3D Blu-ray Player Reviews

I've been wondering who the first Oppo competitor to include HDMI inputs would be. Cambridge Audio should come as no surprise, as their Azur universal players have been going toe to toe with Oppo's higher-end offerings for years. I will say this about the company though--Cambridge Audio's DACMagic is the only DAC that corrects the delay that my Integra DHC-80.3 introduces to my Sonos' zoneplayer signal (my old 80.2 also added a delay in direct mode.) My Oppo BDP-105's DACs can't even get rid of this delay. Cambridge knows how to do DAC technology well. (I, also, found the inclusion of the filters to be somewhat dubious, as I haven't been able to hear any differences in the 3 DACMagic filters).

Great review, Kris.

What do you mean by "delay in the zoneplayer signal"?? The Cambridge video section is built by Oppo, the whole player is built on their platform. The only part that Cambridge is largely responsible for is the audio board. So in this case are you taking the digital output of the zone player and feeding it to the Cambridge? What type of delay? I have a zone player here at home and could test for this on both players (CA and Oppo 105).

I left a key part out of my original comment, actually....the delay in the zone player signal was caused by my Integra processor (even in direct mode, so direct isn't really direct), and only the DAC in the Cambridge DacMagic can correct it. My living room theater has a zone player and the adjacent kitchen has an S5 (now called the Play 5) so any loss of synch is very apparent. I first discovered the issue with my 80.2 (my previous Denon 4310 introduced no zone player delay) and the issue was reproduced on the AVS Integra 80.2 thread by another person...

I say all that to say that the Cambridge DAC is the only outboard DAC that corrected this issue (the issue was also present in the 80.3), as even the Oppo's DACs in my old 95 and current 105 did nothing for the delay..... Cambridge's DAC clocks (do those determine the purity of signal?) do the trick.

If you have an Integra DHC 80.2/3, try passing the zone player signal through it with a standalone somos device playing in the same room and the Integra system will have a delay. Try routing through the Oppo to the ingra, and the delay will still be there. But if you route the signal through this Cambridge 752, and If the Cambridge players DACS are at least as good as those in the DACMagic, then the 752 goes above and beyond in this regard.

That doesn't sound surprising. All the electronics for the Sonos are within the Play5, whereas with your zone player they have to be processed by whatever your Integra is doing (DSP, bass management, etc). Have you tried to put your Integra in Pure Direct to see if that alleviates the issue? You may be doing the same thing with the DAC Magic as the Integra may be in a pure direct mode for its analog inputs. I have a zone player and a few Play5s and Play3s but I never run them simultaneously like this. They are all in completely different rooms so time delay is never an issue.

Oh yes, pure direct was one of the first things I tried...I dug up the thread below where the issue was first reported: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1275837/the-official-integra-dhc-80-2-pre-pro-...

and user SPLawren replicated it here: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1275837/the-official-integra-dhc-80-2-pre-pro-...

And then I found the Cambridge: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1275837/the-official-integra-dhc-80-2-pre-pro-...

I too have Sonos devices all throughout the house--upstairs, the stairway itself (in-wall speakers), and downstairs. It's a rare situation for one's theater to be right next to the kitchen.

wow~~$1024, expensive! maybe i should continue my totalmedia. I have used it for almost 2 years and never had any problem. it plays blu ray on pc(arcsoft.com/topics/media-player/windows-blu-ray-player.html) smoothly. when i bought it, to my surprise, it can change region code, thus i'm never worried about relaxing myself when on business. It's an easy to use and professional blu ray player software(arcsoft.com/totalmedia-theatre/) for windows; including Windows 8. of course, it fully integrates with Windows Media Center too. beyond your surprise, it's also a 3d video player(arcsoft.com/topics/media-player/how-to-play-3d.html).

I actually have a delay problem when I connect a SONOS Connect through my 752BD coaxial input. It's even worse if I go through the optical input on the 751BD. Is it really the same DAC in the 752BD as in the Dac Magic?