I had the chance to audition the Denon DVD 2910 universal DVD player at my local Hi-Fi shop and at home for a few days. I can say for certain that this is the universal DVD player to beat for under $1000 USD with no compromise Red Book CD performance either. As a video player, it is not flawless in terms of its video benchmark results, but it is among a handful of top contenders. As an audio player, it is significantly better in terms of Red Book CD, DVD-Audio, SA-CD, and HDCD performance over the older and discontinued Denon DVD 2900. As an added bonus, you get a 4:4:4 pull-down 216MHz/12bit Analog Devices ADV-7310 video DAC and a Burr Brown 1791 192Khz/24bit audio DAC along with the Genesis FLI-2310 (Faroujda DCDi) de-interlacer plus both DVI-D and HDMI connections for $729 USD MSRP!

Here are some reviews that confirm my impressions:

http://search.ecoustics.com/a.php?search=Denon+DVD+2910
http://www.audioholics.com/productre...910Review1.php
The Absolute Sound (February / March 2005) gave the Denon DVD 2910 their Editors Choice Best Buy award in 2004 (p. 28)

If you are looking for an affordable universal DVD player that can serve you well for your entire AV needs and desires, then this has my enthusiastic recommendation along with bona fida professional opinions as back up references.

Just to be sure, it does all of these formats:
Red Book CD
High Definition Compatible Disc
Super Audio CD
DVD-Audio
DVD-Video
DVD +/- R/RW DL/SL discs
CD-R/RW discs
MP3 CD-R discs
Windows Media Audio version 8.x CD-R discs
Windows Media Audio version 9.x CD-R discs
Video CD
JPEG/Kodak/Fujicolor CD

It supports these connections:
DVI-D (HDCP)
HDMI
S-VIDEO
Component Video
Composite outputs

Street prices: $550 - $600 USD

The best aspect about this particular model, other than its price : performance ratio, is that the Red Book CD performance is all there. I'm talking about impressive soundstage, imaging, PRAT, detail, and musicality. While at the Hi-Fi shop, I compared it to Red Book CD only players such as Rotel, NAD, Cyrus, etc. and I felt that it gave up little in those departments to the dedicated players. The Cyrus had a bit more PRAT. The NAD had a bit clearer and more open sound. The Rotel beat it by a hair in terms of soundstaging and detail. However, I just couldn't ignore that this was less expensive and it was much more versatile. Against mine, it was no contest: of course, I greatly preferred mine over the Denon DVD 2910 for every single format except HDCD (since mine has no decoder for that format) and so did the dealer and a fellow 'philes who were in the store. They kept asking me how a Pioneer could look and sound that amazing, but I decided not to open up my modded unit and let them in on the secrets inside. Too bad the dealer wasn't an authorized Pioneer reseller because he could have made some money.

DVD-Video films came off as being very clear and pristine with solid blacks and whites along with a very clean color pallette. Up converted to 1080i, I was very impressed by the picture in terms of detail and sharpness, but I felt my universal DVD player bettered it in terms of being more film like and creamier in color especially with flesh tones.

For the money, it is a steal. As a platform, it is quite solidly engineered and designed; I think it makes a very good candidate for reasonable mods by specialty shops. The potential to exploit it to its fullest and wind up with a giant killer is all there underneath the dust cover. It comes with a dedicated discrete switching power supply unit which most mod shops charge extra to install.

If it were available at the time I needed to upgrade my own source component, then I would have plunked down the money for it myself. However, I still firmly believe my source component is far superior audio/video wise, but I had to spend a few thousands of dollars to attain this level of performance.

I wouldn't trade sources, but I would make this Denon DVD 2910 my first pick if my Panasonic DVD-RP82 DVD-Audio/Video player dies. The spindle is dying and I don't think that it will last forever; I will probably need to replace it soon or else my Yamaha HTiB system is useless.

