Classe DVD player vs Marantz 9600 for 802D's

[smjc99]

Is Classe CDP 300 all that better vs a Good dvd player like Marantz 9600 to use with 802D's and Classe amp and preamp?

Wanting to get one player for CD/dvd playback

Any suggestions?

[chuck1801]

No, unless you just want to spend money. Marantz 9600 should do fine. I use a Denon 5910ci for my 3x802D, 2x804S, Velodyne DD15 system. It is pretty much outstanding for everything. SSP/amps are Anthem D1/Classe CA3200/Anthem MCA20.

[chinets]

Yes, Go for the Marantz 9600 it's a beauty and the sound is Sublime. I would say that the CD of the Marantz even better than RCD 1072 or CDP 300 and those are CD players. This Marantz plays SACD,DVD-A, HDCD and the best picture DVD and Audio any one can buy in the world with upsacaling 1080p and HDMI and I link and the highest BITs and DCAs of any other DVD around at this moment. So a BIG YES to the Marantz DV9600!!!!!!!
Good Luck,
Chinets

[sikoniko]

the thing about the classe, is if you have the ssp300 or 600, you are better off spending the extra money on the classe dvd player. they are adding video switching to it for hdmi that will integrate somehow with their pre/pro's for audio as well. expensive solution.

[stewfoo]

After Andrew Ward's posts about the cdp-300, i think that he would have a heart attack if he saw the craziness going on in this thread. Btw, adding the 1072 as a comparison is a joke. It is a GREAT mid-fi cd player... But, not a cdp-300.

[stewfoo]

the thing about the classe, is if you have the ssp300 or 600, you are better off spending the extra money on the classe dvd player. they are adding video switching to it for hdmi that will integrate somehow with their pre/pro's for audio as well. expensive solution.

I have the ssp-300, 3200 and 2100...... I will probably get the cdp-300 as well.... The stack is stunning to look at.... and it is smooooooooooooth like butter.

Classe does not look that great with other gear next to it.... it really makes the other stuff look cheap... no matter how otherwise attractive it is.

[RebelMan]

I have the ssp-300, 3200 and 2100...... I will probably get the cdp-300 as well.... The stack is stunning to look at.... and it is smooooooooooooth like butter.

Classe does not look that great with other gear next to it.... it really makes the other stuff look cheap... no matter how otherwise attractive it is.

LOL, So very true! I used to think my Rotel equipment looked sweet and it does but just don't put it up next to the Delta Series, it will loose it's luster in heartbeat.

BTW, stewfoo I am thinking CDP-300 too. It is packed with some high tech wizardry that will make the venerable Gennum VXP and Realta HQV look common.

[JKalman]

Is Classe CDP 300 all that better vs a Good dvd player like Marantz 9600 to use with 802D's and Classe amp and preamp?

Wanting to get one player for CD/dvd playback

Any suggestions?

I don't know which one is better image quality wise, but thankfully, opinions are not important concerning the image quality issue because image quality can be confirmed through testing. I would do a search and/or post on AVS forums and see if anyone has run tests on these units yet, also do searches for reviews of the units since the video quality can be corroborated by video tests and most reviewers are smart enough to use these to validate their reviews. I know from my research late last year that the Denon DVD-5910 had the best image quality at that time and it is a universal player. I'm not sure which player is in the lead now... I own the DVD-5910 for surround material and DVD-video and an Ayre C-5xe for universal stereo playback (no DVD-V, only DVD-V sound playback), and highly recommend both.

Sound quality is an other issue, and it is highly debatable whether there are any perceivable differences between similarly priced equipment. Some people say Double Blind Tests scientifically prove there isn't, others swear there is a difference and DBTs aren't an appropriate means of proof. I've always believed in quantum physics and that an atom can be in multiple/infinite locations simultaneously and that no scientific test is objective; there is always a subjective viewpoint influencing an experiment's outcome, i.e. where the atom will appear and in what state. That being said, I feel the Denon DVD-5910 is a great sounding unit, and the Ayre C-5xe is worth every penny if you can buy one and video isn't a concern.

As Mark Twain said "It's not what we don't know that hurts us, it's what we know for certain that just ain't so." Though of course, that can apply to both sides of the argument... Depending on which side you sleep.

[JKalman]

Of course, another option is to wait for the next generation universal players which will have backwards compatibility with DVD, as well as HD-DVD and BluRay functionality. I think LG is working on one for this fall, but I'm not certain anymore, it has been awhile since I looked. I'm waiting for one of those myself, instead of buying two next generation players now...

