Best under $2000.00 : Denon,Marantz,Onkyo,Pioneer?


Hello,
I am extremely interested in purchasing the very best sonically performing universal disc player for $2,000.00 or less, brand new.
To those who have compared them or some of them:
Between the Denon DVD-5900, Denon DVD-3910, Marantz DV9500, Onkyo DV-SP1000, and Pioneer DV-59AVI, which has the very best sonics, especially playing 2 channel stereo, with the following formats:
Red-book CD's?
DVD-Audio?
SACD?
Which of the above has the very best video performance?
I am especially interested in the very best sonics from DVD-Audio discs playing their Advanced Resolution Stereo mixes.
Which of the above names players do you think would excel best,sonically, with the stereo mixes on DVD-Audio discs?
Thanks for all your help!
daltonlanny
Lanny,
I would say about a 3-4 weeks to break in using all formats whith usually a cd/sa-cd running 24/7 when not actually listening to the player, or using it to watch a flick.
The soundstage grows wider and deeper whith 150-200 hours and the overall sonics remain much like stock whith everything improving somewhat.

The thing whith the sp 1000 is once you start listening to music, you don't want to stop, so I had very little time for it to break in whithout actual use.
Normally, I will listen to a digital source and then let it run 24/7 for 4 days, listen again ect,but the sp 1000 got my toes tapping like they had a mind of there own, right from the get go.
If I had to guess, I would say there is a 10% improvement in sonics across the board after 3-4 weeks.

This is the first digital source I have owned that sounded musical right out of the box besides my Modwright signature 9000 es which was already broken in when I bought it used.
In other words, I did not pay much attention to break in like I normally would as I was enjoying the music too much.

Greg
Did anyone look into the integra dps-10.5 Isn't this unit a beefier onkyo sv1000? DPS10.5 also has built-in hd scaler,is this worth $500.00 more than the onkyo unit?

Slacker
They are the same player other than external source upconversion of s video and composite video, bnc component out and the Integra has a 3 year warranty instead of 1year.

It will likely cost a lot more than 500.00 for these added features though as the sp 1000 is selling for 1650.00 from authorized online dealers and there seem to be no online Integra dealers.

The Integra has the same exact build and the European sp 1000 also has the external upconversion for 5k U.S.

The only difference seen in the internals are the toridial transformer has Onkyo on theres, and the dps 10.5 has Integra on there toridial.

Both use the same deinterlacer, same Wolfson 7819 dacs for audio ect.

Integra does have a more expensive 4k or so universal coming out that would most likely be an upgrade for audio though.
EARS,
How important is having a built-in HD scaler that the Integra DPS10.5 has.Also how would you compare this to the Marantz 9500 in the audio section and in the video section.
Just as information the Integra unit list for $2500.00. You can find Integra on Videogon and on Audiogon under the catagory Video.selling around $1700.00.

Slacker
Yes, I know the dps 10.5 is 2.5k...thus 500.00 more list, but a lot more than that in reality for a new one as compared to a new sp 1000.
That one listing is for a used player and I am reffering to new players from factory authorized dealers.
To me, the external upscaler is useless as I haven't watched a vhs tape in years, have hd tv, and my kids x box already does 720p/1080i on over half the games he owns when I let him use the projector.
Basically , I have no external sources I want upconverted.

Some people may have a vhs,laser disc or sd cable they want to upscale
If you have a use for extenal upconversion, it may be worth it to you.

I have not heard the 9500, and have only read one German reveiw were the sp 1000 was the winner over the Denon 5900/Marantz 9500 and Pioneer 59avi for both video and audio.
The reveiw said the 9500 was slightly more musical I beleive, but that the sp 1000 was the best of the three for audio.

The only actual owner comparisons for audio I have seen besides the Denon,Pioneer ect universals are two people preffering the sp 1000 over the Sony 777,one person preffering it to his Marantz sa 14, and one person saying it was close to an Estoric dv-50.

Remember, this is a fairly new player and most audiophools, including myself don't usually think of Onkyo...at least I never have.

As far as the upcoming universal for 4k, it is an Integra Research and not the Integra that I had mentioned.

Greg