amperidian

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
1.50 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $800.00 from ebay

Summary:
An excellent product overall. Image quality is as good as your cables can pass through. Component cables are highly recommended, I realized this when I watched Finding Nemo ... the light rays are clearly visible in the water. Plus you can finetune your image to your taste using all the adjustments in the menu. Sound, also very good so far. I've only used the optical path so far and it closely rivals (but does not match) my cd player's analog (weird huh?), yeah, and I'm not using a crappy Cd player either. This DVD/SACD player is damn good if I may be allowed. I'm getting analog interconnects for the SACD outputs soon, so my sound quality will get even better (for DTS/Dolby Digital as well as SACD). I have not experienced the centre channel bug with my unit. For pure audio pleasure, this unit also has a "video circuits off" option as well as a "display dimmer/off" option. Build quality is reasonable for its price range. Looks slick, is not bulky like other products in its price range (Sony, Denon) and performs very well in comparison with these competitors. I won't replace it until it breaks down. My system: Marantz DV 8300 Audio Refinement Complete alpha CD player Denon avr4802r A/V receiver Mordaunt Short (MS) 914's front MS 903's surround MS 905 centre surround MS 504 centre Monster Sigma Retro Gold speaker cables Audioquest Coral Cd player interconnects (will upgrade to Sigma's here too) Audioquest NRG2 powerbars to Cd and DVD players Monster HTS 2000 mkII power manager

Strengths:
sound video looks size better than its Sony/Denon/Pioneer Elite counterparts

Weaknesses:
layer change could be a little faster but I'm not very picky with stuff like that

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic F65, Sony NS9000ES, Denon 2900

Price Paid:  $1499.00 from Audiogon

Summary:
This unit is wonderful but I did find the center channel bug tonight watching the 1951 monaural movie, Scrooge. The sound just died. But thanks to the reviews I read here, I pressed pause and play and everything was fine. I wonder what they can do to fix that since it's intermittent? Otherwise the sound is amazingly clear, sweet, musical. Less 'out in front' than the Sony SACD that I'm using as a 5 disc cd changer now. I found none of the listener fatigue I found with the Sony. The Marantz sings the Sony belts if that metaphor works.

Strengths:
Build quality, ease of set up and use, OSM is very navigable, sound stage is wonderful, music sings SACD/DVD-A playback is superb, regular cd's sound better but bad recordings will be exposed.

Weaknesses:
That intermittent center channel bug.

Similar Products Used:
Sony SACD ES222; Kenwood Sovereign 5700;

Price Paid:  $2400.00 from Fairview Hi-Fi

Summary:
I recently bought a Marantz DV8400. Overal it is a superb unit and absolutle amazing on SACD especially. It also has a suprisingly superb video section even on S-video only! The video quality is noticeably better than my Pioneer Elite DV38A! However I do have one problem. About 30% of the time while watching movies (DD 5.1 or DTS) my center channel drops out, ie. no sound. I simply hit pause then paly and the problem clears. Anyone else out there have this problem?

Strengths:
Supberb video and SACD

Weaknesses:
center channel problem

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer Elite DV38A

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from Hong Kong

Summary:
It all started when I rented "The Bridge Too Far" DVD and it start to freeze up on my Denon 1100 every 40 sec. Error disk reading seems to be a problem occasionally. The Denon is a great unit but it seems to be wearing out after 2 years. After thorough research for a multi-format player with audio performance as priority 2nd reliability, 3rd picture performance: including Sony 999, Integra 8.3, Pioneer DV47, Denon 2900, have decided on the Marantz 8400. My initial impression when first watching a DD movie was, hmm pretty good picture, better than my Denon but the sound was horrible. Definitly shouldn''t be for a $1000 DVP. There sound were more details but muffed like a blanket was covering my spk. I almost cry and want to sell it right away. Then I remember reading reviewers comment about breakin for at least 100-300 hrs. I was skepical as my Musical Fidelity CDP didn't sound this unbarable when new. After about 80 hrs of continue play, it actually improve consideribly and about equal my Denon 1100 in DD sound quality. I then try a dts DVD and oh my goodness, something wonderful has happened. I came to relized this player is strong at dts as well as SACD. I've forgoten about dts as I've been watching DVDs using DD because I used to connect my old Denon analog out to my Symphonic Line pre/pow F Spk and digital to my NAD A/V rec for Ctr, R Sur & Sub. I highly recommend this setup if you have a seperate pre/pow for CD listening as it will make a huge improvement if you're using a mid-fi a/v receiver. Anyhow, my Denon didn't have a built-in decoder so I was limited to DD 5.1 when watching move with this setup. Now that my Marantz do, I can use the same setup when watching dts format, awesome! Couldn't wait when it's 300 hrs fully run-in sounds like.

Strengths:
-refined sound quality in dts, sacd (it's price range) -smooth and crisp picture quality -fast loading and track

Weaknesses:
DD format sound slightly lay-back sound for movie

Similar Products Used:
Denon 1100, Sony NS930, Sony NS999, Onkyo

Price Paid:  $1350.00 from Definitive Audio, Be

Summary:
Bought this player in Dec of '02 to upgrade from my Marantz DV4000, Mainly to get component video out. DV4000 is an excellent player, but this one tops it hands down. The component video is just clearly superior in depth, clarity, and noise level. And the tray is really fast! Am going directly into the component inputs of Pioneer Elite Pro-520. Very happy with it. Have played few cd's on it as I am still using my Carver DTL-450 for that, but they sounded great. I do not have any SACD disc's yet, but since I just heard that Norah Jones has released one, that will soon change.

Strengths:
Superb picture quality.

Weaknesses:
Marantz still won't program anyone else's codes into their remotes.

Similar Products Used:
Marantz DV4000