OPPO BDP-95 Review (Blu-ray/DVD/SACD/CD Player)

[whereisbrian]

This device has been my main CD player for 5 years.
I bought it second-hand for €350.
I used to have a BDP 93 before .
I now use it as a transport with a DAC.

 

[totti1965]

OPPO BDP-95 Measurements (SACD)

Unfortunately, I can't create an SACD test disc, so I used the one from Denon.

To start with, when I first tested the SACD mode, I saw on the screen that it was displaying "PCM", but why? Because, and thanks to the very good documentation, if we set HDMI to output DSD data, then analog output will get a DSD to PCM digital conversion before being converted to analog. Go figure. So it is necessary to disable HDMI bitstream output to get the DSD data to be directly converted. The setup is this one (HDMI Off, SACD Output DSD, rest does not matter):

View attachment 477128

Back to the Denon Test SACD. It has some test files, and the main one is a sine tone 1kHz @-16dBSACD (=-16dBFS per Denon’s information):

View attachment 477127

The software shows 14.7bits ENOB, but since we play at -16dBFS, we need to add 16/6=2.7bits, so the true ENOB is 17.4bits, and it is dominated by distorsion. Note that I put the scale in dBFS instead of dBr, to better show the lower noise floor.
You can also see some noise shaping in audio band (that double noise-floor wave, from 2khz to 20kHz), which is the way Denon created their test file.

Let's play the same with DSD to PCM conversion before DA conversion:

View attachment 477129

Same performances but a little more low level distorsion.

And since I don't have much more to play with, I thought about an interesting comparison and, actually, this is why I have multiple -16dBFS test tones in my test CD
So, here is a 999.91Hz sine @-16dBFS, with shape dither, played form my test CD, not SACD:

View attachment 477130

Not so far, right? Of course, we see more shaped noise in audio band here because, as opposed to SACD, we are limited to 22kHz where to put the noise create by the noise shaper. But let's play a little more, and restrict the analysis from 20Hz to 6kHz:

View attachment 477132

What we see is that from 20Hz to 6kHz, we get the same performances from the Audio CD and the SACD. Of course this is cheating, but not so much since our ears degrade very much in performances above 6kHz, as per the CCIR-2k curve.

One more nasty/funny game? Yes, you don't ask for it, but you'll get it. Let's apply the CCIR-2k curve to the above, but this time, I let the computer include noise up to 20kHz, as usual:

View attachment 477133

The SACD wins, audiophiles are saved. But note we get "only" 1.5bit more than what can be achieved with the Audio CD and shape dither. So no, not 4 bits more as advertised by Sony (if I recall). We don't go from 16bits to 20bits, non.

What else can I say. Oh yes, I know, let's talks ultrasonic noise The below is the same 1kHz sine @-16dBFS played in native DSD mode or DSD to PCM:

View attachment 477135

Yes, the DSD native creates much more ultrasonic noise! This is because the PCM conversion comes with a digital filter of a frequency cut set at around 47kHz, so it attenuates everything beyond that point. What do you prefer?


OPPO BDP-95 Measurements (PCM 24bits - from USB drive)

Hmmn... I need a whiskey, and to turn on my old obsolete Sony R2R CD Player

Right, back to the high performing OPPO. We've not seen yet what this player is capable of. So let's use 24bits test files then...

This is the very standardized SINAD test of @amirm, that is 1kHz sine @0dBFS (4Vrms output), at 44.1kHz, with FFT length of 32k and 4 averages (3 for Amir, but I can't do only 3):

View attachment 477138


A SINAD of 116.4dB would put this player in the "excellent" range of Amir's current dashboard. That's insane for a universal video player that is 15 years old!

And now we see more of that low random noise at the foot of the fundamental. It's to be ignored though, as per the AES mandated notch applied here.

And look at the total absence of power supply related noise, with a punishing 512k FFT length:

View attachment 477139

Nothing, zip, nada, rien!!! Someone was mastering power supply at OPPO. Actually, what you see is a PS that is silent below 0.0000008%, when running a full scale sine tone, can you believe it? Me not... I could run an FFT at 4M to try to find the bottom of it. But hey, that's laboratory level!

One more time, I am nothing else but impressed.

Jitter test you ask?

View attachment 477143

Nailed!!


Final conclusion - All things considered

Do I really need to write anything?

What a player! What an achiever! I'm speechless but I need to put myself together.