[stewfoo]

As much as I try to be an audiophile, I realize that I am a faker. I just love the look of Classe... Putting anything in a stack with it truly looks bad. I have been forced to put all of the other equipment under my cabinet.

[chuck1801]

I have a couple hundred SACDs and the Classe CDP-300 don't play 'em. The Denon 5910ci does, very well. So does the Marantz 9600. So if you are looking for a one box solution the CDP-300 will only work if you don't care about SACD playback. But SACDs sound too good to pass on, IMO.

[audioqueso]

As much as I try to be an audiophile, I realize that I am a faker.

lol.. I'm sorry, but that's about the funniest thing I've read in this forum ever. lol You don't have to shoot yourself in the foot, man. lol Nice toys though!

[chinets]

This is the famous Secrets Review by Kris Deering about the Marantz DV9600 In his DVD Benchmark test: This player Is a Universal palyer and in picture it would put Denon or anything else to shame. It has SACD,DVD-A,HDCD,and the Best Video and Audio you can buy!! That Is my opinion. I have one and it is sensational without a doubt. Not cheap but th best player I have ever bought!!!
So Good Luck!!!!!!!!!! Chinets

Very few DVD players surprise me anymore. Well, some of them surprise me as to how bad they are this late in the game, but pleasant surprises are rare. I had been corresponding with Marantz about getting their DV9600 since late summer of 2005, but there were none to spare. Luckily, an AVS Forum member, Kevin Brown, was nice enough to let me borrow one he just bought. In fact, he had it sent directly from the dealer. Now I am sure Kevin was looking to get a bit out of it, like positive confirmation that his player is worth the price of admission in my book, but it was still extremely generous of him, and we at Secrets are very appreciative. Now, the only problem is whether or not Kevin will ever actually get the player back!!!

Yup, that last line was no joke. The Marantz DV9600 represents probably the best digital DVD transport (for sending audio and video digital bitstreams) I’ve seen yet. Sure it has a few issues, but none that will bother me enough to not put this on my miniscule list of players that would fit my bill. Sure, the Marantz does a phenomenal job on its own as a DVD player, and I would be more than happy to use it that way, but since I am in the business of testing a lot of different processors, a solid digital transport to feed those processors is pretty much a must have, and the number of said transports is EXTREMELLY small. I remember talking with Dan Miller at CEDIA last year about the DV9600, he said that Marantz was unveiling their new S4 DLP projector which features the new Gennum VXP processor for video processing. Marantz wanted a solid DVD player that featured 480i support via HDMI, and the DV9600 does exactly that.

However, that isn’t the only thing I like here. Marantz has really stepped it up this time. Some new features not seen on the previously reviewed DV9500, besides the 480i via HDMI, are scaling provided by Anchor Bay Technologies (the parent company of DVDO) which happens to be the same scaling chip as the highly regarded Denon DVD-5910, support for 1080p, and full compliance with the HDMI 1.1 spec including transmission of DVD-Audio. The DV9600 also has full support for SACD and iLink, for digital transmission of all high resolution formats with a matching processor or receiver. So, the DV9600 could be an all in one digital transport with the right receiver or processor in the mix.

Unlike the Marantz players before it, the 9600 is not based on a Pioneer Elite transport. This is Marantz's first "built from the ground up" transport. They are still using the Pioneer de-interlacing solution though. Lucky for Marantz that Pioneer has really tweaked this processing over the last few years as evidenced by the recent 59 and 79AVi tests. The nice thing, though, is that the 9600 doesn’t have the same issues with high detail material that the Pioneer Elite DV79AVi does, making it far more ideal as a standalone DVD player. Couple that with ABT’s phenomenal scaling capabilities and you have an outstanding DVD player in just about every regard.

The core section of the DV9600 measured out very well, with only a few exceptions. The player has only a minute amount of pixel cropping. With 480p, 720p, and 1080i, the player only clips two pixels from the bottom of the image. With 480i, it clips one from the top and one from the bottom. Hardly anything to worry about (though we always prefer no cropping). The end user can tailor the output color space to his liking with selections for 4:2:2 YCbCr (our preferred), 4:4:4 YCbCr, RGB, and Extended RGB. All of the output color spaces support below-black and above-white, except extended RGB which uses PC levels (black at digital 1 and white at digital 254). Output resolutions via HDMI include 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p (and their PAL variants). Yes, you read that right, 1080p is supported thanks to the ABT scaling.

