming sources as they can as soon as possible will soon be left in the dust. Case in point... Bryston's BDP's only tie into TIDAL while other high bit rate streaming services such as Deezer HiFi are only being considered as perhaps someday.

The OPPO decision should be a wake-up call to audio equipment manufacturers, especially Bryston, to transition as quickly as possible with the implementation of greater streaming capabilities in their hardware together with an intuitive, stable and attractive user interface.

Why spend considerable efforts in marketing, manufacturing and delivering transports and turntables when you can direct resources (i.e., hire a couple of programmers) to create industry leading proprietary software for your BDP hardware line to address the needs of an increasing base of potential customers.

Let's not let the 800 lb gorilla make Bryston extinct (or, at least, not until my last Bryston warranty expires in 2028).

Sincerely,

A big Bryston fan (but obviously frustrated BDP-1 and BDP-3 owner)

twitch54 · « **Reply #43 on:** 5 Apr 2018, 03:10 pm »

I just pray there will continue to be the ability to play physical media (LP's & CD/SACD) for a long time to come, myself I could give a rats rear end about streaming ................

CanadianMaestro · « **Reply #44 on:** 5 Apr 2018, 03:55 pm »

Quote from: twitch54 on 5 Apr 2018, 03:10 pm

I just pray there will continue to be the ability to play physical media (LP's & CD/SACD) for a long time to come, myself I could give a rats rear end about streaming ................

I'm with you on that!

Discs and vinyl won't disappear anytime soon (or later).

geowak · « **Reply #45 on:** 5 Apr 2018, 04:06 pm »

A couple of audiogon members have investigated the Oppo situation. One fellow stated in the news Oppo has sought a new manufacturing facility for their smartphones in Greater Noida (I think in India). Another member called Oppo and they stated that they have enough money in the budget/bank to either develop new product or provide warranty/service to existing products for the next few years, but cannot do both. I assume this means audio products...

poseidonsvoice · « **Reply #46 on:** 5 Apr 2018, 05:18 pm »

Quote from: geowak on 5 Apr 2018, 04:06 pm

A couple of audiogon members have investigated the Oppo situation. One fellow stated in the news Oppo has sought a new manufacturing facility for their smartphones in Greater Noida (I think in India). Another member called Oppo and they stated that they have enough money in the budget/bank to either develop new product or provide warranty/service to existing products for the next few years, but cannot do both. I assume this means audio products...

I’m assuming you already read the reply I got right?

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=156744.msg1677612#msg1677612

Best,
Anand.

geowak · « **Reply #47 on:** 5 Apr 2018, 05:33 pm »

Yes I did. That is great news for people who own Oppo products!! I don’t know what happens after a few years??

poseidonsvoice · « **Reply #48 on:** 5 Apr 2018, 05:45 pm »

Quote from: geowak on 5 Apr 2018, 05:33 pm

Yes I did. That is great news for people who own Oppo products!! I don’t know what happens after a few years??

It’s like with any company. It’s Russian Roulette.

That being said I will say this. I did have an older Oppo which for whatever reason the system board failed especially with recognizing the contents of a cd. Contacted Oppo. They emailed me in 1 hr. The next hr I had a prepaid shipping waybill sent to me so I could ship the board to them. They shipped me back a new system board at the same time. I shipped on Tuesday. I received my new board Friday. I had a fixed player Friday night. Cost? $0.00

How many other manufacturers can do that? Not the super boutique “audiophile” manufacturers in our miniscule “handcrafted” 2ch high end audio world. Thankfully some of our AC manufacturers don’t operate that way.

