Oppo BDP 103 - audio performance

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I have previously given my initial impression of the player, and this is a more in depth review of the audio performance, mainly using the RCA analogue outputs of the player.

You can read up about the specs of the DACs in the Oppo from their website:

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-103/ 

The DAC is the same as the BDP-93, the Cirrus Logic CS4382A (8-ch, 24-bit, 192khz).

For the purpose of the audio test:


Partnering equipment:

Musical Fidelity A 5.5 stereo amplifier
B &W 805s speakers
Audioquest Sky cables

I used a combination of Cds and SACDs:

Diana Krall’s The Girl In The Other Room SACD; Peter White’s Playin' Favorites CD  and Oshio Kotaro’s Hand to Hand CD.

These discs are well recorded and have excellent tracks with bass, good mids and resolution.

As a CD player in analogue, you can compare it against CD players around the $3-600 range or basically one that will cost around half it’s selling price. As a transport to the AV amp, if you have a AV amp with a solid DAC and amplifier section it will be quite competent. But make no mistake, you won’t be expecting this unit to sound as good as a CD player costing the same amount.

The sound you get is fairly neutral, with no hint of warmth, slowness and neither will it be treble happy, so what you put into it will be the kind of sound you get out of it. There is a certain dryness to it, but it won’t make violins excessive screechy. The bass is impressive and tight.


The imaging is stable, and the soundstage is dead centre, with good separation and depth. Resolution is decent, but again, we are comparing it to the budget CD players on the market.

So if you have a decent Home Theatre system, that has pretty good speakers and a musical amplifier which won’t embarrass your CD collection, and now you want better music playback for not too much outlay, then this Oppo could be what you are looking for.

Basically, you get a very solid Blu Ray player, with a decent transport that will also handle your CDs, SACDs, DVD-As, and even songs on external media quite nicely. And it does all this within a single package.


I have no financial interest or other interests in any of the items / events I write about.

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