Best suited Bluray player for Pioneer 5090 with a budget of £500

[admin_exported]

Greetings o most knowledgable ones...

,

I've had my Pioneer 5090 for a few weeks now and the boss(wife)

has finally started to let her guard down so I feel it's time to splash some more cash in the direction of a Bluray player, and just to be safe and not wake the sleeping dragon

in my wife again I'm budgeting to around £500 but my dilemma is because the Pioneer is so fantastic

how do I do it justice whilst not spending/wasting more cash than I need to, hence my request for advice to the following questions:

1. Do I go for a Sony BDP-S550 to match my amp as in the group test this issue? (my original plan! but will it do justice to the tv)

2. Do I buy the Pioneer BDP-51FD to stay with the Pioneer link? (surely the pioneer products will compliment each other more)

3. Or should I really be considering the Denon 2500BT transport as a minimum spend and not the more budget end of the market?

Please help, I really don't want to get this wrong as it would be sacrilegious to not buy the most suitable technology for the Pioneer within a reasonable price limit and also because of the quality of the tv it is also prone to showing the bad points of weak technology, so what should it be?

p.s. I've only been able to demo these players on panasonic tvs and I could see obvious improvements the further up the price ladder but is it really necessary to spend hundreds more to get quality from my tv because thats a lot of bluray films....

Many thanks for viewing my babbling post and I look forward to some of your knowledge/thoughts coming my way!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

I'd go for the Pioneer option. Picture quality will be awesome plus you'll get interoperability with the TV's remote (I am seriously jealous!)

 

[ukgthor]

I'd agree and go with the Pioneer, although the BDP-51FD is now coming in around £350, so if you still have the £500 budget you should be able to get a BDP-LX71 (I've just ordered one through my local Audio T for £527) and if you add on another fiver for a bunch of flowers, the better half would be none the wiser....

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks alot for the swift replys

and I have to agree in principal that it would make sense to keep the pioneer theme going as my main point was what would complement the tv the best at a reasonable budget however this throws more questions up such as:

how much if any is the 71 better than the 51 other than cosmetically and if I paid £527 for the 71 would it not be worth an extra 70squid to go for the denon 2500 as this is arguably a superior machine according to the reviews in the mag and it was a winner and best player under £800 if I remember rightly .

Any thoughts or am I just nit picking and should bite the bullet and go for the pioneer 51 as the price and reviews seriously make it more than capable to do justice to my 5090.

 

[Anonymous]

Im using a 51 bluray player with a LX-5090 and have to agree that the picture is amazing, the only difference between this and the 71 is to do with the DACs, if your going to be using HDMI you may aswell save yourself £200 ish.

As for the Denon i considered this like yourself, my dealer told me it is a better machine but the differences are only really noticeable on a 60" screen and when paired with a higher end amplifier and speakers.

Id go for the 51 you wont regret it !

 

[Messiah]

I was watching the '51 on a 60" Pioneer TV the other day and it looked stunning! Go with the '51!

 

[professorhat]

Yup, agreed, in your position I'd go for the '51. I wouldn't go for the '71, if I was in that sort of budgetary position, I'd find the extra £70 and go for the Denon 2500.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I also agree with the 51 bearing in mind that it doesn't have 2.0 versus the Sony.

Prof, have you compared the 51 head on with your Sony?

 

[Anonymous]

I own a Pioneer BDP-LX71, and while it performs superbly both visually and sonically (I used to own a Panasonic DMP-BD30), it has most certainly not been glitch-free. I have experienced on a few occasions freezing while playing-back Discs. I have performed 3 firmware updates (it's now at version 1.25a) since purchasing it, and so far, after the most recent update, I have not experienced any freezing.

I have heard of people with the Pioneer '51 model with the same problems as me.

Bear in mind that, at the moment, the Pioneer's are slow to load Discs up, compared to my Panasonic, which was a swift loader.

I am now looking towards a Denon DVD2500BT Blu-ray Transport and a Sony '5000ES.

Dan.

 

[Anonymous]

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!

Thanks again to everyone who spent time giving me their opinions/knowledge/advice/experience, it really has been really helpful and I do believe we have a winner.........Pioneer BDP LX51 come on down!!!!!

I do hope this will give me the right amount of balance between quality of image and sound to complement the Pioneer 5090 whilst providing me with the ammunition to convince her indoors that I/we really do need a Bluray player without condeming me to the sofa.

So just need to speak to my friendly neighbourhood dealer to see what agreement we can come to regarding a purchase.

I shall keep anyone interested updated with my opinion and thoughts on my purchases.