Yamaha DVD-S2700

[NGL_BrSH]

Just played with the new Yamaha DVD-S2700... mmm... good!

Wow, what a great player.. i currently own a DVD-S1500 which is/was one of yamaha's faster players and this 2700 makes my 1500 seem slow.

They added large transformers exclusively for audio and now has 192/24 - bit audio DAC's (2 channels X 4).

1080P! via HDMI (ver1.1)
of course Faroudja DCDi Processing
and a 216MHz/12 bit video DAC

my favorite part of course is the luminescent buttons on the remote.. FINALLY yamaha wakes up

totally winner.. I was going to get the Sony DVP-NS9100ES and i've had many hours watching the Sony and immediately i can see an edge in picture quality in the yamaha and since Sony doesn't support DVD-A this player is a major winner!


oh did i mention its 14 pounds? muwahaha

 

[MichaelJHuman]

If I understand correctly, the DVD-S2700 is at least $400 more than the next most expensive model?

And its main claim to fame is probably in the audio outs?

Presumably the quality of the audio from the audio outs beats using the RX's own DAC's in the vast majority of cases?

Be interesting to do an accurate listening test between the DVD-S2700 into, say the audio inputs on the RX-V2700 (or Z9) vs using the digital inputs on the next most expensive inputs on the next most expensive player on the same RX.

(My bet is very few people could hear the difference.)

 

[erikli]

2700 Vs 1700 Vs Denon 3930

Anybody compared the DVD 2700 to the 1700? Price wise the 2700 would compete with the Denon 3930 which had great results from the Audioholics review. Question is how the 2700 matches this unit??

//erikli

 

[lifamily]

Yamaha Markets Yet Another Piece Of Junk !!!!!!!!

First off, I am a Yamaha user, no question about their H/T Receivers, Processors or Tuners. They are hands down, the best I have ever heard. I currently use both the DSP-A1 and the RZ-Z9 which are truly fabulous units, but their DVD players are absolute garbage. The first Yamaha dvd player I ever had the displeasure of owning was the dvd-s2500. Aside from the incredible slow loading time, the player would just stop dead, in the middle of a song or movie, for absolutely no reason what so ever, and continued to become more frequent. I contacted my retailer and had to wait 8 weeks to get a replacement from my Yamaha authorized dealer. A brand new unit, after approx 4 weeks, the 2nd unit started doing the same thing. At first I thought it was an I-Link connection failure, either with the RX-Z9 or the s2500, but it also occurred with the Toslink output. Returned for a 3rd one, but decided not to keep it and sold it off. I since have purchased the Denon DVD-3910, and have truly a jaw dropping visual and sonic experience. This is a remarkable player that is the cream of the crop. Not one single glitch and the sound stage is so detailed, it feels as though the musicians are right in your listening area. So Yamaha comes out with another so called state of the art player, that is $300.00 more that the s2500 and it omits the firewire output. What the hell are they thinking ????? Hey guys, get your act together.......

 

[erikli]

OK but the 2500 is not a "real" Yamaha product - it's an OEM product from the guys at Philips...

The DVD S2700 is the first real hi-end player from Yamaha, hence my interest.,

Anyone tried it yet? Not in stock over here in Europe yet. Wonder how it stacks up Vs the Denon 3910?

//erikli

 

[Blondini]

Am I dreaming

or is it true that Yamaha drop the fire wire output on their new DVD-S2700 and according to official info HDMI is just version 1.1 which means no SACD over digital connection....

 

[vasylek]

I own s2700

Hi !

I am glad to inform that I have s2700 from couple of days. The rest of my equipement include Primare spa20 amp, Elac 208.2 jet front speakers, 200 JET center and 203.2 jet surrounds, elac bass-100 sub, Samsung 42' plasma (852x480) and few kilometers of van den hul cables.

Since I have been looking for good universal audio player for years with no success I have been considering a buy of separate cd/sacd and dvd players. Denon 3910 does not sound good to me at all. Accuphase and T+A sound good but they are expensive. Honestly I have bought s2700 with destination to play dvd video material. What a surprice it was when I started to listen to it! Great audio player. I have no experience with other yamaha stuff but this player is exceptional. I cannot say that yamaha player is a garbage - at least this one.

There is no comparison with denon players - they (denons) sound two dimensional, especially on red book cd's. In the past I compared denon 3910 with cheap samsung 745/950 and I realized that samsung is not worse despite being 20% of the denon's price. By the way I recommend to anyone to buy 754 secondhand and let some experienced technician to change op amps for better ones. Then it sounds even better than 3910 and even better than some expensive dedicated "audiophile" cd's. SACD / DVD audio material sounds good on almost all players. So where yamaha excells is cd playback. Such quality is hard to obtain from multiformat player.

