Denon DVD-A1UDCI Universal Blu-ray player Review

gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
Gene I did read the article where you mentioned it but as I said in my original post I was suprised to *not see it listed in the CONS* section. Also the quick start feature only makes the player start up faster and eject the tray (albeit sucking down more juice while it's in standby mode waiting for you to turn it on i.e 19 watts vs Oppo standard standby or even the Denon's own non-quick start standby of 0.4-0.5 watts).

It does not however speed up the slow loading of Blu-Ray titles (as other reviewers have mentioned). IMO.
excerpt from my review:
In operation, the DVD-A1UDCI is one smooth operator though it’s not as speedy at loading or removing discs as the rabbit Oppo BDP-83. Where the Oppo powers up and has you playing a disc in just under 30 seconds, the Denon does the same at around 45 seconds (in quick start mode). This is much better than some of the older Blu-ray and HD DVD players we’ve tested that could take several minutes or longer.

and

There are several “Power Savings” options that can be set to reduce idle power consumption at a penalty of longer power up times and sacrificing RS-232C and/or HDMI control. I mostly used “Quick Start Mode” during the review process which consumes the most idle power but offers the quickest load times which are important when flipping through discs for review. You should experiment with what works best in your setup and consider using one of the lower power settings if you don’t mind waiting a bit longer to load up a disc and hit play.

Not sure how much more I could belabor the point in a review that is over 7500 words in length.

I believe there was a Blu-ray disc or two that did seem to take excessively long to start up compared to when I loaded it on the Oppo so I guess I can add that to the Cons list after the fact though I hate putting more cons that pros :rolleyes:
 
J

jomark911

Audioholic Intern
There is a faster loading time if the player is connected to a ethernet cable network ,and also if the sd card slot is used.When used those two , i think boot up times , as well as load times are faster.:D
 
agarwalro

agarwalro

Audioholic Ninja
They don't use Burr Browns on the DVD-A1UDCI. They use newly developed 32 bit AKMs.
Yes, I know that the new A1UDCI does not use Burr Browns
:eek: Ahem! Yup, thanks for keeping me honest. I guess, the essense of my thought was, that those most excellent DACs will be bypassed when using the digital out options.
The purpose of bypassing the DACs and using digital in the first place is to keep the signal lossless and within the digital domain all the way thru the pre-amp within the receiver and avoid the losses of converting it from analog to digital and back to analog for the final amp. If the owner decides to use the analog outputs and the player's DAC, then connects to a Denon receiver, the signal must be converted back to digital in order to use all the features of the receiver--things like DSP, height info, distance to the speakers, AL24 &32 processing and the equalizer.
You are absolutely correct. I want to add that, it is best to keep the D-A, A-D (if at all) conversions to a minimum. One has to decide which to use, the AVR/ pre-pro or the source in which to do the D-A conversion. When I used the my Denon 3910 for audio, it did all the DAC and processing (crossover, distance, etc) duty and fed analog to my Denon 3806 via the pre-in while it ran in Pure Direct mode, since the DAC in the player was far susperior (on paper) than the receiver. FWIW, Gliz already mentioned, all these "audiophile" improvements are heavily outweighed by things like room response, placement, toe-in, etc. Consequently, in only the most carefully set up audio conditions (speakers and room) can the difference in the quality of the DACs be established (if at all). IMO, some of the differences are well beyond the capability of human hearing. Best of luck trying to determine the difference between 0.001% THD and 0.00001% THD at whatever audio freqency you desire.

I must disagree with the statement that the full measure of the A1UDCI cannot be appreciated by using only the digital outputs.
Did you mean to say Analog outs here? When using digital outs, you are just sending bitstream to an outboard DAC. In this situation, a WalMart BDP will be no different than the Denon. Why? How? Because in the digital domain, a 1 and a 0 do not have quality, they are simply either desiphered as such or not (perhaps stating the obvious). So, as long as the player can faithfully read the media and stream the info, the outboard DAC will get the same information irrespective of the "class" of the player. Had the WalMart player not been able to faithfully do the job, indeed, just as well as the Denon, the very palpable effect would have been distorted audio.

I did subjectively feel D.Link did sound better but only when I knew it was actually engaged so it could be placebo or me being mesmerized by the 3 blue lights :)
Meaning, the digital out sounded better (for whatever reason). There might just be a very logical explanation for it. So, my followup question is, what was the outboard DAC being used?

