Unsolicited Customer Testimonials
The majority of our testimonials were emailed directly from the customer on their own merit. Some are merely excerpts from online posts, used with the customers' permission.

New July, 2010

Oppo Digital BDP-83 Special Edition - Updates for Original "Signature Edition Upgrade"

David,

Unbelievable! What the heck did you do? My back wall just disappeared. The focus is ungodly. This is not the same player that I sent you. What did you "update"?

I told Pat tonight not to hesitate in buying the David Schulte player . I doubt his "modified" CEC transport & dac can even approach your upgraded Oppo's.

Thanks,
Luis Alberto

NEW April, 2010

Oppo 83 Special Edition and NuForce Oppo 83 Special Edition

David,

I'm writing this and including a picture we took because I'm still flat-out amazed.

I made an appointment with David to trek 5 hours up to Harbor Springs to spend an afternoon at The Upgrade Company comparing the stock versus upgraded Oppo 83 Special Edition and NuForce Oppo 83 Special Edition players. I was contemplating purchasing one if I liked what I heard.

David put on a new OPPO 83 Special Edition player he'd just upgraded. We double blind A-B compared it against an entire Esoteric P-03/D-03/G-0Rb 3 box digital CD/SACD system worth about $40,000 when you include the Transparent Reference cabling to hook it all up. The "upgraded" Oppo beat it bad. Right off the bat. Since I'd just met David an hour earlier I was in disbelief and had to literally pull the interconnect cables from each one as it was playing to believe it.

When I arrived I'd offered to help David unbox the heavy Esoteric P03/D03/G0Rb set that had just been delivered earlier that day. I helped him carry it inside and set it on the demo rack. The P03 transport weighed about 70 lbs alone, the D03 dac not far behind. The 3 Esoteric boxes were all still sealed, I actually broke all the tape myself with the box cutters. Each box had his customers shipping labels on them, so I asked David to track the shipments and show me when they arrived. UPS.com showed all 3 boxes had just been delivered less then 2 hrs ago that day. I had David pull the tops off he 3 Esoteric pieces to see if they were indeed still stock, and they all looked original, and the screws showed no signs of prior removal, and I looked close.

I think anyone would agree with me that the upgraded Oppo creamed the Esoteric P03/D03/G0Rb set. My girlfriend sure did. Not only did we both find the sound of the Oppo to be far larger and more open and more musical with much higher resolution, the Oppo's bass was real quick and deep and just slammed. The Esoteric had very weak bass, a small soundstage and it sounded aggressive, forward and harsh sounding. When we switched to the OPPO 83SE, the treble and mids were clear as a bell, intelligible and detailed. I checked behind everything to see if there were different power cords or analog interconnects. Everything looked the same. David offered to switch the power cords and interconnects on the OPPO and D-03 dac around just to further eliminate variables. He did so, I heard the exact same results. We then switched duplicate discs back and forth, same results. We swapped various power cords and interconnects, still the upgraded OPPO always was way ahead sonically. Volumes were level matched as to within 0.1dB using a digital tripod mounted SPL level meter.

We let both the Esoteric and OPPO play on repeat using identical discs, power cords and interconnects for a couple of hours on that demo system while we hung out and checked out his place and the other systems. Couple of hours later, the OPPO ended up pulling even farther ahead as it warmed up. The Esoteric set was reported to be 2 years old and well used, so it had plenty of burn-in on it. David said the Oppo was brand new & shipping out to it's new owner shortly. So clearly the Oppo had a disadvantage being brand new. The Esoteric's Transparent Reference AES-EBU and MIT BNC-BNC clock cables were reported to be 4 years old, so in my eyes the cables were not holding the Esoteric back at all. Switching to the upgraded OPPO was like letting the dog off the leash. Woosh!

David switched, I listened. I switched and listened. David paused each player to show which one was playing after I had voiced my preference as to which sound I Iiked better. This way it was truly double blind.

