Reference disc player...UDP 205 or Marantz?

I haven’t had any of the Marantz disc players but I did own the previous generations of Oppo (105D and 95). I still own the 105D.

I also own a current model sacd player from another manufacturer that lists for about 17x the price of the 105D.
With carefully upgraded power and interconnect cables, I’m not lying when I tell you the Oppo plays in the big leagues. In fact, when I got the SACD player I’m referring to, I was shocked at what I considered a fairly small percentage improvement over the Oppo. In fact, I would suggest some people might prefer the presentation of the Oppo.

I really can’t see you going wrong with either choice, though. I owned a couple of Denon’s last reference disc players that they sold in the USA in the last 10 years, though I preferred the Oppo 95 to those, and sold them. They were well made and enjoyable, though. Although owned by the same company, I don’t know how much in common the Marantz and Denon players have, in terms of sound.

There’s a strong chance that the audio quality on the new Oppo 205 is better than the 105 (which was better than the 95). With their return policy and support, trying an Oppo is compelling.

I think Oppo keeps their edge by consistently refining and updating their components versus the previous generation every 2 or 3 years. They seem to strive to use the latest DAC in each generation.
I'd love to compare the new flagship ESS DAC in the 205 versus my 105D with the older generation DAC, but I don't have a need for a 4K blu ray player, so that probably won't happen for awhile.

The other question is if you'd prefer to run balanced interconnects or not. Obviously you have a choice with the Oppo 205 but can only run single ended on the Marantz you're considering.
Generally, I find balanced sounds better in my system, over the course of even different pre-amps.

Perhaps you can get a good deal on the older, discontinued, Marantz SA-11S3 if they're available?

Following up on my earlier posts and some of the recommendations of a Modwright modded Oppo (or Marantz), I thought I'd chime in with my experience.
When I decided to upgrade from my Oppo BDP-95, I decided to go all out and get the top modded Oppo BDP 105D from Modwright, with all the bells and whistles, upgraded tubes, etc. The reviews were outstanding.
Suffice to say, it was a mistake for me. It sounded poor in comparison to my stock Oppo BDP-95. It sounded bloated and like mush. I tried multiple tubes recommended by Modwright to tune the player, but after a month, I gave up, and sold it as fast as I could, here, on Audiogon. Once I sold it, I ordered a stock BDP-105D and was positively thrilled. It was an improvement over the BDP-95.
Another person on one of the audio forums I frequent had a similar experience to mine, too.
Maybe it just didn't suit my system, but I've never had an experience like that with any component, before. My lesson was that I will never spend good money modifying a component to that extent. I will just purchase a better component in stock form, for a similar combined price.

@hifiman5 

I know my experience stands out. Through conversations with Modwright, I determined the player was not for me. It was not even partially satisfying to listen to in my system. Again, I've never had an experience with a component like this, ever.

For the record, I prefer a warmer, dare I say, romantic, presentation.
I hate bright - which made me think I might like the Modwright player, based on the reviews I had read. I had considered the Oppo BDP-95 a bit lean, although, in retrospect, my cables added to that impression on all sources. I wanted a player that corrected the omissions of tone and musical density that I considered were built into the Oppo-BDP-95. The Modwright Oppo BDP-105D seemed to be a compelling option.

At the time, I believe my system was as follows: McIntosh C500T 2 box pre-amp, McIntosh MC501 mono block amps, Oppo BDP-95, either Shunyata Triton 2 or PS Audio P10 power conditioner (can't remember which), and mostly JPS Aluminata cabling (I came to regard these cables as mildly tilted up toward the upper frequencies). My speakers were Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Concert Grands.

I've since mostly changed almost everything in my system except the speakers, to come to a more balanced, tonally realistic, less bright or etched, presentation.

@hifiman5 
I tube rolled a bit. I got the best tubes that Modwright offered and bought some NOS that Modwright recommeneded from Upscale Audio.
Something just didn't gel despite things seeming like they should line up, on paper.
I bit the bullet, changed almost everything, went solid state, and for the time being, I'm pretty damn happy with the sound I hear. Thanks.

 Is there a way to program the player to read the hi-rez stereo layer of SACD rather than down mix the MC?

You are reading the manual out of context. 

In General...

SACD discs can have both a stereo layer and a multichannel layer on the same disc and you choose which to play. 

Most stereo players default to playing the stereo layer or can be set up to do so.

But, if the multichannel layer of the disc is selected, a stereo (2 channel) SACD player will down mix the multichannel program to stereo, if the player is capable of reading and playing the multichannel layer.

Thanks for the clarification.

So what I am hearing you say is that UDP-205 can in fact be set up to play the stereo hi-rez layer of typical SACD which has three layers, CD, stereo SACD and MC.

What I am still not clear but will try to find out, where in the owners manual one finds direction of how to setup the player so that it would play the stereo SACD layer.

Don’t laugh, I am learning and thanks again.

I just took a quick peek at the manual. Go to page 59 and look at the picture of the menu at the top of the page - you'll see the words, "SACD Priority." On page 60, is the selection to tell the player which layer of the disc to play by default. Under that is the selection for "SACD Output" which you'd likely want to set to "DSD" if you're using the analog outputs, which I'd recommend.
The other selections for "SACD output" are if you want or need to convert DSD to PCM for an external DAC that doesn't support DSD, or if for some reason you wanted to convert DSD to PCM before sending it to the internal DAC. The extra step of conversion from DSD to PCM isn't necessary, and in my opinion, degrades the sound when using the analog outputs. I'm of the opinion that the less conversions you make of the data, the better.
When I had my first Oppo, I was overwhelmed by all the options, but after reading them a few times it starts to make sense.

I forgot to mention that there is a button on the remote to select a different layer of the SACD disc should you wish to play back a different layer than you set the player to default to.

I believe it is the "audio" button on the remote. I think that's what it is my Oppo BDP-105D.
Nevertheless, there IS a button for it that brings up an onscreen display that allows you to navigate to an alternate layer.
Again, if you are playing music in stereo, there is little to no reason to change the default playing area.

So far so good, the only remaining question is PCM/DSD. On page 60 this is discussed but the choices listed are for HDMI output, in my case I do not want to mess with HDMI but instead use analog two channel RCA outputs

If you re-read page 60 and 61, you'll see that the choice made for "SACD Output" affects BOTH hdmi AND analog outputs.

If you would like to have direct DSD to analog audio conversion, then you would select "DSD."

As I described, previously, a selection of "PCM" would convert DSD to PCM before conversion by the internal DAC of the Oppo.

The "auto" selection under this heading is more geared toward someone using the hdmi output for audio delivery to an external processor.

On this I am not confused.

Yes, every SACD has a standard resolution CD layer, I am not talking about this CD layer, this allows an SACD to be played on standard CD players.

Certain classical labels offer SACD’s with their Hi-Rez stereo layer in PCM, BIS Records is one such label.

Channel Classics, another state of art label, offers all their SACD’s in DSD, again we are talking about the Hi-Rez stereo layer.

I just went to the BIS label site and I can find no information regarding what you describe.

Perhaps you are misunderstanding the way the label records versus encodes the SACD. The BIS SACD page does indicate they record in high resolution PCM. Then they encode the PCM as DSD on SACD.

If I'm mistaken, please give me an example of what you're referring to because I'm interested in what these discs are.

SACD is encoded as DSD, in all circumstances. That's what makes it an SACD. There is no high resolution PCM on an SACD.

I think we can agree that an SACD-hybrid disc CAN have cd quality audio as an additional layer, but not higher than cd 44.1/16 bit quality.