Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Restaurant at the End of Universe Hitchhikers - Meridian Equipment Oppo BDP-83 Universal Player with 4x SPDIF Powerbuy!

you won't owe much if any import duties, what you see is what you pay from us, we don't charge paypal fees either

pricing and ordering info to be posted very very soon

thanks for the patience with this, I know many of you are dying to get the show on the road

Gary, while you're on the topic of payment, what methods of payment are available 2 us?

Txs,

J

J, we can take paypal, credit cards without paypal, bank transfer, check and money order

thanks

Fellow HHers kswanson and JimK met Wednesday and compared a Shawn Fogg modded Oppo 980 with the Meridian 800v3. The Oppo was connected to 861v4 multichannel inputs with standard Meridian digital cable; the 800 used Analysis Plus Digital Ovals. We listened to a few disks over a couple of hours and concluded that:

1. The SQ differences with redbook CD are audible but minor. Maybe a little more detail with classical-full orchestra on the Oppo. Maybe the Meridian has a slightly warmer sound on pop vocals.
2. Well recorded SACDs on Oppo are spectacular into the Meridian 861v4 and DSPs (system described in signature below).
3. Both of us are in for the group buy, believing that the SQ will be exemplary on redbook CD and beyond that on HD formats.

A great time was had by all. Cheers from kswanson and JimK

appreciate the feedback on the comparison

I think you will find the fully modified Oppo 83 to be in a league all its own

can't wait to hear what people think

thanks

Yes, a modified Oppo is a Must Buy for me - everything SACD must be much better than my current player, and digital into Meridian is of course great.

However, I think you may need to "burn them in" an hour before you make the mods. As you probably may have read some EAP-ers have had vibration issues that Oppo quickly has solved by replacing the player, but that is of course not a good solution with modded players sent abroad. They MAY have taken production QA to a new level before the public release, but since these issues all have shown the first hour - why take the chance?

The player will probably be released first without DVD-Audio playback, it seems. All other things are now close to completion while DVD-A seems to have some more work to do, mostly because of no real standard for the disc authoring. I don't think Oppo will want to wait until that is resolved, but it's fine with me if they just promise it Will be implemented in a future FW upgrade - Oppo has always been very good with taking care of their customers and can be trusted without problem on this.

Tommy, I will be taking care of any possible vibration issues by doing a few things to these players, so everyone will be set in that regard, I do make sure the players are functioning 100% as normal before shipment

thanks Tom

so whos ready to order?

I will be posting a link to start this thing up very soon, will probably post a new thread with the order info and keep the discussion in this one, so everyone will know where to find the order page quickly

Oppo says the player will be shipping within 2 weeks

so we are getting very close, thanks for everyones patience during this wait

appreciate it

I think you may find that people may want to wait to hear others opinions on the performance of the Oppo, both modded and unmodded, before placing their orders.

I have enough experience with Oppo and Shawn's mod, and I'm asuming Gary is up to speed on this stuff, that I'm in. Two weeks might be a week or two optimistic though.

Ken

my first post concerning this is back on page 9.

So I've had my modded Oppo BDP-83 for about 10 days now... I'm extremely pleased with the performance. I had (it's been sold) a McCormack UPD-1 for my SACD player (hooked into my G68 via the 5.1 analog inputs)... the modded BDP-83 is a far superior solution... you just can't beat a direct digital spigot. Multi-channel DVD-A via the BDP-83 matches the G98... it's really tough to hear any difference (of course with multi-channel there is so much going on it's tough to pick out any subtle differences). I also set up a 2 channel test running with the G98 in 'direct' mode to totally eliminate any processing. I chose Eric Clapton's 'Unplugged'. Unfortunately I don't have 2 copies of that CD (or any for that matter), so I wasn't able to do a true A/B comparison. I went back and forth trying to focus on his voice in one comparison, the guitar in the next, the base line, etc... there are some differences, but I was unable to pick a winner... they both sounded great. I also compared it against the 2 channel analog (the higher quality DAC) from the Oppo... no comparison... the Oppo analog section isn't bad, but it's no match for the digital spigot direct to the G98's analog section.

The only problem I've run into is with 192khz sources... the Oppo has a menu item to limit the PCM rate, but it only applies to the standard SPDIF port. The G68 will not handle anything above 96khz, so the only avenue for 192khz is through the analog path. Don't know if Gary can get Oppo to change this behavior (i.e. PCM rate limit not applying to the path Gary is tapping)... here's hoping.

I thought DVD-A was not available yet, sure you're aren't listening to the DVD layer. Which can sound quite good.