Jdub, I am not commenting from complete ignorance --- I have an Oppo95 in my system. I have also had many higher end players in my system including Ayre, Gamut, dCS, and models from Esoteric including my current K01. The Oppo is outstanding value but I think it is misleading to say it can take on the really high end players. However I would highly recommend it to anyone in and above its price point.
Mike60
There is noway I cant respect that company of components,but my ears tell me it wouldn't be entirely misleading to think it can't walk the same halls as some you mentioned. I'm not saying its the best out there, not by a long shot!The thing just loves its job!and does it with passion! |
When you guys say stomp in what terms do you mean?
Is it more resolution and top octave air?
Deeper and better shades of bass, realistic tympani strikes, fast double bass and plucks from bass guitars and uprights?
Tonally rich mids with increased harmonics that give way to better byte to brass strings and such?
Lower noise floor?
Increased dynamics?
I only ask as I find the stock player capable of highly resolving characteristics and dead neutral. Also if attention is paid to cabling and such mods may not be necessary, if desired results are obtained having said that I'm curious about the mods and may have a second 95 done or wait to see what Oppo does to top the 95. |
Jdub39, yes to all the improvements you listed and more. With good recordings, it's the difference between good "hi-fi" and something more akin to live.
Both Modwright units(Sony 5400 & Oppo 95) sound waaay more refined, better resolution, more open, transparent and detailed, than the stock units. Also, more power and weight to the music.
The stock unit is very good "for the money" but if the rest of your system is up to the task, the modded players will take you to a much higher plane.
As for cabling, yes good cables should bring out the best in any component but they're not going to turn a $999 player into a serious contender. Don't waste your money on band-aids. |
I wouldn't consider good cables band-aids, I believe it all starts at the outside box and have heard tremendous increase in fidelity by addressing it as a foundation to which it all sits, from there I do whats in my power to insure signal purity from the individual components all the way to the speakers, from there good placement and acoustical treatments further what I consider true refinement. Now the components themselves have the best chance of yeilding what could be there true potential. My gear is by no means what many here would consider highend "that's by todays standards of course" But over my 28yrs of listening to great gear ( some where price to performance is greatly diminished) I have finally put together something that has left me at times speechless and dumb founded that it didn't take the dream system I always thought it would, and oh man! don"t let me play the Reference stuff.I guess the good thing for me at this point is I have the live sound and If I get any closer I might get burned ! |
Jdub39 just get the mod, you won't be mad and you will thank us in the morning. I guarantee it will be the best thing you did in a long time. |
When the "itch" returns its high on the to do list! |
Picked up an Oppo 95 from Magnolia today. Purchased this with Modwright mod in mind, somewhere down the road.
Question is how far the 95 gets to after a few hundred hours of playing? Does it sound like a totally different player than right out of the box? Now it's kind of brutal. The music is all over the place! I'm running Focal Electra with Pass Labs XA.5 amp and XP pre. Running all balanced with Nordost Heimdall ICs. |
Picked up an Oppo 95 from Magnolia today. Purchased this with Modwright mod in mind, somewhere down the road.
Question is how far the 95 gets to after a few hundred hours of playing? Does it sound like a totally different player than right out of the box? Now it's kind of brutal. The music is all over the place!
I'm running Focal Electra with Pass Labs XA.5 amp and XP pre. Running all balanced with Nordost Heimdall ICs. |
500-700hrs for full burn in, but at around 120+ it gets more stability and hints at its coherence, but pass 50hrs or so the unit is listenable. |
Jdub39, thank you for the info.
My unit currently has about 15 hr. Sounds slightly better than out of the box. Still far away from how it is described in Absolute Sound review and from this thread. Hopefully breaking in really does the trick (from my limited experience, breaking in is real for some electronics but not so much for others). But I do sense the detail nature of sabre 32-bit dac. After breaking in, I'll do a comparison with my Electrocompaniet ECD-1 24-bit upsampling dac (old but still in production) using optical out from Oppo. |
Shouldn't OPPO be able to tell us EXACTLY how long the 'burn-in' period is? |
Passed 60 hr today and it's still edgy and non-cohesive. :( I see subtle changes here and there and soundstage isn't that restrictive anymore. But I start to worry it won't meet my expectation and have good synergy with the rest of my gears. I have Focal Electra speakers, Paradigm sub, Pass XA30.5 amp and XP-10 pre that are considerably pricier than Oppo 95. Pretty revealing yet sweet sound due to pure class A amp.
How big of a difference between a fully broken in unit and a unit with 60 hr playing time??
BTW I used flac files from USB drive for burn-in. The music is mostly Diana Krall, Nora Jones, Cassandra Wilson, etc that I downloaded from HD Tracks and some very bass heavy EDM from iTunes. |
Well, if you aren't satisified, maybe the just announced 105 will float your boat. No fan. And a ton of just killer featured. |
Oh boy, I just bought my 95 (maybe modwright mod soon).
Roscoeiii, is there any estimate release date of 105? I just read on a blog, 105 highlights for me are - no fan, optical/coaxial/usb inputs. No mention of the dac. |
Just passed 150 hours on 95 this morning. Jdub39's burn-in schedule has been spot on (a big kudos!). It sounds like a totally different player than out of the box and becomes very acceptable for me. Can't wait for the 300 and 600 marks. I will still hold my judgement until then, but sounds very promising. |
