Decoding HD Audio

[admin_exported]

Hoping someone can help me decide what bluray player to buy. Currently deciding between Pioneer LX82 and the Oppo 83.

If you bitstream HD audio will the be any difference in the sound between any 2 players. Or is the difference evident when the player is decoding the audio. If there is no difference in audio, then it comes down to picture quality and easy of use.

On the other hand, if I were to use multichannel analogue outs on the Oppo 83 SE equipped with ESS sabre 32 ultra DAC, would the be an improvement in HD audio opposed to bitstreaming to a Yamaha DSP-Z7?

Thank you.

 

[professorhat]

Can't help on your second question but, my experience has shown that differences can quite easily be distinguished between different players when bitstreaming HD audio.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks professor. Have you experimented with using onboard bluray player decoding aswell?

 

[professorhat]

I haven't to be honest, mainly because I'm quietly confident my Onkyo 905 amp is going to do the job better and also because I don't have 3 pairs of decent quality interconnects to hand to test it out!

 

[Anonymous]

I would have thought a Hi end AVR would do a better job decoding audio then a BF playing costing less than half the price. But from what I've heard from a few audiophiles is that the oppo SE using mulitchannel analogue leaves HDMI for dead. I am no audiophile. just a keen enthusiast.

With out a home demo i dont know if the gains or worth the premium.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow,analogue audio leaving HD audio for dead,yep were really moving forward.

I have my lx-70 pioneer decoding bitstreams from my bdp51,as i tried multi-ch also but went straight back to HDMI,At high volumes there was no comparison to HD decoding,including direct music streams. IMHO.

 

[Anonymous]

Prime Cuts:
But from what I've heard from a few audiophiles is that the oppo SE using mulitchannel analogue leaves HDMI for dead

I that just for the oppo or is that true for all blu-ray players ? Would have thought HDMI would be as good if not better.

 

[professorhat]

Prime Cuts:I would have thought a Hi end AVR would do a better job decoding audio then a BF playing costing less than half the price. But from what I've heard from a few audiophiles is that the oppo SE using mulitchannel analogue leaves HDMI for dead. I am no audiophile. just a keen enthusiast.
With out a home demo i dont know if the gains or worth the premium.

Well, some bold claims have been made about the Oppo in some circles - I can't confirm or deny them, but like you, I'd certainly be suspicious of some of them until I'd seen / heard the player for myself. This blog from Andrew will be worth a read if you haven't seen it though (the 831 is the European equivalent of the 83 US version but was never released for some reason).

 

[Anonymous]

The Oppo SE as fair as i am aware. Perhaps other players might fall into the same catagory.

My first impressions were disbelief when i was told about it. A lot of audiophiles perfer analogue audio over digital. Your bluray player does not share the same DAC as the SE, perhaps this is why you prefered HDMI.

Digital is great because the difference between cables and such should be less noticable than analouge.

Anyone else have any experiance with the Oppo SE analogue or bitstreaming?

 

[Dave_]

Prime Cuts:Anyone else have any experiance with the Oppo SE analogue or bitstreaming? My personal thoughts on the Oppo is that it's a very good universal player... But a product that has attracted much forum over-hype!

I can only directly compare the Oppo 83SE to my Pio BDP-LX71 that it replaced,and with 1080p material i see no difference in PQ, with upscaling the Oppo is slightly better than the LX71, but neither are as good as my Kuro at upscaling so use the Oppo in 'source direct' mode and let the TV handle any upscaling.

On the audio side i can only compare analogue outs as my Pre/Pro doesn't do HDMI/HD audio... The Oppo gives a fuller more dynamic performance than the Pio, but the difference isn't so huge that i'd be disappointed having to go back to using the Pioneer.

In short, if i didn't need/want the 'Universal' capabilities of the Oppo, i'd still be using the LX71.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that link prof.hat.

daveh75:

In short, if i didn't need/want the 'Universal' capabilities of the Oppo, i'd still be using the LX71.

I have heard that the Pioneer players are somewhat sluggish to load, is this also the case when it comes to rewind, fastforward and track selections>?

Personaly the i have no use for the universal capabilities of the Oppo, it came to be on my short list because of such forum hype and recommendation from my local store.

Interesting you found the upsacling better on the Pio Kuro, I also of the latest model Kuro. For paytv i found that the Yamaha Z7 upscaled the picture much better.