King of the Universal Players?

[Welly Wu]

I am set to graduate and get my BA in English Creative Writing sometime after May 6th, 2004. I am looking to get myself a nice graduation gift but I have a couple of questions regarding the one I currently have and a replacement unit.

I have the Denon DVD 2900. By May 2004, what do you think a fair used market value for my unit shall be? Can you give me ballpark ranges? I got a guy whom I don't know too well saying that mine will be worth about $200 - $300 USD by that time. That's kind of low...even for me.

I've been doing a lot of research primarily focused upon the Denon DVD 5900. Right now, it seems to be the king of the universal players but things could change drastically. A fear of mine regarding this unit is the somewhat less than airtight procedure by which one can upgrade the firmware without causing the unit to lockup (literally). Another fear concerning this unit are the reported minor quality control issues including reports of the disc tray grinding, macroblocking on HDTVs, and other tidbits such as slow responsiveness.

When do you think the used market price of a Denon DVD 5900 will come down to $1000 USD?

There are certainly more universal players on the horizon including the Pioneer DV-59a and another Denon unit called the D-1 or something like that. Basically, I need people in the know to kindly fill in any gray areas I have with my future graduation gift. I'm invested in hi-rez but not looking into HD-DVD...yet. I want a one box solution for my cramped bedroom and my budget will allow for about $1000 - $1100 USD including whatever price I get for my current Denon DVD 2900. Sound wise, I'm just looking for everything that the Denon DVD 2900 offers but better Redbook / HDCD playback. I want greater detail, stereo separation, and transparancy / neutrality. I know I may not get all that though. Still, I'd appreciate some guidance on what will inevitably turn out to be the most important component in my dedicated headphone rig. Yeah, I could use some help.

 

[Hajime]

Tuberoller said something about there being a few new universal players coming out that are supposed to blow the other universal players out of the water. I'd ask him for more information on the new players before I bought anything if I were you.

 

[Jono3642]

The king of universal players is the Linn Unidisk 2.1, not some Denon POS. It's $9,000 though, out of your price range.

But you asked for the king.....

Anway, Denon are solid players and if you need a universal players for 1000 they are really the only really good option right now with Pioneer being a little bit more budget

So I guess I would recommend the Denon unless you want to sell your car and get the real KING,

 

[Wodgy]

Quote:

Originally posted by Welly Wu I have the Denon DVD 2900. By May 2004, what do you think a fair used market value for my unit shall be? Can you give me ballpark ranges? I got a guy whom I don't know too well saying that mine will be worth about $200 - $300 USD by that time. That's kind of low...even for me.

I agree, that's probably on the low side. The average selling price of the DVD 2900 on eBay right now seems to be around $650. My guess is that a good ballpark to expect in May is $450.

If you're looking at a new universal player, Marantz has a couple of nice units that are worth checking out.

 

[purk]

Will the redbook performace of the Denon better the C333ES? I'm looking at upgrading my source as well.

 

[davei]

IMHO it really depends on what the pricing of the new universals is going to be. If a new $500 player comes out that has more features & better quality than the 2900, you're definitely looking in the $200-300 range. If it's priced where the 2900 used to be, you're looking at more. The market for players is not really mature yet (much like digital cameras) so I can see prices of low/mid-range players dropping like a stone (I would consider the Linn insane high-end, a normal person would not even dream of spending that much on a player. Hell, most people don't spend $100 on a DVD player these days!!)

 

[Jasper994]

It really depends too on what formats you're really listening to. If it's redbook and DVD-A then I'd recommend an Arcam (best damn redbook I've heard so far). If you really want SACD as well as DVD-A then you're stuck looking at Denon, Marantz or lower end stuff (at least from what I've seen). See if there is a shop that sells all or at least serveral and ask if you can bring in your amp, headphones and material and do a little shootout before you make a decision.

 

[Watchdog]

I agree the Linn Unidisk is King.

