Since no one has posted a comprehensive review of this player (and having just purchased one) I thought I'd do the honours.

I've been looking recently for a mid-level DVD player, with HDMI output and video upsampling to maximise the potential of my (also new) Hitachi PJTX200 projector (yep christmas came early!). Also on the list of requirements were DVD-A and SACD playback capability. Players I considered were: Denon 1920 ('buggy' according to forum reports), Cambridge Audio DV89 (very good audio but lackluster video according to recent reviews/forum reports) and a demo model of the Pioneer 868 (too expensive even at demo prices). I finally settled on the Marantz DV6600.

The Marantz 6600 is, supposedly, a Denon 1920 clone but there is no lip-sync issue whatsoever. This is the case either using the analogue (SCART RGB/Composite/S-video) or digital (HDMI) video outputs, so there is at least one major difference compared to the Denon 1920. On to the specifics of the review:

Video quality - I've tested the Composite video, HDMI and SCART RGB video outputs and all are excellent and problem free. I've not tested the Component connection but the player does have Faroudja processing and that speaks for itself.

The reason for buying this player was, of course, its HDMI output and PQ does not disappoint. Razor sharp detail retrieval, great colour saturation, proper black levels (use 'normal' setting, the 'enhanced' setting is for PC sources) and problem free video upsampling all add up to an outstanding picture.

There are no video controls (brightness/contrast etc...) in the setup menu of the player, however the PJTX200 allows change to video settings on its HDMI input. There is very little to tweak though as the picture from the Marantz player is outstanding.

PS According to other reports (and for those specifically interested in the video side of this player) the Marantz 6600 is superior to both the Denon 1920 and the Cambridge Audio DV89

Audio quality Bitstream digital performance is excellent, due to the superb transport no doubt, and the player has a comprehensive suite of controls for both DVD-A and SACD: speaker size; speaker level and time delay on all channels.

Compared to my Toshiba SD900E, the Marantz 'analog' performance is less holographic, soundstage is flatter and lacks the 'analog' warmth of the Toshiba player, this is the case for redbook CD and for DVD-A/SACD performance. The Marantz however has better channel separation and superb detail retrieval. Analog performance does further improve once the video section of the player is switched off and the player is 'run in'.

PS According to other reports (and for those specifically interested in the analog audio side of this player) the Marantz 6600 is superior to the Denon 1920 but not as good as the Cambridge Audio DV89, Marantz should really bring out an OSE version of this player!

Build is good at this price point. It is a lightweight player but connections at the back are nicely spaced and are very comprehensive. I've got the player connected via its digital coaxial, 5.1 analog, SCART RGB, Component and HDMI connections and there's plenty of room for each! This also accounts for the slightly wider aspect of the player.

Player response is outstanding with no sluggishness or slowness at all in either reading discs, accessing menus, identifying discs or playing DVD-A SACD discs. Drive is basically silent in operation and combined with outstanding error correction (as good as my Toshiba player) all points to an excellent drive and debugged fimware/software. Full marks to Marantz Engineers!

Price retail is $699 but can be had for less of course. To get a better player one really needs to move up to a Marantz DV9500/9600 or a Denon 3910/5910, so in that sense there is really no competition for its price/performance.

Conclusion - the combination of excellent firmware/software (great response time, no bugs etc...), great video performance, solid audio and excellent transport make this player a highly recommended model.

Great review!

I'm surprised that the audio playback lost a bit to your old Toshie, just goes to show eh that a demo in your own environment is the only way to truly test. What sort of receiver were you using BTW?

PS: I think the Pio 989 would be in your "to get a better player for more" comparison with the Denon/Marantz options IMO.

yes good to a see a review on something like this italo. looks a good choice for a dvd player for many I'd say providing another option.

ps nobby the "old Toshie" is infact the mighty 900E, a class player and has always been touted as one of hte nice dedicated players out there to showcase dvda and it would have much better analog output capabilities than a lot of the dvd players out there I'd say. Toshiba really knew how to make some nice players when this thing was out after which they pretty much turned to producing mass market rubbish in the $200 range. Their new HD-DVD looks a bit liek the toshies of old ...hopefully a return.

