Quote:
Originally Posted by LordoftheRings
Yeah, what makes the Panasonic 9000 $450 more expensive than the Oppo 203?
The 9000 is missing DVD-Audio and SACD playback capability and a HDMI input jack.
Could it be that the video processor chip inside the 9000 is few hundred dollars more expensive than the one in the 203/205?
* I would have put a donut transformer in the 9000.
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Its mostly the markup versus the manufacturing cost of the player. Panasonic likely has a lot of wiggle room if they need to reduce price and move the product towards end of product cycle.
Toroidal transformers are usually used in situations of a lot of current or low nose designs. They also need to be positioned where the EMF is away from sensitive circuity. They had room but elongated the power supply design somewhat in the pictures. But they cost more to buy/use, also this player is not using premium DAC's compared to other analog audiophile products out there.
IMHO Panasonic had to meet a balance of cost/features with this UB9000 player and you have to draw a line somewhere as $999 MSRP is not much as far as anything Analog orientated.
