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

I had to do some digging to find the bass management on analog ports. Are you sure it's gone?

Hi Allen
I am presently using a stereo setup with a Sony Scd- c2000ES SACD player feeding a HK 3489 stereo receiver into a set of Axiom M80's. I don't have any problems with bass management with my present equipment but feel that the Sony is not giving me the HD sound I am looking for in SACD stereo.I was hoping that the Oppo would show a descernable improvement over the Sony.I realize that there are some high end players out there but I cannot justify or afford the prices that there asking for their players . Therefore the question about the Oppo. Will I have any problems with bass management using the Oppo in my setup and how is the RB playback quality with it?
Many thanks to those who have given me some input on the Oppo.

PS to the previous post. The Oppo home page mentions that the 970 can be set for upsampling in audio stereo mode on initial setup.Does this really improve the sound?

Sure…. Rub it in Ken..

All my ‘cough’ HK’s have had bass management on the analogue channels. Pretty cool feature. They convert the analogue to digital; do their magic, than back to analogue. Whether this degrades the SQ or not, I have no clue but I didn’t notice it if it did. Not sure what models have this feature and which ones don’t. My 7200, 7300 and 745 all had it.

HK’s definitely have a whole slue of features that you don’t realize how handy they are until you don’t have them. Too bad their QC has gone out the window. But I’m beginning to wonder if any of the receivers manufactures care about QC anymore.

I’m real interested in hearing how the 980 does with SACD and multi channel music. I like the up-sampling that my PS3 does with the latest firmware upgrade and bet the 980 will do as well.

I’m half tempted to buy a 980 seeing how I have all of its siblings. I sure wish Oppo would change the IR commands though. It can be irritating when more than one is on the rack.

I've had the 970 for about 4 months now and find it a vast improvement over the Denon I had. More I have had no problems with compatibility issues (as with the Denon). The picture quality blows away the Denon by far - no digital blocking problems, no combing. It up converts beautifully on my 60in Sony SXRD with spectacular results. I also find the sound an improvement over the Denon - lighter, more open.
I had the Denon as part of my reference system for evaluating DVDs on my site (that’s a lot of viewing) and dropped them due to several issues. The OPPO simply is incredible and if I had paid full price for the Denon (retailing for $1200.) I would be swinging from rope after writing this.
I don't think you will disapointed.

Yeah, Ken, that feature, which can be useful at times, was dropped on the 635. Other than cost cutting, I can only guess that the horror some misinformed audiophiles expressed at the "degradation" supposedly caused by the extra ADC/DAC conversions was a factor.

Counselor, on your question about the crossover on the 980, undoubtedly it does have it at a fixed frequency, but what that is apparently is a secret. A look at the manual reveals only that "bass frequencies" aren't sent to "small" speakers. You might contact Oppo directly and(hopefully)receive a more informative description.

I'd be very surprised if it were anything other than 80Hz. But, I've been mistaken once or twice in my life.

Arthur, "upsampling" is simply a minor variation on the "oversampling" technology that all players have used for over 20 years. Neither of them can create real samples that aren't present on the discs. By inserting mathematically calculated extra samples in between the real ones a more gentle filter can be used on the output, and this is almost universally done, but the sound itself can't be improved in resolution by this.

More generally, despite what Alan and I reported, you still clearly are under the impression that a "high end" player can somehow extract more of the data from digital discs. You should be confident(although obviously you're not)that your Sony player, unless it's damaged, is getting everything out of your SACDs that's actually in them and no amount of money can work some audio miracle. The SACDs themselves might not be as good as you hoped, and your speakers and listening room of course are affecting the results.