Reviewed by kool bubba ice
Pros: Price to performance. Plays every format. Excellent CS. SABRE32 DAC chip. Great HD picture quality.
Cons: Chassis is the same as the 83 model. Drawer could be more sturdy. Runs a bit hot.
First off, this oppo 83SE arrived very well packaged. I mean very well.. Beyond the call of duty. Everything is neat & tightly, & comes with a carrying bag & two calibration disc, one for audio, one for video. They also include a 6FT HDMI cable which is un heard of.
The special in the special edition is the SABRE32 DAC along with a better Power supply. To fully benefit from the SABRE DACS you need to use a 2 channel system. The SABRE32 DAC chip reads like Fantasy football. 32bit. Dynamic range over 130 & THD a mind numbing -125. You really don't need a out board dac with this thing.
To put it bluntly, this DAC rocks & is arguably the best on market today. Very cutting edge, only a few commercial players use this DAC & they cost much more then the oppo.
Sound is of the up most clarity, with a clear, no frills focus on the music.. I would label it analytical & neutral. This could be in part due to my gear. I have neutral headphones & amp.. The noise floor is nearly non existent, & is about as black as you can get.. Very low distortion. Revealing detail & ambient nuances is this players Hallmark. It's a vacuum that just sucks every ounce of detail out of a recording. Bad recordings be damned. Pristine recordings have you one with the artist. Instrument timbre is well done.. If you like rich timbre, or a tonally rich sound in general, I would suggest combining a tube amp & 650 with the oppo83. This is the sort of player that has you scrambling to listen to your whole CD collection over again.
With the oppo83 all you hear is the music. Nothing gets in the way.. Very palpable. Hi rez audio pushes the envelope enough further.. Listening to 96hz recording material on the included demo disc is as close to the real thing as possible. Very impressive. I still prefer listening to HDCD on my Denon 5900.. IMO it just takes better advantage of the technology.
If you are looking for a hi end Blu ray universal player this is it. Of course there are better, but will cost you much, much, more, & the improvements won't be enough of a jump to satisfy those potential buyers.
