Hello everyone,
This is a review and measurements of the OPPO BDP-95 Blu-Ray, DVD, SACD, CD player and transport.
It is on a kind loan from a friend who wanted to know how it performs.
View attachment 477019
Sorry for the dark image, I did not manage to do better than that.
OPPO BDP-95 - Presentation
Released in 2011 at 999$, this was a high quality universal Player. OPPO was known to deliver high-end full featured devices.
If the price was high, I am nevertheless impressed by all the features and their accompanying paid licenses to read all available media of the time.
So it will read all discs (CD, DVD, SACD, Blu-Ray), and files from USB-drive / e-SATA / Network, PCM 24 bits, DSD, with many different codecs, and including HDCD. Of course it will not read the most recent ones but offers a "bitstream" output via HDMI which might be sufficient to get it processed externally. But since I'm not an expert, by far, into these, I have to let you deep-dive.
The user manual is 93 pages long, so if you want/need to know more about this player, it's probably the best source of information. At least it was to me. There are also countless forum messages about this unit, with lots of good info and lots of crap too, as usual.
The back of the device is very busy:
View attachment 477043
Stereo audio gets luxury treatment with XLR on top of RCA. All outputs have golden connectors
You can also see what was a concern at the time: the rear fan. And yes it comes on, regularly, even when listening to a CD. We have different sensitivity to that type of noise, but on a tangible perspective, I measured it adds 1dB to background noise of my room (ITU-R 468) at 6 feet distance (from 35.9dB to 36.8dB). I could hear it well in silence, not when it was playing any music.
Besides the nice aluminum front, rest of the unit looks and feels "standard", no fancy thick material here. And so it was surprisingly heavy to me, with more than 7kg (16lbs). I thought "This one must be really full". And, well, yes!
View attachment 477066
The huge audio board (inverted) covers more than half of the player. I did not remove it because I counted 25 screws and at least two connectors to remove, so I thought unnecessary to take risks on a unit that I don't own.
It features two ESS 9018S (8 channels) DACs. One of the two is dedicated to the main stereo outputs (XLR and RCA) and so 4 DAC channels and paralleled for left and right.
The picture does not necessarily provide you with the perception of built quality that I got when looking at it. We can still see and guess that the physical architecture is well thought. The linear power supply is based on a nice custom design transformer from Rotel (who indeed had that expertise and capability from factory), and behind it, the entirely enclosed main PSU (for video, I guess). In the middle we get the drive, entirely protected too, and on its right, the dedicated PSU for the big audio board.
You will find plenty of additional pictures on the web, from a simple search, should you want to know/see more.
User experience
I usually don't talk much about using a device. But this is one is much more complex than the "standard" CD Players I'm used to review. So here is my feedback:
- It's mandatory to use an external display, at minimum for the initial setup. Once correctly setup, you can use it to play SACD or CD without needing a screen.
- The front display is big enough to be seen from a distance, but some information (such as DSD or PCM play) can only be seen when very close to it.
- The front buttons are painful to use. They are touch sensitive but don't confirm they received an order. I used the remote control as a consequence.
- Some audio options (eg HDCD ON/OFF) will be configurable only if there are no discs in the player.
- It is necessary to read the very long user guide to get to understand how to tune this player, but that's also because of so many functions.
- The drive is slow to load a disc because it will identify in its memory where the previous play stopped. Unnecessary with an audio CD but it wants to do it, and so we have to wait 11sec after the disc is loaded.
- FFW and REW are painful as with all video players. Skipping a track is reasonably fast, but not equivalent to a dedicated CD Player.
- It is gapless playback!
OPPO BDP-95 - Measurements
Unlike my other reviews, I will need to split my review into more sections since there are so many possibilities with this Player.
The performances are nearly the same from RCA and XLR analog outputs, I will report only from XLR, which BTW output 4Vrms compared to 2Vrms for RCA. Besides that, I will review as below:
- CD Audio (including drive test and digital output)
- SACD
- USB drive (24bits - including digital output)
This is very likely to be my longest review to date. Let's go?
All measurements performed with an E1DA Cosmos ADCiso (grade O), and the Cosmos Scaler (100kohms from unbalanced input) for analog outputs, and a Motu UltraLite Mk5 for digital.
OPPO BDP-95 - Measurements (CD Audio - XLR)
I am now consistent with my specific measurements for CD Players, as I described them in the post “
More than we hear”, and as I reported them for the
Onkyo C-733 review. Over time, this will help comparing the devices I reviewed.
The balanced outputs (4Vrms) are non-inverting but phase can be inverted from the on-screen menu. The two channels imbalance was a low 0.02dB (very good).
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As usual, let's start with my standard 999.91Hz sine @0dBFS (without dither) from the
Test CD (RCA out):
View attachment 477081
This is state of the art for CD Audio. Even at full scale, the OPPO has no issue to reach max theoretical SNR (unweighted) of the format. The distorsion is extremely low (-125dBr) and one spike can be at 3kHz only because I use 512k FTT length.
