NewsSaturday Deluxe / 7 April 2018
OPPO Digital call it a day
Sad news for fans of hi-fi separates and physical formats (such as CD, SACD and blu-ray audio) as OPPO Digital announced this week that they “will gradually stop manufacturing new products”.
The company have been manufacturing high-end players (DVD, Blu-ray and now 4K UHD) for the last 14 years but the audio compatibility was also a key attraction, with these so-called universal players capable of playing virtually any format produced on an optical disc in the last 20 years or so. SDE has an OPPO 105BD and the built quality is second-to-none. It also has a very useful ability to playback hi-res audio via USB or across a network.
There was little in the way of explanation from OPPO, but one can only assume that with the vinyl revival, the prevalence of film/tv streaming services from the likes of Netflix and Amazon, the tiny market for niche formats like SACD and blu-ray audio and the humble CD now viewed rather as the poor relation when it comes to audio formats, market conditions have simply become untenable.
In terms of the future, OPPO say that “existing products will continue to be supported, warranties will still be valid, and both in-warranty and out-of-warranty repair services will continue to be available” but if you are considering buying an OPPO player, now might be the time to do it.
Read the official ‘farewell’ announcement here.
Time for something ‘new’ from Paul McCartney
Like many here, I’m a bit of a sucker for a coloured vinyl pressing, but surely Paul McCartney‘s recent batch of ‘reissues’ takes things too far, by including the ex-Beatle’s MOST RECENT ALBUM among the selection. New only came out in 2013 and to date we’ve had the standard 12-track CD, 13-track Japanese CD, the 14-track deluxe edition, the original vinyl pressing, the Japanese CD+DVD tour edition and the 2CD+DVD collector’s edition. All of those have been released in the last four years. So if you are sitting there looking at McCartney’s Wings and solo back catalogue, why on earth would you choose to reissue New again?
Almost eight years into Paul’s ‘Archive Collection’ campaign and still we have four Wings albums from the 1970s – namely Wild Life, Red Rose Speedway, London Town and Back To The Egg – that haven’t been touched. As a fan, this is very frustrating.
The reason for all this messing around and retreading of old ground is because McCartney left Concord and signed to Capitol in August 2016. Since that time, only one fully-fledged Archive Collection has been released (Flowers in the Dirt) and rather than encouraging Paul’s team to deliver more expanded reissues and box sets, the label appears to be going through the motions in a rather uninspiring way. They are spending time and energy getting standard versions of previously remastered albums, with a ‘Capitol’ logo on them, into the shops. These aren’t even as good as the previous editions, because they contain none of the bonus discs.
Capitol are throwing in coloured vinyl editions, in an attempt to keep fans happy, but this isn’t really good enough. In the five year period between October 2010 and October 2015 nine of Paul’s albums were reissued. In the last two and a half years we’ve had just one. That’s quite some drop-off. While the commercial landscape is shifting and the physical marketplace is undoubtedly a tougher environment, it is simply not the case that there is no market for these deluxe editions. Other artists/labels and artists are doing a fine job (XTC/APE, Jethro Tull and Marillion with Parlophone).
Paul and his team need to get the reissue campaign back on track. SDE’s advice would be to eschew the expensive and indulgent multi-book packages and revert to simpler one-book deluxe sets (Band on the Run, McCartney II); ensure the ‘download-only’ nonsense of Flowers in the Dirt isn’t repeated; and deliver something with genuinely exciting audio/video content at a price point that makes sense to buyers – £50-£75 is probably the realistic sweet spot that allows for a profitable and quality product but doesn’t push large sections drive away large sections of your target market.
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A follow up on the Oppo matter. Oppo started taking peoples email address saying they were considering doing one final production run of the UDP-205. Their website mentioned this a couple of months ago. Now, that hope has gone cold. Their website no longer shows any of their physical media products and it no longer mentions the proposed final production run of the 205. Perhaps not enough people signed up for a final chance to get the 205 and Oppo just bailed on it. Sad, as I wanted the 205 and did sign up. At least I have my Oppo 105 so all is still OK.
The OPPO news was indeed a shocker, having recently traded up my 103 for a 205.
