this is funny, cause i just read it after sending the email of tech vs. musical audiophiles.

any (musical) audiophile would never.  i repeat never use an HDMI signal path vs. an analog one:

“We utilized the industries most advanced HDMI Audio Analyzer”

so… these guys are obviously of the techy variety.  there’s a lot of that going around.

given the chance, i always do listening tests over technical ones, like i have for the past couple days.

http://www.audioholics.com/blu-ray-and-dvd-player-reviews/oppo-bdp-83se

you get the irony of this, right?…

Oppo has gone to great lengths to improve the analog audio (i.e. RCA jacks… 6 of them) signal path on both the 83SE and the 95 models (after the DACs)

yet… this review grabs the digi signal off the HDMI output and tries to say it sucks.  Oppo knows it sucks, ALL HDMI signals suck for all players, that’s why Oppo made the effort to not only offer but also to improve their analog outputs.  I would venture to say that Oppo also knows HDMI sucks for video, but they are stuck with that one 🙁

heck, their analyzed signal path is only 192 kHz vs. the 2.8224 MHz that SACDs offer.

these guys are idiots who plug in instruments to inferior signal paths then try to tell you how things are gonna sound, w/o ever listening to music.  if they did listen to music, they wouldn’t be discussing an HDMI signal path (and theoretically discussing an analog one that they didn’t even plug into to test, let alone listen to) in the first place.

Classic of what I’ve been saying all along.  Techy (i.e. incredible in my way of thinking) guy meets music oriented (highly credible by way way of thinking) audiophile.

it’s very clear who listens to music and who talks about specs and what’s proven or not proven technically here.

i had the same reaction and comments that both Harley and Lynn had when i listened to music played on CDs.  the debate ends at the listening chair, not with the osiliscope or other arguments.  both Lynn and Harley consistently  point out that specs don’t tell the story, listening does.  that’s what i’ve been saying all along and why i warned about paying heed to THD and WPC from day one.   i actually emailed Lynn after i sent the link.  would be fun to get in touch and see if he remembers me, the kid doing final assembly and packing of CC-2 amps.