We also put in and double blind A-B'd an Upgrade Co. upgraded NuForce 83SE that had about 40 hours of burn-in on it, and we double blind AB-'d some other "modded" players, some older Upgrade Co. upgraded players, and yet more stock expensive players including an $11,500 EMM LABS CDSA player which I expected would easily surpass the upgraded Oppo 83SE, but it did not, not in any way whatsoever. However when David pulled out his upgraded EMM LABS CDSA it creamed the NuForce, as would be expected out of an upgraded $11,500 player with a pricey upgrade.

I'd heard about Denon 5910's being popular to mod so I asked to hear one. David had on hand a 2 year old SE upgraded Denon 5910 that was traded in, and it too was also better then the stock P-03/D-03/G0Rb and all of the other players we tried including the stock EMM LABS CDSA and the other modded & stock players. I got the sense that Upgrade Co. has improved a whole lot over the years, because the 5910 was clearly not in the league of the Oppo/NuForce 83SE's that were upgraded.

I wanted to demo the upgraded McIntosh MVP-881, but unfortunately they did not have one in stock the day I was there. David claims the upgraded McIntosh 881 player is even better sounding then the NuForce 83SE. They did have a new stock Denon DVD-A1UDCi, but not an upgraded one on hand. The Denon didn't sound very good at all stock, rather poor. David says the Denon performs slightly better on video then the Oppo/NuForce, but I'm more interested in sound then video performance.

Overall I liked the NuForce Oppo 83SE with the Signature Edition upgrade the best of all the players I heard that day. The NuForce 83SE Signature Edition upgraded had the most bass slam and overall clarity. It threw a humongous soundstage, had great bass slam and definition, and it sounded the most musical and analog. I also liked your upgraded EMM LABS CDSA and upgraded Esoteric DV-60 players, they were better then the NuForce but out of my budget.

I heard clear and utterly convincing sonic variations between each and every player. Some were clearly worse and some were clearly better. There was not one stock player that I could live with after hearing the upgraded players. Only when heard next to an upgraded player did I find that stock players have a characteristic "whitish" hazy background and overall lack of clarity, lack of bass weight, veiled ill-defined mids and scratchy/screechy highs and mids, a characteristic lack of musicality, lack of dimensionality, generally flat, small, rolled off, and boring sounding. I don't want to slam manufacturer's or other modders, but I can tell you it was a real eye opener. I can now see why Upgrade Company is the only one who can provide a 100% Buy-Back Guarantee and still stay in business after all these years. They had lots of customer's stuff in there waiting to be upgraded.

If Upgrade Co. was not so far off the beaten path so that others could drive up and hear what I heard, there would be a lot less skepticism.

The work you do at The Upgrade Company stands alone and is unmatched in my eyes. It is quite impressive to see you take a stock $899 Oppo 83 Special Edition and far surpass the stock Esoteric P-03/D-03/G-0Rb set wired with high dollar Transparent Reference cables. Most people do not believe in upgrades/mods. I too was skeptical and did not believe your claims until I performed live double blind A-B comparisons myself and checked all the wiring and eliminated every possible variable I could.

For roughly $2500 you are giving the audiophile community an incredible deal in the Oppo/NuForce players.

Thanks for everything. You are truly a gifted man.

Anthony Beauchene

Kalamazoo, Michigan

NEW March, 2010

Nuforce Oppo BDP-83SE "Signature Edition" upgraded review by Mark Coles, London, UK

As the owner of an Upgrade Company (TUC) Esoteric X-01 referred to by EM Lee (Lloyd) in his OPPO review elsewhere on the www.upgradecompany.com site, my interest was piqued by what I heard at that shoot-out back in January. Whilst the early TUC Oppo 83 Non-Special Edition wasn't in the same league as my player, it had an inherent musicality and was fun to listen to.

As we all know, the world of digital evolves quickly and I'd been having reservations about having too much invested in a player whose sole media is in the twilight of its years. A number of conversations with David Schulte led me to believe that the 32 bit Oppo Special Edition version of the Oppo had a far greater audio potential than the base 83 and was the way forward for me. Having found a new home for my Esoteric after 3.5 years of ownership, I placed an order for the NuForce edition with all the options available at that time (Bybees and hi-end fuse). The Upgrade Company's balanced XLR output stage hadn't been fully developed at that stage and I understand that gives a considerable further improvement.