I am very happy I got the opportunity to test this player. And I am very pleased to report crazy good measurements. This was an insane multi-format player. What a beast. And only 999$ for satellite-class player, really? Oh boy.

You, owners of this beast, you're lucky!!!
Cherish it, listen to music with it, there are no format, no master that this player will fail.

What a device...

I hope you enjoyed this review!

I am sure, that used ones become more and more expensive now! What a player! What a pity!

 

[Scytales]

Sure, it’s a beaut. But hasn’t been for sale as new for 25 years. So not much use to us now…

Rectification: 14 years, since the BDP-95 has been released in 2011.

 

[Vintage02]

Oh, if single tones are enough then I already have the data as part of my standard tests. But with CD only, and that would probably be hidden by the lower resolution, in the quantization noise. I have the same with shape dither though, from 0dBFS down to -110dBFS.
I’ll give a try with 24bits, it’s only few files to create anyways.

Hello Florent,

For the 24-bit files, you have the ones I created and prepared for a DVD Audio. All that's left for you to do is to burn the ISO you downloaded.

 

[Scytales]

Hello Florent,

For the 24-bit files, you have the ones I created and prepared for a DVD Audio. All that's left for you to do is to burn the ISO you downloaded.

I don't want to seem intrusive, but I also may be interested by this files.

May I ask if it would be possible for me to get them as well, please ?

 

[raif71]

I so regret never buying an Oppo. When I was configuring my Home Theater I tried to get an Oppo from the local HiFi shop (which is still alive thankfully) and they told me I should just buy one directly from Oppo because I would get it much faster. I didn't because Video Only had a sale on Sony. The same salesman told me to buy Blades and never worry about upgrading again. He was right on everything, but my Sony is still working perfectly and is a fine player.

I managed to get an OPPO 103d 10 years ago. It is still running fine. While some of my pioneer bdp-450 and bdp-150 went kaput (cannot on and some with tray problems) the OPPO keeps chugging along. I regret not getting the 105, would have been fun with the stereo xlr output.

 

[PristineSound]

(some of us have been quietly collecting a number of BDP95/105 players for SACD archiving and to enjoy our absurdly large collections of HDCD discs... just because...)

You don't need a Oppo to do that. I don't was a $25 Sony.

 

[NTTY]

Hello Florent,

For the 24-bit files, you have the ones I created and prepared for a DVD Audio. All that's left for you to do is to burn the ISO you downloaded.

Yeah but since this one can read from a USB key, I did not need to burn a DVD. And I forgot to buy some DVD-R(W)

 

[emmodad]

You don't need a Oppo to do that. I don't was a $25 Sony.

SACD archiving, of course

 

[emmodad]

They didn't go out of business, they just weren't making the profits necessary to stay in the disc player business [snip].

The complete story has further to do with roadmap/timeframe decisions being made up and down the food chain. MediaTek (system-chip supplier, i.e. a "platform" on which the Oppo player architectures were based) was considering the viability of their long-term roadmap; high-end optical disk players were seen to be a declining market. (For analogous reasons, HDCD disappeared from the MediaTek roadmap, and hence also from the Oppo BDP-2xx series). Oppo had been closely involved in collaboration with MediaTek in definition of system requirements for generations of disk-player systems-on-a-chip, but saw the writing on the wall regarding declining market for spinning disks coupled with MediaTek (understandably) becoming even more focused on low-power mobility solutions than ever before. No evolution in high-end system chips = no evolution (or further cost reduction) for high-end optical disk players. I had the pleasure of knowing (purely informally) some of the principals in the Oppo player business, those folks had design + technology roadmap / partnering + business analysis really dialled in.

 

[raif71]

The complete story has further to do with roadmap/timeframe decisions being made up and down the food chain. MediaTek (system-chip supplier, i.e. a "platform" on which the Oppo player architectures were based) was considering the viability of their long-term roadmap; high-end optical disk players were seen to be a declining market. (For analogous reasons, HDCD disappeared from the MediaTek roadmap, and hence also from the Oppo BDP-2xx series). Oppo had been closely involved in collaboration with MediaTek in definition of system requirements for generations of disk-player systems-on-a-chip, but saw the writing on the wall regarding declining market for spinning disks coupled with MediaTek (understandably) becoming even more focused on low-power mobility solutions than ever before. No evolution in high-end system chips = no evolution (or further cost reduction) for high-end optical disk players. I had the pleasure of knowing (purely informally) some of the principals in the Oppo player business, those folks had design + technology roadmap / partnering + business analysis really dialled in.

