Oppo BDP-83 or 83SE?

Dan Driscoll · « **on:** 15 Feb 2010, 05:27 pm »

I'm stuck between these. My system is configured around an analog MC preamp and the MC analog outputs from my universal player are run directly to the preamp for watching DVDs and for listening to SACDs and MC DVD-Audio. (click Systems link) However, for 2 channel I run the digital output of my SB3 through a tube DAC. I also run 2 channel DVD-Audio (up to 24/96) through the DAC.

All of my CDs are streamed through the SB3 and DAC. That's most of my listening and that is not going to change. We watch 2-3 DVDs a month and I may spin 6-7 SACDs/DVA-As. So the question is, are the analog outputs of the SE that much superior to justify the added cost when they will only be used about 25% of the time?

golfugh · « **Reply #1 on:** 16 Feb 2010, 02:39 pm »

Dan
Having owned both, I'd have to say yes the SE is worth the additional cost; even for your limited playback of SACD's. The 83SE decodes DSD directly and sends via analog outs (nice feature). The Sabre DACS are excellent with DSD - it is a tremendous SACD/DVD-A player for the money. Ted did a thorough comparison on both on AVS. Drop him a PM.
Mark

Can't put in links for some reason, but it's Ted's posts 818 and 871 in the 83SE thread on AVS.

ted_b · « **Reply #2 on:** 16 Feb 2010, 02:55 pm »

Yes, the 83 SE is a significant upgrade over the stock 83, both with 2 channel and multichannel (analog of course). The $400 or so for the difference is still worth it, IMO, for the 2 channel SACD's and your monthly multichannel listening. No changes to HDMI or coax output. I put a cut-n-paste of my AVS comments over here awhile ago.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=75260.msg710396#msg710396

P.S. I will be having Dan (Modwright) take my SE to another level.

smargo · « **Reply #3 on:** 16 Feb 2010, 03:49 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 16 Feb 2010, 02:55 pm

P.S. I will be having Dan (Modwright) take my SE to another level.

In theory yes - it all sounds convincing - but it may be not that much better - i had the ultimate truth mods done awhile ago on a sony player complete with tubes and all and it sounded lousy - I sent it back to modwright and he thought it sounded fabulous - I still maintain that it sounded awful

Im just saying it may not be the next level.........

smargo

ted_b · « **Reply #4 on:** 16 Feb 2010, 03:53 pm »

Quote from: smargo on 16 Feb 2010, 03:49 pm

In theory yes - it all sounds convincing - but it may be not that much better - i had the ultimate truth mods done awhile ago on a sony player complete with tubes and all and it sounded lousy - I sent it back to modwright and he thought it sounded fabulous - I still maintain that it sounded awful

Im just saying it may not be the next level.........

smargo

You're kidding, right? I am a longtime Modwright beta tester and longtime customer of Dan's. I know his stuff inside and out. It will be very much better. Sorry you had a bad experience.

smargo · « **Reply #5 on:** 16 Feb 2010, 04:45 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 16 Feb 2010, 03:53 pm

You're kidding, right? I am a longtime Modwright beta tester and longtime customer of Dan's. I know his stuff inside and out. It will be very much better. Sorry you had a bad experience.

No - Im not kidding - Please report on how the unit sounds when you get it - compared to the "unmodified" se version

ted_b · « **Reply #6 on:** 16 Feb 2010, 04:53 pm »

Sorry, I meant "you're kidding" when addressing Modwright with me. I am well known on AC as being a huge Modwright fan, some say too much.

My modded (and original) Modwright equipment history includes 5 units, the latest being Dan's first MW Transporter customer, with my views all over the web (including the 6Moons review). I will indeed report back.

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #7 on:** 16 Feb 2010, 06:28 pm »

Ted, golfugh, thanks for your input.

adydula · « **Reply #8 on:** 16 Feb 2010, 07:58 pm »

Dan,

I had the 83 for months and just got the SE upgrade.

I honestly do not see that much of a super duper difference...but there is a difference.

I used the 83 in HDMI to a ONKYO SR 805 receiver and also ran the 2 ch analog outs from the 83 to aux1 analog inputs on the receriver and cmpared the two, many, many , many times...some days I would prefer the hdmi vs the 2 ch analog and other days vica versa...

So i thought i would do the upgrade (got the $100 off due to me being an EAP participant).

I thought the analog section updates and pwr supply updates would make the 2 ch analog outs better than the stock 83's.

Well its been a few months noAre they $300 better, to me no. But its better. Subjectivley. I also compared the 2 ch analog outs to the left and right outs from the multichannel section and its about the same as the 2 ch analog outs to me.

The one thing that really is stellar to me is the SACD recordings really do sound wonderful now compared to the original 83. But I dont have a lot of these, i am mostly a 2 ch guy...and movies which the HDMI and the DTS Master etc are awesome in the stock 83.....no upgrade in the SE here.

If you are NOT going to play cd in the OPPO and use the SB then I think your wasting your bucks here.

I have a SB Touch on pre-order and cant wait to compare this 'sound' vs the oppo analog SE sound..

All the best
Alexw and i can honestly say I prefer the new 2 ch analog outs to the older 83's.

ted_b · « **Reply #9 on:** 16 Feb 2010, 08:09 pm »

Alex,
You ran the 2 channel outs to your Onkyo receiver to compare? Are you sure your AVR is not redigitizing them (I don't see an analog bypass mode in the 805)?

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #10 on:** 16 Feb 2010, 10:05 pm »

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I finally bit the bullet and ordered the SE model from Music Direct. In the end I realized I would probably be kicking myself if I didn't. I went with MD because they were about $60 less than Oppo (no taxes) and also threw in a 2m AudioQuest HMDI cable. Since I don't have any other HDMI components, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the cable, except maybe sell it.

