The Denon DVD-A1UD Review Thread

[btf1980]

I was talking to my dealer yesterday and naturally the discussion shifted to this player. We agreed. It's sort of a conundrum. Unless you are using the analog connections, or will be decoding the codecs in the player, then it is a complete waste of time and money. But the type of person who can afford this by this time already has a prepro or will be shopping for one with HDMI. Most of the major players have rolled out or will be rolling out their HDMI prepros.

The balanced outs are not a selling point to the demographics targeted. Anyone serious about CD/SACD has a dedicated player with balanced outputs already. No one is selling their Macs, Cary or Esoteric players to replace it with a universal Denon player.

Right now, you can get a McIntosh MVP-871 for 2K lightly used and get just about any profile 2.0 player with over a grand to spare. If you will be using digital connections with your movie watching, where exactly does this player fit? It won't replace reference CD/SACD players, and most people will not be using analog outs. And those that are, perhaps $3800 should be used in upgrading your processor and not buying source units. It's almost half the price of a Classe SSP-800.

[welwynnick]

Originally Posted by naturephoto1

I will probably stick with my upgraded Denon DVD 3800BDCI Blu-ray and upgraded Denon DVD 5910. Both were upgraded by Dave Schulte of the Upgrade Company:

Originally Posted by naturephoto1

By the way, Dave Schulte of the Upgrade Company had performed upgrades on both the $7,500 Denon AVP1HD Pre/Pro as well as the $1800 Onkyo PR-SC885. Dave found that with the upgrades the Onkyo sounds substantially better than the Denon with upgrades. I was going to purchase the upgraded Denon originally, but ultimately at Dave's suggestion I purchased the upgraded Onkyo for a savings of about $4,000. I am extremely pleased with my upgraded Onkyo; it blows away the stock or upgraded Denon AVP1HD.

Hi Rich,

I'm interested to hear about your experience with your upgrade company mods. There are lots of good modmen out there, but he seems to come highly recommended. I understand he won't divulge what his mods are, unlike some others, but I'm curious about where the benefits come from.

Each of your upgraded kit has both digital and analogue processing - can you tell whether the improvements come from one side or the other? In other words, does either player sound better when you're using digital interfaces, as well as (presumably) analogue?

I don't really want to go OT, so I'm happy to go PM or a new thread.

Cheers, Nick

[naturephoto1]

Originally Posted by welwynnick

Hi Rich,

I'm interested to hear about your experience with your upgrade company mods. There are lots of good modmen out there, but he seems to come highly recommended. I understand he won't divulge what his mods are, unlike some others, but I'm curious about where the benefits come from.

Each of your upgraded kit has both digital and analogue processing - can you tell whether the improvements come from one side or the other? In other words, does either player sound better when you're using digital interfaces, as well as (presumably) analogue?

I don't really want to go OT, so I'm happy to go PM or a new thread. By the way, I did not mention in the PM, but Dave's upgrades are for both the audio (both digital and analog) as well as for the video reproduction. Yes they are most definitely better for everything after upgrade. Dave replaces lower quality parts with better parts where he knows their affect and they dramatically improve performance. He does not believe in replacing clocks etc.

Cheers, Nick

Hi Nick,

I just sent you a rather lengthy PM which I hope will prove to be valuable. I forgot to mention in the PM that Dave works on both the digital and analog sections of the audio as well as the video portion of the upgraded units. Dave does not believe in replacing clocks, or tubes mods. He replaces low quality parts with expensive high quality parts that he knows will have extremely positive effects from his 28 years of experience.

Rich

[Vlad44]

Any news on price?

[zepherman]

Originally Posted by Vlad44

Any news on price?

It's confirmed that it will retail for $3800 USD.

http://www.usa.denon.com/DVDA1UDCI.blurayrel.Final.pdf

I was also able to find more info on this amazing new player. The pdf is in Chinese, but does show the important info in English. Just in case anyone is wondering, yes this player will be made in Japan.

http://www.denon.com.hk/pdf/DVDA1UD.pdf

This thing is a heavy sucker and weighs in at a whopping 42 lbs! The DAC's used are AKM's newest 32 bit AK4399.

[Vlad44]

Thank you, Zeph. Now I have a target.

[zepherman]

Originally Posted by Vlad44

Thank you, Zeph. Now I have a target.

You're welcome.

I am really looking forward to getting this player once it's out. I am looking forward to using the players balanced XLR outs, as well as the Denon Link capabilities for SACD/DVD-A. The build quality also appears to be among the best I have seen, with all metal construction, with even the tray being all metal.



