Disc Players

[vandec54]

I am a simple man with a simple system, however, I am always curious what I am missing....

My disc player is listed below, a Sony Blu-Ray. I know the sky is the limit when purchasing.

If I blew some coin on a $1,000 universal disc/blu-ray player would I notice/hear a difference. How? What Brand?

Would I notice/hear a difference on a $500 model? What Brand do you recommend? Thank you

[derrickdj1]

The Oppo boys will chime in. For me it comes down to if you use SACD's and want to hook up your system with analog inputs for HT. The answer is no for me, I will stick with my Samsungs and Pioneer. My avr has a good DAC which is another consideration when looking for a BDP. I think it is a matter of choice and the direction you are pursuing for you system.

[Vital]

Edit: Never mind

[Quiet_Hollow]

Oppo are really nice.

It is possible to go too cheap on players. It just hits you by surprise where the penalties crop up for doing so. Speaking from experience. [:$]

[willland]

If I blew some coin on a $1,000 universal disc/blu-ray player would I notice/hear a difference. How? What Brand?

Would I notice/hear a difference on a $500 model? What Brand do you recommend? Thank you

If you want to keep it matching, this is worth a shot.

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/MARUD5007/MARANTZ-UD5007-3D-Universal-Disc-Player-with-Networking/1.html#!more

or this but they are currently sold out.

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/MARUD7007/MARANTZ-UD7007-3D-Ready-Universal-Disc-Player-with-Networking/1.html#!specifications

And of course there is Oppo.

Bill

[Coytee]

At one of the Klipsch gatherings, they were demonstrating the Jubilee in the engineering listening room. Most that heard it were favorably impressed. As I recall, futher research showed he was using something like a Crown or QSC amp, active crossover and.....a $50 CD player they bought at Walmart. I'm thinking it was an Emerson but, I don't remember.

I did find it interesting that with all those dreadful electronics, everyone seemed to stll feel it was one of the best listening experiences they heard.

On a personal note, I once obtained a bunch of goodies from an estate purchase. One of the pieces was an Esoteric CD player. I didn't realize exactly what it was and was giddy that I had such a high end CD player. Simply holding the remote was a joy as it was machined and you could feel the quality in it....

I however, kept listening and thought I wasn't hearing much difference if any at all between the Esoteric and my Sony 5-changer. I started to listen a little closer and did my best to compare as critically as I could....

If there were differences, I am glad I have tin ears. I ended up selling the Esoteric on Ebay for something approaching $1,500 / $2,000 as I recall. I was far more thrilled with that cash back in my pocket than any sound improvment that might have been there (cause I sure wasn't hearing it!)

[Chris A]

If I blew some coin on a $1,000 universal disc/Blu-Ray player would I notice/hear a difference. How?

If you are using the analog output on your digital players, then money counts a lot. However, if you are using HDMI to your preamp, then price means much less: bits are bits. It means that the DAC analog output stage in your preamp is much more important.

The differences in DACs (the integrated devices themselves) nowadays appear to be very much smaller than a few years ago (if they're internally clocked on suppressed-clock conversion buses - like S/PDIF) but not your DAC's analog output stages: those are important.

Chris

[Mongo171]

I am always curious what I am missing....

That all depends on what you are looking for. You have to decide which features you like and would like to have. There are a variety of players out there that will do the same thing and vary wildly in price.

If I blew some coin on a $1,000 universal disc/blu-ray player would I notice/hear a difference. How? What Brand?

Blowing money on something that offers a lot is fun. But, if you're going to spend that much, do your homework and compare the different players and their features. If you have the money to spend, I recommend the Oppo line. Their quality is quite good and offer a lot of options with their players. Their new players are the BDP-103 ($499) and BDP-105 ($1199). The main difference between the 2 are the way you want to hook it up to your system. If you are going HDMI from the player to your AVR, then get the 103. If you are going to use the analog outputs, then go with the 105. I have a 105 hooked directly to my amp. I do hear a difference in the sound. But, different people have different results. The DAC's in the 105 really shine. That's what separates the 105 from other players.

Would I notice/hear a difference on a $500 model? What Brand do you recommend?

With the Oppo BDP-103 being in this price range, the connection to your AVR will be HDMI. I have heard that these are nice players as well. There are people on these Forums that have the 103 and will probably chime in with their own experiences.

[Xki]

I've had a BD-103 for about 1 month. I will never go back to cheap.

It loads all discs very fast.

Sound quality is wonderful.

Picture quality is wonderful.

I can skip the stinking previews! Yea!

It's full size 19" and looks good.

Build quality id good.

2 years Mfg. waranty plus 1 extra purchased will still be less money than having to dump a highly rated, soon to die disc player.

OK - I'm using HDMI so the 103 is just fine. I don't use all the features but the ones that I do are good. We use Pandora a lot. Funning thing with Pandora, in the previous 3 disc players, it was right biased. I had to boost the left main to compensate. No so with the 103.

Here's a really nice thing, the external Wifi dongle they supply pulls in the wireless signal at almost 100%. The other players would sometimes get 50%. Buffering is GONE.l

[HAmmer32261]

So is the PS3 still considered a good player?

or would it benefit to update to something else?

[ivanhurd]

^^^Check out my oppo review in my sig, I compare it to the PS3. For what it is, PS3 is a great bluray player tho.

[Heritage_Head]

So is the PS3 still considered a good player?

or would it benefit to update to something else?

Yes oppo