Blu Ray players with analog outputs will smoke this sony player, OPPO sells one or three that I think are pretty good. I have a Arcam older DV-79 w/analog output that cost 1700 new now sell for 400 on audiogon that my OPPO BDP 83 SE kills despite what the dealer says and OPPO 95 slightly modified will stand up against big ticket Blu ray players. I think Steve mentioned that Blu Ray for Sound is far superior than DVD so why waste a dime on a DVD player when Blu Ray will be obsolete soon enough.

love the music, IT"S NOT A DVD PLAYER I'M TALKING ABOUT HERE: It's the last flagship Sony Blu-Ray player that I'm talking about, the BDP-S5000ES player.  I've heard a friend's Oppo BDP-93 and he's heard my Sony and we both agree the analog out is better on the Sony. And he also agrees the Sony is built way better than the Oppo as far as case and design. He's ordered one of the Sonys for his main system. And I've read whole pages of reviews of this player, many of them saying it has a better analog sound than Oppos. So I'm trusting my ears and making a recommendation based on my experience. I'm NOT talking about a DVD player here, but I will say that the DVD picture on this Blu-Ray player has freaked me out, it's so damned good. I am not impressed with the build quality of Oppos in comparison to this flagship Sony Blu-Ray player at its current discounted price. Anyway, I just think at 400 or 500 dollars it's a helluva deal, but I have no vested interest other than just spreading a little news about a great machine at a great price.

I'm glad that your Mk III is sounding great (how could it not?)  I love mine. From my cold dead hands.  . . .  I can only imagine how an Ultra and a system based around it would sound. I'm not into surround sound, but for those that are, I'm sure it's the best option. If I were going to go the Ultra based system route I'd recommend another Torii and ERRs front and back. I'm not a fan of subs in a system, and with two pair of ERRs, I don't think you'd need subs. As for cabling: I always recommend Steve's interconnects, speaker cable, and power cords, they're incredible value for the money.

I'm sure the 95 and the Ultra are going to be a great combo and hard to beat!

I'm just a luddite when it comes to component casing and stuff. I need cases to be strong and heavy. I gave away a Sony BDP-S350 a few weeks ago to a friend because I thought I could be happy with it in my second system where picture and audio quality isn't that big a deal for dvd and Blu-Ray, but. . . it was so flimsy I just couldn't bear it. The friend is happy! He was using a Panasonic that was even flimsier!  I really dislike this trend to make everything cheap and plastic.

Anyway, it looks as if the cheap Sony BDP-S5000ES units are drying up. . . I'm struggling against the urge to buy another one to leave in the box in a closet. It's insane to do so but. . . yeah, I've talked myself out of it successfully so far.

Lon, my bad on the DVD thing, I missed that the Sony was Blu Ray. I actually have an ARCAM that smokes the OPPO and it is a DVD player, only in sound not video, cost much much more, using that now due to selling my Ayre CD5xeMP. Yeah, I'd say the OPPO 95 with good power cord and interconnects all analog will handily beat the Sony but at triple the cost or so. I have an OPPO 83SE and it's really good stock, modified by Tweak Audio, Ric Schultz bring it to cost no object sound possibly but at a pretty penny, like at least 2K total but will smoke just about everything.OPPO's 95 is supposed to be 10% better than the 83SE which is a lot better. For the money the OPPO 95 has great performance, especially in the analog outputs, balanced two channel and the video is amazing for that price. I think you know that, fully modified takes it to a whole new level, but try selling the dam thing afterwards, not easy. The only problem with modifying gear its seems hard to sell.

I contradicted myself. My Arcam sounds better than the OPPO 83SE..For me to go all out and reduce two full blown systems down to one will be quite a project. I am not sure it works for me, I like my two channel situation and I do like my HT. Having a whole new HT by Decware may have to wait for a 5 channel ZEN Ultra AMP which may be NEXT...hint hint if it can be done.....I think Steve is capable of anything frankly.

That is indeed a tantalizing prospect.

I hear you lovethemusic. I went back and forth on this issue of integrating a two channel setup with the HT rig. At the end of the day, for me, it was just an issue of house logistics. I tried to set up two different systems, one for audio and one for HT, and the net result was tha neither got used! That wasn't so much a reflection on what was in each room, as that changed family circumstances made me realize there is only so much "entertainment" time and elasticity in my family situation. And my personal, "hi-res, quality listening" time is spent with headphones. So, having one system that lets me do 2.0 and 5.1/7.1 is probably my better approach.

Don't get me wrong, I don't worry about 7.1. I was only referencing the capabilities of the player. Interestingly, I have a Denon receiver somewhere that I picked up in 2006 that had 7.1 even then. At one point, I had it hooked up  with  a bunch of cheap HT speakers in a small room, but I never heard anything worth listening to.

But 5.1 is something else altogether, and between the BDP-95 and the Ultra, I expect to have something worth watching and listening to.