No one has brought up the implications of the new 5g streaming format that will soon replace 4g.
If I read the info correctly, 5g will enable high-def streaming of most any format, potentially obsoleting all our physical media like CD, blu ray, etc.
If any technophiles have an opinion I’d sure like to hear it.
What concerns me most is what all fans of SDE know to be likely: that not all remastered, etc. versions of music we love will be offered to stream if the physical format goes bye-bye.
(have been on the road and unable to respond until now)
Just bought two multi region UDP 203s. I was going to wait until next year (when I plan to upgrade my TV to a 4k model) but didn’t want to miss the boat on the OPPO (and it can’t hurt to have a spare).
Hi Paul
With regards audio hardware would you be happy one day to produce an article of what would be a typical set-up these days?
It seems like tech is moving faster than ever and I don’t know if I am coming or going!
I’d be happy to buy a new set of separates but it is all beyond confusing!
Just a thought…
As far as McCartney goes, it’s easier (and lazier) to put out product that has already been out there in one form or another. If it wasn’t for the colored vinyl, does anyone think these would sell? I have to wonder how much McCartney vintage vinyl is out there already.
As far as Oppo goes, I see it more as a business decision to go to other more profitable options. Yes, Blu-ray and 4K sales are down and, yes, so are CD sales in favor of streaming BUT you can only stream what is offered to you and, so far, not everything I want is available in 1) great quality and 2) with a huge selection for streaming. Just as with Netflix, I think we will see different streaming companies having only certain artists as a focus.
Very very sad to hear about OPPO. I’m currently running 2 units and have owned 3 previously. Guess I should plan on picking up a 203 before they run out. Is there another player that can handle 3D, SACD, Blu-Ray & DVD-Audio, DTS CDs, recordable media etc (and region free would be nice too)? I have a collection that includes all those formats and more and would like to be able to play them, even after my Oppo players bite the dust.
this was the original plan at the time, forgot where I got this from for McCartney.
Wide Prairie / Wild Life / Red Rose Speedway / London Town / Back To The Egg / Wings Live 1979 / Studio Outtakes (70-89) / Rude Studio Recordings (70-97) / Demos (60-79) + (80-16) – The timeframe for all the reissue campaign was 2012 – 2020
of course the Wings stuff was all I wanted
I suspect it was from someone from the H*ffm*n forum who claimed to be an insider to the series, but the evidence of actual track listings compared to what they claimed suggested very much otherwise.
Mixed feelings about Oppo. I have a udp 203 which is great and plays dsd files native but also have many sacd-r’s which it refuses to recognise. Come on Oppo , how about a firmware update to reverse this as a parting gift . As far as i know Cambridge Audio still plays Sacd-r .
With regards Streaming , only for the masses until hi res becomes readily available (MQA Still needs promotion)
McCartney- his release team must all be under 20 !!
Finish the seventies first even if combining Back to the egg/London town in one super deluxe
It’s not rocket science really is it .
Effective with the 103/105 series of Blu-ray players, Oppo and other manufacturers have been prohibited from permiting the playback of home-burned SACD’s (AKA SACD-R or ISO DVD). The DVD format licensors prohibited it, under pressure from the music industry. Older Oppo’s (such as my BDP-83) can play these home-burned SACD’s.
According to a posting on another site, OPPO sold more units in the first four days of April than in the entire month of March. The poster also claimed that the 205’s are sold out (and OPPO has supposedly said they’ll do one more run of those machines) and that they didn’t expect the inventory of 1000 203’s to last this weekend. How accurate that all is, I don’t know. (I ordered a 205 last week and it supposedly shipped and will show up on Tuesday).
@RJS: CDs and boxed sets aren’t going to disappear, but the market is indeed becoming a small niche. I can only speak for the U.S. portion of the music business, but the RIAA reported that just 87.6 million CDs were sold in 2017, down from 2016’s 97.6 million and down from a peak of 942.5 million in 2000. (And 15.6 million LP’s were sold, up from 2016’s 14.8 million, but down from 2015’s 16.9 million.) While hipsters and us old fogies are still collecting physical music, the age of physical is over. In the U.S. 66.7% of the market (in dollars) is streaming. Only 17.6% was physical in 2017.
