Buyer's Guide Archives - Page 3 of 3

Planning to get the most effective SACD player around? Congrats! You arrived at the appropriate web page today. Prices for SACD players range from inexpensive to costly. We hope this list helps you pick out the best SACD players. Best SACD Player Reviews When it comes to buying an SACD player, the experience is a little different than other Blu-ray players or products. But, exactly how to select the appropriate SACD player? As you can visualize, there are hundreds of different models out there. However, when you are buying an SACD player, you need to keep some things in mind. Look at the comparison table. I will provide you with more information that will help you in our Buyer’s Guide later. Product Features Our Rating Price OPPO BDP-103D Universal 3D Blu-ray Player (Darbee Edition) Dual-core processor, 4k Up-conversion, 2D-to-3D Conversion 5/5 Check Price Sony BDP-S6700 Multi Region Blu-ray 3D, 4K upconverting, Supports PAL and NTSC 4.8/5 Check Price OPPO UDP-203 Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player Lossless, High-Resolution Audio 4.7/5 Check Price Sony UBP-X700 4K Ultra HD Home Theater Streaming Blu-Ray Player Dual HDMI outputs, Warranty Card (1 year) 4.7/5 Check Price 1. OPPO BDP-103 – Top Rated SACD Player Amazing players play almost everything. I bought this for the HD pictures quality and it is. For the projector, it's worth it to spend that money. But for a small tv your never gonna see the difference. Sound quality with FLAC files on the direct mode it's beautiful. One thing, I'm disappointing, it open iso files as a file, not as movies like on the computer or with WD TV media player. I have a server with a lot of iso files and some have more than one stream on the same movies. Anyway, nothing is perfect with all the technology that exists, so this is the Blu-ray player to buy if your request is quality over the price. If you're not a manual reader, well, hopefully, you have enough experience in modern equipment to just know what to do, or you have a friend who knows, or that you don't really need an advanced feature. For my purposes, the system was easily connected to my TV as well as my audio system. Everything works perfectly. The wifi connection was easy. So far, it has read every file format I've thrown at it. I love that it has its own screen (my previous cheap player required the TV to be on to keep track of what was going on, which is silly for audio only). The remote: This is bitter-sweet for me. On the one hand, it's BIG and HEAVY. On the other hand, it's big and heavy. I love the heft, and the buttons are big enough my old eyes can read the captions. But it is big and heavy. As I stated earlier, for many features, it is essential to read the manual to verify everything is "right" to make it work. It would be better if the device was self-analyzing and would give messages through the TV with specific help. With selections to go directly to the appropriate setting to alter things when the player is asked to do something, the current settings don't support. Overall, Most complaints seem to come from a lack of connection to their network (did they connect the wifi USB stick or a wired connector to the OPPO? Who knows), or the apparently incomplete set of buttons on the remote control function. When selecting the remote control it defaults to the middle 1/3rd of the actual remote. This contains most of the moment to moment controls. If you want to have access to the other buttons, simply scroll up or down. While I have not done a button-by-button comparison, it appears to me that every button on the remote is replicated on the remote control portion of the media controller app. Pros The dual-core processor provides quick startup and fast loading times. 4k Up-conversion. 2D-to-3D Conversion. True 24p Video. Vertical Stretch Mode, Advanced Picture Controls. Cons Pretty expensive. The power adapter is wide. Check Latest Price On Amazon 2. Sony UBP-X700 – Best Blu-Ray Disc Player The Sony UBP-X700 is a replacement for the former UBP-X800. The new player is smaller and more lightweight than its predecessor. It's about the size of most recent Sony Blu-ray players. The operation is very intuitive. When the opening screen comes up, press the open/eject button, insert your disc, and press PLAY, and you are done. It is a native 4K Blu-ray that enjoys a good reputation on the web, the best of the accessible models on the market. It has support for Dolby Vision, which makes it very tempting to the customer. It makes no noise when playing discs. It has a very simple interface, despite this, it complies well. It is a good music player, and accepts files from cd quality to hi-res, including multichannel DSD; also for its digital output, you can output audio in 192/24. It only supports 2.4ghz wifi, however, as I mentioned above, it played an almost 50g file without problems. The only disadvantage that I see is that it says to carry the Amazon Video app, and it was something that caught my attention, however, after updating the app it still does not appear in the applications drawer. You may notice that in the box you can see that it has the Amazon Video app. It brings a few apps and there is no store to download something, you can not install anything, only the ones it brings from the factory. It is region DVD 1. You can play discs with Dolby Vision, I do not know if it came from the factory or was installed with the available update that I made while configuring the equipment. Overall, This item is a good worth and also works well. There are some minor complaints with the X700. The primary concern is that the included remote is smaller than last year's model. Good luck using the remote if you have large fingers. It is nice that the footprint is smaller with