Full marks on your review italio.

If you like the 6600, you'd drool over the 9500.

I've got a Marantz SR7300 amplifier.

I left the top range pioneer out of the equation because, though it's an excellent player and built like the proverbial battleship, it still has only basic bass redirection/crossover for DVD-A/SACD. The top Marantz and Denon units are expensive to be sure but you'll get some very comprehensive controls in regard to bass and crossovers.

'Mighty' is indeed the word. The Toshiba SD900E interlaced output is actually close to the HDMI output of the Marantz, it's only losing out to the better deinterlacing of the Marantz and a slight lack of sharpness and low level detail (the latter is to be expected though since we're comparing an analog/digital feed). Tells you how well Toshiba use to engineer their units way back when.

The analog audio side of the Tosh is very smooth and gorgeous to hear and the depth of the sound staging is remarkable. The digital side is no slouch either with the very low noise floor, the holographic soundstage and the remarkable signal to noise ratio achieving a very composed but exciting audio presentation. God knows why Toshiba stopped releasing gems like these.



Or the 9600, let's not go there :-) Though you'd expect top performance for the price.

Great review italo. Looks like this might be the player I'm after. BUT do you know if it's multi-region ?
This is very important to me.
Also not of much concern does it play DVD+R DL ?
Thanks.
Is this a new model ?

Yes it's a brand new model, part of the new Marantz range. It's multiregion out of the box and handles RCE protected discs as well. I tested it with DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD-RW discs and all played fine. Unfortunately I do not have any dual layer discs to test.

If you're after a mid-level player to tidy you over the HD-DVD/Blue Ray mess about to hit us it's a great buy. It's pretty much the only mid-range player I'd consider without moving onto top of the line units.

So it does play DVD+R - the Marantz PDF seems to indicate otherwise (see last page specs) http://www.qualifi.com.au/mmbase/attachmen...ntz_dv-6600.pdf

One brand of DVD+Rs played fine, I've got a name brand at home and I'll test it to see if the support is consistent.

The DV6600 and the Denon DVD1920 are based on the same unit so I would say the DVD+R/RW support is consistent since it's part of the Denon's specs.

if they are based on the same unit why would you pay more for the marantz ? honest question ?

In the same way a Lexus is based on a Toyota. It's amazing what a bit of fine tuning can do.

Because the Denon unit is full of bugs [lip-sync error on the HDMI output etc... just do a search on avforums etc...] + the Marantz has better audio DACs. They are based on a similar platform but they are definitely different.

Lip-sync error occurs more or less on all of those faroudja chips (The FL2301). So while they might have reduced the impact it's probably still there.

Are you sure they're different DAC's? I heard they were identical under the hood.

EDIT: Ok I've had a look at both spec sheets and nowhere after googling for about 15 minutes can I find what DAC the Marantz uses - they just state 24/192. The Denon uses a burr brown PCM 1738 chip which is also 24/192. Who's guessing they are the same?

The Marantz DV6600 24/192 Crystal DACs on all channels. The Denon DVD1920 has Burr Brown 24/192 on all channels.

The lip-sync error is not reduced on the Marantz, it simply isn't there. It's not a function of the Faroudja chip, it just means Denon hasn't implemented delay circuitry for the audio after the video stream is upsampled, hence the error.

On AVforums Denon techs have stated that there is no firmware fix for the error, so if you use the HDMI output 'and' upsample the signal you're stuck with it.

lol. Go italo!

They keep serving up bounces and you keep swatting them back over the fence!

Actually I'm only trying to share some, hopefully, interesting info. But there do seem to be lots of people keen on the Denon for some reason.

Looks like the Denon DVD1920 has also got 24/192 DACs on all channels as well, so the difference there is between the Crystal DACs of the Marantz to the Burr-Browns of the Denon.