I would not compare this unit to T+A cd/sacd which is my favourite player but it sounds so good that I do not plan to buy a separate cd in the nearest future. SACD playback is excellent too, with easy access to bass managenet in setup menu. Speakers' distances can be adjusted as well.

I cannot say much about video playback since my plasma is only 845x480 (yet). But colors are good, no "rainbow" effect in dark scenes. Video paramaters including chroma and hue can be adjusted also on hdmi out. It is a pitty that video parameters cannot be adjusted during video playback - setup stops it.

There seems to be an error - very annoying one. If your plasma is several years old like mine and you use hdmi-to-dvi connector, set your hdmi resolution from default "auto" to manual. You have to do this BEFORE CONNECTING HDMI cable, i.e. using component. When s2700 does not recognize the resolution of the display it changes the resolution every few seconds causing "hanging" of the player like windows 95. Device stops responding and manual restart using hardware switch is neccesary. There is also one feature lacking - lip sync delay would be nice. My player plays audio a moment "before" the video through analog outs. Since Primare amp lasks this feature too it seems to ba a problem to me.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to pm me. pocztavasyla@poczta.fm

Vasylek Warszawa - Poland

 

[vasylek]

ps

PS i-link connection does not improive audio - at least on Pioneer vsx-ax5ai I owned not so long ago. There are very few i-link equiped amps and they are not exceptional. Even marantz sr9600 did not shook me. Believe me, I spent hours listening and I choose Primare. I-link does not improve quality over analog connection.

V

 

[Blondini]

Yes, I agree with you that i-link or any other digital connection can't improve sound quality, but D/A converters can!!! And D/A converters in the receiver could be better then those in player, but you would never know if you are unable to feed digital signal to the receiver. I simply need a choice for my ears to decide which D/A is better and an option to use my player just for transport.
BTW these days all new receivers come with HDMI ver.1.2a which supports SACD over HDMI including Yamaha models. Releasing a player with HDMI ver.1.1 is just strange...

 

[vasylek]

hi

I have been auditioning carefuly yamaha 2700 receiver and it sounded good. Great DAC's too. But primare, which actually lacks hdmi and it's dac is not perfect souns better anyway... I strongly recommend Primare if someone prefers good sound over gadgetry. There are no differences between spa-20 and newer spa-21 except slightly different look. I have bought my spa20 for 1500 euros brand new, while new spa 21 costs some 3000.

I used to love well wquiped receivers but I have changed my mind lately. These days, when hdmi rocks i-link seems to be of minimal importance. And still analog connection seems to be treatment of choice.

V

 

[erikli]

Vasylek - thanks for a good review. Have you seen any issues with macroblocking enhancement? Used to be issues with Faroudja's chips - manifests as blocks of colours in darker scene backgrounds or in fuzzy/misty scenes.

My buy-finger has an itch for this one...

//erikli

 

[vasylek]

macroblocking

Since my plasma is only 480 / 576p i cannot say much about video quality. Macroblocking is not visible at all on it - at least in the movies I saw. I need biger screen - I plan to buy it next month.

By the way - could you help me with the choice, please. Is 1080p plasma/lcd really worht buying?? I read somewhere that it actually does not accept 1080p from dvd - just from internal hd tuner. Is 50" plasma 720p really worse while watching oridinary dvd's ?? It is half the price of full-hd ( i need 50-52").

I have noticed visible improvement in video playback over Samsung hd950 I used before. Samsung had an interesting feature called "EZ View" which let me digitally stretch the image in vertical removing black belts on top and bottom. It did not seem to affect the quality of the picture. Of course some existing imperfections of the movie were becoming more visible, but anyway I liked it. I liked the picture despite faces being stretched - because there was "more picture" on my screen. Here ( in Yamaha) is only "zoom" which disturbs the picture visibly.

Happy new year, Tom

 

[808htfan]

Looks like the remote still doesn't have an open/close button. Does the old trick of holding down the Stop button for a few (like 4-5) seconds work? I've read that it did on older models.

Also, can this model be made region free like the previous models? Let's see...here's what worked before:

"Turn on the DVD player. Make sure there are no discs loaded. With the tray open, using its supplied remote control, slowly press 99990. Wait for the 'Region 0' message to disappear. Close the tray."

Thanks!

 

[vasylek]

open / close

There is no open / close button on the remote and trick with stop button does not work. But at least for me it is not a problem since changing the disc cannot be done from the remote controller either.

