To Roger Kanno,
I enjoyed your review of the Oppo BDP-105. Is it possible for a preamp like the Parasound Halo P 7 or the NuForce MCP-18 to sound better with the Oppo BDP-105 than using the player by itself as a preamp? I am planning to upgrade from a Denon 3312CI, which I use as a preamp connected to a B&K 7250 power amp, and an Oppo BDP-93. I can afford to buy a processor like the Emotiva XMC-1 or a receiver like the Anthem MRX 510, or I could buy an Oppo BDP-105D and use it as a preamp.
I have had no success with Audyssey and my two Kreisel Sound DXD-12012 subwoofers, so I do not use room EQ now. I thought I could try the Anthem's ARC room equalization, or the XMC-1's Dirac EQ, but I keep thinking about the sound quality of the Oppo BDP-105D as preamp and processor. I would appreciate your advice.
Thanks,
Forrest
United States
The sound quality of the Oppo BDP-105 when connected directly to a power amp is excellent, due to the high quality of the Oppo’s built-in volume control. So, as you might have already guessed, I would not recommend using it with a multichannel analog preamp like the Parasound or NuForce, which may actually result in degraded performance, due to the additional set of interconnects and preamplification circuitry in the system. Also, you would need at least six additional interconnects (for a 5.1 channel system), which could be quite costly for high-quality cables. Adding a processor such as the Emotiva or a receiver such as the Anthem makes sense as it would provide the added flexibility of additional inputs and outputs, but if that is not a consideration then I would stick with using just the Oppo BDP-105, or the newer BDP-105D (which adds DarbeeVision video processing), which is what you mentioned buying.
The issue of room correction is a bit harder to answer. I have not heard the Emotiva with Dirac (although we have tried several times to get Emotiva gear in for review), but I use Anthem’s ARC system on my Statement D2 processor and find that it improves the performance of my system with both music and movies. That being said, I often use the Statement D2 with ARC turned off when reviewing speakers or when performing direct comparisons of speaker systems, and still enjoy the sound of my system.
So if you are happy with the performance of your subwoofers in your room, I would not hesitate in using the Oppo BDP-105 or BDP-105D as the control center of your system. Both should provide excellent stereo and multichannel sound at an almost unbelievable price considering all that they do. . . . Roger Kanno
