Denon 3910 Universal Player - Opinions?

Bwhite: Are you familiar with the Denon 2900 at all? If so, how would you compare the sonics between it and the 3910 on redbook? Sean
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Hi Sean - Originally I had intended to buy a 2900 to have it modified by John Tucker but... I am really, really tired of getting the "best" player only to have it superceded by the next best thing. So... I went for the 3910 knowing that John Tucker had just started working on mods for the unit.

I've never listened to the 2900 so I cannot comment. I have however read the AVS Forum where folks who own both the 3910 and the 2900 seem to believe the stock 3910 exceeds the performance (sound and video) of the stock 2900.

The latest review of the Exemplar modified Denon 2900 on the 6moons website is exciting - makes me very hopeful about upcoming mods for the 3910.

Sorry I don't know more about the 2900. Perhaps the AVS Forum DVD section may give you some additional insight.

"SACD performance is not as good as Marantz SA-1 or Sony SCD-1, better than Marantz SA-14, XA-777ES"

Interestingly, I thought the SA-14 killed the Sony SCD1 and XA777es on redbook and bettered them in SACD playback, and have a few friends that have sold their SA-1's for SA-14's, and some that favor the SA-1 overall. Many feel the SA-14 sacd playback at least equals the Esoteric DV50's, whoes playback many gush over. Goes to show just how vital that putting the gear into your own system really is! Not that reviews are useful, just careful never to take them as gospel, and make sure all comparisons offered are direct A/B, not just by memory as I see so often, which is VERY misleading.

I have no vested intrest in any of these machines personally, as a Modwright sig truth SACD1000 and Benchmark Dac owner, having owned and sold all of the above machines, including the lackluster Denon pieces (2900 and 5900...yuck) :)

Uva - To me there is no question that the SA-1 is far superior in all regards to the SA-14. For someone to prefer the sound of the SA-14 to the SA-1 would be like someone preferring a McDonalds Hamburger patty to Prime Rib. I guess its possible.

I read the same reviews and user comments on Audio Asylum prior to buying a SA-14 myself and all I can say is its I was misled. Sounds like you were too.

I have had the Denon DVD-3910 for about 3 weeks. It’s still burning-in. I did not put it through continuous burn-in process. So far, it had about 12 hours of DVD-Video, 12 hours of Multi-Ch SACD, 8 hours of DVD-Audio and 6 hours of CD. I’ve been busy 8^)
I would say the player is excellent value in its price range. It does not dig out the very last ounce of detail on every disc, but it does dig out a tremendous amount. It’s one of those components that would not sugarcoat the performance of a bad CD. Garbage in, garbage out. Therefore, it’s phenomenal on some discs (incl. video) and only very very good or so so on others (incl. video). It’s residing in my secondary HT/Multi-Ch system and therefore is also somewhat limited by the performance of the speakers.
I hope to have it completely burnt-in and also test it in my higher-end 2-ch system, and will report my findings later. I’m very satisfied with it so far.