OPPO BDP-83SE Special Edition Blu-ray Disc Player First Look

You don't have to spend much time on any Home Theater Forum before you come across the name Oppo. Oppo has been touted by fans, enthusiasts, and industry professionals as being the best bang for buck in the DVD market. If you haven't owned one, you know someone that has. Heck, you've probably suggested one to more than one friend, acquaintance, family member, or anonymous user on the Internet. When Oppo came out with their cost defying, feature rich Universal Blu player - the BDP-83 - people were understandably excited. Of course there was a lot to get excited about. It was a universal player which means that it plays not only Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and CDs (which all Blu-ray players will do), but also DVD-As and SACDs. While the common man might now know about these formats, for the enthusiasts, it is a must.

As a brief history, SACD and DVD-A are two formats there were meant to usher in not only higher fidelity recordings but also multichannel, high fidelity recordings. You don't have to spend too much on speakers and a receiver before you realize just how bad much of the over compressed mainstream music sounds on a higher fidelity system. Suddenly you have two stacks of music - music that sounds good in the car (where the road noise and bad speakers need a highly compressed track just to be heard) and music that sounds good in your house.

SACD and DVD-A took this to a whole new level. Now you have music that we meant to be played back by a high quality surround sound system (some of the offerings were in stereo but many were not) and were recorded at a much higher bitrate and with minimal if any compression. This was music with dynamic range, with nuances, with the ability to not only hear the vocals but to discern individual instruments, sounds, and (sometimes) mistakes. Music lovers flocked (well, maybe not flocked but at least picked up one or two) to these new formats once they picked up a compatible player. The problem was that the players were newer and more expensive. Oppo, of course, fixed that with their very affordable DVD player offerings. But when Blu-ray and HD DVD came out, there was a new high-res format on the block and the struggling DVD-A and SACD formats were all but abandoned. In fact, you could barely find a Blu-ray player that played SACD (Sony's format) and DVD-A was all but non-existent. It seemed that music lovers would be stuck with two players - an SACD/DVD-A DVD player and a Blu-ray player.

We heard announcements from the likes of Denon and Lexicon that new Universal Blu players were in the works. They'd have top of the line everything including support for just about every format under the sun. Finally the music lover would have an all-in-one option. But it came at a cost. The Denon DVD-A1UDCI Universal Blu-ray Player hit the stores as a cool $4500 with the Lexicon BD-30 (which is very much an Oppo BDP-83 clone) just shy of $3500. That is just too much for the average enthusiast. Of course Oppo had the remedy for that as well with the BDP-83 which retailed for just shy of $500. With nearly all the features of the higher priced offerings but at a fraction of the cost, it couldn't help but shoot up to the top of the AV enthusiast's Christmas list. Now, Oppo is upping the ante again.

The Oppo BDP-83SE is a "Special Edition" version of the Oppo BDP-83 Universal Blu player. For an extra $400 (yes, that almost doubles the price of the original) you get upgrades only a connoisseur could love. Namely, you're getting an upgraded audio section, a better power supply, RS-232 support, and a faceplate with the words "Special Edition" on the front. While Oppo has a complete comparison chart, the main differences are upgraded DACs (ESS Technology ES9016 4 DACs per channel vs. Cirrus Logic CS4398 1 DAC per channel) and increased frequency response (up to 44kHz at +/-0.2dB) for those with Supertweeters (a technology with questionable benefit). Even Oppo admits that this upgrade isn't for everyone. From their website:

OPPO Digital recommends the BDP-83 Special Edition to customers who primarily use the analog audio output to connect to either a dedicated stereo or a multi-channel surround system. For customers who primarily use the HDMI output to connect to an A/V receiver or directly to a TV/projector, and for customers who primarily use the digital optical/coaxial audio output, the standard BDP-83 is recommended.

Lastly, if you are already a BDP-83 owner and want the upgrades but don't want to buy a new player, Oppo will do it for $299 (100 savings off the sticker difference). You'll have to ship your player to them on your dime (which deflates a bit the $100 savings) but Oppo will make the changes and ship it back at their cost. You'll get all the upgrades EXCEPT the faceplate. This means that your "new" SE player will not have any branding to announce it as such. In lieu of a faceplate, Oppo will send you a Special Edition sticker if you like. For those that want all the upgrades including the new faceplate Oppo suggests Ebay and then a new purchase.

Conclusion

When we say this player isn't for everyone, we mean it. It really isn't. If you are connected via HDMI or digital audio, you absolutely will see zero benefit from this upgrade. In that case, save yourself some coin and get the standard Oppo BDP-83 player which did extremely well in our testing.  The "Special Edition" upgrade is for users that utilize an analogue connection with very high quality gear. While there may be some sonic benefit, Oppo seems to be catering this upgrade to the esoteric crowd that worries more about Supertweeters and speaker cables than they do about room acoustics. For that crowd, we think that Oppo is making a very good decision that will surely bring them a lot of sales that they might not have gotten. For the rest of us, the BDP-83 will be just fine thank you. 

For more information, please visit www.oppodigital.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.