ROTEL RDV985 DVD Player

I

iannace

Guest
I would just like to know if anyone has a Rotel RDV985 DVD player. I am thinking of purchasing one with my DENON 3800 amp + Dynaudio Audience 70 speakers + KEFQ85s rear speakers.

How do you rate both the video output and audiofile qualities of the Rotel?

Thanks.

Renato Iannace
Malta
email: [email protected]
 
I haven't auditioned one but it is a clone of a JVC and on the audioreview website it doesn't appear to be very spectacular. However, Rotel have just introduced two new players, the RDV1080 which is DVD-A and the RDV995 (£700) which is DVD. This months What Hi-Fi shows that it gets 5 stars and its multi-region out of the box. I believe that it is also an in house design by Rotel and therefore should be better than the 985.
 
Right - my back's up now :mad:. Audioreview.com gives a total of 4.18 out of 5 from 28 reviews which is a pretty/very good overall score. The bad "reviews" it gets on that site are based on the fact that it is apparently very similar to one of JVCs DVD players - they are not based on what actually matters i.e. the sound and picture quality of the player. So what if it is very similar inside to a JVC player - no-one seems to have actually compared the performance of the two - if the performance is identical then the JVC is a bargain.

Anyway, if you haven't guessed by now, I do use the RDV985 and, in fact, I did post a review on audioreview.com some time ago. This is what I said:

"Strengths - Great Picture, very good as a CD player, Region free.

"Weaknesses - Flimsy drawer, no headphone socket, no scarts, no co-ax out.

"Not cheap in the UK but I'm very impressed with this unit. I use it for both movies and as a CD player and it's excellent with the former and very good with the latter - some have complained that it doesn't sound as good as a dedicated CD player at the same price - well you shouldn't expect it to because you're paying for its video performance as well - I'd say it compares well with CD players around half its price (such as Rotels 951).

"The build is pretty good (apart from the flimsy tray) and one of its best features is that it plays all regions without needing modifications.

"One of it's most annoying features is that when you press "stop" it does just that whereas other players (such as my old Panasonic) stop but keep a note of where the film was so that you can then start it again from that point. This might not sound important but if you watch half a movie one night and then the other half the next it's a very useful feature and I must admit that I expected the Rotel to have it.

"Other than that I can't really fault it."

So there you have it. Good to get that off my chest - I've clamed down now. :rolleyes:

Matt.
 

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