This is not a pissing contest Preacher. People that have never made mistakes have never really learned a thing, as I said I had looked around and couldn't find ANY evidence of DAC make for the Marantz - my cynical side was guess that that was due to the fact they were the same, my mistake. I would much rather put some rigour around someones opinions in the risk of being wrong than I would just sitting there trying to see who "wins".

As far as the faroudja chip goes it's good to be proven wrong - I took (obviously erroneus) information from the OPPO research that I was doing on Faroudja chips over at AVS, some pretty knowledgable dudes there reckoned the lip sync delay is an issue with the Faroudja's to one degree or other. If I had never put this opinion forward for fear of "go get em" types piping up then I never would have learned this and remained completely ignorant, so is it better to put your understandings forward or not?

This is really good that the 1920 is just bad implementation and I'm glad that Italo can clarify these things for me, cool for us as long as we don't purchase a 1920 that is!



(And also cool for me that the choice was the OPPO)

I totally agree. It's better to ask and look stupid than die ignorant. I wasn't having a go at you or anyone else. This has been a most informative thread and I didn't think it was a pissing contest. Just have a read. It looks like a tennis match.

I thought it read funny. Guess not. It must be more serious than I thought...

Indeed, disagreement and discussion are what communication is all about. The Oppo is a good player and I was actually considering waiting for the new model, the HDMI DVD-A/SACD version. The Cambridge Audio DVD89 is actually based on it but its video scaling is poor.




BTW preacher how's the 9500 audio/video wise?

keep in mind too guys and marantz has done this on many of its players is do a bit mroe adidtional work on screening and power supplies etc overe the players theyre based on. The previous 8400 player is a good example was based on pio internals but with heaps done with separate power supplies for audio, video and digital, better screening/sheilding internally, differnet dacs, plus build + fit and finish was also well up on some of the other players around. This additional work done typically has impacted on the audio side with better performance there...bit of a generalisation on my part but jsut something I've tended to notice with the marantz players I've come across compared with some of the other competiion around.

The video is absolutely sensational. I didn't actually realise how good it was until last weekend when I bought my Dad a Pioneer player (686). I couldn't believe how bad the Pioneer was! Panning was jerky, I could see mosquito noise and digital artifacts everywhere. And this was on a 68cm CRT TV whereas I use the Marantz on a 100" projection screen. Now this isn't meant to be a fair comparison. I paid $199 for the Pioneer and $2120 for the Marantz so there would want to be a big difference. And for the record my Dad is stoked with the Pioneer and lets face it 30 year old John Wayne movies are only going to look so good anyway!

The interesting thing is I tend to notice things more when I step back a notch. I didn't notice the Marantz was mind blowingly good when I upgraded to it. But I notice how bad other players are when I see them now.

DON"T LOOK AT GEAR BETTER THAN YOUR OWN OR YOU"LL NEVER BE HAPPY WITH YOUR OWN GEAR AGAIN!

As for the audio, unfortunately my other equipment isn't good enough to really tell. My amplifier is a 3 year old Pioneer more suited to movies than music and my speakers are supposedly rubbish (Dream Accoustics). I say "supposedly" because I've followed my rule above and havn't listened to anything better until I can afford them! But reviews in the UK stated that it was as good as most dedicated 1000 pound ($2500) stand alone CD players. I'll have to take their word for it.

Now I feel embarassed it seems I overreacted to your post, tough day, so I must apologise as I took it the wrong way.

PS: This marantz sounds better and better to me all the time, I hope it's not on sale at the HES! No wonder Mikerowesoft is also in love with his 9500

hehehe rod marantz have always made some very nice stuff especially disc players, and I'm sure the 9500/9600 are in the same vein. Now unless you want ot be buyign this one I'd best advise you stay well away from it

Italo

There were problems with 7600 in as per Farb's review below

"Just thought I would give an update as I have had this player for a while now.
...
Also found another issue and that is in order to play any DVD-A discs you have to phsically go into the setup menu and set the digital out to off otherwise it just dowmmixes to 2 channel. What a pain!
It is such a shame because the sound quality for dvd-a and SACD when set up correctly is stunning.
Also picture quality is equally stunning.
I think this machine was rushed to market as marantz didn't have that middle section covered and thus missed a lot quality control issues.
So unfortunately the machine is going to back and I don't know what I am going to get.
Any suggestions???"