The physical video market isn’t doing well either, which probably led to OPPO’s decision to abandon the market. I have to wonder if they didn’t make a strategic error removing streaming services from their most recent players. In the U.S., the physical video market was almost $12 billion in 2009. In 2017, it was $4.7 billion.
The sad part about losing manufacturers of physical component players is that the lack of demand is more o fan issue with the shops not stocking the machines than it is consumers not wanting it. While consumer demand has, in fact, diminished, it hasn’t died by any means. But any electronics shop I go into now in search of a CD player typically has one low-end machine in stock and tries to sell me on a BluRay players or DVD Player. While I realize both machines will play my CDs, the point is that I want a multi-disc player like the mage-changer I had for 20 years that recently died on me (I’m still in mourning). I have no desire to dump three hundred dollars into a substandard machine that plays at most five discs in the changer and will likely die inside of three years.
But if the shops won’t stock the machines and insist on pushing alternate means, then how many people are going to seek out other options? I don’t like buying electronics online because I have had too many experiences of them being damaged in shipment.
I’m not falling for a late aprils fools joke again.
That’s what both of these announcements sound like.
later
-1
Can anyone recommend a multi-region blu-ray player please? I am looking to get one in the near future and they all seem a bit confusing.
Sorry to hear about Oppo, although I do not own one. Streaming to me is a backward step.
“backward step?” – i’ll stand with you on that stance.
I am reliably informed by my other half that Cambridge Audio blu-ray players are region free. HOWEVER, at £700 he will not be buying one otherwise I shall be packing his bags…
Only £650 from Richer Sounds!
I recommend the LASER model BLU-BD 3000 bluray player. It plays all region blurays & dvds.
I paid $100 aud for it.
I can recommend the Denon DBT-3313UD. I purchased this just over a year ago and it’s been a delight to use. SACD, DVD-A, BluRay Audio and is a 3D DVD/BluRay player too. It has a dedicated HDMI Audio output if you’re looking for a better signal.
I paid just under £350 and it’s available widely now including on Amazon for just under £400.
I would be very careful saying “death of the disc” with the Oppo announcement. The reason is because enthusiasts may not realize that the true bottleneck of home entertainment is the internet connection. If the world is going to be streaming everything, then those who want Dolby Atmos, pure HD lossless audio, or even a 3D picture from a streaming service provider are going to lose out. The bandwidth just isn’t there, and getting it there would require a massive fiber insfrastructure overhaul the world over. As sound and picture continue to increase resolution and channels (Atmos is what, 9 discreet audio signals?), I think physical media is the only way to FULLY deliver it. Or maybe I’m just a hopeless physical media devotee…
CD players will continue for the forseeable, but there will be less choice in terms of , for example British separate options and they will be more expensive. The countries that are not embracing streaming (sensibly), including most importantly Japan, will continue to manufacture both CD players and discs.
Just wanted to say that Oppo is an outstanding player and perhaps most importantly can be converted to play all region. They sent me a file so that I could then play PAL as well as North American discs. Over the years I have saved probably hundreds of dollars buying British DVDs. If you do have a PAL collection be sure to check if your replacement player will be convertible.
Sad news about Oppo BD players – they would be very hard to replace.
As others have mentioned, there appears to be much more demand & money in phones. I’ve had an Oppo phone for about a year now & can highly recommend them. They are a cross between an i phone & a Galaxy (the best of both worlds) at half the price. Oh, and the camera in them is outstanding. If you’re thinking of buying a new phone – check out the Oppo. You won’t be disappointed.
yea if only Oppo kept producing and Macca was phased out!
Sorry to hear about Oppo. I once borrowed a unit for a week to listen to the King Crimson DVD-A sets that Steve Wilson remixed, at it was a phenomenal player. Maybe I should snag one before they’re gone…??.
No don’t do it! Save yourself a load of money and buy the Sony UB800 instead. Half the price and equally as good, also plays all the formats the Opposite does. I bought an Oppo UDP203 on first release and it now sits upstairs in a box due to it mysteriously refusing to play UHD discs! Strangely enough it still plays all other formats. No help from Oppo support, stating it was an isolated case. However, on research it is a common problem and the whole transport needs replacing!!!!