The player does have some CUE issues. With our alternating 3-2 Fish pattern, I did see some slight flickering, though no CUE “striping” was present. I don’t care for the flicker, so I gave the player a borderline score here. The player also has the standard ICP CUE issues, so Marantz did not incorporate any chroma filtering for this player. ICP is rarely an issue with DVD playback though.

The component output was essentially the same as the HDMI output. Pixel cropping was identical at 480i and 480p. The player has an extremely flat video frequency response, and white and black levels were perfect. Using our digital oscilloscope, I found no Y/C delay. The analog outputs of this player do not offer the same scaled resolutions as the HDMI out, but they do provide an extremely solid 480p image.

Operability of the player is superb. The navigation speed is very fast with not a single hesitation to note. Using our high bit rate layer change test, the player measured in with a completely seamless layer change, a rarity nowadays. The set-up menus are easy to use, but the video set-up menus are a bit daunting and are very similar to the Pioneer Elite units in their adjustability. I recommend leaving most of the adjustments alone. It is rarely necessary to use filters with high end DVD players, and more often than not, they tend to hurt the image more than help it.

The DV9600 has no less than nine different de-interlacing modes. Ouch. The nice thing is you only need one of them. The 9600 features Auto 1-3, Video 1-3, and Film 1-3. Thankfully, both Auto 2 and Auto 3 handle all of the cadences you’ll need just fine. I suppose if you started seeing some weird artifacts with some really obscure video based DVD, you could try some of the other modes, but you should be covered with Auto 2 or 3. Auto 1 did very poorly with our bad edits test, so I don’t really recommend it.

The DV9600 does considerably well with diagonal line processing in the video domain. This is an area of that was ruled by Faroudja and their DCDi processing for quite some time, but now there are more solutions out there with comparable performance. While the 9600 doesn’t do quite as well as the DCDi solutions, it is one of the best all-in-one chip performers I’ve seen. Some of the Mediatek chips do well with this too, but they take some time to lock on.

Using the HQV Benchmark DVD, I tried some of the mixed cadences. These are the clips of the man in the diner with different speeds. The Marantz doesn’t do as well as some of the higher end processors like the new ABT based VP30 or the Silicon Optix Realta HQV chip. It does do quite well with another killer scene that former Secrets editor Stacey Spears found, the trailing credits in the Austin Powers DVD. This clip involves credits scrolling down the right side of the screen and a window box of video on the left. Most players comb quite excessively with this test, but the Marantz didn’t at all. The new ABT de-interlacer is the only other one that I’ve seen pass this without issues.

Recovery time from video to film mode was a tad sluggish and reminded me a bit of the previous Faroudja based players. I doubt this will impact the overall viewing experience though.

Unfortunately, at this time, I was unable to test out the 1080p capabilities of this player. My display only supports 720p (its native resolution), though I hope to remedy that at some point in the next year or so. I did test out the HDMI 1.1 output to my reference Anthem Statement D2 surround processor, and it worked perfectly for both movie soundtracks and DVD Audio playback. The audio section of the DV9600 is excellent, with full support of both high resolution formats and full bass management as well as time alignment for both. SACD does require conversion to PCM though for time alignment, but in our opinion it is well worth it. I also didn’t have the chance to try out the iLink outputs since my processor does not support this feature yet (fingers crossed!).

Conclusions

I must say that I REALLY liked this player. Marantz has delivered one of the best flagship designs I’ve seen in some time. From core video performance to de-interlacing to usability, the 9600 never let me down. It would make an outstanding digital transport for those looking for their next DVD player or a spectacular stand alone DVD player for those keeping it simple. Highly recommended!!!
By: Kris Deering

[JKalman]

Here are the reviews for both the Denon DVD-5910 and the Marantz DV9600:

Denon DVD-5910

Marantz DV9600

Here is the DVD Player results for the Denon on the DVD benchmark to compare with the Marantz 9600 above, I'll let you decide which tested better.

DVD-5910 Benchmarks

[chinets]

I've tested both extensively and find the Marantz is better in Audio and just about the same in Picture although I prefer the Marantz deep black and that perfect mirror/glass like Image that looks almost HD In my opinion.
Marantz dv 9600 surpasses the Denon DVD5910 In all audio such as SACD and DVD-A and even Redbook!!!!!!!!!Sorry, but these are my ears only in this test!!!