High End BluRay Shootout between Denon, Pioneer and Sony

[admin_exported]

The three best BluRay players around which all the online forum buzz is concentrating at the moment are the:

Denon DVD3800BD
Pioneer BDP LX91
Sony BDP S5000es

They all contain the full BD package, though the Pioneer and Denon may not be 2.0 out of the box they will be in time through firmware updates. Importantly for me and owners of older amplifiers they also decode all the sound formats and output an 8 channel analogue signal.

Will What Hi-Fi be putting these three up against each other in a super-test? Are you waiting for the Arcam offering before you do this? I didn't mention the Marantz player, perhaps I should have done, but it is a re-clothed Denon, so I suppose the two can be put together as one to a degree.

I'd love to see this test, especially as I haven't read a What Hi-Fi review of the Sony yet. From reputable dealers you can now get these three players for £1400 Denon, £1550 Pioneer and £879 Sony. So the price may become a factor, but they appear to be fighting for the same top honours in the BD camp. The Denon DVD-A1UD may come in above, but is in competition for a different title.

 

[Andrew Everard]

I'm sure such a test will be put together in the fullness of time. There are several more upmarket players on the way, as you may have been reading in the news pages, so we may just First Test the products as they appear until there is the makings of a hefty Supertest or Group Test.

 

[Anonymous]

Makes sense and works for me. Any idea when the Sony will hit the testing ground? It's talked of in the same tones as the Denon and Pioneer and if it stacks up as having an audio and video quality to match them, then it's price makes it incredibly appealing. Be great to see that review!

As for the group test, I'll await with baited breath!

 

[jase fox]

My moneys on the Denon !

 

[Andrew Everard]

Will Harris:Any idea when the Sony will hit the testing ground?

AFAIK we have one on-site at the mo, but as yet not sure when or in what context it will be tested.

Will let you know when I have firm info...

 

[Anonymous]

Andrew Everard:
Will Harris:Any idea when the Sony will hit the testing ground?

Will let you know when I have firm info...

Good man. I'm rather hoping that if you have one in, a first test might sneaky peaky it's way into next months edition? 🙂

 

[Andrew Everard]

Just checked contents lists and looks like it's down as the lead first test in the March issue, out early February.

And no, I don't know how it did.

 

[Anonymous]

jase fox:My moneys on the Denon !

I would have been tempted to agree, although I'm keen to 'hear' the analogue outs of the Marantz...

However, 2 separate dealers have pointed me at the LX91, including the dealer I purchased my Kuro from (who sells both Denon & Pioneer), saying it would be a better match with the screen re visual performance....Incidentally, the Pioneer is profile 2.

The potential fly in the ointment for me, will be the Denon's big brother, the universal A1-UD, which I'm hoping to play with soon as dealers in Singapore will it have by the end of Feb - whilst over priced, it will give me 2 machines in 1, as I have need for DVD-A.

 

[jase fox]

SC:
jase fox:My moneys on the Denon !

I would have been tempted to agree, although I'm keen to 'hear' the analogue outs of the Marantz...

However, 2 separate dealers have pointed me at the LX91, including the dealer I purchased my Kuro from (who sells both Denon & Pioneer), saying it would be a better match with the screen re visual performance....Incidentally, the Pioneer is profile 2.

The potential fly in the ointment for me, will be the Denon's big brother, the universal A1-UD, which I'm hoping to play with soon as dealers in Singapore will it have by the end of Feb - whilst over priced, it will give me 2 machines in 1, as I have need for DVD-A.
May the battle commence........

As for the Denon A1-UD at around £3,500 ill pass !

 

[Anonymous]

If you already have a DVD-A player, as you no doubt must, then why spend a fortune replicating it? The 3800 should fit nicely alongside it as a top flight BD player, no?

The question is, which is best? Marantz, Denon, Sony, Pioneer, Arcam? Or another?

I don't want to prejudge save to say that the What Hi-Fi test will be awaited with baited breath by many!

 

[Andrew Everard]

Careful what you catch with that 'baited breath'...

 

[Anonymous]

I'm killing all around me. Noxious Vapours. (If I recall he was also a character in the Asterix comics!)

 

[Anonymous]

Will - The only DVD-A player I have is the Marantz 70001 DVD player, which will be going out with everything else I currently have. I've been saving for god knows how long for the whole Naim rig I want, which will be coming soon. Their own DVD5 initially made sense to me, as it's the audio performance I'm after, but in light of Bluray and the 50" screen I've since purchased, I have my doubts over the value of the SD DVD5 - however, having just said that, I may have just got my hands on a decent used one.

So my theory was to do with instead of having 2 separate players, I could hypothetically get the Denon universal, if the performance is up to it - It would still cost less than the combined total of separate DVD-A and BD players and I'm also sure the RRP will come down on the Denon plus it will certainly be cheaper in Asia. It would also ease the headache I have of 2 analogue multi-channel feeds going into the processor I want, which only has inputs for 1 !

I agree with you, it should be a good test with all these BD players and interesting to see the results !

 

[Anonymous]

Well you make a good point, but your problem is one of logistics more than anything else, fitting two sets of multi-channel inputs into your amp.

My Denon AVC A10SE has an 8 channel and a 6 channel input. I'm expecting to buy a BD player and use the 8 channel input for sound. Sound is the bit that matters most to me, they all have an amazing picture at the top end. There's also a alot of talk about BD Audio becoming popular, as the bit rate is high enough that you could just straight replace DVD-A or SACD with it. So it's unlikely that the SACD or DVD-A formats will continue.

Now if you wanted to be smart, this is what i'd do, buy a used Denon DVD3930 which will play your audio formats and put it alongside a player like the 3800 for BluRay duties.

So you'd use the multichannel input on your Marantz for the DVD3930 and the HDMI for the BluRay sound. This would work very well indeed would it not?

You can always get a better amp later on, but there is no point paying more than double for a player that is simply going to combine two boxes into one. I can't see any other added value, unless you're about to spend £15 - £20k on speakers and amps. Are you?