Oppo 93 chosen, then thrown a curveball!
Had made up my mind to get the Oppo 93, then I was offered the Marantz UD7006 for not much more. Great, I thought, but is it great? Is the Marantz better, and it is better again now with this great price? The What HiFi reviews side with the Marantz, no doubt about it. Elsewhere, it's the Oppo and so on and so on! I like the fact that the Oppo has two HDMI outs as I don't have a 3D amp, with the Marantz I'd have the expense of the analog cables for sound. I don't know which to go for! What would you do? 
I'd go for the Marantz.
I'd go for the Cambridge.
Had made up my mind to get the Oppo 93, then I was offered the Marantz UD7006 for not much more. Great, I thought, but is it great?
How much is the Marantz? There's a £300 difference (or 60%) between the two here.
Had made up my mind to get the Oppo 93, then I was offered the Marantz UD7006 for not much more. Great, I thought, but is it great?
How much is the Marantz? There's a £300 difference (or 60%) between the two here.
I can get the Marantz at £100 more than the Oppo.
I agree with BB the OPPO is the better value option. The Marantz even at £100 difference offers nothing significantly greater than the OPPO so your just giving up £100 for what..... styling..... and even that's subjective. Unless you have a real preference for the Marantz "housesound" then the OPPO is the more sensible choice and regarded by most of the WWW as the best £4£ BD player on the market.
My Oppo BDP-93 arrived last Friday. Would recommend it to anyone. Clear and helpful manual, easy setup, pictures & sound are spot on. Build quality is excellent with a nice remote that is logically set out. Any product that puts a smile on your face is the right one.
the twin hdmi output would be the factor for me, take this into account when pioneer released its high end blu ray player back in the day it had 2 hdmi outs, sound for one and pics for the other the dedicated ports made for better pass through.
so with this in mind look at the oppo 93 review it states that sound is the oppos weekness but they dont state in what form, hi fi or only using one hdmi ect (sounds a little wrong yes) but if you can wait for the new review on the pioneer with 2 hdmi's and a better style than the marantz it could be a winner.
There are grumbles on the user forums about the slow startup and loading times with the Marantz 7006/Denon 2012. After becoming irritated enough by my old Pioneer's sluggish nature I swapped for the Oppo and never looked back. Picture and build quality a clear step up. Remember video-wise it's identical to the £900 Oppo 95 which received 5* from WHF and so if picture quality seems worthy enough for a £900 player it's a bargain for £500. Soundtracks via the Oppo analogue outs have given me no cause for complaint. Only CDs can sound a bit backward in coming forward, the WHF comments I'd agree with there, but I'm transferring my CDs to a NAS and running them through another DAC and they're sounding better than ever. Lastly the Oppo now has youtube in HD and Netflix should be streaming through soon after the UK release next year. If you're connecting to a receiver via HDMI letting the receiver do the audio then it would be the Oppo each time for me.
Soundtracks via the Oppo analogue outs have given me no cause for complaint. Only CDs can sound a bit backward in coming forward, the WHF comments I'd agree with there,
I agree with the CD sound, I have my Oppo93 feeding into an external DAC for CD stereo music and I am very happy with the results.
Thanks for the replies. The weak sound bit concerns me. Would it be better if I used analogue rather than HDMI for audio? If that's the case I might as well go for the Marantz. Can find many Marantz owners/forums around. The number of Oppo owners is saying something though.
Which amp have you got? You can either get your player to decode audio, or your amp. If you're not happy with your player's sonic performance, let your amp do it.
You really should demo both players to compare yourself. I know that Ideal AV near Leeds has Oppo on demo.
You can contact your local Oppo dealer to arrange a comparison demo.
I have an Onkyo 805. Unfortunately, I'm in a remote location too far from civilisation to demo any players.
Is the only difference between analog and HDMI sound the number of cables? Other than that it is identical?
Just upgraded my Pioneer LX52 to the Oppo 93EU. I've never used the blu ray to listen to music but for AV use the
improvement is noticable to me. DVD upscaling in particular is great improvement. Other things which has made using the oppo an enjoyable experience is start up times, universal payback of discs, great remote control with light function, build quality, easy set up and with the latest firmware update I can confim that I've had no issues with any blu ray play back.
I was a bit 50/50 with going with the oppo but when a trusted friend said "it just works as a blu ray player should" was the deciding factor for me albeit there are users who want more from audio playback. If this is the case then maybe the Marantz/Denon 2012 (which is also now £599) maybe the better option.
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If I had an amp without 3D, I would go for the Oppo.
My Home Cinema Pioneer KRP 500A, Yamaha RX-V1900, MA Radius R225HD LCR, R90HD rears, AW12 sub, Panasonic BD60, PS3, Boxee Box, Sky HD, Boxee Box, Logitech Harmony One, Logitech PS3 Adapter, Sonos ZP90
Bedroom Samsung UE32C6510, PS3 slim white, Apple TV, Sonos S5, Sonos ZP90, Audioengine 2, Oppo OPDV971H
Miscellaneous: Synology DS212J + 2 X WD Red 2TB drives, WD 1TB NAS, Sonos ZoneBridge, BT HH3 as modem & AirPort Extreme router