I believe the Unidisk 1.1 is more expensive than the 2.1

Who knows what they'll go for used next year. Likely still too much for me to buy one, but oh would I love to have a Linn Unidisk!

 

[john_jcb]

New players are due out very soon. Since you have a few months before graduation I would sit back and read some of the reviews of the new offerings that will be coming out soon. I am not sure what has been announced and what has not so I won't mention any brands that I have heard of.

 

[LeasingGuy]

Welly Wu, Are you still sweating this one out?

Just to throw a wrench into your 5900 upgrade path. I have the new DV-59Avi Pioneer Elite player in my HT. It's still new (under 10 hours) but burning in quite well. The midrange of this piece is quite good, that's something the Denon's cant seem to get quite right. I will let it run for a week before I put it in my 2-channel system but initial observations are quite positive.

Video quality is good too, but I'm no expert (videophile). I think they all look pretty darn good. The HDMI up-conversion is something different but my TV (Hitachi 57SWX 20B) up-converts everything anyway so I cant really tell the difference. I think I need the calibrator to come back over to get the IFS stuff done again on the DVI input.

Good Luck and thanks for getting me here.

Tom Grooms

btw, Do you need video, DVD-A or Multichannel? I really like the Music Hall 2 channel SACD player. I bet it would be killer in a dedicated headphone set-up.

 

[Welly Wu]

Mr. Grooms:

Yeah, I still believe I will acquire the Denon DVD 5900. I will have the funds very soon in the first half of 2004. The purpose of this thread was to elicit others' opinions on universal players because 1. I don't know everything about them, 2. I value the opinions of people who frequent this board. I still believe I will acquire the Denon DVD 5900 for $1000 USD by May 2004 and be happy.

By the way, have you decided upon your headphone setup? Did you get everything we had discussed over at the AVS Forum? How do you like everything? Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you and your family!

 

[Tuberoller]

I'll be completely honest here and tell you that I have no real idea what will hit the market and when. I do have some inside info on specific players (like Philips and Musichall) but I don't even know what the release dates might be. If/When I get to CES I can provide more info. I do know that the latest DAC chips and the performance that they are capable of ,caused a few builders to delay products so that these new chips could be implemented. The word I'm hearing is that the latest DACs are far superior in terms of sound quality(whatever that means) than anything currently in use. Reps often lack the info about release dates and such but know a lot about the products otherwise. I have heard some things but I don't know how reliable they are and refuse to repeat that here.

My advice is to keep your pants on for at least a few months, with the full understanding that the advances in digital will likely continue at a very rapid pace. The player you pay big bucks for today will be outperformed by some less expensive player in the very near future. But you already knew that,right?

 

[LeasingGuy]

Just a note to keep an eye on the DV-59Avi, It may be a better Bang for the Buck in the jack of all trades arena. I'll post more after further burn-in and evaluation in my 2-channel reference system.

On the Headphone side, I went with the HD-650's, MG Head OTL 32 and an X-Can v3. UPS shows my amps are scheduled for delivery tomorrow. Now I'm off to the bank to get a Cashiers Check for my Emmeline II "The Stealth" preorder.

(#14 on the list).

Good Luck!

 

[Welly Wu]

Tuberoller:

Thanks for your input. Yes, I already did know that but there's really nothing more than I can do other than to keep saving up my money for something.

LeasingGuy:

I'll do some more research into the Pioneer Elite DV-59Ai. I'll head over to AVS Forum to do some more research soon. Thanks for the input.

 

[kartik]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jono3642 The king of universal players is the Linn Unidisk 2.1, not some Denon POS. It's $9,000 though, out of your price range. But you asked for the king..... Anway, Denon are solid players and if you need a universal players for 1000 they are really the only really good option right now with Pioneer being a little bit more budget So I guess I would recommend the Denon unless you want to sell your car and get the real KING,

And what would you call the Esoteric Universal player.? The emperor?