Universal Players. Marantz 8400 vs.Denon 5900

I haven't heard the Marantz, but I can give the Denon a rave. I'm a new convert to SACD. I tried the Sony DVD 999ES and I own the Sony 775 carousel. I can't recommed either one. In both cases, the CD layer sounds better going through my DAC2 than the SACD layer through the unit's internal DAC. I was conviced SACD was totally worthless. However the Denon 5900 changes all that. SACD sounds wonderful, amazing, better than my Bel Canto DAC2. And picture is superb. What a unit!!!! I haven't tried DVD-A yet, becasue I don't have any discs, but I am confident that I will be pleased

Ozzy you might take a look at the (endless) 5900 thread over at avsforum. Lots of video talk of course, but there are some serious audiophiles contributing also. One says the Denon nearly matches his Consonance, close enough that he's put the latter up for sale here.

People are also considering having Underwoodwally mod the analog stage of a 5900 for them. He's just waiting for schematics from Denon.

Have not heard the Denon, but I have acquired the DV 8400 just recently and can say its awesome. Superb video, and all audio formats are excellent as well. I disagre with the above comment about the Marantz being bright, its anything but in my system, which is very revealing and transparent sounding. You just cannot go wrong with this unit. Highly recommended.

Dougdeacon,

Regarding Underwoodwally, he sends them to Chris Johnson (of Sonic Frontier's fame). Parts Connecxion has already modded well over a dozen of the 5900s.

Incidently for those interested, they honor the Denon warranty after it is modded....unlike other modders. This is a BIG, BIG plus in my book. This is what he told me:

"...we will honour the warranty...PCX will either repair it, or get it repaired (by Denon), at our cost, over the same warranty period DENON offers..."

The only thing I'm NOT SURE of is whether one has to buy the player from them for this offer. That said, they do have a very good price on the stock 5900....at least here in Canada.

Lenarrd, interesting info about Underwood using Chris Johnson. I always assumed Wall did the mods himself. No matter I suppose, he has a great reputation.

Wally will mod a unit you send to him or sell you a pre-modded one. I got an email from him last week saying his 5900 mods were ready to go. He didn't mention pricing yet.

Anyone interested in the Marantz should take a hard look at the video side before committing, if that's important to them. The deinterlacer and video decoder in the Denon are virtually world class, the ones in the Marantz...