When I received my NuForce 83SE player, I left it playing with a burn in disc on repeat for a few hundred hours before attempting any critical listening. My initial impressions were that it was good, more transparent than the upgraded $14,000 Esoteric X-01. I had a chat with Lloyd, who told me about the improvements he heard with HRS damping plates. As an experiment, I had a go at dampening the chassis with things close to hand - some polymer deflex pads, a large book and a 5 kg dumbbell. Wow. Everything now clicked into place musically and the player sounded nothing short of sensational!

Compared to my Esoteric X-01, the extra transparency allows one to see deeper into the recording and better place instruments / voices within the sound stage. Greater tonal decay is also evident, as are stability and solidity. The esoteric had a tendency towards a more analytical and tipped up presentation and the NuForce OPPO is better balanced throughout the frequency range, testing the bass extension of my speakers more fully. The only negative I can report is that I miss the battleship build quality of the 60lb Esoteric!

In closing, I would also like to give praise to the service David Schulte has given me consistently over the four years that I've known him. He has always been attentive in answering emails with helpful advice and 100% committed to customer satisfaction. With his money back guarantee, there's little risk to putting his work to the test in your own home!

Mark Coles

London UK

NEW January 18, 2010

OPPO BDP-83 Upgrade Review

I burned in my new Upgrade Company "Signature Edition" upgraded Oppo 83 (standard version upgraded by TUC) for 600 hours and then got my high end audio friends together for a shoot out in 2 sessions:

• Wadia 380
• Wadia 781
• Zanden MkIV Signature DAC
• Esoteric X-01 Signature Edition SACD/CD player
• ARC DAC7
• Unico tube CD player

The Upgrade Company (TUC) OPPO 83 Signature Edition handily beat the Unico and nosed past the lesser Wadia 380. (I preferred Oppo). If Oppo is a 1.0, Unico was only 0.6 & Wadia 380 .95.
The OPPO 83 Signature Edition was preferred by all present.

The Wadia 380 (in UK) currently costs 7x the cost of the TUC Oppo 83 including shipping!!

The $17,000 Wadia 781 (15x price!!) was better... however, my OPPO 83 is the earlier standard edition and not the new "Special Edition 83" that is much better with 32 bit dacs and redesigned power supplies and beefed up analog output circuitry. I've heard the NuForce OPPO 83SE "Signature Edition" upgraded by TUC will beat the big Wadia. I do not doubt this based on my experience with standard TUC OPPO 83.

The ARC DAC7 was very warm, very natural...but did not deliver on the detail. The trouble with detail is stridency. Not with the Oppo and not with the Esoteric X01 by TUC.

The $14,000 Esoteric X-01 by TUC was a solid margin better than the Wadia 781. Unanimous by all three of us who directly A-B compared the two players for several hours. The Esoteric X-01 Signature Edition upgraded was the more natural, had the better decay, superior detail, and deeper soundstage... exceedingly natural and unlike digital. It bettered the Wadia 781 across the board. TUC has done it again.

The specifics:

The standard edition OPPO 83 I have which was upgraded by TUC to "Signature Edition" exhibits loads of detail and is very comparable to the most expensive world leaders in "State of the Art" digital made today...with a strong solid soundstage.

The TUC Oppo 83 is very natural. I own the $15,000 Zanden MkIV Signature DAC. While I am not replacing my Zanden... I was simply stunned at the quality of the TUC upgraded Standard Edition Oppo 83.

For less than $1800 shipped overseas, you could well prefer this to anything else in the world into the low 5 digit range... I do. But if you want to spend more than $1800...go ahead! But I'd speak with David first, TUC's OPPO's are that good!

He was helpful, responsive and utterly reliable. Thank you, David!!"

Regards,
E.M. Lee in London UK

NEW January 17, 2010

Denon DVD-A1XV and OPPO BDP-83 Upgrade

This is the second time I send a player to David ( Denon DVD-A1XV and OPPO BDP-83 ) and although the Denon was a very very good job, I think the Oppo has only one word to describe it, AWESOME.

I have the Oppo right out of the box ( no 600 hours burning in ) and it sounds PERFECT, it has the sweetness of a vinyl and the power of a solid state and it’s not expensive comparing with other models. The video is PERFECT too but I think most of the people that send David a player are more interested on improving the sound.

