Oppo BDP-95 with Matrix M-Stage headphone amp&Sennheiser HD650

A Review On: OPPO BDP-95 Universal Blu-ray Player

OPPO BDP-95 Universal Blu-ray Player

Rated # 1 in Blu-Ray/DVD/Universal Players
See all 3 reviews
Recent Pricing:
Amazon.com$1,199.00
Review Details:
Audio Quality
Design
Quality
Value
Video Quality
Purchased on:
Price paid: $999.00
airman
By airman
Posted · 19 Views · 10 Comments

Pros: Must have good headphones&amp and source material to experience the audio bliss

Cons: Expensive but you get what you pay for. No MOG net radio,

I just hooked up the BDP-95 with my Matrix M-Stage headphone amp and my Yamaha RX-A2000 A/V receiver. Got good quality interconnects from Monoprice.com. I have purchased some high-resolution audio files from hdtracks.com namely The Carpenters, Singles 1969-1981 Audiophile version 48KHz/24bit and Beethoven Symphonie No 9. Cladio Abbado Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Deutsche Grammophone 96KHz/24bit. Along with all this I purchased some Sennheiser HD650 headphones to round everything out. I also decided to get a cable upgrade for the HD650's and the Burr Brown OPA627AP with Class A Biasing Mod Op-Amp upgrade for the M-Stage headphone amp and then the magic began. Some say that the SABRE32  ESS9018 DAC's in the  BDP-95 is "Analytical" We'll I have to agree, it is analytical and very unforgiving of bad source material. If your going to get this universal player to play compressed  music files then your wasting your money but if you have the right gear and source material to compliment this fine component then you are going to have some "Emotional" experiences that I can't begin to explain. The Carpenters Singles HD 48KHz/24bit track was an emotional experience for me.  I've heard all the songs before on the radio but listening to it like this, Hearing Karen Carpenter's Lovely and Exquisite voice started the tears welling up my eye sockets. the depth and presence of the music finally done right. is moving beyond words. It was as if I were listening to it for the first time in a  whole new way. Although this is a digital remastering of the original analog master they did a magnificent job

P.S. I'm thinking that a good tube headphone amp might be the icing on the cake for the BDP-95

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10 Comments

customNuts 2/23/12 at 4:26am
Nice review, I've been tempted by the 95 for a while now. & Yes, a good balanced amp would be the icing on the cake for sure. Best value tube balanced amp IMO is the little dot MK6+. Bests a lot of hi-end balanced amps out there for a fraction of the price.
Jalo 2/23/12 at 11:01am
Airman, that is a nice review. I have an Oppo 95 coming in couple of days. I do have a question for you. When you download form Hdtracks, how do you play the hires material on the oppo 95? Did you just burn a cd with the downloaded materials, or can the oppo function as a dac that you can play the hires from you computer to the oppo? Thanks
airman 2/24/12 at 12:01am
You can do it from your home PC or laptop computer via your DLNA 1.4 or above home network. The BDP-95 will look for other network devices on you network and if those devices are configured to share files then it can access the music files stored your PC or laptop hard drive. You can also buy what I have which is a NAS (Network Attached Storage) Unit and store all your media files there which is cool because it also gives you the ability to access the files from any network attached device and also remote access via the internet or if that's too technical for you, you can just connect it to a USB hard drive or flash drive to access you media files "music, photo, video", etc which is the easiest and quickest way to do it, you just plug it in to the front or rear USB port and your good to go. I would use the front port if you planning to use the supplied USB wireless network adaptor
Jonlereux 3/9/12 at 7:01am
Airman, Thanks for the review above. I currently have the HD650 cans and am patiiently awaiting the arrival of a Lyr headphone amp today and an Oppo 95; Both of them are due to arrive today, took off work today just so I would not miss the delivery!!!
I had recently purchased a Cambridge Dac magic plus and was unimpressed with the performance which led me to the decision of sending it back and using the Oppo as my headphone source. I will let you know what the Lyr sounds like with the Oppo and HD650's. I currently use the headphone out of my Outlaw 990 pre amp, which is surprisingly good, but I would expect the Schiit Lyr to be quite an improvement.
Please forward any High Res music you would recommend. I am a sucker for high quality recordings regardless of type.
As for Amps, I was looking at a Decware CSP, Woo Audio Wa2 and Ray Samuels Raptor. All of which have been highly recomended, but decided to try the Lyr due to the price and Skylabs recomendation of tube amps on the Headfi forums.
Thanks again
customNuts 3/10/12 at 12:47am
Sounds really promising Airman, looks like you have a great system in the making. If I can offer my suggestion, it would to definitely take advantage of the your Oppo 95 by purchasing a balanced amp. There was a significant leap of performance when I first changed to balanced. I recently bought the audio-gd Master 5 which is an amazing SS H-amp/preamp. I can't recommend it highly enough. However my balanced little dot mk6+ tube amp is barely behind the master-5 in performance. Like less than 5% if you could put a figure on it. (Thats is with upgraded tubes) It has been compared favourably to Woo 22 & Phoenix to name a few. There are better amps out there, but for the money, it's definitely my suggestion. Good luck!
Jonlereux 3/10/12 at 7:24am
Hooked up my Oppo last night. Awesome unit. Plugged my 2Gb external harddrive into the USB and was able to access all of my music folders directly; an added plus that I did not expect. I was also able to stream music files to it via network. I am very pleased with the Oppo analog out into my Schiit Lyr. Obviously the better the quality of the file the better the sound; currently listening to some apple lossless files and even with the new tube in the Lyr I am impressed. I will be trying some Flac files today to see if the Oppo has any problems with the format and will post my findings
custom Nuts, What tubes are you using in your mk6? I had my eye on the Woo Audio 22, Phoenix Gd and Master 5; could not afford it at the time. I am willing to give the Little Dot a try if it is anywhere near the performance you seem to be getting from it.
I would ask more regarding your amps and experiences, but would rather not hijack this thread.... Thanks in advance
customNuts 3/10/12 at 7:39am
@jonlereux, I went straight to the top with the power tubes and am using 4x Tung Sol 5998. With the driver tubes, I bought a bunch and settled on Sylvania Bad Boys. I'll PM you with details on the amps if you like to keep the thread on topic, but my impressions where done very carefully over time in a controlled environment whilst using the same Ref 7.1 DAC.
customNuts 3/10/12 at 7:45am
In fact I'll post it in the Master 5 thread.
Parula 9/6/12 at 2:05am
Bump .... Just ordered an OPPO 95 2 days ago to replace a 93. Looking forward to hooking up my Beyer A1 amp directly to the stereo analog outs. I'm hoping to hear a vast improvement in sound.
MisterMoJo 11/1/12 at 8:15am
This is a great player. Sound quality is excellent. My only complaint is that the player is extremely sensitive to dust/dirt/hair on discs played. More so with DVD Audios than Blu Rays. Something about that particular laser. Overall I am happy with the performance.