Klipsch RB-35 RC-25 Speakers Plus OPPO BDP-93 Blu-ray SACD Player 6-Channel SACD at Last!

 November 20, 2025

#526

Gentle reader,

I last wrote to you about receiving a fine gift of excellent audio equipment from our next-door neighbor, Jack. This article is Part One of Two about how I have incorporated that equipment and more into our musical reproduction world. If you missed that article, you can see it here: The Robb Collections: Having Friends Who Are Neighbors is a Wonderful Thing! Gifted Klipsch Speakers And More.

While we have had a Blu-ray player for a number of years, I have never had one which can play Super Audio Compact Discs, SACDs for short. It was back in 2012 when I added a complete SONY SACD system to the listening room. Doing so made for complete chaos! Read about that here: The Robb Collections: NEW Massive Changes! SIX-Channel SACD at last!

This image is from 2023 when I played my first Blu-ray Audio disc which contains all ten of Gustav Mahler's symphonies. If you are a longtime reader, you might recognize my the-only-ones-in-the-world highly modified Realistic Minimus 7W speakers. They are now serving as the surround speakers behind our chairs.

All that remains original is the cabinets and speaker grilles. Visible are the super-rare woven Kevlar woofer and metal ribbon tweeter which replaced the factory parts. 

I decided that since I have some fantastic Klipsch speakers to enjoy, that it was time to upgrade to a Blu-ray player for use in the living room which also supports and plays SACD and HDCD discs. I chose to look for an OPPO unit via eBay. I found a good deal at $209.00 on an OPPO BDP-93 which also plays 3-D discs. We have no interest in that technology, however. 

I have found and tried several brands of "universal player" digital disc players over the years. Aside from the SONY audio-only players, they were all also DVD players. I had found that OPPO players sounded best to me. I still enjoy a DV-980H in the listening room. 

To fully test all of the free equipment, I set them all up in the listening room in front of the record cabinet between the front speakers. I bought a ten-foot long Coaxial Digital RCA cable and the same length Toslink Optical Digital cable and used the OPPO DVD player as a digital source. 

These photos are before I set it all up. I used the Klipsch speakers for front and center and my Tannoy C-88 towers for the rear. I loaded Forrest Gump into the OPPO DV-980H player. 

I did not make any photographs of the testing and setup. Those green things at the bottom of this photo are my Adidas pants-clad knees.

Since Worlds Best Cables are exclusively what I use, I bought three pairs of their WBC|PRO RCA cables at $38.95 a pair. 

"2.5 Foot RCA Cable Pair - WBC-PRO-LOCAP Low-Capacitance (14pF/ft) 22 AWG Ultra-Silent Audiophile & Professional-Grade Audio Interconnect Cable with Amphenol ACPR Gold RCA Plugs & Black Tweed Jacket"

The XLR cables I bought from them are also of the PRO variety. Nowhere on any of their PRO cables do I see signal directional arrows or tags, such as those seen below.

If you are curious what those blue cables are, they are Liberty Cable Z-300 audio cables. Liberty Cable is a US company. I was able to buy many of them "previously enjoyed" from a professional audio installer. Since he was dealing with wealthy clients they always wanted all new equipment. Thus, they were a small fraction of their retail price. Plus, if there is anything to what WBC insists that we buyer do, they were definitely "burned in".

Every time I get an new-to-me component, I do a comparison, visually, between the current unit and the new one. 

I bought the SONY STR-DA5ES for ten dollars from Goodwill. It included the manual and remote control. It was marked: "No Sound $10." I noticed that the speaker switch knob was missing. It was set to OFF. I was able to turn it to A and TADA: Music! I looked it up after I lugged it's 48 pound body into the house. It was made in 2000 and retailed for $2,400! I continue to be very happy with it.

The DENON AVR-2805 (top unit) is quite a bit lighter, and like the SONY, it's full rated power output is measured from 20-20000 Hertz into 8 Ohms. Unlike the SONY, it's digital inputs (of which it does have many more of) are not labeled for specific sources. This lack of labeling, I was confounded and frustrated by when testing it. It also features six-channel RCA inputs for SACD players. Rather than printing out the manuals for the DENON and OPPO, (my Epson printer is an ink hog!) I bought printed and bound manuals for both units. I also bought the correct DENON branded microphone to audibly set-up the speakers for the best sound. Something which did not exist five years earlier when the SONY receiver was built.

The OPPO BDP-93 has several inputs of which I am not familiar with nor do not have a need for them.

Since neither of the receivers have HDMI inputs (they are too old) I had no use for the second HDMI output the BDP-93 has. Present are the 7.1 analog RCA outputs needed for SACD playback. I use the Coaxial output for AV disc playback.

I, of course, bought a better IEC equipped power cable for my new OPPO player. 

The OPPO

features

front panel controls so that one could do without a remote control if necessary. Fortunately, this one included the huge remote control seen below).

