I have been reading the equipment review of the 2900 with great interest. This must be a great player to be so praised by almost everyone that talks about it.
But, what about the scaled down 2200? I just want a good sounding universal player for two channel audio. Is it worth it saving the difference in price?
If you go to the denon website you'll find a comparison table of all their dvd players and there is a list of the features which each player has especially the 2200 and 2900.
I couldn't justify the extra (800AUD) and from my limited experience I don't think i would notice the difference (excepting a few obvious ones like the scart in/out and firmware input)
I have done a few music tests (2 channel) against my Cambridge Audio cd4 player with love box (groove amada) delicate sound of thunder (pink flyod) couldn't stand the weather (stevie ray vaughan) and rattle and hum (U2) and the difference is dramatically noticable the sound from the denon was so true and definition fantastic. Still testing with dvd-a and sacd
With video I have watched a number of dvd's and svcd's but still testing, however i would have to say that from what i have seen the machine is brilliant.
I would suggest that you go down to your nearest denon dealer with your favourite music discs and dvd's and do the comparions.
With either machine i'm sure you won't be dissappointed....
I decided for a number of reasons to go with the DVD-2200, too, and I haven't regretted it. The sound for 2 ch Redbook is better than my standalone CD player (also a Denon) and the unit seems bulletproof.
I'd love to have the DVD-2900, but for me it wasn't worth the extra $400 right now.
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I had no chance to compare the two, but depending on your receiver and speaker setup, you might even be better off with the 2200.
There is a problem with the 2900's bass management; with Redbook and HiRez formats the sub output is 10dB too low, and if your receiver doesn't offer somer compensation for this ("sub boost" for the analog multichannel inputs). Some Yamahas, the newer Denons and Sonys (from the DA4ES on) are said to offer that. My (otherwise great) Sony STR-VA555ES (DA5ES in the US) does not.
With the (younger) 2200, the Denon people have got the message, so there is a "Sub +10dB" option in the setup menu that the 2900 is sadly missing...
If you dont plan on using the bass managment or do own compatible hardware, the 2900 is really great; good rythm, deep soundstage, all the music is there.
I A/B'd the 2200 directly against a $2,000 dedicated Rotel CD player (and a few even more spendy brands) and heard no differences whatsoever. I own a Rotel 1065 receiver and B&W CDM-9NTs for 2 channel listening. Within reason (by my definition, not my girlfriend's) I am willing to pay if I can hear an improvement. Between my 10 year old Sony CD changer and the Denon 2200 there was a great deal of audible improvement. Between the Denons and other higher-end components there was nothing apparent to me.
The 2900 physically separates the digital converters and power supplies more than the 2200. This makes electronic sense to me, but I could not personally hear any improvement. (By the way, the fact that you can turn off the video converters when not in use is a nice Denon feature for SACD or pure stereo. My Rotel assists this perceived "purity" by automatically bypassing its own digital paths when using the analog 5.1 or stereo inputs. Can I hear an improvement? No. Do I turn them off anyway because I am becoming a geeky audiophile? You bet!)
I have not yet had the chance to A/B the DAC's in the Denon 2200 against those built into the Rotel 1065 (using optical vs. stereo analog interconnects between the exact same components on the exact same audio tracks), but I suspect the Denon may win (once I get some decent Audioquest interconnects).
I am having a great time with the 2200 and have no basis upon which to recommend that anyone "upgrade" to the 2900. But as much as I focused on two-channel audio and thought I would never bother with multi-track SACD, it completely blew me away (Yo Yo Ma's Obrigado Brazil). I'm hooked.
I've purchased the 2200 but have not yet hooked it up, it goes in on monday. Sound and vision magazine has given it rave reviews for both video and audio performance. Along with the great reviews by my fellow forum members, I can't wait to get it fired up! Basically I was looking for great performance vs. price. Sounds like a winner, I'll let you guys know next week!
I'm very intrested in the Redbook audio performance of the 2200, have you tried the 2-ch analog outputs from the Denon with CD's, or are you using your Receivers DAC's.
In my attempts to critically listen to the analog output from the Denon's current version of Burr Browns through 0.5m Audioquest G-Snake interconnects versus the Rotel's DACs (which I was informed by my dealer are 2 year old versions of Asahi Kasai AKM4324 24 bit 96 khz DACs) using a 1m Monster 4 Toslink cable, I was able to pick the Denon's performance as the better sounding one using primitive blind testing. I was using familiar recordings (principally Nora Jones, Everything But The Girl, and assorted classical material including double bass solos by Edgar Meyer) as reference material. The differences here are pretty subtle and I'm not sure how much more I would pay for the Denon's sound over the Rotel's, but there was a slight improvement. I suppose I can say that I am at least willing to pay the price for another pair of analog interconnects in order to connect the Denon in both 5.1 analog as well as 2-channel stereo (and Toslink for HT for now). The additional bonus of the 2-channel analog signal from the Denon is that, when connected this way, the Rotel commits a significant additional 20 watts per channel. This was all worth having to explain to my girlfriend that there are three completely separate connections from the Denon to the Rotel for CD, DVD and SACD. She's catching on to using the intimidating remote and reluctantly admits that the results are almost worth the headache.
I may try to update my response in this forum once I have upgraded my surround speakers from borrowed Eosones to B&W CDM-SNTs and finally added that subwoofer (come on Velodyne DD!). Then it's time to focus on the Denon's video playback...
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