Is there a player out there that plays Blu-Ray, DVD-Audio and SACD, as well as CD-R?

The Sony Blu-Ray player I just bought does everything except DVD-A.

This Pioneer does.
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/ ... rs/DV-46AV

What about the PS3? Does it do the various audio formats?

Oppo Digital makes 3 models. 2 are available now and the 3D version is to be released soon. I own the BDP-83 and have been thrilled with it's performance. Oppo is very good about releasing firmware updates for it's players which is important to avoid any glitches due to constantly changing copy protection schemes. They are also very reasonably priced and sell direct. Denon is also set to release the DBP-1611UD 3D Ready Universal Player with a MSRP $399 price tag which might be worth a look as well. I own several Denon components and have been very happy with them as well. They are also pretty good at releasing firmware updates too.

No 96/24 DVD-Audio on the PS3. The newer models of the PS3 no longer do SACD either. The older, glossy black 80GB model that I have will only pass the SACD as PCM over an HDMI cable to a HDMI 1.3 capable receiver. It will not send DSD over HDMI or optical.

Oppo all the way. If I was in the market for a Blu-Ray player, I'd definitely go with them. Only thing they're missing for me is wireless internet streaming.

Oppo has been on my wish list for some time. (I wish they had a multi-disc model, since I've been spoiled by that.) Along with upconverting, I believe it also plays both NTSC and PAL. Can it easily be hacked for multi-region?

Yep, OPPO is the best answer.

There is a company that sells a DIY kit to make the Oppo players region free in ALL formats. If you ever put a hard drive or more memory in your PC than installing the kit should be a breeze. Keep in mind that you void the warranty if you hack the unit. There was also a software based hack that made the rounds but I never got it to work on my player, possibly due to firmware updates making it obsolete. A quick Google search will give you the info you need.

Mr Fuse, in which formats is the stock Oppo NOT multi region?

I once bought an Oppo player, but I ended up returning it because it would clip the first half-second off of every CD audio track. (I think it was only when using the digital output, or maybe it was the analog -- I forget which.) I wrote to Oppo about this, and they acknowledged it was an inherent problem with the player. Anyone know whether this has been fixed in later models?

Love to see a Blu-Ray with HDCD.

Rick A.

It would be nice to find a region free BR with a tremendous audiophile analog section that was also region free for dvd, & did SACD, DVD-A & HDCD. Plus allowed audiophiles to optionally completely defeat 5.1 fold down (as opposed to true stereo), defeat bass management & completely bypass digital volume controls. And since I'm asking for the moon, how about a player that defeated the encryption that prevents sending the high rez audio via coax to an outboard d/a converter.

I would really try to find $'s if such a beast was created

Region code only applies to the DVD and Blu-Ray formats. There was never any region codes on SACD or Redbook CD.
On the Oppo, to my knowlege, there is no way to defeat the region code lock by simply pressing buttons in sequence on the remote like you can do with other players like my Denon DVD-5910.Unless some new non-hardware hack has been found that I'm not aware of, the only way to make the Oppo's region free is to chip them with the kit I mentioned before.

I'm not a big dvd watcher, but I have a couple of blu-spec cds and SACD hybrid discs, along with a bunch of DVD-Audio discs. I currently have a Technics DVD-Audio player. Thanks everyone for the choices.

I don't see where it says that it will play Blu-Ray discs, but it looks like a nice player at a very nice price.

Stupid site (or me). It was under the Blu-Ray section I thought, but it's a "blu-ray/dvd" section. Sorry.

Was that a 970? Cause it would have been fixed with a firmware update, I believe. Mine doesn't do that.

Marantz, Denon and Cambridge Audio also make Universal players that cover all the bases.
I think Yamaha has one coming as well.

There are others in the big buck category (Ayre, McIntosh. Lexicon) though two of these are based on Oppos.

The majority of them decode HDCD too
No HDCD on Marantz or Yamaha and maybe the lower Denon models.

I gotta get myself one of these so I can finally play my Neil Young Blu-Ray box! I'll be looking seriously at the Oppo, but Denon and Yamaha (if Yamaha has a universal player) will get looks if the prices are good. I bought a Yamaha player that was heavily discounted last year that plays everything (including HDCD) but Blu-Ray, and I'm very happy with it.

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-vi ... del#tag613

The BD-A1000 doesn't look like it does HDCD, which is a shame, but it handles everthing else.