Price: £400
Website: www.marantz.co.uk
Size: WxHxD: 44x8x21cm
Weight: 2.2kg
Disc compatibility: DVD, DVD-A, DVD-R/RW, CD, CD-R/RW, VCD, SVCD, SACD, MP3, WMA, JPEG
Progressive scan: PAL/NTSC
Sound: Dolby Digital, DTS
Video connections: Composite out, S-video out, component out, RGB Scart
Audio connections: Scart out, analogue out, 5.1 multichannel, coaxial digital out, optical digital out
Plus points:
Wide range of disc formats available including hi-res, strong build quality
Minus points:
No onboard surround digital output, won't play multi-region out of the box
|
|
There are so many types of disc these days that unless your tastes are highly specialised, either in terms of audiophile quality or simply that you only ever use one type of format, buying a player that can't mix and match across the format lines makes little sense. There are some players that lay claim to being 'universal' players, but the proliferation of formats makes this virtually impossible to achieve. However, there are a few that cover all the main bases, including various flavours of recordable CD and DVD, as well as a smattering of hi-res audio options.
Marantz's DV6500 does all this and more, delivering standard DVD and CD, as well as DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-R/RW and VCD. The two main hi-res formats SACD and DVD-Audio are included as are a smattering of compressed digital flavours including WMA and MP3 discs plus JPEG for pictures. In other words, there's not much you can squeeze onto a 12cm disc that it won't play, though the omission of AAC could be an issue if you really want to save your iTunes files onto disc and play them back via this machine.
It's a particularly stylish if not especially slim device, and perhaps a bit unusually shallow if you're stacking it with a range of other boxes. It will however look smart at the top of the pile with its clear, bright display (though this isn't as easy to read from a distance as some) and its appearance is only really let down by the remote control, which is satisfyingly chunky but still suffers from that cheap black plastic feel that's so common with cheaper (and often not-so-cheap) machines.
Picture reproduction comes via a seemingly high quality (though as usual with Marantz, unnamed) 54MHz/10-bit video DAC (digital/audio converter) and it includes PAL progressive scan via the component output, which offers double the amount of scan lines of a conventional interlaced picture. This means it will still look good on a bigger than average screen or via a projector and also allow you to watch for longer with less danger of eye fatigue - like we need an excuse to watch more!
Audio is delivered at 24-bit/192kHz in two-channel mode or 24-bit/96kHz for six-channel surround sound and for movies there are also Dolby Digital and DTS (Digital Theater System) decoders for extra-wide sound staging.
To improve audio quality further, there is AudioEX mode, which suppresses any circuitry not being used to deliver audio, such as the front panel display and video signal circuitry - a useful little feature which tends to be found on more expensive machines.
There are no digital video or surround audio outputs, so there's no i.Link, HDMI or DVI-D. Not a disaster, since you can still get hi-res audio via the analogue outputs on the back, and there are conventional optical and coaxial digital outputs (no use for SACD or DVD-A, incidentally) as well as the usual composite, S-video, Scart and component outputs. Missing out on the fancier digital outputs might keep the DV6500 out of the high end league, but at present, it also goes a long way to keeping the price down.
Performance
It's fairly quick to identify new discs, though by no means the fastest we've seen, and its error correction let us get away with a few more roughly handled discs than we found possibly on some other players - don't expect miracles though.
The picture was nice and crisp, with rich, deep blacks and realistic colours from just about everything we tried. Both in terms of detail and background picture performance was extremely impressive, and definitely a notch above what's to be found further down the price scale. We had the feeling there was a little bit of jaggedness in some of the edges in complex scenes but nothing much to complain about, and what little there was seemed to be eradicated when using the progressive scan option via the component outputs.
Considering it's essentially a DVD player, the DV6500 did a remarkable turn with CD. The sound was rich and full, with none of the compressed feel that all too often characterises the musical sound from universal players.
In truth, we couldn't discern a very significant difference between two-channel CD and SACD, but there are some significant changes when you make the switch to 5.1 in either SACD or DVD-Audio modes. It's possible that the overall image can sound just a smidge constrained compared with more expensive or dedicated audio players, but it's really not something most people would notice. The fact is that you get an expansive, real and well-nigh tangible surround image whether you're listening to music or enjoying high-octane chase scenes.
|
The Marantz DV6500 puts the emphasis on sound, and as an entry-level audiophile machine this is an impressive machine, while not in any way stinting on the picture performance. True, you can get more widely specified players for a bit less, but they probably won't sound as good as this. If you've been thinking long and hard about the first player that might start you on the quality ladder, this one can show you some things you never knew about.
|
matt deep