FWIW, this is the same process I go through for all (to me) big ticket items. This one was pretty quick, since there were only 2 options I was considering. Last time we bought a fridge t took me a month to decide and I drove my wife nuts.

golfugh · « **Reply #11 on:** 16 Feb 2010, 10:34 pm »

Dan

Hold onto the HDMI cable, when/if you have a display that needs HDMI in you'll need it.

The 83SE is also a great DVD/BD player.

Congrats
Mark

adydula · « **Reply #12 on:** 22 Feb 2010, 03:58 am »

Ted B..

Sorry taking so long to reply.

My 2 channed analog out from the OPPO goes to the analog CD input on the SR 805.

In Pure audio mode the DSP in the Onkyo is bypassed.

This is true in Direct and Pure Audio, but there is NO subwoofer action, but this is fine with me.

There has been much discussion on the Onkyo's Pure Audio mode, I have not seen schematic of the receiver to really be able to understand for sure this is true.

I read several threads where people listen to 2 ch sources and like listening to 2 ch audio in this mode vs others. I agree.

In the multi channel outs from the Oppo to the multi inputs of the SR805, I do 2 things, I have have both HDMI and MultiChannel mapped to the audio select so in AUX1 I can switch between HDMI and MultiChannel, then I can select HDMI OR Multi Channel and then compare to CD in, for the 2 ch analog from the Oppo.

All in Pure Audio mode.

I can listen to HDMI, (2 ch source or mutli) and compare one of these to the 2 ch analog coming via the CD input..

I discovered the SR805 ability to map or assing multiple audio inputs to a particular audio select input and this makes my life wonderfully excellent here!!

When I listen to 2 ch sources I can listen to the CD inputs and listen to one set of dacs in the oppo se, then select the multi ch inputs and listen to the 2 ch inputs via the other set of dacs used in the Oppo in from the oppos multi ch dacs...

the 2 ch dac stream vs the 2ch dac stream from the multi chain are very similar.

Hope this helps!
Alex

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #13 on:** 23 Feb 2010, 05:56 pm »

The Brown Truck Of Happiness just made a delivery.

Now come the hard part, putting in a full day of work before I can open it.

JP78 · « **Reply #14 on:** 23 Feb 2010, 06:38 pm »

If you guys are interested in the BDP-83, SE, or NuForce, we're giving some of the best pricing and service around. We're not allowed to advertise for less than asking price, but we can throw in some great extras like HDMI cables, Blu-Ray movies, 2nd Day Air freight, etc. Just drop me a line.

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #15 on:** 23 Feb 2010, 06:48 pm »

Quote from: JP78 on 23 Feb 2010, 06:38 pm

If you guys are interested in the BDP-83...

I suspect this post belongs in the Industry Ads forum?

JP78 · « **Reply #16 on:** 23 Feb 2010, 08:31 pm »

I thought it was an appropriate response to the thread, as you mentioned saving money by selecting a vendor over ordering directly from the manufacturer. I thought I had something constructive to offer by offering another vendor that can offer further improvement in pricing. If you feel it's inappropriate I apologize and I can delete or move accordingly.

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #17 on:** 24 Feb 2010, 05:37 pm »

Quote from: JP78 on 23 Feb 2010, 08:31 pm

I thought it was an appropriate response to the thread, as you mentioned saving money by selecting a vendor over ordering directly from the manufacturer. I thought I had something constructive to offer by offering another vendor that can offer further improvement in pricing. If you feel it's inappropriate I apologize and I can delete or move accordingly.

I'm not suggesting there was anything untoward in your post, just that it might be better suited for the Industry Ads forum. AC does have a policy that requires vendors to post solicitations and advertisements there. Also, you would receive more exposure as a retailer by posting in IA. I did check there before making my purchase, but saw nothing about you being an Oppo reseller. If I had I would have checked your website and might have purchased from you.

As for your original post, the facilitator for this forum (Bob in St. Louis) would make that determination.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #18 on:** 24 Feb 2010, 10:52 pm »

I'm cool with it guys. I'm not so high strung that I need to spank folks for something fairly innocent. It also doesn't seem that JP78 is "on the radar" for posting (spamming) such ads all over the forum. As Dan says, selling things is best should be done in IA, but I'll let it slide here if it's good with everybody else. Seemed to me it's helpful and relevent to the thread.
But I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong.

Bob

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #19 on:** 1 Mar 2010, 09:00 pm »

This weekend was pretty hectic, my wife's birthday was yesterday and I also had to install a new N wireless router and adapter. So Saturday afternoon was the only time I had to set-up and a little listening.

Quick thoughts: I do NOT like Oppo's speaker set-up routine. Frankly, I think it sucks, especially that the distance settings for the front and surround speakers are paired. If you change the left it also changes the right. I also don't like that the cross-overs are fixed at 80Hz and that there is no internal tone generator. Other issues that didn't affect me but might affect others are that the subwoofer, surround and center speakers cannot be set farther than the front speakers. My 5 year old Newcastle SD-860 allows each speaker distance to be set individually, the crossovers are adjustable from 40 to 120 hertz and has a tone generator.

Caveat - I set-up the 83SE before I installed the new router, so I haven't done a firmware update yet. Some or all of these flaws might have been fixed in a more recent firmware revision.

I only had time to listen to a few music tracks, mainly off of the SACD of Elton John's Madman Across The Water album. What I did hear sounded very good. I have not had a chance to watch any BD disks yet.