Marantz UD9004
 

I bought a new (to me) Marantz UD9004 :banana:. It should arrive in a week.

I was originally going to get the OPPO 105 to replace my 95, but the sound quality worries me. I was never happy with my 95 after the MVP871. The 95 sounds more "impressive" at first with better dynamic, bass, etc. But, it was never musical. I couldn't listen to it for an extended period of time. It's got all the bells and whistles, but if the sound doesn't satisfy me, none of that matters.

I came upon a used UD9004 for a great price, so I decided to do some research on this old flagship unit. It turned out the unit's audio section was based on the Marantz Reference SA7-S1 that sells for $7K. Users report the UD9004 sounds better than the SA11-S2 and SA-KI Pearl. In fact, the UD9004's sound quality approaches the SA7-S1. Plus, a majority of people that owns Marantz are extremely happy, especially for the price/performance ration. I decided to purchase it.

This machines uses the 32bit/192khz AK4399 DAC. It has the ability to turn off all video/display/digital out circuit when playing music. I'll be using the balanced output :thumbsup:

Thr UD9004 is a great player, only bested by the MVP 881. They share the same software and same features. At one time I had the UD9004, Oppo 93, 95, and the MVP 881. The Mcintosh was the clear winner in every department except video, which all where excellent.

I still have my 881 and onle use the Oppo for pal stufs and 3D.

Hi Tommy

Good to see you found a 9004. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Would you mind PMing me what you payed? Still trying to determine a price point for mine once I get it serviced.

Thanks :music:

Dave, I sent you a PM. I would have bought yours, but the seller I bought mine from lives in Canada, so the transaction and shipping is easier.

I wouldn't limit it to these 2 players.
There is also the top Denon, the Primare, Ayre DX-5, ....

I've had the top Denon--before BluRay--the 5910, and now the Marantz 9004. Both are extremely high quality with great audio. I bought the 5910 to hold me over till eht whole BluRay/HD-DVD thing was settled, because it had world class video upsampling, for its day.

But both it and the Marantz are highly finicky with certain discs, and getting repairs is very difficult because there are no authorized service centers anywhere near Albuquerque. Also, I do believe they used Babelfish to translate the manuals into English.

So for now I'm going with an Oppo 103 as a transport only into my Bryston SP3, hoping life will be simpler. We shall see! :yes:

I purchased the UD9004 because of its attractive price compared to the Ayre and Primare. I will not purchase any new Bpd over 2k. Video changes too fast. 4K is just around the corner. I learned the hard way with my MVP871. Never again.

There are a few Marantz service centre within driving distance, so I am not too worried. Not so with the Ayre and Primare.

Received my UD9004 today :banana:

Doing some testing on BD discs now.

I found a user replaceable fuse. It's T3.15A. Should I get the Furutech or Hifi-Tuning Supreme or Synergistic Research fuse? Any one tried SR fuses?

Good news! Let us know how you like it.

Tommy.......Congratulations on the new Marantz UD9004. I would not replace the fuse in the player at this time. Let the UD9004 get broken in and become familiar with it. Once you are comfortable that it is sounding it's best then perhaps a HIFi Tuning Supreme fuse may improve the performance. Unless you are familiar enough with the UD9004, you may not realize what changes may or may not have taken place.

You bet. I only have 2 Fox titles to test. Avatar passed. Currently testing 007 Die Another Day.

That is a very good advice Dan. The stock Marantz actually uses some kind of ceramic fuse. I will eventually change out the fuse for sure. Just wondering which is the best fuse.

For those of you that have this machine, do you have problem playing standard DVD? My player won't play any of my DVDs. I tried 5 different discs. All I get is "Loading."

That doesn't sound good. I don't have my player anymore, but mine didn't have any problems. You might have a bad laser. Call Marantz. If you need any help send me a PM.

no DVD issues
 

Hi Tommy

No, I don't recall having any issues with standard def DVD, though I played very few of them, compared to BluRay. Sorry to hear you're having trouble. Did you say Marantz has nearby repair? I wish I had one in driving distance from me!

Good luck and keep us posted.

Edit: Never had trouble with music either, except the one time something went out and I had trouble first with some SACDs, then with pretty much everything. Was fixed under warranty, but cost me over $100 US in shipping one way...

The DVD playback issue was resolved after unplugging and rebooting the machine. So far everything plays fine. I do have a Marantz service centre nearby. Hopefully it won't go to that. Thanks gents.

Good to know that. Let us know how you like it.