Best,
Anand.

gene9p · « **Reply #49 on:** 5 Apr 2018, 09:58 pm »

OPPO set the bar so high with their players and their customer service. My 203 arrived today from Crutchfield.com. I might look into selling my 83 that has a new tray and I have everything it came with. Keeping my 103 and the 203 for, ....well uummm, .......forever

Macnet1027 · « **Reply #50 on:** 6 Apr 2018, 05:40 pm »

I just recently bought an Oppo UHD 203 player and am very happy with it. It's sad to see such a wonderful product be discontinued. Every product they have produced has been fantastic. I don't own anything except for Oppo blu ray players. Of course, everything is headed towards streaming since it's so convenient. I've ripped all my CDs into wav format and put all the CDs in storage and stream them from my NAS. The only CDs I play are SACD and use my Oppo to play them.

Thanks, James, for starting this thread.

Stu Pitt · « **Reply #51 on:** 8 Apr 2018, 02:13 am »

Reading through this thread made me realize something...

I haven’t listened to an actual CD in almost 10 years. I’ve ripped every CD I own and listen to it through my Apple TV 1st gen or my iPod. I don’t stream music nor buy downloads; I buy CDs mainly through Amazon. FYE is the only store left around me with CDs, and their used prices are almost guaranteed to be a good amount more expensive than new CDs on Amazon.

Thinking further, I replaced the head unit in my car, and it doesn’t have a CD drive in it. I use my iPod Classic. I was on the fence about buying a head unit without a CD drive, but I realized I haven’t used the CD drive in the old one in a long time. Looking for and changing discs while driving isn’t the best thing TBH. But my main motivation for not using CDs in there was so they didn’t get scratched.

The only physical music media I play anywhere is vinyl. I’ve been meaning to rip my DVDs to a hard drive, but I’m a bit lazy. One of these days. I can’t stand seeing my daughters’ DVD cases everywhere.

With the exception of the initial rip, I guess I just realized CDs died in my house and car about a decade ago. I highly doubt I’m the exception. I’m pretty sure Oppo saw this trend.

R. Daneel · « **Reply #52 on:** 8 Apr 2018, 08:11 am »

Hi!

Oppo's decision to exit the consumer market might not have to do with the decline of optical media at all. It could simply be a business decision because it is not known to us how much this company is involved in OEM. Perhaps they concluded it is more profitable for them to concentrate on markets where they can bring unique value than to combat companies like Sony and Panasonic.

People don't realize just how few companies there are that move the technology forward. It costs billions to do so and only very few companies in the workd can do it. I remember Richard Schram, the owner of Parasound, saying that if everybody did their job well and all the parts and assemblies came in on time, upon it's release, the product would already be one year obsolete. You have to invest more than others to be in front of them and this is what Oppo has been doing.

Cheers,
Antun

CanadianMaestro · « **Reply #53 on:** 8 Apr 2018, 10:30 am »

Quote from: R. Daneel on 8 Apr 2018, 08:11 am

People don't realize just how few companies there are that move the technology forward. It costs billions to do so and only very few companies in the workd can do it.

Not if it's in China.

Industrial espionage.

poseidonsvoice · « **Reply #54 on:** 8 Apr 2018, 11:33 am »

Found this on AVS Forums which have heckuva lot more vocal HT enthusiasts than here!!:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=156735.msg1678277#msg1678277

Best,
Anand.

Metal Forever · « **Reply #55 on:** 8 Apr 2018, 11:36 pm »

James,

I guess this may confirm that Bryston's development strategy (e.g., speakers, turntable & SP4, etc.) over the recent past might be a win/win for all of those involved in the development of such marvelous products.

This industry has become so difficult requiring in the entire audio line vs. specialty companies focusing in specific areas (e.g., OPPO – digital players). I wonder what is going to happen to companies such as EMM Labs, Esoteric, etc.

At the end, we “the consumers” need the good companies to win… otherwise we have all lost…

Bryston has introduced some of the most amazing products into the market in the past 10 yrs… we hope many more to come…

poseidonsvoice · « **Reply #56 on:** 8 Apr 2018, 11:41 pm »

Oppo is seeing how the cost of obtaining a UDP 205 has skyrocketed. As such, if you are interested in a 205, then they will consider a final production run of it.

