willland Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 (edited) I just recently picked up an "almost new" Cambridge Audio 751BD universal player. This player is CA's previous generation flagship universal player. It was CA's answer to the Oppo BDP-95 but in an Oppo 93 size chassis. The newest edition 752BD is CA's answer to the Oppo BDP-105 in a 103 size chassis. And no, Oppo does not mfr the CA players. Both CA and Oppo use the same Mediatek chipset for audio/video decoding and for user interface. The audio sections are each mfr's own tweaks(power supplies,DAC's,etc.). I have been looking for a 751BD(or 752BD) for the "right" price for some time to match with my CA 840C CD player/DAC. Since I own Oppo and Cambridge Audio players and am very satisfied by their performance, I new that I could not go wrong in getting the 751BD. I am totally blown away by the music sound quality on SACD's and local music file streaming. The 751BD does not support internet streaming services like Pandora, Spotify, etc. so I will continue to stream Pandora through my Samsung SMART TV using the CA 840C's internal DAC's and upsampling to 24/384. One of the really cool things I am enjoying with the 751BD that I could not take advantage of with music file streaming through my SMART TV, is ripped files in lossless WAV. Samsung's AllShare(now called Samsung Link) will only allow streaming with MP3(and WMA) ripped files(to my knowledge) to the TV. One thing about lossless files is great recordings sound great . For poor recordings in lossless formats, they really sound poor . The 751BD also plays CD's wonderfully but I have my 840C for that which edges the 751BD by a small margin. Blu-ray concerts have never sounded better in my system which is a tall order because my(now JTubbs) Oppo 83 was a great performer. I have yet to do any real critical listening and viewing with BD movies but if the BD concert of "Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Radio City" is any indication of video and audio performance, I know I made a great choice with the 751BD. Bill Stock photos below. Forgot to take photos before implementing in my system. Edited February 27, 2014 by willland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TasDom Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 Congratulations Bill, that's a nice looking player! I've read great things about the Cambridge and it's nice to see some lower cost alternatives to what the Oppo players command. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted January 18, 2014 Author Share Posted January 18, 2014 (edited) Congratulations Bill, that's a nice looking player! I've read great things about the Cambridge and it's nice to see some lower cost alternatives to what the Oppo players command. Enjoy! Thanks, it matches up nicely right below my CA 840C. Actually the 751BD msrp was $1249.00. which was more than the Oppo 95 at $999.00. I bought the 751BD used on A-gon for less than half of msrp. Bill Edited January 18, 2014 by willland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 Very nice addition Bill. You have a great eye for bargins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted January 18, 2014 Author Share Posted January 18, 2014 (edited) Very nice addition Bill. You have a great eye for bargins. Thanks. I just spend too much time looking for bargains. As much as I search, I am bound to find something. How is that Acurus 200FIVE handling your RF7's? Bill Edited January 18, 2014 by willland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heritage_Head Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 Congrats bill great looking player Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 (edited) How is that Acurus 200FIVE handling your RF7's? I love the Acurus 200 Five. I could not find a scratch on it and that includes the binding post. It looks brand new. It has no problems driving the speakers. The channel levels are a little lower, but the Yamaha M 80 is a conservatively rated 250 watt stereo amp. There is a slight difference in the sound of the two amps. I like both but, I am not sure just yet what I will do with the M 80. I am trying to go for a more simplistic setup and the Acurus has 5 channels. By the way, all 5 channel work since Dean only used or tested 3 channel. Weight and size wise the Acurus is very nice. I am not looking for exercise equipment. The Acurus is also pretty efficient since I am into power management for my system. Edited January 18, 2014 by derrickdj1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 (edited) congrats, nice looking player. this thread just made me order another oppo - 103 today Edited January 19, 2014 by Budman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted January 19, 2014 Author Share Posted January 19, 2014 I love the Acurus 200 Five. I could not find a scratch on it and that includes the binding post. It looks brand new. It looked that way when I sold it to Dean. Does not surprise me that it still is in great condition. I like both but, I am not sure just yet what I will do with the M 80. I am trying to go for a more simplistic setup and the Acurus has 5 channels. Look for an A200 and sell the M80. The A200 is a lower profile amp at 4.875 inches tall as opposed to 6.5 inches for the M80. Drive your RF7's with it and use the 200FIVE for the rest. Or find an A100 to drive your front heights. By the way, all 5 channel work since Dean only used or tested 3 channel. All channels worked when it left my house, I just only used 3 channels when in my system. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted January 20, 2014 Author Share Posted January 20, 2014 congrats, nice looking player. this thread just made me order another oppo - 103 today I almost jumped on an Oppo 103 when I saw one used on A-gon for $440.00 shipped. Then I saw the CA 751BD for $500.00 shipped and that was all it took. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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