AUDIO ADVISOR Elevate Your Audio Experience with Audio Advisor (Not a sponsor! No one is, I do this out of love) had this A/V stand for a great discount many years ago, obviously, it was made for a CRT television. It has held up very well because it is made of solid wood and metal. [No particle board or MDF was used in the making of this TV stand.] ;-)

After many frustrating hours of trying to get the DENON receiver to work once I brought it into the living room, I gave up and reinstalled the SONY receiver. It's so much more straight forward and easy to use.

While the DENON has features (such as the microphone speaker setup) I prefer to keep the far more expensive (when new) and reliable old friend I have in the SONY.

The SONY hides rarely used controls behind that door which has a button to open it.

I find the SONY's white labeling and wide switches easier to see and work than the DENON's tiny buttons and gold script.

I have twenty SACDs to choose from and since the dozen years since I last had rear speakers to enjoy the six-channel versions of their content, I have been enjoying the full Super Audio experience again with much better speakers. 

TELARC CDs and SACDs producers must have enjoyed adding special effects to their SACDs. I demonstrated some to Nancy last night. I started with a space shuttle launch  sound (to accompany music from Apollo 13) then the sound of F16 fighters roaring by to go with music from The Rock and finally, the sound of a tornado from Twister. The last one was starting to freak her out, she yelled, "STOP!" I asked why she wanted me to do stop. "It was a little to realistic." was her reply.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read this article, my 527th! I had no idea that anyone would be interested in what I write about, but, YOU do! And I am truly humbled by that. Feel free to comment below or via Facebook.

Scott Robb

November 20, 2025

#527

Having Friends Who Are Neighbors is a Wonderful Thing! Gifted Klipsch Speakers And More.

 October 28, 2025

#527

Gentle reader,

As you likely know, I really love music and being able to enjoy it's sound realistically within my budget.

Our next door neighbors of twenty-three years finally gave into their daughter's plea to come live out their final years with her. We were sorry to see them go, but, I am always happy to meet new people.

[Note: I've been writing this blog for many years. Lately, no matter what I do, the type and size of the font varies when pictures have been inserted! Sorry about that, my OCD does not like it, but nothing I have tried to fix it has worked]

The house was purchased by a young man who works for the federal government in Washington, D.C. When we met, he was sitting outside of his garage, the door open behind him. That is when I saw the 1960's Austin Healy 3000 Mark II sports car. 

Jack inherited it and other things from his Dad who passed some years ago. This one is not his, but his is the same year and color. His needs work, I have offered to help work on it. I also noticed neatly stacked on a metal shelf in his garage was a number of speakers and a receiver. I asked about them and he offered them to me for free. Knowing that I have zero room for more audio equipment, I declined with thanks. My eldest grandson, Kyle is following in my audio footsteps, I knew that since he was still living at home that he also had no room for Jack's equipment.

Some months later, I saw Jack outside and went over to say hello. Again, the garage door was open. "You still have all that audio gear?" "Yes, Scott, please take it, I need the room." Then I saw KLIPSCH on a speaker grille and agreed to take it. I picked up one of the speakers and was carrying it over to my front porch when I saw our other new neighbor, Alexa, who is an active-duty USMC Captain and quite the looker. She was petting our cat, the neighborhood ambassador, MS Claws. "Hello, Alexa! How are you?" I set the speaker down and went over to chat. "Come meet Jack." I said, pointing him out. They seemed to hit it off after introductions, both live alone with a cat. They exchanged phone numbers. I continued hefting heavy speakers and carrying them to our house. I hope they become friends. 

Jack's stuff stacked in the listening room, above.

The receiver is a Denon AVR-2805, circa 2004 as is all of the equipment's age. I really like the Monster Power Center, but have no room and all three systems already have their own units. I gave it to Kyle (my grandson) who has made a computer server in their house along with a number of other computer stuff. I suggested he plug all that equipment into the MPC. He happily took it home.

There was no manual or remote for the AVR, but thanks to eBay, I now have: a bound  manual, a remote and a brand-new Denon microphone of the correct type to set it all up. 

I found my (present living room) receiver, above, which is a SONY STR-DA5ES, all 48 pounds of it, ($2,400 new), WITH the remote and manual at Goodwill one day marked: "$10.00 No Sound." I always carry audio test equipment when thrifting and quickly found that the speaker switch (knob was missing*) was set to OFF. One twist to A and TADA! SOUND! It is from 2000. Both receivers predate HDMI, but have Toslink Optical and Coaxial Digital RCA inputs. The center channel speaker is a Cambridge Soundworks unit, PURE|AV power conditioner sits on it. Speakers are my World Famous highly modified Realistic 7W units. 

The rear channel units are a stock pair of 7Ws. I had since that photo above, replaced those thrift-store-found speaker stands with much nicer metal ones. The subwoofer was also a thrift-store find, it has a 10" woofer.