Never again will i spend a lot of cash on a high end player like this for it to become a paper weight, and the annoying thing is that people believe its better by far than the other players out there and its simply not.
Sorry, Sony player can’t do analogue audio output. Not comparable player. OPPO is equal to a high end CDP straight into line input of hi-fi amp. Not everyone wants to output over HDMI to AV receiver.
I’ve got the Sony and I have connected it with a digital coax lead. I am very impressed with it.
But you can’t output SACD or DVDA over coaxial!
Im afraid it is just as good over HDMI. I know because I’ve got both! If you want analogue then get the Sony 1000EX!
Big thread on the What Hifi forum with folk having issues with Sony UHD players…
But that would be a retrograde step from the OPPO which is reference grade analogue stage, unlike the Sony players which are not. I don’t want or need HDMI or an AV receiver. I am strictly 2 channel hi-fi chap…. I want all my decoding done at source.
I trialled an Oppo 103D and it didn’t even match the mid range CD player I use. Nicely built, but overrated, in my opinion.
The Oppo 103 is mid range though Mike. It’s not meant to be that great from analogue outputs – that is what the 105 / 205 were for.
Hi Daran. Is there any difference in the audio path with the 105 other than the balanced outs? I didn’t spot that you were referring to the 1/205, my mistake there. I get if you want analogue outs then it’s the player for you, but decoding at source could be a red herring, at some point the digital signal is sent to a DAC from the transport, whether that’s from two inches or a meter away is neither here nor there if the DAC’s up to scratch.
Biggest difference Mike is the DAC(s) are totally different, more of them and technically superior. Although some don’t like the clean sound of the Sabre / ESS DAC’s I personally love the sound over other DAC’s like say the old Wolfson’s Arcam and Cambridge Audio use. The 105 / 205 have dedicated analogue stage PSU too. Basically the whole analogue path is better quality on the 05’s. But if you are outputting over any of the digital interfaces then no, there would be no point in getting anything other than an 03′ model. OPPO even say that themselves which is very fair of them. The video side of things are identicle on both 03 and 05’s.
Great info, Daran, thanks!
Thanks for the tip! Just ordered the Sony ubp-x800 for just under $200 US from Amazon. It will replace my Pioneer which is starting to glitch on CD playback.
I own an Oppo 105 and love it to bits. I use it solely for audio and it will play back any disc I put in (SACD/DVD-A) or file I put on a USB stick. Really sad to hear they are going but I will be using their excellent product for many years to come.
Just awful about Oppo. I treasure my 105D and it is simply built like a tank. Guess I’ll have to consider grabbing a 205 while I still can. Love putting MCH playlists together and listening from the USB port.
Sad about oppo, im not surprised as i only found out they existed a few year ago, as i am now saving for a new 4ktv, 4kbluray uhd, and stereo and/or sound bar, and have been looking at an oppo. Since outside of video/audio-phile circles, oppo had almost zero presence at any Best Buy, Wallmart, Target in the States. You want to make it in stores here Next to Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, LG which all have MAJOR presence to the average consumer. I shouldnt have to go into the back of the Best Buy to a sub room in the “Magnolia” center to find only one oppo on the bottom shelf of a 8 tier component rack, only to have them not be in stock and have to “order” it. My only octions now are possibly the new Panasonic 4k player coming out in summer supporting Dolbyvision and HDR10+, or the cheaper Sony ubxp800, or i might go oppo NOW before i have the tv to run it.
As to the McCartney reissues, YES they totally need to rethink it and get back to the lavish package WITHOUT and need for exclusive download only crap.
Absolutely gutted by the Oppo news. I have a BD83SE and was planning to overhaul my system later this year with acquisition of a 205. I registered for the new production run and hope it happens and at the price point they show. Other sellers are taking advantage with prices up to $5K.
So sad.
Just last december I upgraded from the Oppo 93 model to the 203. So glad I did. Best players I ever had. Not only for audio formats only, although I have quite some SACD’s and DVD-A/Blu-A. As a movie lover I can say its video performance is superb too. Get a player while you still can.
