Originally Posted by
Titanium Dome
The original SDP-5 set up with an Oppo DV-981HD did a passable job with two channel sound, but that's all. Of course that Oppo player was built to be a great video and digital MCH transport, so that's not a big surprise.
When I replaced it with the Oppo BDP-83, things improved a bit, but not so much that I listened to two channel playback any more often. When I upgraded to the BDP-83SE with its superior analog section and exceptional two channel output, things changed a bit.
I actually found myself wanting to hear some music solely in two channel again. The SDP-5 seemed to handicap this a bit with its sometimes arcane input selection and assignment process, and sometimes it would reset inputs without my involvement.
This tended to tock me off, as I'd listen to something and find myself disappointed with the sound. Then I'd think maybe I had been a victim of placebo effect, only to discover the darn unit had change the input configuration to something wacky like DTS: Neo6. :wtf:
This kind of strange behavior was another motivator (among those already mentioned) for seeking a replacement unit, which led me to the AV2.
Fortunately, I had some time to spend with the Oppo BDP-83SE and the SDP-5 before the AV2 arrived, and I kept both of them connected and in the rack for many weeks to do side-by-side analysis.