Thanks, adsell . I won't be using the analog outs or its DACs. I did see where the 205 has a better clock and supposedly less jitter. Could you tell any difference between the digital sections? I think I'm going to do a Panasonic 9000, but if I ever found a cheap enough 205, I'd probably still get it.
Best 4K Player in Terms of Transport Mechanism
I was a late adopter to a 4K display, as the last TV I bought was right when they were coming out and I wanted to let the technology mature and come down in price. It was also a Panasonic plasma and looked better in many ways to what was out at the time. I finally moved up in size and recently bought a 4K OLED. Now that physical media is dying, I’ve begun to collect some discs and want to upgrade to a 4K player (Oppo 105D now).
I have a fairly nice HT setup and will probably never go back to a separate 2-channel system due to space and money--Vandersteen Quatros, VCC-5CT and VSM-CTs, Theta Casablanca 4a, Theta amps, Acoustic Zen Absolute cabling... My emphasis has always been on audio over video, and I still have a substantial CD collection. My question is which 4K player I should be looking at in terms of having the best transport and digital output components (jitter), ignoring the internal DACs (assuming the Extreme 3 cards in the CB would best anything in even a current high-end player, which they had darn well better for the price!). To be honest, I have no idea why they even make BDPs with DACs since every AV receiver or processor already has them. My BDP will also function as a CD transport (separate topic, but I might someday invest in a strictly CD transport, although I would just assume rip them and be digital at that point and eliminate the mechanical elements).
I guess I am down to an Oppo 203 (unless the 205 is better from a transport standpoint and not just for its DACs), the Panasonic 9000, or these Magnetars, which I never knew existed until recently. I’m assuming Arcam is never going to make a 4K version, Levinson, or anyone else high-end. I haven’t gotten too much into hi-res audio simply because most of the music I like to sit down and listen to isn’t available in higher than 16/44. There is some, though, and I might start getting into streaming or downloading files. Thus, having the BPD also function to stream or be a server interface would be a plus so that I don’t have to get a separate box. Oh yeah, HDCD decoding would be great, as the CB doesn't do it but can apparently recognize it in the bitstream. I have more than a few and can definitely tell the difference
I appreciate anyone’s thoughts/experiences/comparisons.