Mcintosh 301 vs. Oppo BDP 95

Having owned Oppo equipment and McIntosh gear in the past I would buy the McIntosh. This is presuming the additional cost is of no concern.

A more sensible suggestion is to try both in your home, and keep the one you like most.

I have and Oppo BDP-83 SE and a McIntosh MVP-851 in my system. For 2 channel CD I prefer the Mac. The Oppo is very good but it seems to be a bit aggressive soundwise at the top end. The McIntosh I can listen for longer periods of time. A smoother presentation. Also Macs will retain their value better. You'll never have a problem selling it if you want to change.

No comparison between the Oppo BDP-95 and BDP-83SE. In fact, the Oppo BDP-93 will give 83SE a run for it's money. Much of what was learned in the 83SE analog board was ported to the 93.

For the OP, I'd only suggest you give a lot of weight to the support offered by Oppo vs a used Mac. And there's no restocking fee at Oppo. 30 days no questions asked. Also it does have a digital volume control for the analog outs. I'll also add that used Oppos also hold value very well.

Here you are venturing into the murky and frightening world of esoteric audiophile language. Both the 93 and 95 offer analog audio quality that's as good or better than players costing many times more. I think it's fair to say that less than 1% of AVS denizens have speakers and amps capable of fully resolving these differences.

One reviewer put it well: With the 93, sitting in a noisy Times Square you can hear a knat fart in Baltimore. With the 95 you can hear that in Miami. (or words to that effect)

Both can claim to have DACs and analog boards that far exceed the quality of those found in even higher-end AVRs. So you really want to ask yourself just how demanding you want to be and what that last 1% of performance is worth. The 95 has noise levels and distortion that is not measurable on most testing bench equipment, with a totally flat FR curve. That's a claim that very few devices can make.

People tend to "prefer" a sound that's like what they are used to. So when people make reports about how some new piece of equipment sounds it's always being compared to what they've been listening to before. When a device is truly accurate and imparts no characteristics to the source at all, some people don't like it and call it all sorts of audiophillic terms. It also tends to be very unforgiving of sources that are less than ideal.

So here you add the wrinkle: what will you be listening to? Is it really good enough source material to demand total accuracy in order to appreciate it?

So maybe sometimes the real task is to ask the right questions, not so much get the right answers. </$.02>

get both, try them - pick the one that looks better - mac would be easy to flip on audiogon, check prices there first

Might be even more interesting to take an Oppo BDP-93 with you and do a head-to-head comparison. 30-day no questions return policy if you're not impressed.

If the McIntosh is in good condition and selling for $1500, you could take it home, try it out, then sell it for a profit on Audiogon:

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....ntosh-MCD-301-

That would be my suggestion - Take the 30 day trial of the Oppo, Buy the Mac and try them both. If you like the mac - return the Oppo - If you like the Oppo sell the Mac.