I remember this. Mediatek vs Realtek and huawei media chip was also rising at the time. I prefer the mediatek chipset more. I think the picture that mediatek portrays has a warmer tone to it when compared with other chipset.

Edit: Actually I meant Sigma Desigh chipset that had warmer picture compared with all the other chipsets at the time but sadly, that chipset company has closed shop if I'm not mistaken

 

[SigmaR1]

Fantastic review, a delight to read, thank you Florent The comparison between DSD and CD output is very interesting!

One question: Are the analog stages coupled to RCA/XLR output with a coupling capacitor (s) or is it coupled via a buffer stage? Thanks

 

[Haskil]

Yeah but since this one can read from a USB key, I did not need to burn a DVD. And I forgot to buy some DVD-R(W)

I may have missed an episode, but does this Oppo model offer the ability to directly re-encode DSD to PCM with a choice of resolution to send it to a DAC via HDMI in both stereo and multichannel?

Could you see how the player would then do the DVD to PCM conversion?

My Oppo CD/SACD/CD player allows this.

 

[NTTY]

Fantastic review, a delight to read, thank you Florent The comparison between DSD and CD output is very interesting!

Thanks

One question: Are the analog stages coupled to RCA/XLR output with a coupling capacitor (s) or is it coupled via a buffer stage? Thanks

I don’t know, you would have to search the web. I did not find the service guide and internal schematic.

 

[NTTY]

I may have missed an episode, but does this Oppo model offer the ability to directly re-encode DSD to PCM with a choice of resolution to send it to a DAC via HDMI in both stereo and multichannel?

That’s what I understood from the user manual yes and also what I saw when playing with the menu. HDMI audio output, when activated, allows to choose from "Bitstream", which means it outputs the DSD stream (Dolby, DTS, multichannel, etc…), and "LPCM" in which case it converts to PCM for the HDMI audio output (selection of downmix options to be done in another menu). It needs to set to "OFF" for the player to process DSD direct from an SACD disc via its internal DAC, to go to the analog output, and that is weird.

Could you see how the player would then do the DVD to PCM conversion?

I guess it outputs PCM but I can’t check the HDMI digital output.
That being said, I tested the optical output with PCM 24bits, and it outputs 24bits indeed, at least up to 96kHz sample rate (I can’t test 192kHz).

My Oppo CD/SACD/CD player allows this.

What model is it?

 

[pma]

Oh, if single tones are enough then I already have the data as part of my standard tests. But with CD only, and that would probably be hidden by the lower resolution, in the quantization noise. I have the same with shape dither though, from 0dBFS down to -110dBFS.
I’ll give a try with 24bits, it’s only few files to create anyways.

There is also an option - to use noise shaped dither for 16-bit redbook CD format. Below Marantz SA7001 (in CD mode) measured with 1kHz/-100dBFS sine test signal, with noise shaped dither. You are able to get as low as -120dBFS even with only 16 bits.

 

[aagstn]

I saw that big Panasonic on sale locally, the DP-UB9004. Would it be interesting to know how it performs?
I see it features an AK4493 which should make it very close to this OPPO. No SA-CD compatibility though, but it reads DSD files.

It would be interesting to see how that one performs. I have the UB820 which is great for movies, but I do not use it for audio as it is nothing special there. I have heard the UB9000 series really steps up the audio quality for music, but that player is $1200 in the US now with tariffs and everything going on. Way outside my budget. Even the UB820 has gotten quite expensive. I paid $400 for it a few years ago and now it goes for $550 in the US.

 

[SigmaR1]

Thanks

I don’t know, you would have to search the web. I did not find the service guide and internal schematic.

Yes, I did, but I couldn't find any of these documents so far...

 

[Frank Dernie]

I used one of these with a Parasound 7 channel preamp as my cinema system for a while, but no room compensation.
When I upgraded my projector to a Sony VPL-VW760ES it came with a Sony Bluray player and since I had changed to a Marantz pre and was therefore only using the HDMI and ethernet connections I retired it to my study but it can play all DVD regions and sometimes I try to play a music DVD in the Sony and it won't.
The only down side as I remember was the sound of the cooling fan which was a major reason I changed to the little Sony if memory serves.

 

[Scytales]

Some interesting measurements of the Oppo BDP-95, and two versions of the BDP-93 (which, according to many online sources, uses the same MediaTek MT8531 SoC than the BDP-95) made with an Audio Precision and CD, DVD-A and SA-CD test discs, have been published on the Secrets of Hometheater website.