The OPPO DV-970HD at $150 should work well.

I'm strictly two-channel, but have had great success with a Marantz player and I think they have offerings that fit the 5.1 requirement and will fit your budget. I can only recommend you give them a look. I suspect others reading your post can and will address your questions more specifically. Good Luck.

Quote:
The OPPO DV-970HD at $150 should work well.

I haven't examined this player, but one thing I have found with other inexpensive universal players is that while they do have a wider frequency bandwidth than CD, their noise floors can be sufficiently high in level that they don't preserve the full resolution of CD, let alone SACD or DVD-A. AS there will be a commonality of parts with players at this price level, I would be surprised if the Oppo player was any different in this respect.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Words of wisdom from our esteemed editor. I would suspect much of the brightness you describe is a result of your existing front end doing a less than satisfactory job on standard CD.

The Denon DVD-2910 was the best bang for the buck universal player back in its day, which was last year...LOL. Things change rapidly in this arena. Denon factory refurbs can be had for as little as $450.00 on Ebay.

If possible, do audition Clay's recommendation of the Marantz line. I have not heard them, but there seems to be many satisfied users throughout the online forums.

RG

All that technology, so cheap? Do you Remember a Chinese swag company, not poaying rolaltys to the owners of the technology, namely Philips, Sony and a few others...this player has every format except Blu-ray $150.....sounds like a bird talking? Cheap Cheap cheap. Is this company listed at www.licensing.philips.com there you can actually find if they are in fact licensed to use some optical formats..legally. If you don't support teh inovators, there is no inovation. They earn it from patents.

Not your ordinary player. The OPPO DV-970HD has a unique Audio Only mode with video processing turned off for improved acoustic fidelity over that of other players.

My Philips 963 does that also, it has nothing to do with anything "acoustic"they imply it eliminates stuff from teh video ckts, who knows...I would be leary of a $150 do everything unit, who is OPPO anyway, Are they paying royaltys and fees to the owners of the patents for all that optical formats?

Quote:
I would be leary of a $150 do everything unit, who is OPPO anyway, Are they paying royaltys and fees to the owners of the patents for all that optical formats?

There are plenty of inexpensive universal players that do the same functions as the Oppo 970. Both Pioneer and Toshiba have players that play just about every format under the sun. The Toshiba 6980 has a media reader and include a HDMI cable....you can pick one up online brand new for under $100.00 shipped. As for fees and royalties, how do you know Oppo is not paying?

I don't but I suspect...look at www.licensing.philips.com They have a page where you can check on who is licensed who is not, the patent owenrs WILL go after offenders, they (Philips/Sony) went after Apex Digital soem time ago, go $100's of MILLIONS in back royaltys, otherwise Apex would have been barred from selling in a lot of countires where they didn't PAY UP...ya can't stiff the inovators and expect to continue to get new stuff. I don't see Oppo digital listed on teh Philips licensing web page, give it a try, see if you can find them as a licensed mfg./seller

Promt reply from OPPO, they say they are licensed for DVD from Philips.....cool

Quote:
The Toshiba 6980 has a media reader and include a HDMI cable....you can pick one up online brand new for under $100.00 shipped.

If the OP is hoping for a player that will smooth the harsh top end of his system, the Toshiba 6980 will do it. The top and bottom of the Toshiba are smeared out, and the sound quality from that thing is simply unacceptable.

I know, because I have one. Fortunately I only use it to play DVD's. I have two dedicated SACD players which both leave the Toshiba for dead.