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Oppo 970- why i'm returning it

Posted by mr. woodford (A) on November 6, 2006 at 08:36:54

I've been in the market for a good, cheap universal player, or at least one that plays DVDs and SACDs (i don't care about DVD-A) and after reading several good reviews, ordered the Oppo 970. My system is strictly 2-channel and consists of a Musical Fidelity CD/24 Preamp/CD player, a pair of Red Rose M150 mono-blocks, and Vienna Acounstics Beethovens. Most of my listening these days is USB audio- i have about 400GBs of Apple Lossles files stored on an external drive, and send the audio out from my PB via an Edirol USB-to-SPDIF converter, and the coax to the MF. The resulting sound is quite good, if not quite as good as the internal CD drive on the MF. you can't beat the convenience however.

I didn't really evaluate the video performance, except to note it looked better via S-Video hooked up to my 27" XBR than did my old Pioneer Elite DV-05. it also did a much better job reading scratched discs.

The Oppo arrived and initial impressions were positive, and it seemd to get better and better as the unit broke in. A word about Oppo's customer service, which has been exemplary (with one exception, which i'll explain below, and which is why the unit is going back). The first unit i ordered was apparently stolen before it was delivered- it was "signed for", but i never received it. I called FedEX, who suggested calling Oppo, who in turn immediately agreed to send out a new unit. no muss, no fuss, no claims to file- very impressive!

All my listening was done via the "mixed outputs", w/ the Oppo's audio mixdown settigs set to Stereo. this is the standard two-channel output. As mentioned elsewhere, and as confirmed directly by Oppo to me, this unit does convert DSD to PCM via all outputs, not just the HDMI outs, but both 2 channel and multi-channel outs. In theory I object, and perhaps the conversion accounts for some of the niggling complaints i have about the sound, but for $149 bucks...

...this thing is a stone-cold bargin. The overall sound can be described in one word as "transparent." "expansive" works as well; the oppo is capable of casting a massive soundstage, broad and deep, and provides excellent deliniation of inner orchestral voices. to some extent there is an occasional loss of overall coherency, the ability to weave complex orhestral passages into a seamless whole, and RPT is merely adequate, not exceptional. These omissions may just be the result of a slight overall treble tilt. strings can sound a bit glassy, but bass performance is fairly good.

I did some comparisons of the Oppo on SACD vs. the MF on CD. the MF has superior pace, and is better integrated, but soundstage of the oppo remained seductive, and the latter player has a way of drawing you into the performance that's missing from the MF, good as it is. Perhaps it's just the difference between SACD and CD.

So why then, if the Oppo sounds so good, at such a reasonable price, am i returning it? because it has one fatal flaw, one that i had not seen listed in any review, and one that was not listed in Oppos FAQ until i made a fuss about it. As you may have inferred from the above, most of my listening was classical SACDS, including the new LS opera recordings, which are by and large wonderful, with much better sound than previous releases in other formats. I popped in the Boheme, and was immdediately captivated by the sound- broad, open, warm even, and as merril sang the opening lines you could also "see" into the bohemians garrett. just before rodolfo's entrance, that was a slight pause in the sound, a skip, like the player couldn't read the disc. odd- i took the disc out, blew any dust off, and tried again- same result. perhaps it's just the disc? so i tried traviata (w/ tucker as the butchest alfredo on record), and got the same result at the first track change...and at the second, and third, and as i watched the player display it became apparent the oppo inserts a one second pause between tracks on SACDs!

it doesn't do this on CD, or DVD, and Oppo's explanation, when i wrote to inquire, was beyond lame, suggesting that somehow "gapless" SACD playback was just an unsupported feature, rather than a clear bug (see link below). They said it did not become apparent until the player had shipped (which just means no one really listened to the final design) and promise to address it in a future firmware update, but can't say when that might be, a week, a month, a year from now.

The result is this thing is completely useless as an SACD player unless all you listen to is pop or jazz, and even then, playback of discs like Dark Side of the Moon and the new Moody Blues would be seriously disrupted. I'm astounded no one has mentioned this previously, and I've never come across another player that does the same thing.

So back it goes, and I remain in the market for an SACD player, at the low end of the scale. I prefer something that doesn't convert DSD to PCM, but not sure that's possible in my price range. I need DVD-V playback, but not DVD-A. possible candidates are:

-Denon 1920 ($299 at Amazon)
-Denon 1930 CI (also $299-anyone seen this yet? it appears to be new)
-HK DVD-47 ($249)
-Sony DVP-NS90V ($199, no DVD-A, which is fine, and makes me wonder whether it stays pure DSD)

any other suggestions, and any insight as to whether any of the above sound as good as the oppo overall?

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