Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Oppo DV-970 HD

I am searching for a new SACD player and have heard from a number of people about an Oppo DV-970 HD universal player that sells for 150.00 and has garnered some excellent reviews. Being a sceptic by nature I am somewhat dubious about the audio quality of a player in this price range. Since my prime interest is audio rather then HT,is there anyone that has had any experience with the Oppo? Any help would be appreciated.

Arthur, although it's good to be skeptical about things, there's no need for it these days with respect to the audio quality of digital disc players. At this and even lower prices players have for quite some time been outputting the data contained on the discs without audible flaws, i.e., with audibly flat frequency response and inaudibly low noise and distortion. Look to video processing features, but don't worry about the audio.

Be aware of this issue:

"Careful with the channel calibration. If you are using the analog outputs, the Oppo time delay algorithm can only support surround speakers that are installed closer or equal to the listener than the fronts.

Since we're on the topic, I was really not thrilled with Oppo's response on this issue (see below):

Me: Hello, a few weeks ago I cancelled my order for the 971H. I cancelled the order because your time delay algorithm can only support surround speakers that are installed closer or equal to the listener than the fronts. When do you plan on
changing the algorithm? I feel like I am being penalized for
installing my surrounds further from me than the fronts.

Oppo: The algorithm for the delay is based on the Dolby Digital specifications. For this reason, we have no plans on changing the delay functionality of our players. For most applications you will not be using the channel delay functions on the DVD player, as you will be using these functions on your receiver.

Me: I have used three different integrated receivers and they all support surround speakers that are further away from the listener than the fronts. So I very much doubt that your implementation is a limitation of the DD standard but rather an over-sight on your part. I don't have HDMI on my current receiver. I therefore have to use the analog inputs for 5.1 surround to enjoy SACDs. My receiver, as with the majority of receivers on the market now, cannot apply time delays to analog inputs. I am very disappointed that you would not even consider this request for future corrective action.

Oppo: Our engineers worked closely with Dolby Labs on the design of the channel delay circuitry. The way it is integrated into the system is based on their recommendations. We have no plans on altering this implementation as our engineers are not familiar with the algorithms used by receiver manufacturers to add delays in the positive direction.
Our engineer team is quite small, and we do not have the resources to train an engineer specifically for this function."

Arthur, the Oppos (970, 981, and the new 980) are generally held in high regard. All are universal players handling both SACD and DVD-A. At the price, they are difficult to beat.

Here is a Comparison Chart of the currently available three models, their features, and their recommended usage (see the "Oppo Recommendations" section of the chart)

I have been contentedly using the old 971 (DVD-A only) for a number of years. But, since I have a 1080p DLP display, my new 980 will be arriving Saturday.

Hello Asher,

The Oppo DV-970HD, which I use for DVD-A, SACD and DVD video, sounds spectacularly good with the two almost moribund hi-rez audio formats--as good as anything I've heard. Even Wes Phillips, the reviewer for the tweaky Stereophile magazine (I know him), was hard-pressed to acknowledge any differences between the Oppo 970 and his very costly high-end player. Knowing full-well the huge influences of psycho-acoustic bias, I suspect if Wes had to distinguish in a double-blind test between the Oppo and his high-end player, with both players loaded and synced with duplicate discs, he would find it impossible to do so. (Given that Stereophile magazine is supported by high-end advertisers, it's entirely understandable why the magazine won't conduct such rigorous comparisons.)

I use the Oppo's analog outputs to my H/K, but it lets me run them through the H/K's bass management and setup delays so the issue Mojo raises isn't relevant for my purposes.

Regards,

Yeah, I'm glad I'm not the only one for whom this was a revelation.

Welcome to the land of Harman/Kardon--when things work right (sorry, Mike...), they've got some pretty sweet features. Sure, you have to wait 2 seconds for it to catch up on audio streams when they switch, and sure, the lights are going out on the front of my 4 year old receiver, but I just couldn't live without the independent crossovers.

Mind you, I believe Alan must have the H/K 525, which allowed the full bass management on the analog inputs. I bought the next year's model, the H/K 635, assuming it to have the same feature, but H/K unceremoniously removed it after one model year.

My 635 did add the room EQ, which I find to be pretty good, and it still has the variable crossovers for each speaker (which is great). But I would have loved to have the full bass management on the analog inputs, as I have a ton of SACD's and DVD-A's. But as it stands, my Denon 2900 has a fixed 80hz crossover, which works ok.

That actually leads me to a question about the Oppo. I have a new Pioneer 1080p plasma on preorder, so I was looking at the Oppo 980. How do the Oppos handle crossing over for the analog outputs? If you set the speakers to "small", does it have a fixed crossover? Thanks.