Oppo 105 - Is it going to make a difference?

how did the demo go ? Did you buy one ? 

I went for the Demo and took my LX54 with me for testing purposes.  I tested 3 films, Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides, Lord of the Rings, Empire Strikes back (Cloud City), Avatar for 3D and Signs on DVD. I sat there for 2 hours playing with the different settings and sharpness levels to find the optimum picture and like David mentioned I found adjusting settings a real benefit.  I should mention at this point, that I tested these players on both a projector and 55inch TV.

I found the colours were rich, the blacks, deep and inky with motion being smooth.  The 3D playback from the Oppo was flawless and I certainly did not pick up on any Judder.  The LX54 still performed admirably on the projector, but you could tell something was lacking and motion certainly was not as flawless as you would expect. Picture quality was more or less identical, until I started tweaking the settings on the Oppo, adjusting its sharpness gave it a real boost on the projector but not so noticeable on the TV. As for Audio, there was no difference to my ears, this is to be expected as I was passing the signal to an AV for decoding, however this player does possess a superior on board decoding system to that of the LX54 and should you wish it to decode video and sound, then this will not let you down

When it comes to DVD upscaling, it flattened the LX54 in every way, the upscaling was sublime. In this instance I preferred the upscaling on the TV as opposed to the projector, however the results on the projector were impressive also. The image was sharper and crisper than the LX54, whose upscale ability is good, but nothing compared to this!

My final conclusion is, if you want a high end player to go with your high end home cinema system, then this is it. It has superior video processing ability and presents a thoroughly enjoyable experience, granted this does not have some of the bells and whistles of say, the S790, but it is a cut above.  As a side note, the player loads up quickly and you are able to start watching a film in roughly 15 seconds from power up.  Superb!

Did you buy it then?

I held back until I decide what I'm doing with the TV situation   

Currently listening to a the DVD-A disc of the Dual Disc version of the Foo Fighters' In Your Honour - sounding pretty stunning!

Be interesting to read your opinion of the 105 in relation to sound quality compared to the 103

David what is the oppo connected to? AV or Hifi Amp? Is this the 105 Or 103?

It is connected to my Audiolab 8200AP processor - I'm trying out e 103 - the 105 will be with us during the week.

GSB wrote:

Be interesting to read your opinion of the 105 in relation to sound quality compared to the 103

For movies, I'll only be comparing the HDMI feed, which won't be any different - the main benefit is any onboard decoding down on the 105, as it uses the Sabre DAC and also has balanced outputs (which my processor doesn't have). So, I'll only be able to comment on the straight CD playback.

Just tried an MKV Bluray rip over the network to the 103 and that played fine without any issues at all, as did a straight BD rip of The Dark Knight Rises - no judder/panning issues. My brother commented that he now wants one of these so he can get rid of his media server and associated gubbins!

The Oppo connected to the network straight away, and the iPad app found the 103 straight away too - this is how everything should work! 

Now watching the Foo Fighters' live album recording of Wasting Light (Live from 606) via the YouTube app on the Oppo - a must for any Foo Fighters fans, if you've not seen it. Other than an audio sync issue (video is a bit ahead of the audio, which I can't do anything about, I think), its running fine, with only minor jumps on faster panning shots.

Funny thing, duaplex, I was going to ask you the same thing about exactly which Oppo machine you demo'd your existing Pioneer Blu-ray player against! You give a thorough demonstration report, but without saying (I think you maybe had said much earlier in the thread) which Oppo machine you saw / heard.

GSB wrote:

FrankHarveyHiFi wrote:

GSB wrote:

Be interesting to read your opinion of the 105 in relation to sound quality compared to the 103

For movies, I'll only be comparing the HDMI feed, which won't be any different - the main benefit is any onboard decoding down on the 105, as it uses the Sabre DAC and also has balanced outputs (which my processor doesn't have). So, I'll only be able to comment on the straight CD playback.

Hopefully, if I get chance, I'll try the internal decoding of the 105 when I get it home, but with Christmas on the doorstep, its touch and go as to whether I'll get a chance to. It is something I will be interested in though, as the new Lexicon processors are just round the corner, and if they bring out an entry level one along the lines of the 8200AP, I'll be interested in trying this aspect.

It's the 103 I had a demo on.

David the Oppo 105 should be superior for music, if current reviews are to go by.  All remains to be seen I guess. But im loving your report on the 103, wish i could have taken it home too. 

Watched a few DVD's tonight. Unfortunately, there aren't really any DVD's that I'd say I'm familiar enough with anymore to say that they're better or not, but I know what I'm looking for for DVD playback, and the 103 passed. 

I popped in a CD tonight. It was a little late for playing it at my level, so it was only low level. Even though I've not heard it for a while, I tried the newly remastered Final Cut by Pink Floyd (all the CD's I use for demo are at work). It sounded really good and I think I'm quite lucky that there isn't a single item in my system that doesn't let the music side of the system down. So yes, an AV system can sound good with music, and a sub can blend well and disappear for 2-channel duties too.

Once I get a 105 in my system (which ill more than likely end up with), I'll start a free month's trial for Netflix and see how that performs.