OPPO BDP-95 Blu-ray Player First Look

Boy, if felt like it was only yesterday we were gushing all over the the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player - the player good enough to repackage and sell at a $3000 premium. When Oppo announced the release of their BDP-93 3D Blu-ray Player, we knew the spiritual successor to the audiophile grade BDP-83SE couldn't be far behind.

We were right.

Let us start off by saying we love this new business model of Oppo. We love that they release a "bare-bones" model often has more features than anything on the market in the price point. We love that they now start offering an audiophile version with upgraded audio section for those that have the money, desire, and gear to appreciate it. This is a best of both worlds situation. Joe Consumer gets a full featured Blu-ray player with state of the art technology at a very reasonable price. Users that have spent more money on their speakers than many spend on food in a year get to pay a premium for a player that adds those extra bells and whistles that true audiophiles demand without sacrificing any of the other features.

First, we should talk about price. Formally the price has not yet been set up inside sources at Oppo have confirmed that it will come in under a grand - but maybe not much. This is a bit more than the Oppo BDP-83SE which commanded $899. While owners of the BDP-83 could pay to have their players upgraded to the SE model, that isn't possible with the BDP-95 (hence the change in model number). A look at the back of both models will confirm that the 95 is not just a modified 93, it is a completely new product.

Oppo BDP-93

 
Oppo BDP-95

Just glancing at the rear panel of the BDP-95 reveals a number of serious upgrades. First, you find XLR as well as RCA stereo outputs. With the BDP-93 you'd be forced to use the Left and Right channels of the 7.1 analogue outputs. The rest of the connections are all the same if a bit rearranged. Observant readers will note that the 95 is a bit taller than the 93 (the 93 is 16.9 x 12.25 x 3.125 inches and the 95 is same except 4 inches tall). There is also a fan on the back of the 95 that is not present on the 93. This is probably because of the internal upgrades which includes a toroidal transformer built by Rotel.

Yes, that Rotel.

The toroidal power transformer is designed to offer superior inrush current and much lower exterior magnetic field over traditional laminated steel core transformers. The BDP-95's toroidal linear power supply provides a very clean and robust power source to the critical audio components. But the most important part as far as audio is the DAC - Digital to Analogue Converter. In the case of the BDP-95, they've opted with the SABRE32 (that 32 is supposed to be superscript) Reference ES9018 from ESS Technology. This is the same DAC they used in high-end consumer applications and professional studio equipment. The SABRE brags a DNR (Dynamic Range) of up to 135dB and a THD+N (Total Harmonic Distortion plus Noise) of -120dB. This is the industry's highest performance level and should satisfy even the most demanding audio purist (of course, we fully expect to see a BDP-95 with a tube sticking out of the top at the next high-end show because, you know, everything sounds better with tubes). Oppo hasn't just used a single SABRE DAC for their BDP-95, they use two - one for the 7.1 channel output and a second one for the dedicated stereo output. All this technology adds nearly 50% additional weight to the unit bringing the BDP-95 in at 16 pounds.

The BDP-95 is scheduled to start shipping in February. You can register on Oppo's website to be notified by email when it comes available.

Conclusion

The BDP-95 still has all the other features of the BDP-93 including dual HDMI outputs, Marvell's Kyoto-G2 video processor, Netflix and Blockbuster support, and 3D compatibility. Hopefully they'll also add more features like VUDU and other streaming services shortly after release. And this is what is so great about the new BDP-95: You don't have sacrifice the latest and greatest features to have state of the art audio. If all you really want is a great player with universal disc support (meaning it plays DVDs, CDs, Blu-rays, DVD-As, and SACDs plus lots more), 3D, and Netflix, the BDP-93 is a great choice. But if you are really worried about audio, specifically two channel analogue audio, it's going to be really hard to outperform the BDP-95. Considering the price (under a grand), it is probably impossible to beat. If you have high end processors, amps, and speakers, you owe it to your gear to feed them a source as quality as the BDP-95... or wait until someone takes it and puts it into a nicer box for you to buy at 7x the price.

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.