We have hankered for an improved 4K Bluray player for a few months.
This item has just been reduced by most outlets by £200. Still an investment at £799 but hopefully it will see me out.
Collect from John Lewis tomorrow.
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Great player. I have had mine for over a year. You will be happy 
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There are very few good quality Blu-ray players around , is this being replaced by a new version?
A price drop with these products means nothing regarding whether it’s going to be replaced I doubt it is. Pansonic are really slow with updating products.
It benefits from a good power cable and hdmi.
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Does it play SACD’s?
ATB, J
The rumour is that Panasonic are withdrawing from the home entertainment market.
Their highly rated (for movie watchers) tvs have also reduced in price.
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No. Really just a 4K disc player. Apparently it’s streaming capabilities are quite limited. I am not interested in that function I wield a Firestick.
How is it with bluray audio?
I have had my 9000 for about 5 years now and it’s been perfect and very reliable, with superb picture quality being probably the best available.
I have about 200 Hi-Res Blu-ray Audio discs, the analogue outputs, to get the full Hi-Res are very good, with the XLR outputs sounding much better than the RCA, the dac in the player for an AV device is very good.
However, I now use the digital output into my Lumin P1 Streamer/dac for the best sound quality out of my stereo system. The optical and coaxial digital outputs are limited, by copyright protection rules, to 16/48 so not Hi-Res. For Hi-Res output you have to use the HDMI output and that sounds fantastic into my stereo system.
If your external dac does not have HDMI input, you can get an HDMI De-Embedder which will extract the signal from HDMI to coaxial or optical digital for dac input.
As previously advised, the 9000 does not play SACD’s, which does not bother too many people, as its a very niche market, like Blu-ray Audio.
@Osiris I would think, that anybody who is really serious about SACD would buy/have a dedicated SACD player, rather than use an AV device, which would not be anywhere near as good, sound quality wise.
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I was sorely tempted by one of these a few years ago, however Sevenoaks had a secret deal on the lesser 820 model for £200, which was far too good to miss.
I managed to get hold of one of the 820’s for £200 from SSAV, it does run the 9000 very close
If you dont need the very high spec stereo xlr and rca analogue outputs of the 9000, then I would now go for the 820 as the picture spec is the same as the 9000 and it has the optical and hdmi digital outputs that the 9000 has too, plus 7.1 analogue out if you need that.
When I bought the 9000 5 years ago I needed the high spec stereo and 5.1 analogue outputs, I no longer need those now, so now I would buy the 820 and save a load of money.
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From memory, the HDR Optimizer (sic) on the 9000 has a wider range of setting for different projectors compared to the 820, however that’s a moot point as the optimiser doesn’t work with dynamic HDR (HDR10+, Dolby Vision).
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Well, this thread has had a significant impact on me.
I checked out the 820 and found out that they are currently on sale in Australia, so I bought one today at a 31% discount to go into my Study System, it has replaced the Cambridge Audio standard Blu-ray player in that system, connected via my Lumin P1 Mini Streamer/dac to my LG C2 OLED 4K TV and the picture is awesome with the sound fantastic via my Supernait 3 + HCDR feeding Dynaudio Audience 72SE’s and a Velodyne SPL-1200R Subwoofer.
Been watching/listening to the 4K version of Eric Clapton Slowhand at 70 Live at the Royal Albert Hall, this afternoon and very impressive it is too with Hi-Res Audio.
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That’s good to know.
Are you connecting the player to DAC via spdif?
I’m connecting via HDMI as this gives full Hi-Res from the Blu-ray Player to the DAC.
Spdif only goes to 16/48 due to being limited by Copyright protection rules.
I have about 200 Hi-Res Blu-ray Audio discs and HDMI is the only way to get the full Hi-Res signal.
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From the OP.
Well,that was a good start. No remote or power lead in the box so it has to go back for exchange.
I will check the replacement is complete before leaving the store.
I am always suspicious but the box sealing looked pristine.
I always buy such items from John Lewis. Apart from the extended guarantee they have always treated me fairly.
Excitement mounts…. Slowly.
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I find the audio performance (all formats) to be stellar. It really does a great job.
A very interesting topic, what with streaming fatigue, adverts coming to prime and other “services” even apple maps (reportedly), there seems to be an interest in physical media again. Once you have the disc, you own it (for now)
Martin
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There’s nothing like owning and curating your own physical media library. CDs and SACD in my case.
You have the specific versions of albums you love and of course can play them whenever you want. No subscription costs, etc…
Oh, Blu-ray and 4K UHD for my favourite movies.
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