Cambridge Audio 751 BD or Oppo BDP95?

Both the Oppo and Cambridge are based off the new Mediatek SDK, a standardized product for high end blu-ray capabilities using advanced video scaler called the Marvell QDEO.

Mediatek license this design out to smaller firms so they do not have to reinvent the wheel by designing a new player from the ground up. Yes, this includes Oppo. PCB layout, rear ports, firmware and such is very similar, because they stick to the reference design.

Where they differ vastly is on the audio side. The 751BD essentially has the latest DacMagic built in for audio, while the Oppo-95 uses a Sabre DAC.

What Ayre and other manufacturers do is something totally different. They physically buy the Oppo players, then strip out the boards and mod them to make their own product.

Audiozen, the DacMagic contains 2x wolfsen chips. One for each of it's 2 channels. The BD-751 contains 5x wolsen chips. One for each of it's five channels (you will only be using 2 for stereo).

The DacMagic uses ATF upsampling tehchology licensed from Anagram Technologies, which has now been renamed as 'Q5 upsampling'. Same thing in the BD751.

So you can see, the sonic signature of these devices will be much the same due to the use of common components and design.

DacMagic has the sonic advantage of a dedicated enclosure and power supply not shared with an optical player. And it also has the convenience of multiple digital inputs.