the X700, but its lightweight can't keep it steady while pressing the open/eject button. The X700 weighs only just over 3 lbs., while the previous model was 8-1/2 lbs. Pros Play almost any disc and file format. Listen to music from multiple formats. Dual HDMI outputs. The unrivaled visual clarity of 4K Ultra HD Blu ray. Stunning picture with 4K upscaling up to 60p. Cons Pretty expensive. There is no RCA audio output. Check Latest Price On Amazon 3. OPPO UDP-203 – Best Blu-ray SACD player This Multi-Region Oppo UDP-203 will play ANY Disc, from anywhere in the world, PAL or NTSC. I would NEVER buy any disc player that is not Multi-Region. There are many wonderful movies that are LOCKED regions outside of the USA. This unit will automatically play DVD regions 0-8 without doing anything. When it comes to Blu-rays, it is sometimes necessary to press a few buttons on the remote control to change the region code to “B” or “C”. Fortunately, most (but not all) Blu-rays made today are multi-region. I have about 3000 movies in my DVD / Blu-ray collection. I had to look hard, to find a couple of Blu-ray movies that were set to region “B” for testing. Apparently, this player is susceptible to any disc infected with the Cinavia virus. The Cinavia virus is occasionally used to prevent people from making legal backups of their purchased movies. I had no way to test this. It's a common problem with many players trying to play discs infected with the Cinavia virus. There are several websites that contain lists of the few movies that have the Cinavia virus on them, AVOID BUYING THESE MOVIES. Sadly, the unit has no analog video outputs. This is FORCED on most manufacturers by the Hollywood Cartel. The UDP-93 was the last Oppo Player allowed to have analog video outputs. The unit does NOT have UOP (User Operation Prohibited) disabled. When a disc is authored, it can be programmed to lockout functions on the remote control at various points in the playback. This is what prevents you from fast-forwarding through “warnings”, commercials, previews, etc. Some players have UOPs disabled. This means even if the disc TRIES to lock down the remote control, it cannot do so, and you always have a functioning remote that will let you skip anything and everything you want to. The Hollywood Cartel does not like players that have UOP disabled. The firmware is very easy to update on the Oppo UDP-203. You can do it directly from the Internet or you can make a CD or USB stick. A wonderful feature of Oppo units is that it is possible to DOWNGRADE firmware IF you keep a copy. Occasionally, I have seen firmware "updates" on other players prevent movies from working. I've seen this mostly on Sony players. Regarding burnable DVDs and Blu-rays, it will play the new 1000 year lifetime burnable M-Discs, as well as the old-fashioned 7-10 year lifetime purple dye discs. You can press the info button on the remote control to retrieve some interesting data about your disc. Unfortunately, it will not display the region code. The only way I have found to determine the region code of a disc is to use Apple's “DVD Player” program and “Get Info” on the disc. Overall, the Oppo UDP-203 comes with batteries for the remote control. Throw them away, and install lithium batteries. In addition to lasting about four times longer than alkaline, I have never seen a lithium battery leak. Pros Reference Quality Video with HDR & Dolby Vision. Lossless, High-Resolution Audio. Play almost any disc and file format. Easy to use. Listen to music from multiple formats. Cons Pretty expensive. Lock up quite often when navigating it. Check Latest Price On Amazon 4. OPPO BDP-103D – Best Buy SACD Player I've owned a lot of high-end DVD players during the SD era, several $3,000 plus models from the likes of Denon, Panasonic, and EAD. So, I feel confident in the assertion that the quality that Oppo delivers with the 103D is nothing shy of reference. Easily the most value-priced, high end featured player I've seen. While I've owned a number of Blu-ray players too, including a Panasonic that originally went for over $1k. I've since been content with using a PS3 for BD playback, as most discs are properly encoded at 1080p24 requiring no extraneous processing. Unlike the DVD era, where so many discs were improperly flagged as video or film-based content, etc. Meaning our BD playback doesn't demand all the bells and whistles as the previous generation to optimize PQ. But I was genuinely surprised, if not a little elated to see the impact Darbee has on image depth. If you have a projector, you will want this player. It doesn't have some of the bells and whistles of our former $3500 Denon DVD player. But the features it does offer are far more satisfying than advanced gamma. At one time the PS3 was THE most reliable BD player to have, as just about every BD was tested on it. But that's not the case anymore. The Oppo will play Sony's botched Total Recall remake perfectly. Something that neither the PS3 nor PS4 can do. That said, while it's video playback and collection of highly functional, well-designed video adjustments and other features (like dual HDMI output and input so other devices can benefit from Darbee) are second to none, it's not quite perfect. We miss the customizable home screen interface of the PS3/PS4, the 15sec jump feature on the PS3 remote, and a few other little things. But the biggest and only real drawback to getting this player now is that it's been discontinued by the manufacturer. It is no longer supported by updates, should any aspect of Blu-ray spec be changed. So, there is a possibility of some newer releases not playing properly in the future. Overall, The Darbee feature really makes this old 16 mm film jump to life. I have it set at 96% in Hi-Def mode. To it looks like a 35 mm film given proper illumination in the source material. Utterly jaw-dropping quality on this challenging historical document. I also tried South Pacific on DVD and was equally blown away and Rocky Horror Picture Show Blu ray. Everything I have thrown at it has astounded me! Pros 4k Up-conversion. 