Let's try the same 6dB lower:
View attachment 477082
Master class again. The few spikes you see come from the quantization errors, not from the converter. This is because it is undithered signal, and that generates some concentration of rounding (quantization) errors. As a matter of facts, below is the WAV file analyzed directly from the computer:
View attachment 477085
As you can appreciate, it's nearly the same, and so that is impressive.
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I usually have a look at any potential PS related leakage, and you saw it before, there are none, even if I zoom:
View attachment 477094
Again, the few spikes come from the digital file, quantization errors. That said, we can see very low level random noise at the foot of the fundamental. We can see it again because of the lengthy FFT I use (512k), and that is below -135dBr, so I mention it for fun. It should show itself more when we go 24bits bit depth.
The above is extremely good, especially for a video player. And in that player, the video board is always on, but it obviously does not negatively impact the audio output. Very good.
Oh yes, there is a useless "Pure Audio" button that deactivates video to avoid disrupting the fragile Audio signal. Well, first, the video in not entirely stopped, it stills sends a dark screen signal to the monitor. Second, I did not measure any difference. So don't bother.
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Next is the bandwidth:
View attachment 477095
This flat, only -0.15dB at 20kHz. The two channels match at 0.02dB.
And let's have a look at the job of the oversampling filter, with a wider bandwidth:
View attachment 477096
Very nice! I had to increase the vertical scale down to -170dBr to see the noise floor, out of band! The attenuation is minimum -110dB, no signs of noise shaping. This is a sharp filter fully active at 24kHz. The artifacts of the dual tones are attenuated by -120dB, best in class, again.
Please appreciate the visual near absence of intermodulation distortion. Actually the software calculate -112dBr, noise floor being the one of the Audio CD.
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Let's have a look at the multitone test that a lot of you like very much, and guess what:
View attachment 477097
Yes, nailed, perfect, as much as it can be from the format. There is 0 distortion here, down to -115dB, ie near 20bits of distorsion free replay.
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Oh yes, the jitter test:
View attachment 477098
Allow me not to overlay the digital output, because the one from analog output is perfection. We can see that random noise at the foot of the fundamental, again, but so low that we can truly ignore it. Again, you get to see it because I use a 512k FFT length. There is a "Master Clock" in the OPPO, and it works well.
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Started with the
Teac VRDS-20 review, and on your request + support to get it done (more
here), I'm adding now an "intersample-overs" test which intends to identify the behavior of the digital filtering and DAC when it come to process near clipping signals. Because of the oversampling, there might be interpolated data that go above 0dBFS and would saturate (clip) the DAC and therefore the output. And this effect shows through distorsion (THD+N measurement up to 96kHz):
Basically, the oversampling interpolator does not have any headroom. But this player has volume control too. And look, if I reduce the volume by 2dB, then I get the best results so far, all dominated by digital noise due to the limit of the 16bits bit depth. Decreasing the volume by one more dB gives the same best result with 11'025Hz test file.
Now, you might wonder if decreasing by 2dB the volume decreases the overall performance by the same. Actually not:
View attachment 477099
Even being very unfriendly, and letting the computer include all noise up to 91kHz, I still get my full 16bits resolution and no distortion. The SNR is still above 98dB.
What a DAC! Well, yes it's an ESS, we know... but so well implemented here.
So, should you be worried about potential distortion due to hot masters, you know what to do...
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Let's continue with the good old 3DC measurement that Stereophile was often using as a proof of low noise DAC. It is from an
undithered 997Hz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the smallest symmetrical sign magnitude digital signal:
View attachment 477100
Haha, I thought I made a mistake, thinking I captured the digital output of the player.
No no, this is the analog one! It is, to date, the best trace I've seen. There's nearly 0 noise added to this most fragile 16bits signal. The linearity is of course perfect. State of the art that so many recent dedicated CD players do not achieve...
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Other measurements (not shown):
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Analog" (18kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -112.3dB
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Digital" (17'987Hz & 19'997Hz 1:1) : -121.6dB
- IMD AES-17 MD (41Hz & 7993Hz 4:1): -119.2dB
- IMD DIN (250Hz & 8kHz 4:1) : -108.3dB
- IMD CCIF (19kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -119.7dB
- IMD SMPTE (60Hz & 7kHz 1:4) : -106.1dB
- IMD TDFD Bass (41Hz & 89Hz 1:1) : -120.3dB
- IMD TDFD (13'58Hz & 19841Hz 1:1) : -133.8dB
- Dynamic Range : 98.9dB (without dither @-60dBFS)
- Crosstalk: 100Hh (below -135dBr), 1kHz (-125dBr), 10kHz (-103.7dBr)
- Pitch Error : 19'997.08Hz (19'997Hz requested) ie 4ppm
- Gapless playback : Yes
The IMD scores are best in class.