I have just ordered Sunwave src 3200 remote ( http://www.sun-wave.com/products_1.php?product_id=1163056116&area_id=1099471722 ). When I will receive it I will tell you my impressions. The same company produces remotes for major procucers like Marantz. And since my Primare amplifier's remote looks like piece of s**t I need one device "to controll them all" and not to look so ugly. Therefore remotes do not scare me that much. Yamaha remote is not bad. The "light" button makes them buttons glow in the night. But since you do not see the description of the buttons it does not change much until you turn on the light. But tell me, are Denon remotes really better?

Region 0 trick does not seem to work - the "region 0" message did not show up.

Please help me wit the decision regarding 1080p or "oridinary" 720p plasma / lcd.

V

 

[808htfan]

There is no open / close button on the remote and trick with stop button does not work. But at least for me it is not a problem since changing the disc cannot be done from the remote controller either.

I have just ordered Sunwave src 3200 remote ( http://www.sun-wave.com/products_1.php?product_id=1163056116&area_id=1099471722 ). When I will receive it I will tell you my impressions. The same company produces remotes for major procucers like Marantz. And since my Primare amplifier's remote looks like piece of s**t I need one device "to controll them all" and not to look so ugly. Therefore remotes do not scare me that much. Yamaha remote is not bad. The "light" button makes them buttons glow in the night. But since you do not see the description of the buttons it does not change much until you turn on the light. But tell me, are Denon remotes really better?

Region 0 trick does not seem to work - the "region 0" message did not show up.

Please help me wit the decision regarding 1080p or "oridinary" 720p plasma / lcd.

V

Thanks. I was hoping that at least the region free trick would work. Bummer.

By the way - could you help me with the choice, please. Is 1080p plasma/lcd really worht buying?? I read somewhere that it actually does not accept 1080p from dvd - just from internal hd tuner. Is 50" plasma 720p really worse while watching oridinary dvd's ?? It is half the price of full-hd ( i need 50-52").

I'm no expert, but I think it was the earlier 1080p models that didn't accept 1080p. The newer ones most likely do. My Sony does 1080p thru HDMI, but not thru component. As far as is it worth it? I'd guess it depends on if you're planning on getting HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray. Also how far you're sitting away from the TV and if you can actually see any difference.

 

[vasylek]

1080p

Thanks for your help. I am siting very close, about 2.5 m from my tv! I like the feeling of "big screen" and I love to see lots of detail.

Which exactly model of sony do you own? Do you use 1080p upscaler in your dvd? And how do the deep grays / blacks look like on your tv?

Thank you. PS I will try to look for another region workaround - there must be something that works. Good news is that s2700 is a great audo player.

V

 

[808htfan]

Thanks for your help. I am siting very close, about 2.5 m from my tv! I like the feeling of "big screen" and I love to see lots of detail.

Which exactly model of sony do you own? Do you use 1080p upscaler in your dvd? And how do the deep grays / blacks look like on your tv?

Thank you. PS I will try to look for another region workaround - there must be something that works. Good news is that s2700 is a great audo player.

V

I have the KDL-40XBR2. I don't have an upscaling/upconverting DVD player yet, still using an older one w/ 480p thru component. The blacks are ok. This is my first LCD so I don't have anything to compare it to. I did have an HD CRT tube before this. The LCD is not as dark as the CRT was, but I expected that would be the case.

 

[vasylek]

thx

Thanks for you help.

Tom

 

[stacker45]

I vsylek

since i don't have HDMI inputs on my reciever i want to hook up the dvd-s2700 via HDMI to my Plasma tv and coaxial digital output to my reciever,do you know if the player will send audio to my reciever or will default to HDMI.
by the way i read somewhere that the 2700 has duel laser pickups wich of course is probably one of the reasons why it's audio is so good.

 

[vasylek]

hi

Hello

It sends pcm up to 96 khz via spdif. There is an option in the setup: hdmi audio yes / no. I have switched to no since my plasma has dvi (i use hdmi/dvi cable so mo hdmi audio on my tv). But most probably it sends pcm to BOTH hdmi and spdif. But if you will buy 2700 you will be probably more than satisfied with it's analog out performance.

HDMI is ver. 1.1 unfortunately. There is a table in manual showing that it sends multichannel dvd-a via hdmi but not sacd. Still I believe it is not a problem. First of all despite I love sacd format we must agree that probably there will be no more sacd's on the market. Analog output is a good idea to connect player to av amp/receiver. Of course we need some quality cables.

Best wishes, V