I have experience with the Denon and I know the Oppo is going to improve more and more with the hours…

If you are thinking about buying a Blu-ray player just e-mail David and voilá.

Thank you David, good job man.
Jose from Madrid, Spain

NEW January 9, 2010

NuForce OPPO BDP-83 Special Edition "Signature Edition" Upgrade

David:

Today I had a few hours to connect up the audio of the new Oppo that I got from you and run it through its paces. I used all the connections and cables that I formerly used for the Esoteric. I used the two upgraded stereo outputs on the Oppo and went through the CAT and the Lexicon in by pass mode to the VK600 (all of which is Schulte Signature upgraded equipment) using all of your cables.
You should have warned me. This player is awesome. I am extremely impressed right out of the box with no break-in. Wow.

Bass was unbelievable. I never heard digital bass like this before. I played several of my favorite well known CDs and SACDs. It is pretty damn amazing that this player can do - with your improvements of course. I have never heard it before but I am sure the latest chips in the SE version and the Nuforce upgrades also contributed. This is real damn impressive.

So I know the multi-channel analogue output for DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 sound is going to be killer along with the 5.1 PCM tracks on a lot of Blu-rays. I have the entire Neil Young Blu-ray box that I have not listened to yet to experience all that.

Thanks a ton. I know there cannot be many machines like this in the whole world right now - and I have one thanks to you.

John R.
New Jersey

NEW December 22, 2009

OPPO BDP-83 "Signature Edition" Upgrade

I wanted to get back to you regarding the Oppo BDP-83 you upgraded for me with your Signature Edition mods. You know the history I have with you and your mods over the past nearly 5 years and you know the equipment I've had on hand here which includes an APL modded Esoteric, Underwood "Ultimate Edition modded" Marantz SA-11 with the tubed ultimate mod that Underwood charged big bucks for, and the highly regarded EMM CDSA-SE SACD/CD player stock I have also owned a few mid-fi components in the likes of Marantz SA-1, Sony SCD-1, Arcam CD-92, Arcam CD33t.

The first piece I had you upgrade for me nearly 5 years ago was a Marantz SA12 S1 SACD/CD player and I very much liked what you had done to this unit . After a year or so went by you sent me an Upgrade Co Denon 2900 to try out because you said you had found more ways to improve upon digital players. As you know I bought the Denon 2900 from you and I ended up selling the Marantz SA12 to a good friend of mine who still uses it to this day. He has also demo'd a few of the latest high dollar players wondering if he got his money's worth but your SE upgraded Marantz has stayed in his system and he loves its performance. Well about two years ago you told me that I should try moving up the ladder and find a good deal on a Denon 5910Ci and then send it to you for your latest upgrade so I did and then sold the Denon 2900 which I understand is still playing great for the owner of a major big name veteran speaker manufacturer. When I had the 2900 I had the opportunity to listen to the APL Esoteric, Underwood modded Marantz SA-11 and the EMM CDSA. Your SE upgraded Denon 2900 easily outperformed the first two but the EMM was a struggle. It did hold it's own which was an amazement to both my wife and I. The APL and Underwood went out the door and the EMM CDSA stayed a little longer. I decided to send you a Denon 5910Ci to upgrade and you promised me that the 5910 would surpass the EMM with ease and it did. This was done two years ago and I have been a very happy listener ever since!

Two years go by and you tell me that your parts selection and techniques have further improved but I was just happy with what I had and didn't want to invest more money at that point. I was just to busy to do too much. Well, Blu-ray came on the scene and was growing rapidly.so I knew I wanted to get a Blu-ray player next. I'd been reading about the Oppo BDP-83 and the price looked great in regards to the reviews. But you know I had really been looking at the Denon 3800BDCi Blu-ray and almost pulled the trigger at one point on one but never did. Then one day you emailed me and asked If I had seen the new Oppo and I told you I had and you said I really needed to hear one of these upgraded. As you know I decided to buy a new Oppo 83 online and play it for a while to hear what it was like in stock form. It wasn't bad for a $499 player. RBCD was pretty weak and strident and SACD was better than I thought it was going to be. Perhaps close to a stock Denon 5910. One thing I noticed about the stock Oppo in regards to its house sound was it's texture and bite. The stock 5910 is more of a pansy in this area. Perhaps a bit more listenable at higher volumes but I think the Oppo has more detail retrieval and is better at lower volumes. But, as you turn up the volume on the stock Oppo the sound gets pretty bright and hard which fatigues the listener fast. I ended up putting about 500 hours on the stock Oppo which did help it relax a bit, but it was still miles behind the upgraded Denon 5910Ci you did a couple of years ago for me.