------------------

Last but not the least, not to flame anyone, IMHHHO, folks complaining about load time and contemplating power consumption need to get a reality check. This player alone costs more than some folks spend on their entire HT, video, audio, decorations and carpeting included. The folks that will actually purchase this player dont give a flying fish about these "issues". If it produces absolutely the most pristine video and audio the 10-20 seconds extra to load a disc dont seem that much of a problem when you have to wait for the $20K Runco projector to heat up anyway and what is a few extra watts of power consumed when you are pushing amps that probably give off 1.21 GigaWatts in heat the whole time :D. Again, not being argumentative, just a realist.
 
J

Jeepers

Full Audioholic
Folks, I am new to the Blu-Ray business so after having surfed for a while, it seems there are 3 regions being A,B,C and apparently most Blu-Ray discs are region code free. Anyway is there firmware or whatever available to make this particular Denon player or its Marantz 'cousin' a multi region player ? I don't have any of these players but who knows.. one day..
 
V

verdun47

Audiophyte
Dvd-a1udci Review

Gene thanks for the detailed review.
Reviewers have suggested this machine is aimed at audiophiles as much as videophiles.
I'm a 2 channel audiophile looking at the A1 because of its 32 bit DSP and DACs.
Re its analog outs, you said SACD sounded 'absolutely phenomenal', 'sounded fantastic' and on CD 'simply sounded cleaner, more detailed and more lively' than the BDP-83 (with better stereo sep).
In the overall scheme of things how good do you think it is on CD (which I have quite a lot of).
Did it occur/seem to you while listening it has a superior drive ?
Did it occur to you that 32 bit DSP and DACs are an advance ie help it sound more realistic ?
(for sure I've read the review but would much appreciate your reply).
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
Gene thanks for the detailed review.
Reviewers have suggested this machine is aimed at audiophiles as much as videophiles.
I'm a 2 channel audiophile looking at the A1 because of its 32 bit DSP and DACs.
Re its analog outs, you said SACD sounded 'absolutely phenomenal', 'sounded fantastic' and on CD 'simply sounded cleaner, more detailed and more lively' than the BDP-83 (with better stereo sep).
In the overall scheme of things how good do you think it is on CD (which I have quite a lot of).
Did it occur/seem to you while listening it has a superior drive ?
Did it occur to you that 32 bit DSP and DACs are an advance ie help it sound more realistic ?
(for sure I've read the review but would much appreciate your reply).
The DVD-A1UDCI has the best sounding analog outputs I've ever heard in a DVD or Blu-ray player. Its that good! It's built like a tank and is also very good at isolating vibrations as evident while I was whacking on it playing a CD and it never skipped. I've had situations where I've placed a sub too close to a transport causing it to skip all the time. Never had this issue with this player.

I hope this helps.
 
V

verdun47

Audiophyte
Gene a big thanks for your reply.
I think I've realised what's behind my questions > prevailing wisdom that you cann't get great sound from a multi player as they are based on video designs and clocks (that you can get simpler, cleaner and better results out of a pure audio drive).
 
J

jomark911

Audioholic Intern
Guys clearly the player is in a leaque of it's own , regarding either video or audio performance.
But specifically audio through balanced outs is phenomenal.:D
 
B

Boerd

Full Audioholic
is a player like this really that much better than say the new Oppo?
I doubt it; probably some specs are better but I really doubt you would actually see differences. My, oh my - 4500$ for a blu ray player? That must be the "lottery winner edition". For me it doesn't make sense.
 
Seth V

Seth V

Audioholic
Guys clearly the player is in a leaque of it's own , regarding either video or audio performance.
But specifically audio through balanced outs is phenomenal.:D
I totally agree! This players performance is superb! This is the best PQ and sound I've yet experienced from a Blu-ray player. And the fully balanced analog section is indeed phenomenal!

I've had my A1UDCI for 3 months now, and it puts a smile on my face every time I use it. It's an awesome machine!


Seth
 
tn001d

tn001d

Senior Audioholic
How does this player compare to the Denon 4010 blu-ray player. I love the tank size disc players that denon makes :)
 
H

High Fidelity

Enthusiast
DEnon Blu-Ray players more importantly what is the audio like via HDMI.
 
J

jomark911

Audioholic Intern
As is in every other player.The difference is when used together with dl4 , that eliminates jitter.:D
 
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