Arcam DiVA DV135 (£450) vs Marantz DV 6001 (£300) or 7001 (£600)

[leonardng]

Hi there - I have just been looking for a DVD player which also plays CDs well. In fact, the primary use would be audio, with DVDs played only occasionally.

For some reason the Arcam DV135 has halved in price - from £999 to £450, at least in some shops. I always get a bit suspicious by huge discounts - anyone know the reason?

Also, at £450 the DV135 would sit somewhere between the Marantz DV 6001 (£300) and DV 7001 (£600). Yet at its list price it would have been £999.

So I guess I have two questions before deciding:

1. Might the Marantz DV 7001 somehow be a better buy than the Arcam?

2. Would I be right in thinking that the Arcam is, like, 3 times better than the Marantz DV 6001?

Many thanks in advance for your views.

Len

p.s. I have just bought PMC DB1+ speakers and am looking for new DVD/CD and amp.

[mephistophelean]

Len

Hifi News did a comparison of the Arcam DV135, Marantz DV7001, Cyrus Discmaster 8, Denon DV2930 and NAD T585 in their December 2007 issue.

The comparison indicated that the Arcam was better than the Marantz (and indeed all of the above players) for CD playback.

However, for DVD playback, the Marantz was apparently much better than the Arcam. I know DVD playback isn't that important for you but are you feeding it into a TV/projector that is HD ready or full HD? The Hifi News review was quite negative about the Arcam's upscaling abilities (apparently lots of noise even when upscaling to 720p). This may be an issue if your TV is fairly big (40" or greater) and you sit quite close to it.

Other points to note about the Arcam: only upscales to 1080i and doesn't play multi-channel SACD i.e. only plays SACDs through two channels.

I own a Marantz DV7001 and am really happy with both its DVD and CD performance. I did a quick google search and some shops (e.g. hifix) are doing it for about £500.

However, for the money, the Arcam seems like an excellent deal and upscaling notwithstanding, seems a very good buy for the price.

I haven't heard the Arcam so can't comment on it vs the DV6001 but I have compared the DV7001 to the DV6001 and there's a night and day difference in CD replay capability between the two - if you CD replay capability is important to you, don't get the DV6001.

Of course, if possible, you should try to get to a dealer to compare the Arcam and the two Marantz DVD players as you may find that your view differs to what I have written above.

[DownToTheBone]

Arcam now down to £349 at Superfi ...

[mephistophelean]

Bargain... (with the right guarantee of course!)