Isn’t the Sony X800M2 still knocking around here and there, circa £300 or so?
ATB, J
The DP 9000 doesn’t play DVD-Audio
I don’t know what a DVD-Audio actually is, for a moment thought it was music DVDs like Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii, but my copy is DVD-Video so must be okay.
What defines a DVD-Audio?
Probably - I’d rather replace with better if I can, rather than like-for-like. My X800M2 has been fine, but I’d like to see how much better a player at, say, double the price could be.
Tangentially, anyone have any thoughts on best method/kit to convert hdmi out on bluray to s/pdif coaxial in on dac? (DAC has no hdmi input).
A HDMI De-Embedder will extract the audio signal from HDMI to Coaxial or Optical - Blustream make them as do others. I use one from Blustream HD11AU (Coaxial output only not optical) and it is excellent., providing full Hi-Res Audio - I play up to 24/192 tracks via it and it works perfectly.
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DVD-Audio provides Hi-Res audio on a DVD disc, however, it needs a disc player that will play the discs (regular DVD and Blu-Ray Players don’t play them). It was a format that came out to compete against SACD for Hi-Res Audio, again for SACD you need a specific player that will play them.
Hi-Res Audio is a niche market and never really took off in the mainstream due to high costs of the discs and the special players to play the discs (except Blu-ray discs which will play on any Blu-ray Player), although some people got into the various formats like me with Blu-ray discs and have DVD-Audio and SACD discs that they still need to play.
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OK, thanks. And can we expect one of the cheapish little black boxes on Amazon to work as well as any do you know? E.G. would one of the pricier boxes at Futureshop do a better job?
Futureshop sell the Blustream HD11AU for GBP 121.00, in my experience its all you need, but I have not made any direct sound quality comparisons, with more expensive devices. The De-Embedding is pretty straightforward technology as far as I know, so no need for super expensive boxes.
DVD-A or DVD Audio is an audio disc that may have a menu but generally no video content. It usually provides lossless 24/192 or 24/96 Hi Resolution Audio in stereo &/or Multichannel format. They will also usually have lossy audio too so they can play on regular DVD players, but the lossless hi res content can only be replayed on a DVD-A capable player.
I bought quite a few of them when I had a Naim DVD5. These days, while my Oppo can play them, I mostly just listen to the Hi res stereo tracks as wav files.
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Okay, having spent 5 years with various 4K players I can say a few things about the 9000, my unit has a different clock, different linear power supplies. Heavily revised grounding, sheilding and most of the capacitors upgraded where helpful.
A few points I found it better in stock form for picture and analogue audio out than all the others available at the time (Oppo 205, 203) I have not tried the Magnetar but have compared remotely to the Reavon.
It responds well to linear power supply and clocks and particularly GND improvements.
The 820 is a similar architecture it is NOT the same performance as the 9000 anywhere for audio or video.
The 2 channels XLR and RCA use the same circuits and the 2 channel higher grade DAC, the multichannel uses an 8 channel DAC. Both circuits use the same power supply but unhelpfully for multichannel the power supply route is extended to facilitate this being turned off for the benefit of 2 channel.
The 9000 have a good SMPS a big improvement on the 820 and the chassis for shielding and damping is a big step up. Anyone making the loose claims that the players are the same for things would make the same suggestion about bottom and top end naim pre-amps !
The 9000 software and GUI is dated and it can be slow in operation. Panasonic have had for me a zero regarding support and help. I never received an answer to the simple question what frequency is chosen for the crossover when choosing ‘small’ for speakers for example. (I tried the UK, Europe, US and dealers, experts and distributors as well as direct !)
After the fire a few years back Panasonic moved from AKM to ESS DACs
It certainly is a fine machine for the Bluray/4 k enthusiast but unfortunately it showed up the deficiencies in my elderly(ish) A V receiver. So I have bought it a shelf mate.
Hopefully fitting & room correction stuff next week.
It’s only the baby of the range but should get the Neat speakers and REL sub working well.
Anthem mrx 540
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Very good serial movie 
Congrats on the purchase!
How have you connected it for audio; which cables, and which sockets to what component?
Im using linn rca out to analogue linn amp input .
I’ll be moving to balanced out into quad platina in January.
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The balanced output of the 9000 is a significant sound quality improvement over the unbalanced rca output in my experience, you should be further impressed.
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The 9000 uses a operate 2 channel DAC and redirected power supply with improved local caps for both RCA and XLR, the multichannel uses an 8 channel DAC, AKM 4458 and 4493 in the earlier machines before moving to ESS after the AKM fire.