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REVIEW: Jena Labs Oppo BDP-83 Full Force Universal SACD/DVD-A Players

Model:	Oppo BDP-83 Full Force
Category:	Universal SACD/DVD-A Players
Suggested Retail Price:	$800
Description:	Modification of Oppo BDP-83 universal Blu-Ray player
Manufacturer URL:	Jena Labs

Review by Quint on July 01, 2010 at 18:11:59 IP Address: 205.188.117.73

Add Your Review for the Oppo BDP-83 Full Force

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As some of you know, I’m pretty partial to Jena Labs and its principal, Jennifer Crock. Her products have consistently performed up to and beyond my lofty expectations, besting many contenders both moderately and stupid expensive. Yet I don’t consider myself a fanboy. I’ve directed my share of criticism toward her products, which she’s used to improve her offerings.

Jennifer’s newest creation is a modification of the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-Ray universal player called the Full Force. (It can be applied to both the SE and base versions; mine was an SE.) Much has been written about the BDP-83, so I’ll cut right to the chase. Jena Labs is late to the Oppo mod party, having been beaten to the punch by the likes of Nuforce, Modwright, and Reference Audio Mods (RAM). From my discussions with her, Jennifer wanted to wait until she had her modifications perfected. First came a beta version, one of which I was fortunate enough to audition. As far as I understand, those versions included extensive revisions to the power supply and audio board—I’m not at all technically minded, so those who want a more extensive description would be advised to check the Jena Labs website or call Jennifer—while the finished units feature a lot more filtering, upgraded wiring, ridiculous amounts of damping, and a few other finishing touches. The quality of craftsmanship on the inside is beyond reproach; it’s beautiful and cleaner than Martha Stewart’s house.

Now to the juicy stuff. As far as comparisons go, I had the Nuforce-modded ’83 on hand for a direct comparison, while I’ve had the RAM and Modwright versions pass through my system recently.

Compared with the Nuforce, the Full Force went much further sonically. There was not a single area in which the Nuforce was superior. With every recording—which included Dire Straights’ first album, Badfinger’s 1973 eponymous album, Gloria Gaynor’s Never Can Say Goodbye, the SACD of Elton John’s Honky Chateau, and the Who’s Who’s Next—the Full Force lived up to its name, presenting music with a sense of momentum, openness, and “pop,” and most importantly naturalness, that made the Nuforce sound closed in, dull, and edgy by comparison. Lest you think the Jena was forward or bright, it is emphatically not. It had a way with music that was utterly natural and effortless. For example, Badfinger’s Pete Ham had a beautifully sweet tenor that on the right system can sound heart-melting. On the song “I Miss You,” his voice sounded decently sweet through the Nuforce, while through the Full Force it sounded absolutely gorgeous. On the Elton John SACD, the gap was even wider than on redbooks, with the Full Force presenting Elton’s voice and the band’s instrumental prowess with a clarity and power that the Nuforce simply couldn’t match.

Dynamics was another are that the Jena beat the Nuforce hands down. On Who’s Next, the band swung and kicked with an effortlessness that was intoxicating, while The Nuforce sounded positively strangled in comparison. Bass extension and power were also better with the Jena.

The Full Force also has one of the blackest backgrounds I’ve heard in a digital component—modded or stock. Images positively exploded within a huge and impressively deep soundstage, which adds to the sense of excitement you usually hear in live music. With the Nuforce, images sounded much flatter and much less dimensional, with a lot less resolution of inner detail and a significantly narrower soundstage.

While the Full Force costs more than the Nuforce, IMO the performance gap more than justifies the price and is well worth the stretch for those on the fence. Though aural memory is a tricky thing, I think I remember enough about the Modwright- and RAM-modded units to post some halfway decent thoughts. While I was impressed with the quality and performance of those players, I can’t remember enjoying music as much as I have with the Full Force in my rig. The biggest difference seemed to be with the overall sense of naturalness and tonal “rightness” and, again, the sheer amount of energy released into the room. The Modwright and RAM were very good in these respects—much better than either the Nuforce or stock unit—but the Full Force, as I remember it, went a couple of steps further. Strings and vocals were sweeter and more textured, while the soundstage bristled with an energy and, ahem, force that neither the Modwright or RAM could quite match. Also, backgrounds were quieter with the Jena, which no doubt contributed to the sense of ease and energy-release to the presentation.

Overall, the Full Force is quite the achievement. It not only beats other modded BDP-83s of my experience, it also sounded considerably better (again, from memory) than a stock Esoteric X-01 and mildly modded Marantz SA-11S2 that I had on hand for a few weeks earlier this year. For about a hundred south of a grand (a little more for multichannel), it represents a tremendous value when measured against other, more expensive modded units and some very serious stock players. For those of you searching for a universal player that does it all and sounds awesome in the process, I can’t recommend the Jena Labs Full Force mod highly enough. Hopefully this review captures some sense of what it does well. Thanks for reading.

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Product Weakness:	Not much at this price. Maybe could be bettered if you spend MANY thousands more.
Product Strengths:	Utter naturalness and ease, energy release, background blackness

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Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier:	Coda CSi-B
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	none
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	none
Speakers:	DefinitiveTechnology Mythos STS
Cables/Interconnects:	Jena Labs
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Pop/rock
Room Size (LxWxH):	24 x 20 x 7
Room Comments/Treatments:	Various ASC
Time Period/Length of Audition:	One week
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Jena Labs Platinum
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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