Does the 6600 suffer these sort of issues?

I'm primarily looking for a good sounding, budget CD/SACD player, not too fussed about the video. The 7600 looked good for a while (though not exactly budget) but this could be the unit I'm looking for. The Sony SCDSE595 is also in the running but I'm not sure that there's too much other stuff out there?

Cheers

Martin

I've always had a really high regard for the Marantz gear, the 6400 I had was a great player, but it seems they've taken the 6600 to another level again with HDMI and upscaling minus all the 1920 bugs.

No the DV6600 is definitely better than the 7600 in most regards except build. I actually considered the DV7600 for awhile but similar reviews pointed to some of these technical shortcomings and others, especially the video side.

The DV6600 is extremely well thought out and simple to use. Once the analog 5.1 outputs are set whenever you insert a SACD disc the player will just automatically play the surround track. On DVD-As some will automatically play the surround track and some others will default to the main menu first.

With my older DVD-A player everytime I wanted to play a DVD-A I needed to get into the setup and switch my audio output to 5.1 analog to get the surround sound, a real royal pain in the butt. So this Marantz model is very well thought out in that sense and the picture quality is superb.

Short of really spending some hard cash on a Marantz DV9500/9600 or a Denonon DVD3910/5910 the DV6600 is unbeatable, in other words just go for it Martin.

Truer words were never spoken. Unfortunately I couldn't honestly justify the expense of the 9500/9600 though I was sorely tempted.

The DV6600 was a real pleasant surprise and good to see a major manufacturer like Marantz getting it finally right on a midlevel player, in all major areas with no bugs to speak of. I know marketing is all about 'piss and wind' but if Denon DV1920 (and its shortcomings) gets 'Player of the year' the DV660 must be player of the frigging century.

Probably the only area that is a 'letdown' on the DV6600 is the speaker crossover being set at 100Hz for the analog outputs (this is common with all players at this price point and in fact it's better than some). If you have a satellite/sub combination (like me) this could be a slight issue for maximum bass response. I found a workaround though and will post it if people are considering this player and are in similar circumnstances.

I'll chime in here for a second: the 9500 is a 3910 killer IMO.
Had both sideXside for a couple of weeks, and the Marantz is a clear class above in audio/video department for certain, so I turfed the 3910 (owned it for 10 months). I wonder how far behind it would be from a 5910? The 5910 by all reports and specs is a formidable beast, but I wouldn't be surprised if the 9500 wasn't far behind it.

I've tested it with CD up against a Rotel 1072 and I definately liked the the rotel much better for CD playback (no dacs). Its no slouch on CD though, just found it a bit brighter with less dynamics than the rotel. It sure has a Marantz signiture too its CD playback. Infact if I didn't have a CD player, I'd be more than happy to use it for CD playback. As for sacd/dvd-a, well like I've said before- 3910 eat your heart out!

Hey preach, what colour unit did you get?

Italo

I have full fronts and center, a musical sub and satellite rears. I'm currently using all speakers set to small and the cross-over is set to 80Hz - I get great bass from this setup. I'm not sure how the 6600 works - can you set the fronts to large and the rears to small or is it all large or all small? Would my setup work well with this player? Maybe I need to look at your bass management work around?

Also - any one know where I can see these in action in Melbourne (preferably SE), I lucked out at Hardly Normal and the Good Guys/THE Store in Nunawading?

Cheers


Martin

Just ordered a DV6600 from HN to connect to my Hitachi 8800. It replaces my reliable Pioneer DV-344 non-progressive scan unit. Will report how it all goes when I get it and connected by HDMI.

I think it would depend greatly on the source material. For a correctly authored film based DVD, I don't think there would be much difference. Where the 5910 will kill it will be with deinterlacing of video material (old TV show and the like), uncommon cadence material (such as some anime) and on incorrectly flagged DVD's which will on occaisions confuse the 9500.

