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!

Hello

I did order the "digital transport Ed" on the 13th of July. I was told it would take aprox 3 weeks.
I and some friends wanted this player, so I'm the first to order.

Just wanted to say that my experience with CHT is very good so far. Reply to e-mails has been fast, friendly and very informative.

i did ask for some special shipping procedures. No problem at all.

So far very impressed.

Cheers

I have been reading the last few pages, and sorry: In no way, now or in the future, will I ever do any kind of business with Custom HT.

I was originaly interested, as many others, but all delays, no delivered players, no nothing more than problems, problems and yet more problems.

CustomHT: Learn to deal with people, learn to understand to only offer what you can deliver and finaly learn that when offering new products, be prepared to return payment if customer is not satisfied - you have now lost more than you should have done, and you only have to blame yourself.

I think that's not entirely the case. I received my modded Oppo on time and, other than a factory bug with the dynamic range control which I disabled, the player has performed perfectly. I'm very happy with it.

Ken

I have actually delivered over 30 players so far, the delays were beyond my control and I am not going to go that low and name names because it is my fault to my customers in the end, that is all that matters and there is nothing I can do

I told everyone here that JimK's problem player worked perfect in my test setup(we will know very soon because we have had Shawn look at it) and KJ's player went belly up while doing a firmware update (bricked)

I don't think your assessment of the situation is exactly real world spot on, but I appreciate the comments anyway

thanks

thanks Ken, that is all that matters to me, I want to hear people are happy, enjoy the Oppo!!

I reiterate Gary's point that there have been just two failures in the field, one of which is very rare and being looked at by Shawn, and the other is mine. To set the record straight on my case, at least: the HDMI video in my modded BDP-83 was mysteriously DOA -- everything else, including the 4xS/PDIF mod, was working great -- which is why we tried the firmware update (which did brick the machine). Note that mine is the RS-232 version so perhaps Oppo hasn't fully ironed out the firmware for those models.

I know (and agree) that the some of the responses from Custom HT haven't been as humble or as customer-is-first enough as some may expect, but I am itching to get my player back, if that means anything. The sound of SACDs out of the 4xS/PDIF jacks into my Lyngdorf TDAI2200 was absolutely mesmerizing while I had it.

Best,
KJ

... adding my 2 cents ...

As one of the earliest recipients of a modded BDP-83, I have had no complaints at all with Gary's mods, they have worked as advertised. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the player itself. I have, for now, stopped using it as a SCAD player due to its 'glitchy' performance - and due to certain input limitations, prevents me from using the 4xSPDIF output (so I'm back to anlaog 5.1 putput). This will continue until Oppo release a firmware update that solves the SACD problems.

I do think people need to recognize that businesses that offer mods are not sanctionned in the eyes of the OEM, and therefore do not benefit from any kind of preferential dealer relationship (or, at least, I have always assumed not). Consequently, they will be subject to the vagaries of product availability that have plagued many Bluray player releases. I am not making excuses for CHT, just suggesting the likely realities.

My only oyher experience with buying a modded player was some years ago with DVDUpgrades out of Switzerland. While ultimatley it was an excellent product for me - no buyers remorse at all - the process of ordering, paying for, and then actually receiving the unit was extraordinarily frustrating and took almost 6 months.

I really think that AV boxes are just rife with difficulties.

As a Naim DVD5 owner, and an early adopter, I had a series of problems that lasted over 14 months; it was still better than any other player I had within the context of my system - including top of the line Meridian & Denon players; that my dealer allowed me to borrow while my machine went back to Salisbury.

Last year my DVD5 died, again - and cost me a fair wedge to be bought back on line.

Currently I am waiting for it to die again, when I will be contacting Gary for one of his modded boxes; and I can always use my backup 596 while I wait.

Hello

So i think i'm one of the seven still waiting...

Payed my Oppo on June 23. and hope it will be very soon in my theatre

Any status report on this?

"Any status report on this? "

Yes.... I just had a chance to check out this player.

Played the first track of the Stereophile Test CD 2. This is channel mapping and the guitar is near 0dBFS.

I booted the player 10 times for a test.

10 for 10 I was getting distortion at 0dBFS and channels were inverted left to right and right to left. This happens if the format is wrong and you are set for I2S data but the data is actually left justified as there is only 1 bit difference between the two so you get clipping when you are within 6dB of 0dBFS.

I opened it up and put the capacitor in to hold the chips in a reset state.

Retested.... still getting distortion on the peaks and channels are still inverted. Booted it again... same thing. While it was playing reset the chips and it was still distorting with inverted channels.

Then I checked the jumpers on the card. The card was set for 24bit I2S, the Oppo is 24 bit Left Justified.

So I was right about it being a format misconfig, just wrong about what caused it. I just want to double check everything to make sure all channels are still mapped properly and it should be all set for Jim.

Shawn

I had a demo of the Oppo BDP 83 using CD only through the new Arcam AV888 yesterday and it sounded very muddy and not particulary dynamic. When they changed over to a Pioneer 91 Bluray player it was miles better. Both were played through the HDMI output as they had only received the AV888 the day before.

The DVD's on the Pioneer 91 sounded and looked good to but as I did not have a USA region 1 disc we could not try the Oppo for DVD or Bluray. Time precluded trying other inputs/ outputs.

I currently have a my G91/G68 ADV which sounds pretty good for music and excellent for home cinema. I will take them up to the dealer in a couple of weeks time to try a few combinations properly after they get the Denon AVP-HDA to do a full three way comparison of the AV processors. I'll recheck the Oppo BDP83 then but on yesterday's performance I wouldn't touch it. Of course I am really after a processor as I moved to Adam Audio Tensor Beta speakers/ Rel Studio 111 sub and they mostly take XLR. If the G68 ADV sounds better then I suppose I'll be looking for the G68 XXV or second hand 861. If not then its hello to whichever one does sound best!

But as a matter of curiousity has anyone tried the Oppo BDP83 against the G91 for CD playback because I was totally unimpressed with the Oppo BDP 83's poor CD sound quality?