Jack's dad bought a Velodyne DLS-3750R which weighs fifty-five pounds! I assume that perhaps it cost less than a KLIPSCH subwoofer.

Speaking of KLIPSCH, the center channel is a RC-25. The matching front and rear speakers are RB-35s. They each weigh twenty-four pounds. I was psyched!

Here is the spec sheet I found for the four speakers. 96 dB sensitivity! I brought everything into the listening room and stacked all four speakers for testing purposes.

I kept two pieces of the pink Monster Cable from years ago just for use when I find new equipment. All four speakers have no issues and they sound AMAZING!

One of them was missing one jumper. I looked for KLIPSCH ones with no luck, so, I thought, get aftermarket ones via eBay. 

These are branded IMPETO an Italian audio maker. 

They are ridiculously large and over engineered then the thin metal pieces are.

I decided to use a pair of the RB-35s for front speakers in the living room and use the matching RC-25 center channel speaker as well. Those are new ROCKVILLE brand stands which are perfect for them. Rockville Audio is a small US business located in Ohio. The stands are heavy, well and very strong and they include two choices of top plates. I used Quake Hold Museum Putty to secure the speakers to the stands.

Before getting the manual, etcetera, I tried the Denon unit out in the living room and found it very confusing. So I put the SONY back in place. 

This is what I have done (for now) with my old center channel speaker and subwoofer. My Douk Audio Tube power amp The Robb Collections: World Premiere Review of Douk Audio's Exciting new Class A DJ587 Tube Stereo Power Amplifier! sits atop the center channel. I will be writing more about it soon. I wired it to the KLIPSCH speakers (now atop my fifty-year-old Dynaco A25XL speakers). With their 96 dB sensitivity, I wanted to see how that 4WPC amp would drive them. It drives them very well indeed!

An unsightly jumble of cables which I keep telling myself is just temporary. 

The speaker wires you see (squeezing between the shelf and speaker cabinets) are new to me. Everything I have, except AC power cables are made by Worlds Best Cables. Unlike other WBC speaker CABLES, these are WIRES in that there is only the one layer of insulation. Like most speaker wires out there.

They are entry level audiophile cables. 

They are well made, as expected and I like them. Not crazy thick with massive woven fabric covers.

WBC uses Eminence Banana plugs on all of their speaker wires/cables. The grip tightly and have huge surface conduction by design.

I moved my World Famous Modified Minimus 7 speakers to be the rear channel ones in the living room. The stock Minimus 7s are (temporarily) the rear channel speakers perched atop (and held in place by Quake Hold) my thrift store found Tannoy C88 tower speakers. Those little speakers are so famous and sold in huge numbers because they sound really good and punch above their weight class.

This is the Listening Room system minus the B&K Components ST1400 power amp which sits in front of the LP shelf normally (it currently is sitting beneath my chair) and the Douk Audio tube power amp. I have an OPPO DV-980H universal player which is directly beneath the Marantz MM7025 power amp and on top of my CD recorder. I use it to play: HDCDs, SACDs and DVD-Audio discs.

This is the rear of an OPPO DV-971H I had previously. I bought a good RCA Coaxial Digital cable and a good TOSLINK Optical Digital cable and plugged them into the rear of the proper receptacles in the rear of the  Denon receiver and put the Forrest Gump DVD in the OPPO and hit play. I wanted to make sure that when I pressed the DVD button on the remote, that I would hear the movie and it worked! I had previously ran setup with the DENON microphone in the den to make sure that I know how to do so properly in the living room.

So, my next plans are to remove the SONY STR-DA5ES receiver from the living room system and reinstall the DENON AVR-2805 in it's place. Then, conduct some listening tests to see if the DENON sounds better or worse (of course with the new-to-me KLIPSCH RB-35 speakers, it's going to sound better) than the SONY and whether the DENON's remote control is more or less user friendly than the Denon's. 

My next article is about my trying "Tube Rolling" an archaic term for trying different brands of Vacuum tubes (Valves for my UK audience) in the Douk Audio power amp and see if I can detect any difference. That power amp is now driving the KLIPSCH speakers permanently. Once I disassemble the A/V equipment and find new homes for it all and the Listening Room is back to normal the B&K ST1400 will resume it's place in front of the record shelf driving the Dynaco A25XL speakers and the Marantz MM7025 will drive the Cerwin-Vega! LS-12 speakers and the Tannoy C-88s through the Dynaco QD-2.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read this rather long article! I still can't get over that you like what I write. Although I will never meet most of you, the two I have met, Bob B. in Arizona, USA and Bruce W. in Washington, D.C. have become very close friends with both Nancy and I. You can always friend request me on Facebook if you want to. Feel free to leave a comment below or via Facebook. I write two other blogs: Pictures of Nancy. The Love of My Life. and People Say I'm Special. But I Don't Know Why So please feel free to take a look at them if you like.

Scott Robb

October 28, 2025

#527