This is due to the fact that the 5910 uses the new Realta HQV chip for deinterlacing which is a major step above the previous generation deinterlacing chips found in just about every other player on the market.

If you look at several online reviews of the 9500, you'll see it scores quite badly when it comes to non standard deinterlacing performance (the oppo is one of the best and outperforms it quite signifantly in this regard).

It's not really much of a weakness though since the majority of discs are flagged correctly and most recent TV show are shot in progressive format anyway (24 and Firefly for example).


Silver. It was a bit hard to find a silver one at the time but I got Steve from Eastwood Hifi to ship me one.

Excellent review italo and some great reliable input by everyone else...you guys are the Creme De La Creme (thats French for yoghurt I think )

This is the unit I was interested in a while ago as it was slimline and I was curious to see how it stacked up.

related link

Bottom line.....looks like its worth the money

What is Steve selling them for Preach?

Len Wallis have them advertised for $699 (RRP)

Actually your speaker setup is pretty ideal and would work very well with this player with no additional tweaking. The DV6600 has comprehensive bass redirection so you can set any speaker to large/small etc...

Um, I was talking about the 9500. If Len Wallis is selling the 9500 for $699 I'll buy another one for the lounge!

I paid $2120 including shipping for the 9500.

Um, oops sorry my bad

I was asking about the 6600

If Len Wallis is selling the 9500 fro RRP $699 Ill buy the whole stock and fill everyones lounge

That's where I've picked up mine, one of the few store to stock it even though it's been officially released. Most other store I rang are too busy trying to flog older stock and don't carry it (or new models from different brands for that matter).

I saw the online reviews for its video abilities as well, it was being touted as falling behind a 3910 in that department. Well bugger me, when I plugged it in and chucked in some test discs- the picture was so 'alive' and 'vibrant' I couldn't believe my eyes! Sh!t all over the 3910- which in comparison was a much less acurate reproduction. Colours looked 'faded' and 'dull' in comparison, a very washed out presentation.
This was all in 720p upscaled via hdmi to the same set.

So now without checking first hand, I take all these benchmark reviews with a grain of salt.

In the hi-res audio department it just trounces a 3910 (main reason I wanted to have a serious consideration of the unit was the audio playing ability). So had no hesitation after a while to toss out the 3910.

Mines a champagne gold. Very elegant looking, not as gawdy as the pioneer type of gold colour, subtle with a hint of silver and believe it or not a hint of a 'pinkish tone' to it.

Highly recommended.

I agree with you there. I'd much rather get an opinion from an online forum such as this, where people have taken the equipment home and tested it out, rather than a magazine/online review site. A couple of exceptions are Hometheaterhifi.com and theperfectvision.com

ECoustics appear to have non biased reviews and articles too.

that'd be my choice too if ever got one. as with my 2900 lvoe the look of it ! champagne pink I thin kthey call it same with my teac/esoteric cd transport as well.

excellent to read youve found a really nice player here mike

Marantz Champagne Gold is one of the nicest colours stereo equipment comes in...especially the older shades from about 20-30 years ago. I had Champagne Gold then in an old rotary tuner/amp and cassette deck and equaliser (cant remember the model numbers). Then I bought a modest PM45 in Satin Anodised Black and.........never looked back.

Youve got to love the old Marantz gear

Can i ask how the player performs with DivX ???

Found this interesting review...

it rates the entry level marantz higher than the denon 3910

http://hometheater.about.com/cs/dvdlaserdi...tpdvdasacda.htm

I wouldn't take too much notice of this list, its not really a review as such. More a value for money list from what I can see.
3910's closest competitor in that lot would be the Pioneer Elite DV-59AVi aka: DV-969. IMO 3910 still out-muscles the Pioneer.

Re: Your previous question- Never checked on Divx compatibility, so not sure.

I thought I was the only night owl around here tonight

You know, people around at these times of the early morn, can only be up to no good!

Your excuse is........? :ph34r:

I was doing some Yoga and Khama Sutra

Can you reach your...<edit>....yet?