My Pioneer BDP-LX55 Blu-ray Player Review

[Deleted member 2457]

Do I order the Marantz 7007 from Superfi for £610? :? Two hours before the deal is up. What do you think guys?

 

[strapped for cash]

It's a lot of money. In fact, it's more than one third of the cost of a 50VT65.

If you've got that much to spend, I'd look for a cheaper BDP and get your GT50 calibrated. Overall, the results will be far more pleasing.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

It's a lot of money. In fact, it's more than one third of the cost of a 50VT65.

If you've got that much to spend, I'd look for a cheaper BDP and get your GT50 calibrated. Overall, the results will be far more pleasing.

I have the money, but it would mean paying around £1100 for the VT65! Otherwise costs are going to mount up higher than I wanted. An hour before the deal runs out. :? Not sure what to do.

 

[bigboss]

What about Denon 1713UD, or Marantz UD5007?

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Ordered!

£611! Oh boy.

 

[bigboss]

The Denon is available for £279 from The Movie Rooms, Edinburgh:

http://www.themovierooms.co.uk/denon-dbt-1713ud.html

 

[Deleted member 2457]

The Denon is available for £279 from The Movie Rooms, Edinburgh:

http://www.themovierooms.co.uk/denon-dbt-1713ud.html

Ah cheers for the link, just ordered the Marantz for £611! How to do it today to get the discount! What do you think?

 

[johnjay]

There was a time when i thought £500+ was the rough cost of a decent mid-range BD-player. I got my LX55 for £200.00 in january.

It works flawlessly as a Bluray/dvd player & its a great CD player too imo. I also love USB HD movies & the Marvel upscaler does an excellent job with DVDs also. The only way now i would spend that kind of money on a disc spinner was if i had no choice-literally hands tied, mouth gagged & pray it was Oppos top player which would be dreamland.

In your shoes mate i would have gone for the Denon 1713-UD at a little over 1/3rd of the cost of the 7007. It will look great on your rack though & you will probably have to have the smile chisled off

TBH ive had a few players now: Budget-upper mid range & the picture & sound never seems worth 50-60% more in the end. You will have aesthetic rack appeal & maybe get a little more for it than you would the cheaper player when upgraditus hits again. I only pay a premium for my avr & speakers now. But best of luck with this one Gel its a very nice player...

 

[Deleted member 2457]

There was a time when i thought £500+ was the rough cost of a decent mid-range BD-player. I got my LX55 for £200.00 in january.

It works flawlessly as a Bluray/dvd player & its a great CD player too imo. I also love USB HD movies & the Marvel upscaler does an excellent job with DVDs also. The only way now i would spend that kind of money on a disc spinner was if i had no choice-literally hands tied, mouth gagged & pray it was Oppos top player which would be dreamland.

In your shoes mate i would have gone for the Denon 1713-UD at a little over 1/3rd of the cost of the 7007. It will look great on your rack though & you will probably have to have the smile chisled off

TBH ive had a few players now: Budget-upper mid range & the picture & sound never seems worth 50-60% more in the end. You will have aesthetic rack appeal & maybe get a little more for it than you would the cheaper player when upgraditus hits again. I only pay a premium for my avr & speakers now. But best of luck with this one Gel its a very nice player...

Cheers mate, nice to hear from you.

:cheers: I think I got an okay deal hopefully. Fingers crossed now.

 

[johnjay]

As long as your happy with it (who wouldn't be) thats the main thing.

Ive heard of the LX55 freezing but its only ever happened to me on the hopeless youtube app., so its not an issue for me,thank god. Good to hear from you too mate. Enjoy your new Marantz 7007.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

I phoned the shop and I am getting it swapped for another 55. I will just have to see how this one goes.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Ended up with a full refund. I will move on to the Marantz now.

 

[johnjay]

I still have a bdp-51 as well just in case i ever need a spare...There is very little actual PQ difference with bluray, but the '55s upscaling is excellent.

WHF reckons the '55 sounds a bit lean but with my set-up i cant say its lean. A bit more detailed soundwise than the '51. But they both sound punchy. although i still think the '51 has a lovely rich sound even though its 4-5yrs old.

Denon & Marantz BDPs are well regarded & it was touch & go for me when i was picking my last player as i also demoed the 1713-ud But for €100s less i stayed with Pioneer. So far so good anyway...

But if you do pick up the 7007 at that price of £600 you will have a player worthy of any high-end system.Its a very nice quality player . Although if i did break my own rule & buy a high grade player like the 7007 or Oppo bdp-103 (the 105 is crazy money) id certainly want to see it on a 80"-100" PJ screen as i would say it would look amazing on the big screen. Good luck which ever player you choose Gel.

