With all of the resources that are available to the Blu-ray Disc Association's major manufacturers, it's remarkable that the first company to cure the ills of standalone Blu-ray players was Oppo Digital with its $499 BDP-83 (HT, September 2009). Upon that player's release, many enthusiasts were using the PlayStation 3 for its speed and reliability. Standalone players were too slow and prone to disc incompatibility issues. They also had a hodgepodge of hardware profiles and decoding and interactivity features that bewildered consumers. When Oppo's BDP-83 came along, it did everything that a Blu-ray player should do, and it did it right and fast. In short, it was a next-gen Blu-ray player that acted like one. That player earned Home Theater's Top Pick of the Year in Source Components and overall Product of the Year for 2009 (HT, November 2009). Plus, it earned a check from me to Oppo. The BDP-83 I bought last year as a reference has been bulletproof during the time I've owned it. Compatibility issues have been few and far between. But when they've come up, Oppo has acted swiftly with hassle-free firmware updates from the Internet. It has been so bulletproof that it's difficult to imagine changing it out or upgrading it.

Enter the Oppo BDP-83SE Special Edition Blu-ray player. According to the company's Website, this upgraded player is for "customers who primarily use the analog audio output to connect to either a dedicated stereo or a multichannel surround system." Hey, that's me! So, the obvious question is just what that extra $400 buys a two-channel audio druid like me?

Audiophile Home Theater

It's confession time. I am an avid two-channel audio enthusiast, and I've essentially built a high-end home theater around my high-end stereo. I use a 92-inch-wide front projection screen, but I'd have a larger one if it didn't interfere with optimizing placement of my floorstanding left and right loudspeakers, which are out in the room a good ways. I use a surround processor for video sources, but I also have an Audio Research REF5 two-channel analog preamplifier for dedicated audio sources, including disc players, a turntable, and now a USB DAC fed by a music server. A unity-gain processor pass-through input for the left and right channels on the REF5 preamp lets the surround processor implement volume control on the signal passing through the preamp. I've done many direct comparisons, and I prefer the sound of a dedicated, analog, two-channel preamp with high-resolution audio sources to the sound I hear from even the best surround processors. Although this is a purist approach, it's resulted in the greatest satisfaction for me when I listen to music. Plus it's had virtually no negative impact on my home theater experience.

The New Boss, (Almost) the Same as the Old Boss

Before I get to what's new in the BDP-83SE, most of what's happening here is the same as the BDP-83, which is a very good thing. Aesthetically, the two players are virtually identical. It's reasonably sturdy and functional. The BDP-83SE is a universal player that plays Blu-ray Discs, CDs, DVDs, and the all-but-defunct SACD and DVD-Audio formats. It decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio to PCM over HDMI, or to analog over its 7.1-channel analog outputs. It can also transmit Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio as native bitstreams over HDMI, which you can quickly and easily change in the setup menu. When you choose bitstream output, you lose secondary audio, which includes PiP commentary streams and disc menu sound effects.

The BDP-83SE also has all of its interactivity bases covered. The player is fully Bonus View and BD-Live capable right out of the box. It accommodates hardwired Ethernet, but not built-in Wi-Fi. (Oppo offers an $80 Wireless Network Bridge Kit in case you don't have a network drop near your A/V rack.) Unlike many players on the market, Oppo outfitted the BDP-83SE with BD-Live's specified minimum of 1 gigabyte of local storage. It also includes two USB ports (front and back) that let you add storage as needed. That's the way to do it. I have to add that it's a big help having one USB port on the front. You can use it for firmware updates or use USB sticks as media sources. (The Oppo plays AVCHD, MKV, and some Windows Media formats over USB.) As with everything else the BDP-83SE does, it's very fast and stable with PiP commentaries and other advanced BD interactivity. In short, it's the only player I've used that doesn't make me miss the PS3, which is currently on leave in a secondary system in my house.

If you've read our recent reviews of BD players, you know that streaming and other Internet-delivered content applications are becoming big on Blu-ray players-from Netflix streaming to Pandora Internet radio. Oppo's not there yet. When I wrote this in early January, the company had started a market trial with Dreamer Corporation's BluTV Internet TV service. If you select BluTV from Oppo's splash screen, it brings up the BluTV menu, which was limited to a few uninspiring games and widget apps (weather, etc.) at press time. The company is also working on implementing streaming music from a DLNA-compatible server, but this wasn't ironed out at press time. This is a nice start, but it's not as impressive as the streaming sets out there from LG, Sony, Samsung, and others. That's the lone reason this player gets a 4.5 instead of a 5 for its Features rating.

To make sure we bleed at the edge, up to the minute, I asked Oppo as we went to press whether the BDP-83 or BDP-83SE will be firmware upgradeable to 3D Blu-ray. At press time, the answer was no. We don't anticipate a yes answer to this question, but I suppose we'll keep asking for a while. Just in case.

To some of you, this stuff is just bells and whistles, so let's get to the goods. The heart of the BDP-83SE's bleeding-edge video performance is its Mediatek decoding chip. This enables its PS3-like loading and response time. Its Anchor Bay video processing provides reference-quality deinterlacing and upconversion performance with DVDs. In addition to allowing source-direct native rate output (what's on the disc is what comes out of the player), you can force a 1080p/24 output with both Blu-rays and DVDs. Unlike other components that upconvert DVDs to 1080p/24 output, the Oppo seldom has cadence issues when doing so.

