My small HT, I went all Sony based on TV choice, then AVR and Blu-Ray Player for the ease of unified remotes in March 2018
article mentions x700, I chose UBP-X800, so far unbeatable.
I bought a couple of highly regarded and recommended Oppo’s, compared, no better sound or video, in HT or 2 channel system, Balanced or RCA, sold them, kept the Sony.
SACD/CD, I went thru 9 players until I found and love vintage xa5400ES.
My humble Oppo 103 player has among the best sounding audio coming out of the analog section I've heard. The player's interface was also beautiful and responsive.
I've upgraded to an LG HD BD player to get 4k. The audio/video performance is fine since I'm now playing through an Anthem MRX 540, but the UI performance is rather slow or unresponsive and it's not 100% integrated with my LG TV's remote. It also has a hard time with starting certain disks I use for calibration.
If I had to do it again I would not recommend the LG as a great choice, but if all you do is stick a disk in and play, you'll be fine.
I use LG HD player for HT. I don't know of any HT/bluray player that is good for quality 2 channel sound. Iike most here, I use a CD transport going to my DAC for 2 channel sound. In fact, since I don't listen to CDs often, I didn't realize how bad my blueray player was at playing 2 channel sound until I went to Roon. I decided to compare music streamed via Qobuz to the same CD and I was surprised that the streamed music was much superior. Upon thinking about it, it was obvious to me that the cheap built-in DAC in my bluray player can't hold a candle to my $15K stand alone. I promptly bought a CD transport.
Too late to edit my post above but I may be confused. My LG blueray player may have digital out via optical and if so, then I was using my DAC. It was still inferior to qobuz and the transport that replaced it.
I use an Oppo 105, a 203, and Pioneer Universal Player (I forgot the model number just now but it was discontinued). They were and continue to be great players, all of them
Recently purchased a new Panasonic BDUP 9000, My Oppo BD95 was sounding in need of a major repair. That said the Panasonic is miles above the Oppo for 2 channel. It was on special for under $900, it took over a week to think about and purchase it. He was a 100% ebay vendor. Very happy with this player-it just won't play SACDs, oh well.
Oppo 970; 93, 103, 203. The 93 and 193 are in the garage for backup. I wish I had sprung for the 205. It can now be had for $3,000 plus since Oppo unwisely discontinued their digital business. To anyone that owns the last 3 mentioned, there are a few companies that offer upgrades for those units.
Sony X800M2 is used for movies in a HT system. Audio and video is better than the Samsung 8200 it replaced. Audio is surprisingly much better than an Oppo 103 I still have. Video also but that’s not really a fair comparison.
I also endorse the Sony UBP-X800 for Blu Ray, but with one caveat; it does not have a USB port on the back, and using the USB on the front is not a straightforward PNP task. The player requires you to format the disk in a way that it can use it. (I bought this to replace my UDP 205, which developed too many quirks in the movie playback system since OPPO is no longer updating the firmware to my knowledge.)
First format the drive in FAT32; NTFS; exFAT. Then insert it to allow the player to set up it's proprietary file system, then add files. You can’t just plug a drive of any kind into the device and play from it, because the player can’t read the drive if created in a different way. Also, thumb drives are limited to 500gig.
If you can live with that, the picture quality has been worth the price, both on my old Bravia and my new LG OLED.
I use an Oppo 103D for Blu Ray and for streaming. I recently added an Amazon Fire Stick sine the firmware on the Oppo is getting outdated. It works like a champ now and I feed it through my Holo Audio DAC for sound.
Try and seek out a Pioneer LX500(sadly discontinued). I have a Oppo103 and Sony XA5400ES(SACD/CD only). The Pioneer is better on Blu Ray/4k and SACD on my system. Not by a huge margin, the Pio is cleaner a more focused. Video side is much closer. Hard to tell the difference.
I use a Sony ES UBP-X1000ES and love it. Originally I used it solely for SACDs, but moved it into the HT when I got a dedicated SACD player. The picture is great, and 100% no issue with it's use. I would expect the same from a newer version at the top of the line.
Sounds like @dwmaggie and I have something in common. Bought the Panasonic BD-UP 9000 when it debuted, about 3 years ago. It's trouble free and superb. Gets top reviews, esp for the price. Mine does play SACD.
Also just upgraded my HT to mostly Magnepan - MMG-W and DWM's. Wonderful integrated sound has displaced my sub - it just gets in the way now.
My Oppo 103 got moved permanently to the tv room when the 205 was released.
I called Modwright and scored a demo version of the 205, "modified" to include an external, 1 tube power supply and a 2 tubes in the audio output stage of the base unit.
Feeding my KHorns through a PrimaLuna EVO 400, the sound is plenty good enough for me.
One thing: the 205 occasionally plays a track (usually track 7 or 8) over-and-over until I manually skip to the next song.....frustrating when it randomly occurs!
Too bad the software updates have been discontinued.......
I have a Panasonic DP UP820. One step down from the 900, it's half the price and the differences are mostly in the case, not the performance. Very satisfied - 4K discs lload quickly and have no playback issues I can tell on my 110" screen.
Well.... "using" is probably stretching the truth a bit. I HAVE an Oppo UDP-205. I pair it with a Marantz receiver and a 5.1 speaker rig but despite having a decent Blu-Ray collection, I seldom if ever use it.
Oppo BDP-103 Darbee edition. I love the picture quality and also use this for 5 and 2 channel SACD playback. I bought a second BDP-103 on eBay a few years ago as a backup for when my original unit finally dies. It’s sad that Oppo is no more.
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