Berkowitz

I am looking to upgrade my player. What would the best be??? Not including the EAD Theatermaster. Denon9000??? Elite? Marantz? It has to be progressive, it has to at least have DVDAudio, SACD if possible. I like a unit with a nice heavy chassis. Not some of these lightweight junk players. I was looking at some Arcams, but have not seen many reviews. Any help would be appreciated.

I am not including the Theatermaster for a few reasons. It is a hell of alot of money!!! and I tried my Tosh 9200 on my buddy's set up and guess what??? It looked the same!!! On a DLP projector at 148 inches. So considering the unit is like 6-8k, I cannot justify the huge amount of cash for the same quality. I love my Tosh, but sometimes with a few newer discs, it locks up before the menu screen. It will not allow it to load at all. Happened with american wedding and Linkin Park Live in Texas.

renaldow

How much money are you wanting to spend? That defines what the best player available to you is.

Brian Shannon

I like my Denon DVD 2900 but some people had issues with the bass management setup.

Berkowitz

I am not concerned about bass management. My preamp does that for DVD-A. As far as money??? Maybe 3-4k tops, prefer to spend less, but if quality is there, I will pay for it.

AOD

For half of your max you want to spend, you could get a Denon 5900 for $2000. It does everything but cook you dinner and is top rated to boot. It also has every connection you could possibly want and plays all formats available. Check it out, you will not be dissapointed. That is what I would get it I had $2000 in my wallet.

steebo777

I second that

DJ_Longfellow

What's wrong with a Panasonic RP82....you can still find them, for about $300

Ergyu

Maybe because it doesn't cost 3 grand?

DJ_Longfellow

Why would you spend $3,000 on a machine when the RP82 rated just as high as some of the Denon $2,000 machines.

I know there was a site that reviewed all the players, and the RP82 came in second or third

Ergyu

Exactly.

gotapex

3 Reasons:

1. The DVI output of the Denon is much better quality than the analog output of the RP82
2. The Denon has much better sound quality (though you need some very high end equipment to really enjoy the difference)
3. The Denon can play SACD's, which he was looking for.

cowanrg

the two best dvd players on the market IMO:

Esoteric DV-50. universal, awesome. $5K

Faroudja Video Processor, universal, awesome scaler, $15K.]

the best is very relative.

X

In terms of DVD video quality, probably the best bang for the buck would be a home theater computer. A relatively low-end machine will easily equal the quality of $5K worth of player/scaler.

I believe the DVD-Audio can be handled by one brand of audio card right now, but you'd probably be better off just getting a separate unit for that for the time being.

Ergyu

I think the newer Audigy 2 ZS can decode DVD Audio. I wish I could get SACD on the computer too, I've got a few of them now that I don't have on regular cd that I want to rip.

steebo777

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by DJ_Longfellow
Why would you spend $3,000 on a machine when the RP82 rated just as high as some of the Denon $2,000 machines.

I know there was a site that reviewed all the players, and the RP82 came in second or third


...and I know it's a bit off topic, but damn I like your setup cowanrg

Ergyu

Well what exactly does he benefit from spending 5 thousand dollars on a dvd player then? Other than being able to say he spent a god aweful amount on it? Faroudja processing?

Don't you think that if he were willing to spend that much on JUST a dvd player, he already uses some sort of video processing? Personally I like X's idea of an HTPC, but then again, I don't have a lot of money to burn, so I guess once I get rich it might be a different story.

Berkowitz

Does the Denon 9000 also do SACD??? if so that may be a choice. But that player is suppose to still have the dreaded chroma bug. My buddy's Theater master(EAD) had a strange feature or glitch that when a movie is in DTS, it clicks loudly through the speakers during layer changes. Plus with a player that expensive I expected very fast layer changes, but my Tosh9200 was just as fast??? On his 148 inch screen they look identical. So i am going to pass on EAD. I like the chassis in the denon9000. heavy and strong. anti vibration tray and a solid chassis. all features that are important to me in a quality disc transport. I will not be using the DVD player for any 2 channel CDs. I have a 20bit CAL for CDs. This will be used for just DVD, DVDA and maybe SACD.

cowanrg

they hardly ever review the really nice dvd players. i have yet to see a side by side review with either of the new faroudja's. the esoteric got an A++ rating with stereophile (for whatever its worth).

the denon 5900 is pretty good for the price. and it plays everything.

bfrank

I am biased but the Elite 47AVI and the new Elite 59AVI get my vote.

The 47 should start to fall in price with the 59 coming out. Its what I have

NaturalMystic79

I'm suprised nobody has said Playstation 2 yet!

steebo777

I sense some sarcasm here.




....at least I hope you're being sarcastic.

Berkowitz

I was just looking at the Denon 5900. It does play every format. It is a solid chassis. and it claims it is "chroma bug free???" Is that for real? It looks like a better unit then the Denon 9000. Anyone have one or seen it play a disc?

gotapex

Yeah, the 5900 is chroma free. Here's a great review of it. Just came out.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...er-2-2004.html