Marantz DV-9500: Anyone Listened to it or Bought?

Lanny, if your sp 1000 is only slightly better for video to the Pioneer, this must mean that your not even using the hdmi upconversion on the Onkyo...correct?

There are many people waiting for a good deal on the sp 1000 and the only other one I have seen sold used after being used in a shootout whith the the Estoric dv-50, was sold in an hour at Videogon.

Dalton, it certainly does, thanks so much. From your description, it appears that our taste in presentation is very similar. I too prefer a more upfront and lively sound. Especially dynamics and leading edge attack. But unfortunately my money tree has a low harvest threshold and therefor I must spend wisely.

How do you guys feel the transport sections of the newer universal DVD players stack up?

Distortion,
There is a fairly indepth reveiw of the Onkyo sp 1000 being used as a transport as compared to the Denon 3910 being used as a transport whith the top Krell pre/pro at www.avsforum.com in the massive Onkyo sp 1000 thread....somwhere in the last 5 pages.

Apparently..there is no comparison and the better built Onkyo is much better as a transport than the 3910.

I agree whith Lanny that the dvd-a on the sp 1000 is a bit warm sounding, but then again, this is my least used format and I have only had the bright sounding Denons to compare to for dvd-a.

Lanny, you may want to break in each individual format a bit more though.

Thanks Ears I'll check that out.

Guys,
Basically what I am really searching hard for is the very best 2 channel DVD-Audio performance for $2,000.00 or less.
DVD-Audio is currently my favorite format [besides analog] for music reproduction. As you can probably tell from my other threads, I am a HUGE fan of this format.
I am looking for the best resolution, detail, openness, focus, and aliveness on this format for $2,000 or less.
Thanks.