Their bluray players although are expensive but they are state of the art and quite versatile in a number of audio formats i have a couple of sacd and shmcds too and they’re impeccable sound wise and crystal clear on bd discs i have had my Oppo 203 around 6 years brilliant
You’ve had your Oppo 203 around 6 years? Are you sure about that Peter?
The RedPen most likely incorrect on my silly assumption i have had the player since day 1 thanks for your feedback
Can’t tell from your poorly written retort as to whether you’re being sarcastic there, but the 203 was released at the end of 2016. Hence you can’t have owned one for 6 years…
This is bad news.
Are there any good alternatives to OPPO?
Cambridge CXUHD is about £700
https://www.whathifi.com/cambridge-audio/cxu/review
Unfortunately, all of Cambridge’s players are Oppo internals in new boxes – you can see that the displays, connectors etc are identical to the equivalent Oppo models. So there won’t be any new universal players from Cambridge in future either.
The Cambridge is based on the Oppo 203, so it’ll probably go out of production at the same time.
Great excuse to go straight out and buy the last Oppo 205 from mu local hi fi store…painful money wise but I suspect worth it!
I’ve had the same thought…
Paul i know what you mean expensive but worth the risk at the last minute?
No-o-0-0, say it’s not so!! I bought my OPPO BDP-95 back in 2011, and absolutely fell in love with it, and still give it a hug each night before I go to bed. We will have to take extra good care of our hardware and software, as these things may slowly disappear in the future, leaving us with only our cellphones accessing downloaded compressed music in our cloud accounts. What a very sad day that will be :-(
Perhaps Macca doesn’t want to compete with rumored Beatle set for Abbey Road?
I’m afraid the only thing that will get the corporate suits off their butts is the death of Sir Paul and the just to cash in. It’s all up to Paul and he doesn’t seem too interested. Another one is Sting, who could care less about his back catalog.
Yeah regarding Sting you are correct about his back catalogue and i certainly won’t be buying that new album he has coming out with Shaggy. You just wonder who on earth thought that would be a good idea the mind boggles.
Sad news about Oppo – I just welcomed an Oppo 203 into my life 2 weeks ago with no inkling of this but I have to say I have no regrets, it is a great bit of kit for the money. I already have a lovely Cyrus CDi for vanilla CDs which is a great no fuss bit of kit, the Oppo is mainly for BR, DVDs etc. but the streaming of lossless from my NAS works well too. As others have said the main concern is what this portends as regards the demise of physical media in general.
I think some people may be prematurely sounding the death knell for CD, but I do think it’s demise is inevitable for new mainstream releases. However, I think as long as there are enough (mostly) blokes aged 40 and upwards willing to shell out for physical product, I think box sets will be around for some time yet. Surprisingly (I always thought it would be a short lived fad) I think vinyl is here to stay and may well outlive CD. I’m not prepared to ever buy vinyl, I never have done and made the leap from cassettes to CDs. It’s a pity because a lot of the niche re-issued music that I like is released by small independent labels and they now almost exclusively release it on vinyl. I tried streaming and it has its advantages but as much as I tried to resist buying CDs, old habits die hard. I still subscribe to Spotify but there is something about physical product.
@RJS, agree with your summation of CDs and box sets.
I have mixed feelings on Paul’s McCartney comments. I also can’t wait for the Back to the Egg and London Town, but I’d rather get them right than soon!
I was only 4 when Thrillington came out (and only started collecting music a decade later) and I’d long given up hope of owning a copy. Now I’ll be able to, and not for silly money. Similar story with Chaos, which pre-dated my interest in vinyl.
The quick opportunity to own these titles in perfect condition at a reasonable price is something to be celebrated – as long as the Archive Collection is still progressing.
Compare this with Kate Bush, for instance, whose vinyl archive is only available at silly money. I’d certainly prefer too many options than too few (or none!).
This announcement suggests if there is another archive release it won’t be for some time. Likewise with the new studio album.
Surely pair up WL and RRS and BTTE and LT and give them the same deluxe treatment as Mc and Mc II then that’s the Wings era dealt with.
I have a sneaky suspicion Give My Regards To Broad street might be next….if the reissues continue…
I would love that… sorry but I would love that
I still maintain that the version of Band on the Run in the film is a re-recording. Paul definitely re-recorded songs like Fool On The Hill and didn’t use them. Could be very interesting!
