Yamaha BD-S681 and AVENTAGE BD-A1060 Blu-ray Player Preview

[gene]

Looking for a new Blu-ray player to compliment your 4K Ultra HDTV? Yamaha may have just what your looking for in their new BD-S681 and AVENTAGE BD-A1060 Blu-ray players. Not only can they play virtually any high end audio source, but they can also upconvert standard Blu-ray content to 4K Ultra HD quality!

Want pristine video and audiophile performance all from one package? Read on for more information.

Read: Yamaha BD-S681 and AVENTAGE BD-A1060 Blu-ray Player Preview

 

[MandM]

they can also upconvert standard Blu-ray content to 4K Ultra HD quality!

Yay. Your fancy new 4K tv does this anyhow. Don't see why this is such a big deal.

 

[PeterWhite]

Why would anyone "upgrade" to a Blu-ray player that doesn't read 4k discs? What's the point, since TVs that support 4k already can upscale, and true 4k players are just around the corner?

 

[mr sarnoff]

My 2015 4K Sony XBR HDR TV probably has a better upscale than anything short of a dedicated professional production video processor so I'm not convinced a $300.00 plus Rather ordinary sounding up scaling 1080p BD player is anything I want instead if a 4K BD player and I have a PS3 reference quality BD player/game console anyway and that TV can make a 5 star BD in a PS3 as good as it gets this side of an HDR 4K BD .

AUDIO from a PC HDD or Tidal Hifi lossless streaming and playback through an inexpensive but competent DAC and gain stage is going to be cleaner than your speakers and phones anyway and TBH on Android TV Kodi in the Sony XBR above from a USB media HDD out to an amplified device it's real decent also .

That Yammy BD player sounds like a relic from the past or an OPPO player knock off (same thing but good ) and any later game console now and a PS 3 can play 1080p BD at reference quality so can a BD drive or file in in a PC and the new X box refresh plays 4K BD also but maybe not 4K gaming yet that takes some GPU chops it may not have with 8 lowly AMD Jaguar APU cores .

 

[Montucky]

LOVE the balanced outputs, BUT if I'm gonna spend $500 on a new BD player, it'd have to support 4K discs. I've always like Yamaha disc players as they typically have top-notch build quality, so if they come out with a new model (hopefully soon) that does that, then I'll be all over it. Until then?...meh.

 

[wiyosaya]

Having an HTPC, I would much prefer to spend my money on a 4K Blu-ray capable drive and the software to play those disks, and I will hold off buying a 4K Blu-ray player for the day, if ever, the ability to play 4K BR disks comes to the PC. As usual, TPTB are playing their games and this option has yet to come to HTPCs.

Personally, I have to wonder why. Most people that would buy a 4K Blu-ray drive for their PC will likely only want to watch legally purchased content - in part - due to the superior quality of such disks over that of streaming options. I bet 4K Blu-ray would be more widely adopted if an HTPC solution were presently available. I, for one, would jump on board now.

 

[3db]

I'm seriously looking at the BDSP-681 as AMAZON.CA has it currentlycurrently listudents or $308.23. I

My Sony player is dieing

 

[3db]

I just placed an order for a BDS 681 which is a $140.00Cdn off of list price.

 

[3db]

Just received an email from Amazon that it shipped yesterday. Since I'm a Prime member, I expect to see it tomorrow sometime.

 

[3db]

It has arrived .. now the hard part... waiting for Christmas...

 

[Goodband]

It has arrived .. now the hard part... waiting for Christmas...

Funny I ordered the same player and received it a few days ago ... happy so far when it comes to CD and SACD!

Are you happy with your purchase?

Envoyé de mon SGH-I337M en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[Goodband]

Sorry for the pic :s

Envoyé de mon SGH-I337M en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[3db]

Funny I ordered the same player and received it a few days ago ... happy so far when it comes to CD and SACD!

Are you happy with your purchase?

Envoyé de mon SGH-I337M en utilisant Tapatalk

I will let you know in a few days. This is my Christmas present.

 

[Goodband]

I will let you know in a few days. This is my Christmas present.

Merry Christmas to you ! It was a Xmas present from myself to myself too ... Couldn't wait until Xmas to try it

Envoyé de mon SGH-I337M en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[Mark Robinson]

I'm seriously looking at the BDSP-681 as AMAZON.CA has it currentlycurrently listudents or $308.23. I

My Sony player is dieing

do you know if the Yamaha BDP-S681 can read and play SACD-R discs (copies)

 

[Mark Robinson]

Can it play SACD-R discs

 

[3db]

Can it play SACD-R discs

I haven't tried not owning any sacd to copy.

 

[3db]

I've played several BluRays and CDs since I unboxed it at Christmas. The player supports all the CD,DVD, and BluRay formats including 3D, as well as SACD. It also supports Miracast. In general, the unit appears sturdy but its lighter than it appears. The tray mechanism doesn't feel as solid as it does on my old Sony BDP-S360. The setup menu is easy to navigate and intuitive, at least to me. Loading times are much faster than the Sony however. From an video perspective, I have it set to automatically upscale everything to 4K and its HDMI output it's directly connected to my Samsung 4K display. The display is crisp and clean and so far, I haven't noticed any artifacts.

From an audio perspective, it does all the lossless high def codecs and the audio sounds good. An interesting note is this unit offers a "CD" playback mode when playing CDs. This mode can be accessed via a button on the unit or on the supplied remote. It slows the rotation of the discs to normal CD rotational rates to reduce effects of vibration and improve on error correction. I use it with "pure direct" mode of the player to play CDs and use the analog outputs of the player. Pure Direct turns off any non essential DSP as well as the display much like Yamaha AVRs .I did not detect any difference between this mode and normal mode going through HDMI interface. Truth be known, I only tried a few different CDs and the tests were unstructured. I don't own any SACDs so I cannot comment on its ability to play these.

I haven't tried any of its apps yet including Miracast.

I watched Total Recall (2012 version) Bluray of this movie to test the Yamaha as the audio track was NOT mastered correctly. ( https://www.amazon.com/forum/blu-ray?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2R11KXGJPWBTU&cdThread=Tx5YJSC90T4UMT ) My old Sony BluRay player use to freeze in chapter 6 at the same spot in time everytime. The Yamaha faired better in that it didn't freeze but there were audio dropouts through out the film.


I'm happy with the performance of this unit from playing discs of all formats and I really like its looks. I still miss and will always miss the "Yamaha orange" of the older Yamaha products.