Oppo BDP-95 vs. BDP-105 — Sound Quality Comparison?

I see a lot of comments about the units with fans (83, 83SE, 95) where some people are very distracted by the fan noise, and others either don't notice it or then fan never seems to need to come on in the first place. When I recently saw a photo of the back of the BDP-95 that clearly showed the fan, it occurred to me what the problem might be.

I work in a (normally) very quiet environment, at a desk with the computer on most of the time. Computer fan noise starts to drive me nuts after awhile, like Chinese water torture, it doesn't bother me so much at first and I can "tune it out" for a while, but the constant droning noise, hour after hour, starts to get to me.

So when shopping for or building a new computer, fan noise is a primary issue. I built my most recent computer (first time for that) from the ground up with every component chosen for quietness as well as performance. The issue of fans was very educational. Slight changes in fan blade size and shape can make a big difference in both sound character and the distance from which the sound can be easily heard. To make things worse, computer fans are generally not very high quality to begin with, particularly the smaller ones (like the one in the back of the BDP-95), so if you have 3 or 4 of the same exact fan, some will be noticeably louder than others.

That variability and lack of high quality could certainly explain why some people are bothered by the fan, and others are not.

 

Bill,

I think some people are just more sensitive to background noise pollution, both audible and visual. Many people like to listen to music in a darkened room, and a video display (particularly a 55" rear projection TV, in my case) is contrary to that objective. Not only is there a fan on the back of the rear projection TV to cool the bulb, but the screen itself is distracting, and generally (for me) not helpful to a good listening environment.

Other people don't mind the regular room lights being on and the TV on (set to mute, hopefully!) while listening to music, it doesn't bother them at all, but I have a hard time enjoying the music that way, unless I just have music on for background listening.

 

Yes, the SOUND will (should) be best from the analog outs, which is what I intend to use for listening to CDs and SACDs.

But for watching movies, the PICTURE should be best from HDMI, if I understand correctly. Because of my unusual room layout (and therefore stereo location and TV location not complementing each other), I can't place my speakers on either side of the TV. Both of my main stereo speakers, in their current location, are projecting sound into my right ear when I am facing the TV screen, so there's no point in playing the movie dialog and soundtrack through the main stereo speakers.

I still need to get the movie dialog and soundtrack to the TV set's internal speakers though, if I want to hear anything at all when I watch a movie, so I wanted to understand whether the HDMI 1 connection would transmit basic audio to the TV without compromising the picture quality, a concern that was prompted by the Q&A comments that I posted previously.

 

Thanks Sam!

 

I agree that a rear projection TV would be distracting in a room for listening to music. I have a 60" plasma which is on when I listen to music. But with the Pure audio mode on the screen is dark and there is no audible noise from the display.

Bill

 

Mine is in the basement, but it's above a Musical Fidelity kW500, which gets pretty hot, in my rack. The fan comes on after a while in normal mode, but it rarely comes on while in Pure mode, even with the kW500 pumping out the heat.

 

My BDP-95 is in an enclosed cabinet (as are all of my audio components), and with the door to the cabinet closed, I can't hear any mechanical noise from any of my components. Still, even when I open the cabinet to retrieve a disc from the player, I have yet to hear the fan on.

 

All I can say since I've had my BDP105 upgraded by Custom Analogue Audio, it's probably the best digital I've heard in my system. The Level 3 upgrade has made it a true world class machine. I've had Audio Aero, Meitner in my system, but none of those machines do what my 105 does now. Joe Rasmussen is a genius.
http://www.customanalogue.com/index.html