It’s his only number 1 album that has not yet had the Deluxe treatment if I’m not mistaken…reckon the outtakes and remixes plus the movie will make for a great set.
Agreed. There’s lots of interesting variations too. “Eleanor’s Dream” was three different lengths depending on whether you had LP, CD or cassette, for example!
As a David Gilmour fanatic his playing on No More Lonely Nights is one of his all time greatest, and I’d love to hear any variations of that song setting around in the vault for the reason.
There’s a very high end audio and video equipment store in Boston which I invariably visit every few months to drool over the very high end audio and video equipment. The sales guy was telling me that there haven’t been any demand for the OPPO 4K UHD player for the past couple of years now. He told me that the OPPO situation was very similar to that of the high end NAD blu-ray players many years ago. NAD made some fine DVD and blu-ray players but there was a gradual slowdown in demand for them with the introduction of streaming content providers like Apple TV and Amazon Prime at the time. Now that there are tons of streaming content providers in the market, there just hasn’t been any demand of high end audio video equipment anymore.
Have several oppo products and love them … was really after a sonica dac next but unless I can scrape the cash together then it’s a no go, like others a bit shocked by this , only had my 203 for about 6 months and still paying it if on a 0 percent finance deal ( the sonica being next in line after paying this off) so am glad to know there will still be full support for the product.
The news of OPPO ceasing production is shocking. I’m glad to own a BDP-105D, as next to the 103, it is one of the few players that allows one to make a back-up of a SACD in a reliable way. The DSD file can then at least be played on other platforms. The alternative being a limited number of PS3 Phat types that still run on 3,5 firmware, rare and prone to overheating (YLOD).
There’s an article on Techradar.com regarding Oppo
https://www.techradar.com/news/oppo-bows-out-of-the-hi-fi-and-blu-ray-player-business
Maybe there is more money to be made in smartphones?
Oppo also stopped production on amps and headphones, so this is not a ‘disc-based’ decision, but probably a change of focus from management. Apparently Oppo is a big player on the cellphonemarket in the far east, where they can make more money. Let’s face it: for the money you paid for an Oppo universal player, you were getting a hell of a lot of bang for your buck. Maybe they made them too well, and not enough money was made. Who knows? Oh, and before i forget: last year nearly 15 million vinyl albums were sold in the USA against nearly….100 million compact discs. Global sales of compacts discs are around 500 million, so i presume somebody will make disc-players for the foreseeable future.
Just bought an Oppo UDP-203. Great bit of kit, so this is sad news.
Seems like no chance of me getting a Give My Regards To Broad Street deluxe anytime soon then?
So it is being determined that I should be stopped from playing my multiple rooms of physical media by people now? I hate this life.
I’m with you alex. I have a feeling that years from now, you won’t be able to “buy” any content, only rent it. And then people will wish they had their old CDs and DVDs back again….
It’s the way that nobody, except the companies concerned, wants. In my game I stopped upgrading my video editing software because I refuse to rent it. If I don’t use it for a month I still have to pay for it and if I stop renting it I can’t use it. I like to buy and own, so I can do what the heck I want with it when I want to do it rather than be held hostage by a company. I use the last possible purchasable version. Screw ’em.
Even my accounting software has gone to a monthly licence and in that case I also have the last functioning purchasable version. But they can (and will) switch it off as soon as they think they can get away with it.
It’s so similar to music. I like to own it, I like a book (let) to read if I need to know something. But as we die off they will get their way as the upcoming generation know no different. God forbid we should be left with Spotify, Deezer and Apple.
And, before anyone says it, yes, it DOES matter. It isn’t *just* about the music in the same way as a Car isn’t just about getting from A to B and the internal combustion engine or else we’d all be catching buses or driving a SsangYong Rodius. It is so much more than that and it is being taken away from us. A 60MB rented file on a computer / phone vs. A pristine, laminated, heavy card version of Tubular Bells with the Black and White Two Virgins label on an A1 / B1 Matrix. No contest IMHO. The Past Vs. The Future. I know the past loses almost every single time, but it is a crying shame.