2D-to-3D Conversion. True 24p Video. Vertical Stretch Mode. Advanced Picture Controls. Cons Pretty expensive. Can be complicated for non-Techies. Check Latest Price On Amazon 5. Sony BDP-S6700 – Best Budget SACD Player This Sony model works well as expected. So far I have used Region B Bluray discs imported from UK (The Avengers Series 4 Bluray). It played it perfectly with no issues. Here’s what you need to pay attention to: 1. Make sure Quick Start Mode is off. This is a setting on the player, very easy to see and confirm. Sony models show that when you turn on the player for the very first time and going through the initial setup process. LG model I have tested (LG BP350), it’s in the settings. Both models have Quick Start Mode off by default so you probably won’t have to do anything. 2. Make sure your player is OFF before you press the button to change the region code. You don’t have to change the region for DVDs It is set to region free for DVDs. You only need to change it for Bluray discs. Turn off the player. For Sony models, press Yellow for Region A, Blue for Region B, Red for Region C. For LG models, press 1 for Region A, press 2 for Region B, and press 3 for Region C. When you do that, the player will turn ON. And it will be ready to play the disc. By habit, I turned the player on and pressed the region codes and it didn’t work. It is important that the unit must be off before you take that action. This model has wi-fi built-in and I was able to connect successfully with no issue. The third-party seller states that updating the firmware will not cause issues with the region free capability. They say they guarantee that their player won't lose region-free capability but I would not want to test that theory unless my player starts having issues as I don’t want to risk losing region-free capability (with so many firmware updates and codes, you never know what will happen). The only problem I had was when I played a Region B Bluray disc that had a 5.1 DTS audio track, and the audio kept cutting out for a second every 2-3 minutes. I had the HDMI out from the player to LG OLED TV and I was using the audio optical out from the TV to the receiver. For whatever reason, the sound kept cutting out for a second and came back on. I could see the signal going out on the front panel of my receiver. I am not sure if this issue has anything to do with the disc being region B. I Googled it and saw recommendations about changing the audio settings on the player and turning them off (it also recommended changing the digital audio output to PCM but that would defeat the purpose of enjoying the 5.1 DTS audio format). I have not had this issue with The Avengers Bluray disc which only has a 2.0 PMC audio track. So either the 5.1 DTS audio signal did not pass to the TV or the TV did not pass it to the receiver consistently which caused the audio dropouts. But this player also had digital audio coaxial output. I think I will try that to see if it resolves the issue. The audio quality probably won’t be the same as the HDMI signal but still better than constant cutouts. Pros 4K Upconversion. Works with wired or wifi. HDMI output, coaxial audio output. 4K Upscaling. Supports PAL and NTSC. Cons Lock up quite often when navigating it. Check Latest Price On Amazon Best SACD Players – Buyer’s Guide You need to search for the following features while picking the best SACD player. If you are buying this for the first time you should not only aware of the advantages of SACD but also aware of the accuracy of it. As most of the great quality player has a high price, you should choose a player that has versatile use. Now, let's talk about the most important features you should keep in mind while buying an SACD player. Picture Quality You should choose a player that can play 4K films, even on non-HDR TVs. It will give you an additional shadow and highlight detail. You should look for some players that can provide you some outstanding picture quality even for the conventional SDR TVs. Play Anything You should choose an SACD player where you can watch, listen to, and stream anything you like including most high-definition video and audio formats and also host most popular streaming services. Intuitive Menu and Interface You should choose an SACD player that can have an intuitive menu and interface, apps, and features that are organized simply and intelligently, so you can always find what you are looking for. Audio Quality You should choose an SACD player with studio-quality sound with higher than CD quality with high-resolution audio. That way, passion for music unites every component from signal to speaker so it feels like the artist is performing right in front of you. Price Price is another important thing to take into consideration while picking your SACD player. We have actually chosen OPPO BDP-103 for high-quality construction but the price is not economical. But, if you have a low budget, you should definitely stick between Sony BDP-S6700 or OPPO BDP-103D. If the budget is no concern for you then you should purchase our top pick. Bottom Line Making a decision about which player is the best for you is not an easy job, but we tried our best to recommend the best one. If you can afford it, I highly recommend the OPPO BDP-103, even if the rest of your system components aren't of the same caliber. After only a few days, I'm glad I made this purchase. In case you feel that we left out some other great SACD players, don’t hesitate to let us know.