Rotel vs Marantz for CD and DVD

[Redhawk]

Was looking at replacing my DVD and CD player and wanted to know if anyone more experienced than I has compared these devices. What is the extra money getting me? The DVD player is about three times the cost and the cd player is a little less than double. The DVD player has to be 1080P. Right now I have the 1057 reciever and love it, but am on the fence concerning DVD and CD. I'm not in a position to audition any of this stuff, or I would just do that.

RDV-1092 vs Marantz DV6001
RCC-1055 vs Marantz CC4001

Thanks.

[bigburner]

Hi Redhawk,

I don't own a DVD player from either Rotel or Marantz but I've read thousands of comments about both devices in this forum. In general Rotel DVD players do not seem to be particularly well regarded. In contrast, Marantz DVD players get lots of positive comments.

On the other hand, Rotel CD players attract lots of positive feedback. I've owned a Rotel RCD-855 for at least 13 years. It's been problem free and still sounds good.

I have an Oppo 971 DVD player. I've connected an external DAC to the Oppo and I now use the Oppo for CDs too because it sounds better than the Rotel. My wife still uses the Rotel because she's familiar with it!

If I was in your position I would consider buying an Oppo 981 (US$229) http://www.oppodigital.com/dv981hd/dv981hd_index.html and an external DAC such as the Benchmark DAC1 (US$975) http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/dac1/ and I would use this combination for DVDs and CDs.

The Oppo is built like a budget player (because it is a budget player!) but the picture quality is superb. It does 1080p, SACD, and DVD-Audio. If it craps out after 2 years then buy the latest Oppo which will have an even better video processing chip. At US$229 that's quite feasible.

A good external DAC like the Benchmark will provide sound quality equivalent to a CD player that costs many thousands of dollars. If you are into music DVDs this is a big advantage over a standard DVD player. The Benchmark DAC1 is a quality piece of equipment, will last forever, and will work nicely with whatever DVD player you buy.

Please let us know what you end up doing.

Nigel.

[Redhawk]

Thanks for replying. One last question. If my TV is 1080P and the DVD player I have now plays 720p, won't the 720p signal just "become" a 1080p signal when it gets displayed on a tv with 1920 x 1080 pixels. The TV will have to convert it anyway unless it is naturallly a 1080 x 1920 stream since it doesn't leave pixels blank. The TV in question is a Sony 40" BRAVIA XBR® LCD HDTV so wouldn't a 720p and a 1080p dvd player look just about the same, it's only whether the DVD player or tv does the upconversion since old DVD's are not 1080p anyway?

[bigburner]

Thanks for replying. One last question. If my TV is 1080P and the DVD player I have now plays 720p, won't the 720p signal just "become" a 1080p signal when it gets displayed on a tv with 1920 x 1080 pixels. The TV will have to convert it anyway unless it is naturallly a 1080 x 1920 stream since it doesn't leave pixels blank. The TV in question is a Sony 40" BRAVIA XBR® LCD HDTV so wouldn't a 720p and a 1080p dvd player look just about the same, it's only whether the DVD player or tv does the upconversion since old DVD's are not 1080p anyway?

The key question is whether the upconverting technology in the Oppo 981 outperforms the upconversion capabilities of the Sony 40" BRAVIA XBR® LCD HDTV.

Sorry Redhawk, but I'm not qualified to answer that question.

Nigel.

[Redhawk]

Thanks again.

[mattburk]

I have had the rotel 1070cd player & I now have the marantz cd5500. I do not think the rotel was worth the extra 400. I actually prefer the marantz for features.

[Vicente]

I have both a Rotel RDV 1060 and a Marantz DV6600. I bougth the Marantz second hand because everybody was telling me that this one will outperform the Rotel using the HDMI output, scaling the DVDs to 720p.

What I found: The Marantz 6600 thru components is more o less the same as the Rotel RDV1060, but using HDMI does not perform better. The picture quality in HDMI is about the same of the components output from Rotel or the same Marantz, but colours are worse, without saturation.

I'm using now the Rotel with the projector Mitsu HC3000 and the Marantz with my Pioneer Elite 43" plasma in different rooms.

I tried the new Rotel RDV 1092 and the Marantz 9600 (top of DVD players from both brands) and using HDMI they are very good and also very similar (better than the 1060). Reading CD's Marantz seems more musical and refined but it's also more expensive (reads SACD too).

I'm waiting now to compare RDV 1092 with the new Marantz 7001 whom I heard very good things, so I have to wait.

My winner for the moment is Marantz DV9600 but in Europe is 2000 Euros that in my oppinion is too expensive, thinking that the new HD formats are here and for instance there are very good reports of the Toshiba HDDVD players upscaling standard DVD's, at about 700 Euros or less.

Difficult times to make the correct decission....