OK, I finally got a 980. I was listening to SACD in 5.1 through my Rotel 1068 pre pro. So I want to take advantage of 2 channel sacd. This will be run through my Musical Fidelity preamp. Since the Oppo only has one set of front analog outputs, I used a Y splitter. One leg to the MF pre and the other leg to the Rotel pre pro. The problem is with the 2 channel to the MF. I get a distorted sibilance sound. If I detach the cables to the Rotel, the sound goes away. Or, I can turn the Rotel on and the sound seems to go away. Could it be a feedback problem? I was trying to decide between the 980 and 981 (the 981 has a seperate 2 channel out), but someone mentioned to use a Y splitter for the frone output. I thought that it was a good idea. Any thoughts on this problem?
Thanks.

I think this is likely an impedance matching issue. The two devices attached to the Y splitter may have different input impedance.

The 981 won't help since internally, the Mix L/R and the Front L/R are Y-splitted.

The 981 won't help since internally, the Mix L/R and the Front L/R are Y-splitted.

I really hope this is not the case. I had a Denon 3910 connected with the same configuration (5.1 to the Rotel and seperate, no splitter to the 2 channel sacd input of the MF)and had no problems. It, like the 981 has a seperate 2 channel front outputs. Lets say for example that I want to listen to DVD-A or multi-channel SACD through the analog outputs. Then, I want to listen to a regular cd. I would have to listen to the cd through the multi inputs of my processor. I cannot directly connect the 980 to the 2 channel cd input of my Rotel. I purchased the 980 from Amazon a couple of days ago. I really hate to send it back.

I contacted Oppo about this. I received a reply almost immediately. They said that different input spec is more than likely the problem. Like you said Jeff. And that getting a 981 would not work either. I was hoping to get a universal player without breaking the bank. I think I'll look into Marantz and Denon a little more.