Henry said:
Just from the differing opinions in this thread and the hundreds more in other threads, it should be clear that there is no right answer - apart from the one you make with your own eyes and ears.
For kit costing up to a grand, any decent dealer will dem them for you side by side and probably let you take them home to test out there on your own display device.
I went through the exact same shortlist and plumped for the DV79 over the other two. But that was just my favourite of the three.
One word of advice though. If you do dem them at home, make sure you spend a bit of time calibrating the display to get the best results. When I first tested the DV79, I wasn't overly impressed. I posted to that effect and John Dawson suggested calibrating the input on my 504HDE and it made a big difference - so much so that I bought the Arcam.
I doubt that you'd be disappointed with any of the machines to be honest as I found them all to be very good indeed, but you really need to spend some time with them and preferably at home too. Hey, it's great fun playing around with different bits of kit too!
Quite true, I guess one should try them all.....
But I guess another thing I should mention is "value for money". In Oz, there have been huge price drops in the Pioneers (in US Denons have a price increase); I am not sure of the reasons for these price changes....
In any case, what that means is that Arcam DV79, at current street prices; is more than double the cost of the Pioneer; and the Denon is like 30% dearer !
I have no idea of the prices in Europe; but if it is similar; I'd say Pioneer is also excellent value for money; as we really are hair-splitting as far as PQ is concerned.....
Henry, on a separate topic, I am curious what made you tip toward the arcam DV79 (apart from the CD/DVD-A playback); especially when you have a Pioneer plasma. Which DVD players did you trialled; and was there much difference between them? May be a rating out of 10 might help the original poster?
From me, I trialled the various Denons; and the Pioneer; and if I were to rate the Pioneer 9.5/10 for PQ; the Denon 2900 would be a 9.2/10 and 2910/3910 would be around 9/10. In short we are not talking huge differences by any means. compare to something el-cheapo like a Yamaha S540; which would be like a 6.5/10. Whether you are willing to pay for these types of increases is upto the spender I guess..... This is just for PQ !
As I said, just purely for PQ, I'd have been very happy with say a Denon 2900; but for me the disk-readability became an unacceptable issue....
In short, when selecting a DVD player, I guess apart from the PQ or SQ, there is much more which might come into play, various features, value for money, etc. etc. Depending on one's situation, it is these things which might tip someone one way or another.....
But as everyone has said, each setup and display is different and should be trialled as such; WITH proper calibration...
Ritesh