New and exclusive to the BDP-83SE is an upgraded power-supply board and voltage regulation. It also features improved digital-to-analog conversion. While the original BDP-83 used a Cirrus Logic solution with a single DAC per channel, the BDP-83SE uses an eight-channel, 32-bit ESS Technology solution for the 7.1-channel analog outputs that it claims is superior. And it goes further still. It also uses a dedicated eight-channel ESS Technology DAC for the left- and right-channel analog outputs, which stacks four DACs on each channel. While this kind of configuration could theoretically support a full dual-differential output, the Oppo's output is single-ended. Oppo claims an S/N increase of 7 decibels with the BDP-83SE-that's 117 dB compared with the BDP-83's 110 dB. This is where your $400 goes. To be crystal clear, aside from the improved power supply, the BDP-83SE's aural improvements apply strictly to its analog outputs, and its two-channel analog outputs especially. The BDP-83SE is aimed at two-channel audiophiles or those who aspire to be.

Remote, Setup, and Interface

Oppo's Blu-ray player remote is exceptional. Perhaps my favorite aspect is that it's fully backlit, and the backlight button is at the bottom right and very easy to thumb in the dark. I also often use the remote's "i" (Display) button, which brings up a graphic that shows what you're playing. For Blu-rays, it tells you the video compression codec and data rate, as well as the soundtrack format and movie run time. Those are just the highlights; this remote is one of the best I've ever used, with easy ergonomics and excellent functionality.

Oppo's setup menus remain a model of clarity and functionality. The defaults are smartly chosen, and the Oppo can walk a novice through setup quickly. Tweakability is also there if you want to dig deeper. I set up the player for HDMI connection through an Integra DHC-80.1 surround processor with bitstream output for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. There are a number of options for the bit depth and color space over HDMI. I chose 4:4:4 Y/Cb/Cr at 36 bits and set the Integra for passthrough. Lower bit depths didn't have any visible negative results. Since the BDP-83SE's video processing is 10 bit, if you enable 30- or 36-bit output from the player (which requires HDMI 1.3 and Deep Color capability in the surround processor or display it's connected to), it lets the video processor preserve its full bit depth at output. A new feature (rolled out via firmware on the BDP-83 and BDP-83SE) that I didn't get to test allows player-generated subtitles to shift on the screen. This is especially beneficial in constant-height projection setups and masking systems when subtitles appear in the black-bar area at the bottom of the screen.

I've never had any connectivity issues on my home network with either Oppo Blu-ray player. Network firmware updates are really fast and easy, and you can instruct the player to notify you when an update is available.

For the analog audio outputs, the BDP-83SE offers channel levels, distance (delays), and bass management (you can designate your speakers as small and cross them over to a subwoofer at 80 hertz, or large, i.e., full range). It can transmit DSD (SACD's native coding format) over HDMI native or convert it to PCM. It also has a Pure Audio mode, which you can enable with a single button on the remote. This shuts down all the video circuitry for serious music listening. One last, fine touch is that you can set the front-panel display to be completely off, so that it lights up briefly only when it receives remote commands. Every home theater component should offer this feature.

Video Performance

Like its sibling, the BDP-83SE's video performance is very fast in loading and response times with all functions, no matter how Java-intensive the disc. It's beyond reproach in pure video performance with Blu-ray Discs and DVDs. As our Video Test Bench shows, regardless of what you throw at this player, it deinterlaces and processes it flawlessly.

We simply can't trip it up. Its performance in upconverting DVDs is excellent, and Blu-ray's high resolution puts it over the top. Even dark, richly detailed transfers like Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince burst with detail and depth. We test using HDMI connections exclusively, and we haven't seen better picture quality with Blu-ray or DVD from any player at any price.

Before I get to the audio performance from the BDP-83SE's analog audio outputs, I want to make another appeal on Blu-ray's behalf to on-the-fence audiophiles. As outstanding as Blu-ray's high-def imagery is, the lossless audio experience with concert videos is absolutely transformative. Lossy Dolby and DTS don't hold a candle to lossless audio like the 24/96 Dolby TrueHD tracks on Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles or Chris Botti in Boston. My current fave is the DTS-HD Master Audio track on k.d. Lang Live in London. Lang's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" will bring you to your emotional knees. High-resolution lossless audio is breathtaking. It's got all the clarity of digital, but it has big and utterly effortless dynamic swings, silky highs, and tons of low-level detail retrieval. And yet it's relaxed and organic. Blu-ray's lossless audio is not mere evolution; it's revolution.

Pure Audio Performance

I stacked up the BDP-83 and BDP-83SE and ran them over identical sets of AudioQuest Sky interconnects to my two-channel preamp, using the Pure Audio mode on both players. The differences between the two weren't subtle. The BDP-83SE had better detail resolution and overall clarity with CDs and SACDs. In fact, the BDP-83SE sounded so good, I had to look above its price range to nail it down. Denon's $1,999 DBP-4010UDCI was in the house, so I compared the two. With CDs, the BDP-83SE gave up precious little. Its imaging was very convincing and fully realized, creating a credible illusion of instruments and vocals occupying real space. The Denon had a warmer and richer sound, but it still resolved a lot of detail. The Oppo was more matter of fact. It wasn't outright lean, but it wasn't as harmonically rich either. For example, with acoustic guitars, the Denon had more body sound and weight on the lower notes. Still, the two were close enough that your connected system and personal preferences will be bigger factors than outright quality. However, I thought that the Denon revealed a bit more inner detail with SACDs. But it was close. At less than half the price, the Oppo does better than hold its own; it competes.

Conclusion

Oppo clearly has another dominant performer on its hands. It will only appeal to a select group of audiophile-oriented videophiles whose systems can take advantage of this player's two-channel analog outputs. But you know who you are. You also know that it's common for incremental increases in performance to involve exponential cost expenditures. The BDP-83SE is an outright steal at $899. No matter how much money you've got to throw at a BD player, you need to look at an Oppo.