[bosiemoncrieff]

I suppose one question that I should have prefaced this all with is - blu ray. Is it going to stick around? Is it going to go away? I'm building a collection of CDs because I'm fairly confident CDs will last, but they are older than blu-ray - older than DVD - and found stability. Blu ray began as 1080p, now it's UHD/4k, there was the 3D adventure some years ago...how stable a format are they? How good are they aurally and visually vs streaming?

 

[Zojokkeli]

I suppose one question that I should have prefaced this all with is - blu ray. Is it going to stick around? Is it going to go away? I'm building a collection of CDs because I'm fairly confident CDs will last, but they are older than blu-ray - older than DVD - and found stability. Blu ray began as 1080p, now it's UHD/4k, there was the 3D adventure some years ago...how stable a format are they? How good are they aurally and visually vs streaming?

Blu-rays have been around at least since 2006, so it's safe to say they aren't going away any time soon. We might start to see 8k blu-ray discs at some point in the coming years, but I wouldn't worry about it too much considering 4k hasn't properly taken off yet either. Blu-ray replaced DVDs as the media for video playback and they have much better audio/video quality than streaming or DVDs. This all is regarding blu-ray as video format, I'm not sure if there are any music-only blu-rays.

 

[FLTWS]

I believe backward compatibility has been a requirement so far so 4K players have to play CD, DVD, and BRD's in addition to 4K if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

That leaves ca $600 for speakers. Darn it, I'll eat ramen and get the Sonus Faber Lumina: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/sonus-faber-lumina (that issue has other budget speakers. I know the sound of SF and like it. Besides, Italian speakers for Italian opera sounds like a win).

It could be very difficult to match the Lumina's with the TV in the esthetical sense.
And... I am an Italian but do not view Sonus Faber speakers as hi-end because they are much too biased towards exaggerattion.
Much like Italians themselves I might add.
Then again, it's all opera really is.

 

[PolarBehr]

I suppose one question that I should have prefaced this all with is - blu ray. Is it going to stick around? Is it going to go away? I'm building a collection of CDs because I'm fairly confident CDs will last, but they are older than blu-ray - older than DVD - and found stability. Blu ray began as 1080p, now it's UHD/4k, there was the 3D adventure some years ago...how stable a format are they? How good are they aurally and visually vs streaming?

A DVD upscale’d to 4K is a bit better than 4K streamed. A blu-ray upscale’d is significantly better. A 4K disc is even better and very impressive.

A Blu-ray Disc you own will stick around for as long as you are willing to keep it =).

 

[DougD]

A Blu-ray Disc you own will stick around for as long as you are willing to keep it =).

Same for my 3-D discs !

 

[RickB]

Same for my 3-D discs !

Disc rot is not an issue for Blu-rays?

 

[artur9]

Disc rot is not an issue for Blu-rays?

The requirements for BD/UHD manufacturing are pretty robust. Most bad BDs are "stamped" bad, afaik. Scratching them is difficult but possible.
My BD survived 3 kids These days, for convenience, I copy them with makemkv.

 

[artur9]

It could be very difficult to match the Lumina's with the TV in the esthetical sense.
And... I am an Italian but do not view Sonus Faber speakers as hi-end because they are much too biased towards exaggerattion.
Much like Italians themselves I might add.
Then again, it's all opera really is.

Can any speakers be matched with TVs in the esthetical sense?

I didn't want to spend too much of @bosiemoncrieff's money. Other I'd consider some motorized MMG https://www.magnepan.com/model_MMC_2

 

[Ableza]

Can any speakers be matched with TVs in the esthetical sense?

Sure!

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

I’m fairly settled on Oppo — is the only difference between 103/105 and 203/205 the 4K support for the 200 series? And the 205 seems to have the word audiophile in it. What exactly does that mean and why is it worth so many thousand more? If it’s for the dac, sorry, but I don’t trust anyone other than Schiit or maybe Chord for dac technology

 

[hodgjy]

A DVD upscale’d to 4K is a bit better than 4K streamed.

You must have a terrible internet connection and/or streaming service. There's no way a DVD upscaled to 4k looks anything like 4k streamed.

 

[artur9]

Sure!

WTH are those?!

I’m fairly settled on Oppo — is the only difference between 103/105 and 203/205 the 4K support for the 200 series? And the 205 seems to have the word audiophile in it. What exactly does that mean and why is it worth so many thousand more? If it’s for the dac, sorry, but I don’t trust anyone other than Schiit or maybe Chord for dac technology

Well, technically the 103 can output 4K. Dunno what the value prop is there. The 203/205 can play UHD discs and the 103 cannot.

The 205 had better DACs and USB audio. Not really worth the premium except to someone who didn't want a separate DAC, which you already have.

Oh, and, iiuc, one other thing about upscaling. From a typical distance few can see the difference between 4K and 1080P so upscaling from 1080P to 4K isn't very critical. The scaler makes more of a difference going from broadcast (480i) and DVD (720P) to higher.

 

[Ableza]

WTH are those?!

B&O Beolab 80

 

[JamminVMI]

B&O Beolab 80

Too minimalist to be anything else, right?