I had the same BS with mine and sold it...not for just that reason but because I had a chance to get most of my money back.It is a nice unit but the bad outwayed the good
-cost
-remote sucked
-blueray pixelation-firmwear?
DVD to BR back to DVD...had to reboot it(unplug it)
-COST...did I say cost?

goodluck as there is no remedy for the problem.

Sorry the player didn't work for you.

Ud9004
 

I realize this post is over 7 years old.
I am just wondering if anyone is still using their UD9004. I have had mine since 2012 and for me it has worked flawlessly since day 1. I am sure I have played over 1000 Blu Ray's, CD's SACD's and it continues to work as it did when new. I have it hooked up to a Bryston SP3 via analogue both 2 channel and multi channel, HDMI, and digital. I also an Oppo 203 to play 4K.
The Marantz is as good for Blu Ray as the Oppo. Far superior when playing CD's or SACD's via analogue output. The DAC in the Marantz is as good or superior to the DAC in the SP3.
I don't see any currently available multi disc players that cater to the audiophile.
The last one was the Oppo 205 which unfortunately is not available and I missed out on it. I did have a friend that had one and for using the analogue outputs for 2 channel CD, SACD the Marantz was still better sounding and it was already 6 years old technology.
Is anybody aware of any new players?

You should look hard for a used long discontinued Ayre DX-5 universal disc player. Its original retail price was $10k when purchased new back then. Nowaday a used one can be had for around maybe $3500 or possibly less if you can find one in used markets. It is the best sounding universal disc player for listening to stereo music using its XLR analog audio out. Kal Rubinson of Stereophile even stated that the Ayre DX-5 is also the best sounding unit when using HDMI out to your preamp processor.

The Ayre DX-5 uses the Oppo 83 disc drive mechanism (disc transport) and Oppo's main video processing board (video processor), Oppo's interface and Oppo's remote. Everything else was all Ayre's all the way. Ayre added additional audio only HDMI out dedicated strictly to outputting audio only which uses Ayre's own unique audio clock to transmit the signal. The other HDMI out is for outputting video signal, whereas the Oppo 83 has only a single HDMI out for both audio & video.

Ayre also equipped the DX-5 with a USB asynchronous DAC input which uses separate power supplies, regulators, voltage regulators just for this signal path as well as using Ayre's unique clock for this USB DAC input, which is of course asynchronous. So the DX-5 is also an excellent standalone USB asynchronous DAC and many people use the DX-5 as a standalone USB DAC, which yields better sound quality than when using discs assuming you're using a very good USB cable. The DX-5 only has USB DAC input, no other digital inputs.

The DX-5 uses Ayre's proprietary zero feedback topology, true differential (fully balanced) and fully discrete class A for its analog output stage (stereo). The Ayre DX-5 wasn't a re-badged of the Oppo 83. It only uses the Oppo 83's disc transport (disc drive mechanism) and main video processing board / video processing implementation. That's it. Everything else was all Ayre's all the way.
The Ayre DX-5 would sound better than the UD9004, hands down.

While the video processor used in the Ayre DX-5 was somewhat old by today standard especially when compared to newer latter bluray players these days but the power supplies, regulators, voltage regulators in the Ayre DX-5 are much superior compared to those in any other universal disc (bluray) players thus would yield excellent noise free clean video quality, and the picture looked way better than that of the Oppo 83's counterpart although both players use exact same video processor / video pcocessing board / implementation. Unlike with most other universal bluray disc players, the Ayre DX-5's audio & video circuitry are completely isolated from each other. And the DX-5 uses separate power supplies for its digital audio circuitry, DAC, digital video circuitry, analog audio output circuitry, disc drive mechanism (disc transport), control circuitry, and its USB asynchronous DAC input signal path circuitry with their each own regulators and voltage regulators.
But seems like you have the Oppo 203 4K bluray player for watching movies.
So you can just use the Ayre DX-5 for listening to music (stereo) for CD/HDCD, SACD & DVD-Audio (downmixed in stereo) playbacks as well as a USB DAC.
Trust me the DX-5 sounded superior when used as a standalone USB DAC compared to using discs (CD, SACD & DVD-Audio). And the USB DAC input is of course asynchronous.

How would you compare the picture qualities of the UD9004 vs your Oppo 203 when playing regular bluray & DVD movies? Which one is better? How's the UD9004 DVD video upscaler?
And you mentioned earlier that the audio qualities when using HDMI out of both the Oppo 203 & the UD9004 players are comparable?