As you know I still was not sure I wanted to pour money into my new Oppo, but I was really wanting to know what it's true capabilities were. The Oppo BDP83 plays all of the formats even HDCD and the video is outstanding, so with your 100% money back guarantee, I pulled the trigger and sent it off to you. The whole time it was gone I was listening to the Denon and saying to myself there is no way the Oppo is going to be better than this but you kept telling me that I am going to be very surprised.

When the OPPO arrived there was excitement in the air. I took it out of the box and let it come up to room temp and then plugged it into an outlet for a little longer and spun a disc. Once it was warm I put it on the shelf by the Denon. The Denon was playing this whole time as well. I then unhooked all cabling from the Denon and put it on the Oppo and went through all of the settings. Now I was ready to throw in a disc. The Denon was playing Dixie Chicks on HDCD so of course this is what I was going to put in the Oppo. I wanted this disc because of the female vocals and is recorded well. Their voices on some songs are very peaky in the upper midrange and the stock Oppo absolutely fell apart at moderate volumes (70db at listening position). Same thing on the higher notes on a piano. The stock Oppo would just really ping and harden. Well, when I hit play I was not expecting too much at first because it has only been in the house for a couple of hours. When the first note played there was a bigger sense of liveliness that was more revealing than the Denon 5910. Within the first 10 seconds my skin crawled and chills went up my spine. The vocals were very immediate and big and the hardened glare was completely gone which was so prevalent in the stock Oppo and to a similar degree on the stock EMM Labs CDSA. The Oppo was playing bigger and more forceful than the Denon and EMM and the detail retrieval was already better. The soundstage had great layering. Then it really hit me when I put on few tracks with heavy bass and percussion: The bass had massively changed and the music became tremendously more involving.

I am absolutely stunned by the transformation over the stock Oppo. Your upgraded 83 just crushed the already superb performance of my TUC SE upgraded 5910Ci sitting right next to it.
And the Denon beat the EMM LABS CDSA!

Now that I've had the TUC Oppo 83 for a month all I can say is how do you do it?
Not that I really care how, but it is amazing what you have achieved out of a $499 player.
I know that my Denon 5910Ci has a two year old Signature Edition upgrade, but it bettered the stock fully burned in EMM CDSA SE I demo'd in my system right next to it. I have no idea what digital at any price could rival your upgraded Oppo 83, and personally I don't really care. The fact that you can transform a $499 player to this magnitude is beyond me and must say it is worth much more than the Signature Edition upgrade investment.. All of money I have spent on cabling and the speakers I bought have not come close to the performance leap I got out of this Signature Edition upgraded Oppo 83.

Great job and of course I will send my Denon 5910Ci to you for your newest work!

Best Regards,
Paul Canady, Nevada

New October 2009

Hi David,

The SE upgraded OPPO 83 arrived today. It has been playing around 3 hours only and yipeeeee!! It is awesome!! This is the best player I have owned by a mile!! I am going to let everything settle but the sound is so big and smooth, just pristine. It just doesn't just beat my older SE upgraded Denon and Pioneer Blu-ray players, it smacks them down. What is this going to be like in a month or 2 when it burns in? You should sell loads of these $1500 a snip!!! No one in the UK or US has modified Oppo's anything close to this and you would still pay $2250+ at least for all their mumbo jumbo and not get this, WELL DONE!!!!!!!!!. I can now use the 240v for everything which is great and multi region no problems at all. In future I am going to set up denon in another room as I still like it.

Thanks Again, I will let you now how it improves

James Brown, Ireland