Denon DVD-2910 DVD Player

The Denon DVD 2910 is a monumental masterpiece of engineering. I recently bought one new in Silver. It replaced my entry level Pioneer DVD 563A which was, in itself a wonderful performer. I bought the Pioneer a few years ago to sample the new high resolution formats - SACD and DVD audio.

These formats sounded great connected to a 5.1 surround system and increased my appetite for more of the same. I sold the Pioneer a month ago on Ebay and bought the Denon which received rave reviews in the media as a true refence universal player. The Denon brought a new level of audio excellence to my home. This player is a true universal player in that it even played HDCD discs. It is hard to get a player that plays SACD, DVD audio, all CD formats and HDCD. Actually it makes all other players redundant.

DVD - Audio: I listened to Sting's Brand New Day on the Denon. The first song "A thousand years" was warmer and had more depth than the Pioneer. Sting's voice was crystal clear and transparent. The sultry voice in "Desert Rose" had greater depth and character to it and had a nice sense of ambience. The song "Tomorrow we'll see" had greater realism and I kept playing it over and over again.

SACD: I tested Miles Davis' Kind of Blue in this setup. While SACD stereo was rather muted, SACD surround was out of this world. I began to appreciate why this SACD was considered by many to be the greatest Jazz CD ever created. I listened to Michael Bolton's Greatest Hits in SACD Stereo. Bolton's voice sounded better and seemed to stand out from the accompaniment on many of the songs. I also listened to Nicolaus Harnoncourt's The MESSIAH on SACD surround. As with the other SACD's this highly rated SACD came to life on this player. In these 3 SACD's there was greater transparency, realism and a feeling of being there with the performers.

HDCD : Listening to Keiko's Matsui's "Deep Blue", the spiritual quality of the piano performance is evident in this format. The music is delicate, without losing it's force, assertive without domination. Jim Brickman's "Picture This" was a revelation with this player. The DVD 2910 brings out every bit of information enocoded in this Jim Brickman CD. It produces music that will lighten a heavy heart; and warm the inner sanctums of your soul. It is music that will carry you to a different place and time. It can also enhance any romantic evening that you want to share with a loved one!

Video: The DVD 2910 supports HDMI and DVI. It also has some unique features only present in reference DVD players like Bel Canto. Some of those features include a DCDI by Faroudja , scaling to 720p and 1080i, adjustable chroma delay, variable black level 0 and 7.5 ire, passes below-black, just to name some of the video feature’s.

To sum up this is an excellent example of a universal player and I highly recommend it to someone who is interested in SACD, DVD -audio in addition to regular CDs. It is also a great player for videophiles.