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Which should I choose?

My Sony S350 Blu ray player is about 10 years old and very tired.  It takes almost 5 minutes to load a blu ray and has been like this since day one.  I want to buy another player and am trying to decide on either the Oppo 203 or 205.  I will NOT be using the Oppo for redbook cd or sacd or as a dac as I already have an Esoteric player for that.  This will be strictly 2 channel audio/video for my TV for watching movies although I may play an occasional blu ray audio disk.  Most of the time the player will play through my Z Vox under the TV but if I listen to blu ray audio, I will play it through my high end system which is in the same room.  I will need to buy a pair of 7 meter interconnects for that.

With all this being said, does it make more sense for me to go with the Oppo 203 or 205?

128x128stereo5
6 responses Add your response
stereo5's avatar
stereo5 OP
6,388 posts
 
I have an Esoteric UX3 SACD player which uses the Burr Brown PCM1704 R to R ladder dac and the transport is all metal including the tray which is the VRDS Neo transport.  The player was 8500 and it is extremely smooth sounding and something you can listen to all day without fatigue.
mattmiller's avatar
mattmiller
1,497 posts
 
The Oppo still uses a Hi-End signal path for Analog output when using the standard rca’s so it dosent matter (nice to have XLR for future upgrades maybe) I had a Esoteric S60 in my listening room for a little while and it was horrible to listen too, very non emotional and hard digital artifacts abound, really could not listen to it loud at all. Maybe the uber expensive ones are better sounding. I think the S60 was around 5K-6K machine with a great remote, great response times, but cheap plastic drawer with awful sound! IMO. My point is, unless you have the Esoteric with the NEO VERDES transport...its easily replaced entirely by the Oppo...(Its that good).
stereo5's avatar
stereo5 OP
6,388 posts
 
My Rogue RP-5 preamp does not have any balanced connections.  I already own the Esoteric and love it.  The Oppo is for viewing movies only.
mattmiller's avatar
mattmiller
1,497 posts
 
Im pretty sure the 205 is the Newest Oppo player (took the place of the 105) and it has XLR stereo outputs which would be a better choice with 7 foot long cables. I would go with the Oppo all day, cant touch it for the money and it will take the place of your Esoteric for a more warmer and less harder digital sound, this will be much more appreciated when you listen loudly for longer periods.

Matt M
yage
400 posts
 
I would opt for the BDP-203. I had the same dilemma when choosing between the BDP-103 and 105. I mainly use the 103 for movies and the Ayre C-5xeMP for music. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything with the cheaper model.
gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
No, I don’t think it makes much sense to go with the 203, particularly in your case where you can afford the difference in cost and have other gear capable of resolving subtleties :)

Seriously, besides the better analog audio in the 205, there is also improved HDMI audio given the improved jitter control. Video is the same. But for any audio aspect the 205 wins.
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