Oppo 103 comparison with an Ayre Codex

"I did hear an Oppo 205 and it was slightly sonically superior to my Oppo 103, which makes sense.  I have no clue why Oppo discontinued their sales of the Oppo CDP’s."


Hello whitesix,

     I think Oppo getting out of the Blu-ray player market was mainly a financial business decision based on player future sales+cost forecasts, they thought ROI would be better with other products.  I know they're #1 in cell phone sales in China and have invested heavily in 5G cell phone development.
    I own a 105 and love it and was about to buy a 205 when I heard the news.  All Oppo players are  excellent with great support and customer service.  I'm already missing them, too.


Tim
   

whitestix:
 "I dunno, maybe there are other CDP's as worthy as the 105/205 at similar prices, but I repeat again Oppo provides a glimpse of hifi sound at an incredibly modest price.  Considering price vs. performance, my 103 has been my best acquisition every."

Hello whitestix,

     I heard a rumor that Panasonic was going to come out with a high quality Blu-ray player meant to compete with the Oppo 205.  I would think Oppo dropping out of the market would only increase demand for such a product.

Tim

whitestix,

Good idea but don’t hold your breath.

The 105 is like a high quality swiss army knife. It’ll play almost any video or audio disc (CD,SACD, CDROM, DVD, DVDA, BLURAY), it’s a surround sound processor, add external amps and it’s an ultra high quality A/V receiver with a remote, a high quality DAC, connect your wi-fi and it streams audio and video, it has rca unbalanced and xlr balanced stereo outputs, separate internal circuit boards for stereo and surround channel outputs and utilizes high quality and expensive Saber DAC Chips for all audio channels. It was a hi-end bargain new at $1,199 and I’d still consider any used ones in good condition near that price as bargains. The only negative is it’s not 4K like the 205.

Tim

Hello whitestix,

     I actually was online with the intent of buying a 205 when I had trouble finding a seller with any units left in stock.  I signed up on a waiting list on the Oppo website for a unit from a supposed final production run but was never contacted.

     I really do hope Oppo licenses their designs to another company, too. And teaches them how to provide excellent customer support and service, too.   Eventually, I know I'll need to upgrade from my 1080P 105 and 1080P hdtv to the latest resolution and technology.


Later,
 Tim 

Hello jameswei,

     The best way to learn and gain experience in this hobby is to try both and discover which you think sounds best.


Tim

Hello dbphd,

     Excellent points! 
     While the Oppos ending with a 3 are very good units with very good dacs, the Oppos ending with a 5  provide better audio because they have even better dacs and are specifically designed with the goal of providing better audio.  
     They both have exactly the same parts and design quality levels for video performance for their model years.  The sole difference, and the only reason the 5 models were consistently priced just a bit over twice the price of the 3 models for their model years, was the increased parts and design costs involved with providing their significantly improved audio performance.  They were marketed emphasizing they were exactly the same video wise and with the 5 models targeted to those desiring even higher audio performance quality.
     I believe Oppo's decision to exit the market was a purely financial one based on forecasts of returns on investments (ROIs), with the forecast of reduced physical disc usage being an important factor.   Basically, I think they just determined they would make higher profits investing their resources elsewhere and producing other products. 
     5K cell phones? New expanded home automation products and other products and services connected to the soon to arrive 5K phone networks? Who knows but, knowing Oppo, I bet it's going to be very good,exciting and make boatloads of dough. It should be interesting.

Tim