See here:

https://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-udp-205/

Best,
Anand.

James Tanner · « **Reply #57 on:** 9 Apr 2018, 10:27 am »

Quote from: Metal Forever on 8 Apr 2018, 11:36 pm

James,

I guess this may confirm that Bryston's development strategy (e.g., speakers, turntable & SP4, etc.) over the recent past might be a win/win for all of those involved in the development of such marvelous products.

This industry has become so difficult requiring in the entire audio line vs. specialty companies focusing in specific areas (e.g., OPPO – digital players). I wonder what is going to happen to companies such as EMM Labs, Esoteric, etc.

At the end, we “the consumers” need the good companies to win… otherwise we have all lost…

Bryston has introduced some of the most amazing products into the market in the past 10 yrs… we hope many more to come…

Hi Metal

Yes I realized a number of years ago that selling only quality amplifiers was not going to allow Bryston to survive in this ever evolving market.

I agree though that ultimately the consumer is the one that will decide which companies survive. Looking at the dealer landscape and the ever decreasing number of quality high end dealers it is getting tougher and tougher to survive as a specialty manufacturer.

james

undertow · « **Reply #58 on:** 9 Apr 2018, 05:55 pm »

First Oppo was originally the underdog coming in with HD video that easily bested the 80 to 200 dollar machines.

This caught fire in the early days of the "Flat Panel" becoming affordable sometime between 2005 and 2010.

Then they got smart not only running these reasonable prices for Video Optical drive machines, but bringing in much more tilt to the "Audiophile" which then the universal machines took off giving you nearly the best of both worlds, in Audio and Video for a good price.

They then kept everybody buying the next upgrade adding in things like the Oppo Server App although not as great an interface as even something hated like Apple Itunes, but it works well and they added even the capability of a USB outboard hard drive with reading FLAC files that is what kept them on the map for the last 5 years.

However, to be honest even the cheapest Flat panel, or DVD player in the last 2 years can easily match the quality of Video.

I think Oppo made the wrong move with the newest players dropping support for the Video Apps, such as Netflix, and Vudu. This in combination with being able to use it as an entire media library thru a full blown Audio system whether it was multichannel, or quality DAC with Stereo was the only thing that kept them alive so I think they don't realize part of that is the problem.

Had they developed a better APP for music server like a Tidal, or simpler, and a more reliable way to access even "Static" hard drive music not just streaming they would be the future.

Now you have machines costing 10 times more from Wadia and Auralic that are awesome DACs with built in 4 tb hard drives, and for music this is all people need.

Those are just to expensive so I think oppo had an opportunity. They missed with the 205 my opinion it took away more than it added. 4K ? Who cares its on everything. you don't need this player to stream 4k, and nobody even sells the discs!

HAD they stuck to their roots and truly updated the music server with video going thru just a High quality DAC it would still sell in the 1000 range.

It was an all in one box solution with quality DAC, and now its just another Blu Ray player which the last models were better doing it all such as the 103 with Darbee.

It was a real universal source, now its again just going to play your useless blu ray discs. However, there is a need for Blu Ray in the audio community...

Why? Concert DVD's... They aint streaming anywhere near half the major concerts out there so you still need an optical drive of some sort for that, but everything else can be purely streamed, or put on a hard drive no disc required.

undertow · « **Reply #59 on:** 9 Apr 2018, 06:14 pm »

Oh and as a side note of those not in the newest format of listening still popping their CD's in a transport..

Rip them in FLAC and play thru an oppo is a far better sounding end result in most cases. It elminates the mechanical transport, and all that goes along with spinning a disc including laser lag, much of the buffering, even jitter etc... and the fact your running that motor off a shared power supply with the crtical DAC circuit.

I am not going to say its always night and day, however I have done a million tests loading the drive with original CD or SACD even, and it is easily as good or better directly off a hard drive running right next to it. Generally I did this with SSD drives which are also not mechanical so take it with a grain of salt.