The Dynamic range is the best that can be measured (unweighted) with the Audio CD.
A very small crosstalk can be seen, I was almost disappointed considering the crazy good other results
Pitch error is a very small 4ppm.
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Last and not least, I like to run a THD vs Frequency sweep at -12dBFS as it shows how the conversion has evolved over time. I am currently using the beta version of REW and I discovered that this sweep gives better and more reliable results than before. I did not overlay with other CD players, because it's the best trace I got, again, and actually it is the same if I run the test from the digital output:
View attachment 477108
One more time, I'm measuring the digital content, as if there was no DA conversion. I love it!
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As I did with the
Sony CDP-597, I add a "max DAC resolution" measurement test. It is performed from a 999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither (from Audacity). I restrict the THD+N span to 20Hz - 6kHz in REW not to account for the noise of the shape dither beyond 6kHz. I take the calculated ENOB and simply add 2bits to it (due to the -12dB attenuation, as 1bits=6dB). The potential maximum, when calculated from the digital WAV file, is 18.7bits under this test. A "transparent" DAC should achieve 18.7bits, ie 100% in this test.
Here are the results compared to others:
The OPPO BDP-95 forced me to reset the max expectation on this test! Oh come-on dude. When I created this test, I calculated 18.7bits from the digital file. And I truly thought no player nor DAC would achieve the same value from analog outputs. So I set the max to 18.6bits, as the reference to achieve. The SMSL PS200 did it, and I thought better would never be achieved. I was wrong.
The OPPO reset this test!
As a consequence, the new max is now 18.7bits!
OPPO BDP-95 - Testing the drive
Before going to SACD and 24bits specific measurements, let me talk about the drive tracking capabilities, since these tests are performed from a CD Audio.
What would be good measurements if the drive would not properly read a slightly scratched CD, or one that was created at the limits of the norm? The below tests reply to these questions.
The OPPO took 11 seconds to read the TOC of my 40 tracks test CD, and this is mainly because it will position itself precisely where it previously stopped it.
Here are the results:
| Test type | Technical test | Results |
| Variation of linear cutting velocity | From 1.20m/s to 1.40m/s | Pass |
| Variation of track pitch | From 1.5µm to 1.7µm | Pass |
| Combined variations of track pitch and velocity | From 1.20m/s & 1.5µm to 1.40m/s & 1.7µm | Pass |
| HF detection (asymmetry pitch/flat ratio) | Variation from 2% to 18% | Pass |
| Dropouts resistance | From 0.05mm (0.038ms) to 4mm (3.080ms) | Pass |
| Combined dropouts and smallest pitch | From 1.5µm & 1mm to 1.5µm & 2.4mm | Pass |
| Successive dropouts | From 2x0.1mm to 2x3mm | Pass |
If you're not bored by me repeating myself... Guess what?
Best in class!
The OPPO repeats the excellence of the TASCAM CD-200.
It reads a disc with holes drilled into it, even if they are successive! I could measure the interpolation kicking off at 2.4mm, which I think is what is expected from the Redbook, but I very rarely see that performance from a drive.
What a CD player!
OPPO BDP-95 - Digital Output (from Audio CD)
Ok, so it's a perfect CD player. Nothing more can be expected from an external DAC. But let's verify if it outputs a "perfect" digital stream. And, from my standard 999.91Hz @0dBFS file...:
View attachment 477116
Noooooo! What the heck is that distortion! Well, at 1 dB lower, it looks familiar:
View attachment 477117
This one, I know very well. It is the typical distorsion created by Windows Media Player when burning a CD with the option "Adjust Levels" set to ON. Microsoft... new owners of the HDCD license... hmmm... Let me turn off the HDCD replay...
View attachment 477118
Bingo, MSFT strikes again, my guess. Why on earth do we have HDCD decoding generating distorsion on 16bits PCM at the digital output?
My 3DC test was affected too, but I forgot to do a screenshot, so you get only the one with HDCD off:
View attachment 477120
It is perfect.
With HDCD off, the bitstream is therefore "perfect". My ultimate proof is when I reuse the intersample overs test at 5512.50Hz, with a phase shift of 67.5°, like I did for the
TASCAM CD-200 review. This signal generates an overshoot of +0.69dB and so if the signal would be modified before being sent, it would show either a reduction of amplitude or we'd see some sort of saturation/increase noise/distorsion. So here we go, the below is a comparison between the WAV File directly processed by the PC, and when played by the OPPO via the optical out:
View attachment 477115
Same traces = perfect digital output
Partial conclusion (As a CD Player)
I nearly reached the maximum pictures per post, so I will continue in another message about SACD and PCM 24bits performances.
In the meantime,
what a CD player!
It sets a precedence nearly everywhere, as per my latest refined tests! I had the feeling, so many times, to be measuring my test files directly from the WAV source. That was almost disturbing!
This is
the best CD Player I had in my hands so far. Why did you stop making them OPPO?
To be continued later...