Nice, informative post, Welly. I've always wanted to try this player myself, as I've yet to settle in on a budget universal player. I've gotten into SACD big time, but only have about a dozen DVD-A titles, and thus wonder if it is worth the effort.

It is my understanding that this player is infinitely moddable as well. Isn't it the one that Empirical Audio takes to a reference level? Or is that the 3910?

Wayne:

Please re-read my revisions. YES, this is a GREAT candidate for very reasonable, affordable, and solid modifications by a specialty mod shop like ummm...Sound Odyssey?

The construction is fabulous. For that kind of money, it is a testament to quality and affordable design.

For a secondary AV rig, this is the source to put up front. I might get a stock one myself later this year when my Panasonic DVD-RP82 dies off.

The Absolute Sound in their December 2004 / January 2005 edition reviewed the Denon DVD 2910 and it said that the Red Book CD performance equals that of dedicated CD players costing up to $1,000 USD. After comparing it to the Cyrus and Rotel models, I feel that it is mostly a truthful statement, but that the reviewer should have pointed out buying a Rotel or a Cyrus means that you are buying its house sound too. On the whole, I was struck by how impressive the CD playback was and by the DVD-Video performance as well. Again, the versatility of this player can not be ignored if you want to build an affordable and very high quality AV system or HT.

I recently picked up a Denon 3910. My first Denon product. It is a fantastic unit and also under $1K.

Hi,

I am also considering the Denon 2910 as a “Universal” Transport to an external DAC. I am still weighing up my options and would like to work out the costs of suitable mods.

Does anyone have, or know where I can get, a Denon 2910 Maintenance Manual with schematics and parts list? What about detailed pictures of the of each PCB?

Many thanks

I too have been thinking about a 2910 + SR71 in place of my existing DAC1, when my Panasonic RP56 finally gives up the ghost which I think will be soon.

I've been very curious to know how Denon x910 sound compares to the typical Meridian 5xx sound for redbook CD.

Quote:



It's good but not that good, IMO - lacks the liquidity, smoothness, airiness. The Meridian 588 is the only 5xx series I've heard, though.

I did compare the 2910 to a BelCanto DAC2 and I'm hard pressed to pick the winner - very very close, the 2910's output is a db or two hotter and that's about it. Not too shabby. Other notes from my usage of this player:

- HDMI video output is excellent.
- component video output is awful
- the Faroudja chip implementation is decent, but not the best (shows a couple significant flaws deinterlacing some anime discs)
- severe macroblocking on a couple discs
- my older unit needs firmware updates to fix some dvd reading glitches (havn't got around to it yet - they should have got it right the first time!)

I am sure any of these Denon DVD players sound OK out of the box and probably not too much different than my Denon 2900,but once modified by SACDmods,this player has been transformed into something special.SACDmods has a new addition to its player mod list known as the Denon 3910.If this player sounds anything like mine,I would encourage anyone to get this unit over the Denon 2910 which is not available from SACDmods.These modded units are so good that they should not be overlooked.

There are several companies doing mods on these players. The most elaborate and expensive of these is the Exemplar Audio. Exemplar use to mod the 2900, and now they do the 3910. The full bore mod costs 4x what the player does, so it’s not for the faint of heart. It does however elevate the player to a performance level that is usually occupied by players costing north of $10,000.

I am of course a little biased, I own one and love it.

There is a very interesting thread about modded 3910s on Audiogon.
Read if you are bored

I wrote down some impressions of 3910 a long ago. It went like this:

"Empirical Audio P3A

Fantastic DAC. Like what I said about Rowland amps, I can't think of an area to point to and criticize. Highs? check. Mids? Check. Bass? You bet'cha it's a check! Compared to other DAC's and players, what separates the EA apart is the total sense of authority and control from low bass to ultra-highs. Usually a component so in control tends to sound sterile or not "musical," but the EA is anything BUT. I know it's also musical as hell b/c every CD I brought sounded more musical and pleasurable than I've heard it before. Veeery nice. Really, throw out an audiophile criteria of your choice, it's got it covered. A P3A Modwright level II , a great DAC in its own right, sounded a bit grainy, diffuse, and with less bass reach and impact. Folks, we are not talking about "OMG, it's 10 times better!" Maybe 15-20% if I had to give a number. Is that big enough difference to YOU?

