Blu-Ray AND DVD-Audio and SACD

Despite getting a very favorable review a few months ago, the Pioneer BDP-09FD was missing one key aspect that was disapointing: no DVD-Audio and SACD support.

Sure these are dead formats at this point, but many still have large collections, and it's great to have one player to play everything. Enter the Marantz UD9004.

Marantz has come out with a bevy of high end products recently, notably the Reference series. Gary reviewed the SC-7S2 Control Amplifier, MA-9S2 Monoblocks, and SA-7S1 SACD player. While not officially part of the Reference series, the UD9004 is still referred to by Marantz as a flagship product, and is certainly not lacking in the build quality or parts department. Starting with the weight.

The copper plated chassis, aluminum/resin front panel, aluminum and zinc die-cast parts, all add up to a hefty 42.3 pounds, more than many receivers.

There are dual HDMI outputs, so you can send the audio to the receiver without having to then route to the TV. On the analog side, you get XLR balanced outputs for the main left/right, and eight channels of unbalanced outputs.

Inside, of course, is where the real magic happens. There are 32-bit Analog Devices SHARC processors for the HD audio decoding (all the current formats, of course), and 192 kHz/32-bit AK4399 DACs for digital to audio conversion on all channels.

On the video side, the UD9004 uses the REALTA HQV chipset and a 14-bit Analog Devices DAC and the Anchor Bay Technology ABT2010 and ABT1012 for the component output.

If your projector doesn't have the feature, the UD9004 has the ability to vertically stretch 2.35:1 movies, presuming you have the lens to stretch it back out to fill a 2.35:1 screen.

The remote is fairly plain, but has a weighty feel, and is topped with aluminum. A small thing, for sure, but it feels like something that should come with a high-end product, which often isn't the case with remotes. Sadly, it is not back lit, so finding the right buttons in the dark is a challenge.

Mechanically, from the way the disc drawer silently slides in and out, to the click of the front panel buttons, the UD9004 has a feel of quality, something else that's rarely found in a Blu-ray player.

Performance

Start up, from off to when you see an image, is about on par with other high-end BD players. That is to say it’s slower than the new cheap models, but not egregiously so.

One of the coolest features, found on this and a few other BD players, is the ability to play back DVDs at 24p. Press the Resolution button on the remote and just select 1080p/24. If you have one of the growing number of displays that will duplicate frames in a multiple of 24, the loss of the 3:2 judder on your older discs will be welcome.

Although it says on the on-screen menu that it outputs 1080p over component, it is just 1080i. Not a big deal as most displays can’t accept 1080p over component anyway.

Scaling up from 480, the UD9004 creates a detailed and natural image. Though not quite as perfect as the BDP-09FD, it is still likely much better than what comes in your display. Detail is good, though with test patterns like the rotating bar from the HQV Test DVD, there are some small jaggies. Better than most, but not perfect.

It does better with the waving flag test on the same disc, which shows an almost total lack of jaggies.

On the audio side

For my first listening test, I put in REM Automatic for the People DVD-Audio. The piano at the beginning of “Nightswimming” sounds incredibly lifelike, you can hear the notes reverberate though the recording space, not just the initial notes.

Next was Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison SACD. Track 8 “The Long Black Veil” brings out the gravel in Cash’s voice, and in a similar fashion to the REM track, you can really hear the unique space this album was recorded in.

To test the performance with regular CDs, I used Peter Broderick’s Home. Track 1 “Games” has a chorus of voices blending and fading in and out. The DACs created a clean, revealing, and detailed sound. Perhaps not quite as smooth as the best DACs I’ve heard in other equipment, but very close. It would come down to preference on this over another, really. The second track "And it's Alright" starts with an acoustic guitar, and you can hear the strings create each note. Like you could picture the guitar playing, not just hearing notes being played by some instrument.

Overbuilt, because they can

A $6,000 Blu-ray player, for some, is a hard sell. But for others, the top notch video and audio performance and stunning build quality offer up the kind of high-end experience that just can’t be attained by “mainstream” products. Definitely worth checking out.

PRICE:
UD9004: $5,999

CONTACT: Marantz.com