 

[bigboss]

WHF reckons the '55 sounds a bit lean but with my set-up i cant say its lean. A bit more detailed soundwise than the '51. But they both sound punchy. although i still think the '51 has a lovely rich sound even though its 4-5yrs old.

If you bitstream audio so your receiver decodes it then you won't have to worry about your blu ray player's sonic abilities.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

I still have a bdp-51 as well just in case i ever need a spare...There is very little actual PQ difference with bluray, but the '55s upscaling is excellent.

WHF reckons the '55 sounds a bit lean but with my set-up i cant say its lean. A bit more detailed soundwise than the '51. But they both sound punchy. although i still think the '51 has a lovely rich sound even though its 4-5yrs old.

Denon & Marantz BDPs are well regarded & it was touch & go for me when i was picking my last player as i also demoed the 1713-ud But for €100s less i stayed with Pioneer. So far so good anyway...

But if you do pick up the 7007 at that price of £600 you will have a player worthy of any high-end system.Its a very nice quality player . Although if i did break my own rule & buy a high grade player like the 7007 or Oppo bdp-103 (the 105 is crazy money) id certainly want to see it on a 80"-100" PJ screen as i would say it would look amazing on the big screen. Good luck which ever player you choose Gel.

Cheers mate.

The Marantz 7007 is the one I have on order now. I very much liked the Pioneer 55 too. I thought the picture and sound was excellent, and was enjoying it very much other than the freezing issue which I suppose happened about 4-5 times in 10 days! So not good, just using my 71 again at the moment, the operation is much better.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

WHF reckons the '55 sounds a bit lean but with my set-up i cant say its lean. A bit more detailed soundwise than the '51. But they both sound punchy. although i still think the '51 has a lovely rich sound even though its 4-5yrs old.

If you bitstream audio so your receiver decodes it then you won't have to worry about your blu ray player's sonic abilities.

On my 71 you have to select auto for bitstream, it doesn't have the same controls as the 55 did! I think I can hear a slight difference between the two - the 71 and 55.

 

[johnjay]

I actually do bitstream the hd audio & legacy codecs. Sorry i meant the resulting sound after its passed through the av receiver Cheers though.

 

[johnjay]

Yeah i agree. its a fairly subtle difference, but noticiable all the same. I still reckon the theres a more allround grip to the sound on the BDP-51 compared to the '55.

 

[strapped for cash]

WHF reckons the '55 sounds a bit lean but with my set-up i cant say its lean. A bit more detailed soundwise than the '51. But they both sound punchy. although i still think the '51 has a lovely rich sound even though its 4-5yrs old.

If you bitstream audio so your receiver decodes it then you won't have to worry about your blu ray player's sonic abilities.

I'm not convinced there's any difference setting the BDP to decode audio digitally, either. With some models there's a volume difference between outputting as bitstream or PCM, but I don't think this has anything to do with quality (i.e. turning the volume up or down renders the sound identical). I say this having owned several BDPs. In my view, a mid-to-high end BDP purchase can only be justified on three counts:

1. Build quality and operating noise

2. Upscaling abilities

3. Analogue audio performance

If none of the above is important to you, there's zero logic in buying an expensive BDP and you're best served by a budget model such as the Panasonic 120.

I bought the CA 651 for its build quality and Marvell processor which, as detailed on another thread, does an exceptional job of upscaling to 1080p (better than Anchor Bay processing, in my experience).

For a while I was convinced that my Denon DVD2500BT produced better images than a budget BDP, even if I couldn't explain why. Extensive A/B testing against the Panasonic 120 revealed that BD playback was identical between machines. This is not to say a budget (or indeed expensive) BDP can't get things wrong and add undefeatable processing. You still need to research any purchase.

I know I'm preaching to the converted in many cases. I'm also sure the Marantz will do a great job. It's pretty, too, and certainly built to last.

 

[bigboss]

Agreed.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

I bought the Marantz on the back of WHF review and Ellisdj's pictures and comments. A bit risky for sure but I do believe in good quality Blu-ray players, and have noticed big differences between different players. For me the Marantz is now the only player that interests me, if it weren't for this player I would had not bought another one. I think back to Professorhat also purchasing a Marantz and know there must be something in their quality. Fingers crossed a bit though.

 

[strapped for cash]

Ultmately it's about you being happy with your purchase.

There will never be a consensus on this forum about BD playback across different players. It's hard to imagine you'll be disappointed by the Marantz. By all accounts it's a cracking machine.

Let us know what you think.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Ultmately it's about you being happy with your purchase.

There will never be a consensus on this forum about BD playback across different players. It's hard to imagine you'll be disappointed by the Marantz. By all accounts it's a cracking machine.

Let us know what you think.

Will do mate.

I think they have to order one in first, because I don't think they have stock. I hope I can trust Superfi, and £611 seemed a good deal to me from a £1000. Don't really know much about its DVD cabilities but would imagine they are good.