Should I upgrade my Blu-ray player now?

I think Bob's point(s) is/are:

1) If the system is a HT rig employing a pre-pro and decoding is done therein, any potential benefits of the superior Oppo analog section are lost (bypassed). (tho, if that's not the case, then the analysis changes.)

and

2) If you're investing in an upgrade, upgrade the pre-pro, which is doing the heavy lifting. He mentions adding room correction, a feature generally found in the pre-pro, as the most audible improvement available to most HT rigs not yet so equipped, and I'd agree 100%.

As to worrying about technology going obsolete, I'm not sure I see the concern. The existing systems I've heard (especially Audyssey xt32) sound great. If something better comes along tomorrow, that's another upgrade - but you run the same risk (even greater) with a disc player that may prove next-gen format incompatible.

As between a disc player and a pre-pro, I'd certainly second Bob's recommendation to budget disproportionately for the latter.

Db,

If you're correcting for ROOM INDUCED effects, the benefit of room correction shouldn't vary whether the system is good, great, greatest. Of course, that assumes that there are room induced effects to correct AND that the correction software causes no "collateral damage".

In every listening room in which I've done an A-B (+/- 6) there is no question re: the former. Others may debate the latter, but - as a practical reality - I believe that the benefits of fixing the room swamp any delta in the "native" (that is, uncorrected) performance of virtually any two pre-pros, regardless of the price delta. That judgement will surely vary from individual to individual, but I suspect that it will vary much less with increased exposure to A-B testing. I know that some who claim extensive A/B experience remain unconvinced, but I gotta confess that that always baffles me. One man's meat, I guess.

BTW, I still own a Theta Casablanca which has wonderful "native" SQ, but IMHO it can't touch the eq'd performance of the relatively inexpensive Integra AVR which replaced it in my HT room. But, hey, I can also succumb to audiophelia disease. The Theta soldiers on valiantly in a vinyl-based, multichannel, dual-use system in my den (because the cognitive dissonance of vinyl to ADC to DSP to DAC diminishes the "philosophical satisfaction" I get from LPs), but IMHO it is never going to provide the SQ I get from the less expensive replacement.

As always, YMMV.

Db,

I was impressed by an early gen avm 50 I heard some years back, but I believe that there has been more than one version, so it's hard to say much with confidence. I think it was a fairly pricey piece (IIRC), so you might want to consider the Onkyo PR SC 5509, which IMHO is a very fine sounding unit (Audyssey xt 32) at $2k-ish, new. (They also pop up used for <$1500 from time to time.) I can't guarantee that you'll love it, but I do.

Good Luck with the experiment.