[loopguru]

Hello y'all,


I've been shopping the local online listings, thinking toward buying a Blu-Ray player that is also a good Redbook CD player, but, well, the little bit of research I've done doesn't really point to a clear choice in the $150-ish used market.


I'm not even sure where I stand on the, 'wire is wire and bits are bits' versus 'tweak everything' religious divide, further hampering my decision making. I have no idea if I could hear the difference between a CD being played through a less expensive DVD player, then played through a costly audiophile CD player. But just in case there is an audible difference between the two, I'm now leaning toward getting an older, semi-audiophile, non-HD/Blu-Ray DVD player with a reputation for good audio. Enter OPPO 981 vs. Rotel RDV 1040. I'm thinking I could add an AppleTV or somesuch for streaming HD, and (possibly) be happier with my audio CDs.


I like that the Oppo up-converts video. I like the Rotel audio reputation. Price of the two are roughly the same. Assuming their SD video output is very similar, is one the clear winner in CD audio playback? Or, 'bits are bits'?


Thoughts? Advice?


Thanks

 

[SoNic67]

Rotel RDV 1040 has sligtly better audio section than Oppo 981. But Oppo 981 is a true multiformat player (has extra decoders for DVD-A, SACD, HDCD).


If you will hear a difference with CD's between the two, depends of how revealing the rest of your system is.

The other formats will best the CD - sometimes just because are better mastered copies, because target buyers are different than boom-box/car stereo/ipod crowd (that most CD's are mastered for today).

 

[loopguru]

Thank you for the reply.


At this point, I'm leaning toward buying a new Blu-Ray player over either used SD option, after reading more on these forums, and am now trying to determine which has a reputation for better sound coming out of their analog jacks.


The least expensive new Oppo is still more than what I can spend, so I'm in the Sony vs Panasonic realm, I think.


Thanks again!

 

[SoNic67]

Cheap bluray players have crappy analog outs. If you are looking for CD quality, better look for an used top-of-line universal DVD player. Those are better on analog audio section than a cheap bluray player, that is designed to send audio via HDMI.