Couldn’t agree more with your post. Spot on
No, your equipment will still work and as it’s presumably very well built then it should continue to work for a long time to come. I have hi-fi equipment from the 1970s and 1990s and it’s still as good as the day I bought it.
You bring up such a good point regarding hifi gear from the 70s. Looking back thru my old Rolling stone magazines, I see the old amps and receivers I used to own, and dang, they were beautiful. I feel a nostalgic pull to go out and find them again and set up a vinyl stereo system. Guys like us live for the physical tactile experience of playing music, not just the sound of it.
I was wondering if this story would come to SDE.
I’m an Oppo enthusiast, with two older players in my house. I got the news from another owner last Monday night. I swallowed hard and ordered a 205 the next day. Since then, I’ve heard that all Oppo production will cease in June. That was then revised to “just one more run due to demand”, and that Oppo players are going for $1000 over list. Not sure if that’s true, but 205s sold out at the Oppo site, and now you can add your name to a waiting list there for a ‘potential production run’. None of this answers the question as to why Oppo is folding the tent.
We presume that sales are low, thanks to a streaming world (DVD sales down 14% in 2017, after falling 10 points in 2016, even though niche release sales have been brisk, especially in Britain, thanks to copyright allowances for new releases of old movies). But that might not be the sole reason. Here in the US, somebody came up with the brilliant idea of a trade war with China, which the stock market tells me we are losing. What effect is that having on consumer goods, like Sino-made Oppo, along with raw material? And Oppo makes phones, right? What if the disc players sell well enough, but the margin on phones is so much better that the decision was made to just make phones to just make more money? Pulling the rug on players with such immediacy smells fishy to me. Let’s see if Oppo sells the tech to another manufacturer. Could be we collectors can still get a great player in 5 years… But not likely it will be very affordable, I suppose.
Thanks, Paul.
Although they share the same brand name and are owned by the same holding company, Oppo Digital (audio equipment) and Oppo Electronics (smartphones) are two seperate companies. They’re huge in the smartphone market, the 4th biggest seller in the world but most of their devices are only really marketed and sold in China and the far east. I have a three year old Oppo smartphone and for screen size and battery size, it still can’t be bettered.
Re: Oppo. As I am close to broke, I hope my BDP-93 lasts forever. It’s playing McCartney’s “Ram” right now. Speaking of Macca, yes, we need the rest of the Wings era Archive Series releases. But, I AM a sucker for colored vinyl, so I’m figuring on getting at least Thrillington out of this next batch. Speaking of “Ram”…
I wonder what high-end brand Lexicon will do when Oppo have sold their last player, remember this furore! https://www.audioholics.com/blu-ray-and-dvd-player-reviews/lexicon-bd-30-blu-ray-oppo-clone/oppo-inside-lexicon-outside-1
The price point on FITD is what did it for me.. still currently over $160 CDN for 3 CDs and a DVD.. ridiculous.
Yes, OPPO calling it a day is a real shocker. A sad day. I honestly thought it was a late April fools! I have a 105, which I now will have to keep going for a long time…..
I said in another article a few months back that the future of CD and those who want to play them depended not on the continued manufacture of them by the record co’s, but the availability of transports like those from OPPO. I knew I was right (Editor of AVforums has said the very same in a post on that website a few weeks ago), but had no idea that time was running out for the biggest (and best) of the ‘audiophile / enthusiast ‘ manufacturers. The demise of physical digital media has been brought forward by many years I would think now.
Questions must now be asked of the companies that used OPPO designs as the basis of their players – Primare and Cambridge Audio most at risk.
Five more years until no more CD / DVD / BD players will be sold?
Back To The Egg is my favourite Wings album , London Town is not far behind …..so I too look forward to these releases getting a super duper deluxe version.
We’ll get future McCartney CD reissues but we’ll have nothing that we can play them on.
Back to the Egg could indeed be super deluxe. They played a Glasgow Concert in 1979 and played most of the album’s songs. They demoed a ton of songs at the castle that were never officially released (including some nameless jams) that have appeared on various bootlegs. They made videos for ALL the songs on BTTE as well (check YouTube) so material for the DVD is a no brainer too!