The Ultimate DVD player?

[PHILIE-T]

Hi sorry about my first post. I was just being silly with regards to the Betamax vs DVD thing. But what i really want to know is what is the ULTIMATE DVD PLAYER.

If the sky was blue what one would you choose!

The choice is yours.

I LOVE DVD PLAYERS ME!

 

[ChrisNic]

Meridian 800 Series
TAG DVD32R

 

[Thunder]

1.) Linn Unidisk
2.) Tag DVD32R
My top two

 

[recruit]

Meridian 800 series definitly...

 

[inzaman]

Guys, why would you chose the above though, having myself not seen any of the above in action are they purely based on picture and sound quality or features?

 

[common]

http://www.avland.co.uk/teac/ux1/ux1.htm


Purely based on outrageous price !

 

[Pat Marcus]

Teac Esoteric or Meridian 800

 

[Scott_Mac]

Meridian 800

 

[recruit]

Guys, why would you chose the above though, having myself not seen any of the above in action are they purely based on picture and sound quality or features?

Both the Picture quality and Audio is Sublime from Meridian and it is completely modular !

 

[Fluffy-Bunny]

http://www.avland.co.uk/teac/ux1/ux1.htm


Purely based on outrageous price !

Jeez, which idiot would spend £10,000 + on a DVD player?

 

[cham32]

F-B;

Can't help but rise to the bait, so please don't call me an idiot, just 'cos I have an 800 - , and I'm not in the minority of one (I have 2 mates with them as well). I didn't buy it 'cos it had a fat price tag, but because I am (was) in the fortunate position to be able to choose up to a standard, not down to a price. Once heard against what I had in my system before, there was no going back. The 800 is an outstanding audio source, which is my main concern, as well as a superb video machine. It also integrates superbly with the rest of the system, which helps a lot with SHMBO. BTW, I have no 'buyer's regret' with the 800.

Aid.

 

[recruit]

Beautiful System cham32...

 

[cham32]

Hi Recruit,

Thanks mate I'm tempted to say 'great minds think alike', but this board shouldn't be an Meridian appreciation society (or should it?). My strategy these days is 'in for a penny, in for a pound (or so)' - life's too short.

Aid.

 

[recruit]

My strategy these days is 'in for a penny, in for a pound (or so)' - life's too short.

Absolutely Agree - and if you want the best then it's definitly worth it...

 

[gandley]

except arent some of these expensive units just clones of lesser units?

Think some just use pioneer or philips video sections and then use there own audio stuff (which tends to be very good)
Marantz was doing that for ages till the 9500 came along. (used pioneer clones) and before that they were not using the cutting edge of pioneer units bur charged more.
Then there was roksan that was chargiing £1000+ for there dvd player when all it was , was a reboxed £100 mediatek effort with nice audio.
Meridian is the same as well i believe.
The Teac is not that hot either when compared to some other dedicated units, like say the onyko sp1000, or denon A1xv. (from a video standpoint not audio)

The best is the Denon A1xv for video. I bet it would beat out any of those overpriced cd players that can do DVD as well.

 

[recruit]

gandley - so the Denon gets you're vote then..

 

[gandley]

It is the best i have personaly seen. But not by much so i would not even pay £2500 for it. I would rather buy a £799 pioneer 989 and run the interlaced HDMI signal straight to a scaler. Oh hang on a minute thats what ive done/doing

Oh and the meridian 800 was the first all built player they did(no clone parts) and it was rather good.

The teac UX1 had macroblocking....OH dear!

 

[robfitzp]

There was a Levinson DVD player on static display at the Heathrow show which will be out in a few months with a four figure price tag. That may prove to be a contender in due course.

 

[Fluffy-Bunny]

F-B;

Can't help but rise to the bait, so please don't call me an idiot, just 'cos I have an 800 - , and I'm not in the minority of one (I have 2 mates with them as well). I didn't buy it 'cos it had a fat price tag, but because I am (was) in the fortunate position to be able to choose up to a standard, not down to a price. Once heard against what I had in my system before, there was no going back. The 800 is an outstanding audio source, which is my main concern, as well as a superb video machine. It also integrates superbly with the rest of the system, which helps a lot with SHMBO. BTW, I have no 'buyer's regret' with the 800.

Aid.

Ahh, ok.

Well you are either flushed with cash, or are nuts!

I can think of a good way of spending £10,000, like paying off my student debts

 

[John Simon]

ok this is where I make a complete arse of myself...again

Blue Sky you said, last year I had a Tosh SD340(£70-£90)which was within budget, this year I looked to upgrade to a player around £250-£300. After much deliberation I decided that better value was avaiable second-hand & was lucky to get a Toshibe SD9500e.

To my eyes & ears this cannot be touched at this price point, please remember that £300 is my "blue sky". The icing on the cake is the CD/music quality of this player - something for nothing.

I would be interested to get an insight into the differences that I would notice if I connected a Meridian 800 to my system, anybody please?

 

[Timmy C]

I love my Arcam DV27A! If you're using component rather than HDMI then you'd probably find it hard to beat without spending crazy money!

 

[Mr Merrick]

I'd have to argue that the 800 Series Meridian is the best out there for sound, but it would've been an impulsive buy if I went for it. If I could afford the matching processor, then it would be a no-brainer. I've used the combination at home before and was amazed by the ingenuity of the MLP smartlink for DVD-Audio without the need for D/A conversion.

Picture wise, having seen HDTV, no DVD is ever going to outperform a good HD broadcast. However, I wasn't going to sell 500+ DVD's overnight so I decided on the DVD-A1XV after comparison with the Tag DVD32 and Marantz DV9500. And I haven't seen a better DVD player since.

 

[CJROSS]

Blue Sky you said, last year I had a Tosh SD340(£70-£90)which was within budget, this year I looked to upgrade to a player around £250-£300. After much deliberation I decided that better value was avaiable second-hand & was lucky to get a Toshibe SD9500e.

To my eyes & ears this cannot be touched at this price point, please remember that £300 is my "blue sky". The icing on the cake is the CD/music quality of this player - something for nothing.

Ufitsy, the SD-9500 was/is a competitive machine with price comparable competitors at the £2000 mark (the only thing it lacks is HDMI/DVI & SACD and if you don’t need these then these are insignificant points), never mind the £300 mark second hand.

This thread smacks of say the ultimate CD player, and Ive seen plenty of suggestions said at the time that the Linn CD12 @ £12K was, we all now how that panned out in time. The Meridian G08 may be a superlative device but there are plenty of other devcies about that give it a run for its money at half/quarter of the cost I would suggest (some G08 owners may disagree with that but so would I if I’d spent G08 money)

All IMHO of course.

 

[cham32]

Heh F-B,

No worries, only havin' a bit of fun - guess our, er, 'age profiles' are a bit different. My Mrs thinks I'm nuts anyway, she just humours me these days (worn her down over years and years - softly, softy catchie monkey). I think Mr Merrick got 2 things spot on - an 800 makes a lot more sense in an integrated fully-digital Merid. system than standalone and if like me you have a shedload of DVDs, then getting the best now makes sense (-ish). Have demo'd an 800 into Crystalio into a Sharp 12000 - have not seen SD DVD look better - that's going to be the next set up.

Mind you I saw a SDI mod'd Phillips something or other the other week that cost about £500 - actually I thought it had a VERY good picture, so the cost/performance equation is very personal thing!

Enjoy what ever you have (soemthimes it's best not to lust after the 'next big thing', you never get satisfied with what you've got) - and that applies to all sorts of things.

Aid.

 

[gingerone]

Am I the only person that thinks spending 10k on a dvd player and then using it on a 32" TV is complete madness?