Denon 3910 CD/SACD/DVD player

Even after the heavyweights above, the Denon sounded fine, which is no small feat. I can see why various modders are jumping on this machine. Bone stock, the CD playback was nice without glaring errors. Compared to EA, less detail, a bit leaner tonality, not as much bass definition, less dynamic, a bit more grain. But not by all that much in each category as price difference may indicate as one can easily pick up 3910 for like $1000 brand new these days.

Well-recorded SACD's sounded very good on this machine. We flipped back and forth between CD and SACD layers of dual-layer discs for fun also. Once again, while admitting that SACD had better openness, clarity, refinement, and ease, I still frequently prefer the CD layer for MY tastes. Well-recorded redbook these days sound very good. Compared to SACD layer, it's more forward, less refined, a bit brasher, but it still engages me more with its bolder, thicker, upfront presentation. So sue me...

Dodson 263 DAC

Dodson 218 was unfortunately unavailable, but we had the much cheaper (relatively speaking) 263 DAC. I would have to place it somewhere above ModWright P3A but somewhat not reaching the heights of EA P3A. 263 sounded great still, and without close A-B comparison, most people probably would be quite happy with 263, which remained musical no matter what small (and I mean small) relative deficiencies there may be. One day we hope to give 218 a spin."

While redbook on 3910 was nice and fully competitive with a lot of nice CDP's out there that are more expensive, there are obviously others that sound better. I've since auditioned the McCormack UDP-1, which is as good or better than anything mentioned above in redbook, and the Dodson 218 is better still than that But now, we're talking 8x the price of Denon just for a DAC..

That is really interesting... because as far as I know the model replacements are as follows:

2200 -> 2910
2900 -> 3910

If you look at the enclosures and specs., you can see that the 2200 / 2910 is just a budget version of the 2900 -> 3910 with better DACs and power supplies, etc.

I'm pretty interested in these players... particularly because I would be interested in modding is, however the 2910 is using the BurrBrown PCM1791 DACs, which already has a built-in opamp on the chip for I/V conversion. There are also cheapo JRC opamps downstream of the PCM1791, but ideally I would like to swap in all the opamps or put in discrete I/V conversion with something like a Gilmore circuit design and no coupling capacitors. I think one would get a far better benefit of this mod by doing it to the 3910, which uses PCM1796 and completely separate I/V conversion and opamps.

Interstingly, another improvment is that the new DVD-xx10 models have HDCD, so you can truly say they are universal audio disc players. That is what is most attractive about them for me anyway. But it looks like I will have to wait a long time to get a 3910. But then if you say the 2910 sounds so much better than the 2900, the predecessor to the 3910, I'm left wishing I could just audition all three!

So there is a good DAC inside this universal? Can this universal compare to a dedicated DAC? Even after the spindle starts having problems, it seems that the electronics would still work. Does this mean that it has a digital (spidf or optical) in and analog outs?

I'd like to know how this compares to a dedicated DAC or the E-MU 0404, as it sounds like it could be an effective component for use with a computer. The other features sound nice as well.

No, the Denon units do not have digital inputs.

The DAC is hard-wired to the mechanism and generates the analog outputs, as is the case for almost all CD and DVD players.

Quote:



I contacted Denon and the person I talked to said the 2910 [size=medium]is[/size] a direct improved replacement for the 2900. It also has op-amps that are a step up from the 2900, they said.
Also I concure that the [size=medium]2910 sounded much better[/size] than the 2900 I auditioned. They were clearing out the 2900 at a cheaper price at the time in January. I got the better sounding one, the new [size=medium]2910.[/size]