Seth

[btf1980]

Originally Posted by zepherman

You're welcome.

I am really looking forward to getting this player once it's out. I am looking forward to using the players balanced XLR outs, as well as the Denon Link capabilities for SACD/DVD-A. The build quality also appears to be among the best I have seen, with all metal construction, with even the tray being all metal.

Zeph are you going to consolidate all your players (SACD, DVD-A, BD, DVD etc) with this new Denon and get rid of the rest?

[zepherman]

Originally Posted by btf1980

Zeph are you going to consolidate all your players (SACD, DVD-A, BD, DVD etc) with this new Denon and get rid of the rest?

That's the plan. As much as I have enjoyed using my Yamaha S2300 universal player, it uses 6 analog cables for high res sound. When I found out that Denon was soon to be releasing a universal Blu-ray player with Denon Link, I knew that was going to be the one for me.

So once I get the DVD-A1UDCI, I will then no longer need the 2500BT, Yamaha S2300, Sony S300, and possibly even my reference Sony CDP-XA20ES. I expect that the analog section of this new player will be amazing, so I plan to use the balanced XLR outs for listening to CD's.

Multi-channel SACD and DVD-A will be via Denon Link, and Blu-ray movies via HDMI.

So I will be using a portion of the players DAC's for CD's, and as a transport for Blu-ray and SACD/DVD-A.


Seth

[zepherman]

http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/akm/en/...99/ak4399.html

[zepherman]

http://www.usa.denon.com/DVD-A1UDCI_Lit1222.pdf

[zepherman]

While looking around the net for some CES info on this new player, I ran across this video from day 2 of CES. This webcast program shows the Denon DVD-A1UDCI, and briefly touches on some of its features. The hosts of the program wrongly mention the price of the player being $4500, which it is not (It's $3800). The clip on the new Denon player is the last product featured on the show, so you need to skip past of the rest of the gadgets. Denon's USA website recently added this player to their Blu-ray players section as "coming soon".

http://revision3.com/tekzilla/ces2k9day2/


Seth

[Vlad44]

Originally Posted by zepherman

Denon's USA website recently added this player to their Blu-ray players section as "coming soon".

http://revision3.com/tekzilla/ces2k9day2/


Seth

Well, yeah. When I was visiting their site couple of day ago, there were no info at all!

Thank you Seth again for update.:-)

[zepherman]

Originally Posted by Vlad44

Well, yeah. When I was visiting their site couple of day ago, there were no info at all!

Thank you Seth again for update.:-)

You're welcome.

I know that I am super hyped about this player and can't wait to get mine.


Seth

[emilsjr]

Just today, they just updated the product page to show a price of $4200 now.

http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/4760.asp

Still, can hardly wait for this player to be released.

[Vlad44]

Originally Posted by emilsjr

Just today, they just updated the product page to show a price of $4200 now.

http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/4760.asp

Still, can hardly wait for this player to be released.

Hmm,.. 10% diff isn't a big deal in this case. They are protecting their profit against USD to JPY ratio fluctuation. Imho.

[zepherman]

Originally Posted by Vlad44

Hmm,.. 10% diff isn't a big deal in this case. They are protecting their profit against USD to JPY ratio fluctuation. Imho.

I am a bit bummed about the price increase, and wished that Denon had stated a $4200 price for the player back in December, instead of springing this surprise now. Granted $400 isn't a huge increase, but for those whose upper limit was $3800, this could very well mean a non sale for them.

I don't mind surprises, but only when it's a good surprise. A price hike isn't one of them.

So will this price increase prevent me from getting an A1UDCI? Not sure yet. I may still get one but only if I can get a good enough deal.


Seth

[emilsjr]

Originally Posted by Vlad44

Hmm,.. 10% diff isn't a big deal in this case. They are protecting their profit against USD to JPY ratio fluctuation. Imho.

I agree. There should be at least a 10% discount on street anyway, so it would bring it back to $3780. Hopefully BB throws out some coupons right when the Denon streets.

[zepherman]

Just thought I'd share, here's an interview video with Denon's Jeff Talmadge discussing the new A1UDCI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2vh5cWWsLo

[HDJK]

Originally Posted by naturephoto1

Hi Nick,

I just sent you a rather lengthy PM which I hope will prove to be valuable. I forgot to mention in the PM that Dave works on both the digital and analog sections of the audio as well as the video portion of the upgraded units. Dave does not believe in replacing clocks, or tubes mods. He replaces low quality parts with expensive high quality parts that he knows will have extremely positive effects from his 28 years of experience.

Rich

If you happen to have a copy of that PM I'd be interested as well

Thanks.