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I use a heavily modified 9000 with the early AKM 4458 DACs for multichannel out. I had an Oppo 205 and in stock form I preferred the sound and picture of the 9000. It is a very good machine and not the same as the other Panasonic machines in build or design
The 9000 responded well to upgrades in terms of clocks power supplies and Grounding improvements (the unit uses the steel chassis for some of the 0v returns) and better internal components
Given I have literally had my main unit apart and stripped over 50 times when A-B ing component changes since 2020 I can confirm it’s very well built and the case trays and unit is all metal with only a handful of plastic threads.
For £1k it’s a very well built machine
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For about $2.5K you can get the Technics badged 9000. Apparently they really went to work giving it the treatment from chassis to parts grading and power supply.
Never heard or seen any Technics 4K BR player ? Do you have a link ?
It’s harder to find than gold dust on the moon. It’s never been put on the Technics website. I’ve seen a few in real life with a one sheet flyer. The only site it was ever on AFAIK was the Japanese panasonic.jp site at one time as their flagship. I’d bookmarked the page but it’s gone now. I was still able to find second hand ones on Amazon Japan up to 6 months ago for a lot of money. Now I search and get zip.
Same fascia layout but silver brushed aluminium with the Technics badge.
Technics division were directly involved with the Panasonic badged UB9000 too though.
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Interesting there is this model or modification on a few sites with variations
What’s interesting is the small analogue board looks factory but has a series of through the hole resistors around the XLR parts and the board has populated some of the cap locations on the + and - 12v supplies to the NJM 2114 opamps
I’m experimenting here as nice free locations for another cap !
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I’ve been following the Magnetar 900 as well. The on-line views say that it is particularly good for the audio analogue output. It has two large onboard power supplies, and you can run it in an audio only mode. I’d be very interested in how the analogue output to the 552 compares to my CXUHD digital to ND555 to 552 sounds. I’m not sure how you can you can use on-line steaming with it, other than using an Apple TV with the HDMI output limitations. But obviously I could use it for local streaming via my Core, CDs, Blurays and SACDs.
Just a dark thought at the moment, partly with firmware with the ND555, and box count. But in theory it seems to be a cost effective solution?
If I needed a Universal Disc Player to play SACDs and/or DVD-Audio discs, I would buy a Magnetar 900, as the professional reviews Ive read so far on them indicate that it is currently the best player available on the market for analogue audio output to get the best sound quality from disc playback, which is all I would be interested in.
I cant comment on its streaming capability as I have not looked into that part of its functionality as I am very happy with my Lumin P1 streamer for online streaming and I dont have any local streaming capability as I dont have any of my CDs ripped or have any digital downloads stored for local streaming playback.
I have not been following the threads on the Naim streamer firmware problems as it does not affect me, but appreciate that many people have great concerns about it, hopefully Naim will be resolving any adverse problems with the firmware, so people can get back to enjoying their music.
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From what I can see, it has a USB-C input for digital sources. In theory you could then connect it to, say, a new model Mac with a USB-C output and use any desktop streaming app for on-line streaming. You could also use Roon or Audirvana to access local files and use a phone or tablet app to control the Mac to output to the Magnetar, giving you the same functionality as a dedicated streamer.
The Magnetar also has two power supplies for each of the digital and analogue circuits, so it’s an interesting proposition as it can be used with any digital source.
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I just watched a great YouTube review of the Magnetar 900. There are actually two USB inputs, one for USB drive/file inputs, and a second that is for a direct connection from a computer to enable on-line streaming. Also the analogue outputs can be directly connected to a power amp with volume controlled from the Magnetar remote. If you were running a digital only setup that makes for a pretty compelling setup.
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The USB-C connection makes it a very versatile piece of equipment, shame it did not also have digital coaxial and optical inputs to further use its DAC.
However, you can get streamers and music servers that can use the USB-C like Lumin, Innous and Melco, so as you say potentially very good for a digital system.
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Another happy owner of the Panasonic player. I just purchased mine a few months ago for fear it would soon be discontinued, and with nothing better to replace it. Bought it on Black Friday in the US from MusicDirect and it was their “demo unit” - for pictures. Great price and I had been thinking about buying one for the last 5 years or so. Absolutely no regrets. I love its performance with standard DVDs too, of which I have a boatload.
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Yes I agree, the video upscaling picture quality of DVDs and regular Blurays to 4K is very impressive, its one of the reasons the 9000 is best in class for video performance.
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