Best Standard Def DVD Player under $8,000 used?


I am looking for the best possible Standard Def DVD player
that is BLACK. I have a Krell DVD Showcase now and it's
great but I am wondering if there is better to be had for
under $8,000 used.

I would like to hear opinions/comparisons of the video
quality for:

Krell DVD Standard
Linn Unidisk 1.1
Meridian G98
Denon 5910CI

Thanks
Tom
tom92602

Showing 4 responses by kennyt

You obviouslyhavent heard the new uncpmpressed audio of Blu-R
ray or you wouldn't feel that way
Tom,

I have owned or still own all your choices but the DVD standard.

Which one is best for you will depend on what you want.

Do you want just DVD? CD? Need SACD and/or DVD-A?

If you have a Meridian pre/pro, get the G98DH, it's a really good DVD-A and CD transport and a solid scaler, but it doesn't play SACD.

The 5910 is the player I'd recommend least, it scales well, but is sort of soft and doesn't image well at all.

The Linn 1.1 is really nice and musical, but I prefer my Esoteric DV-50s as it has better bass control and definition.
Tom,

While I have had long term experience with three of these players as I posted in my initial post, I totally agree with what everyone is saying, buy a Sony BDP-S350, they street for sub $200, and it is a profile 2.0 capable player that functions so quickly you won't notice any slow load times.

Buy the high end players for audio performance, as I said, I still have two on your list in my systems, but don't fool yourself that your getting better than Blu-ray, and BTW for a dollar a month Netflix will mail you any Blu-ray you want, or by shopping around you can easily buy them for sub $20.

I can see owning the players you listed, and as I said, I do, I also have several Blu-ray players, and I DO NOT use my DV-50s or Denon 5910CI for SD DVD's anymore. I use a Sony Blu-ray player in the bedroom for this (and the Denon 5910 for audio there) and I use one of the three b;lu-ray players in my main rig or the Toshiba HD XA2 as they are amazing scalers! The XA2 outperforms the Meridian G98 and Denon 5910 in video, I never had it to directly AB to the Linn, but I suspect it would beat it as well.

So, my point is that all the people you feel are attacking you for not just answering your question are actually helping you by steering you to a new and far superior technology. I will go one step further to say if you do not own a blu-ray player now and you spend that much on a SD DVD player YOU are the fool!
Bullot,

Keep living the dream.....

I may be the only person who actually DID answer the original posters question, having owned every player he queried on except the Krell, and never even received any feedback from him!

You are sorely mistaken in your belief about ANY SD DVD player. Yes, the G98 is a great CD player, but scaled 480i and AC3/DTS don't come close to making up for the native 1080p video and uncompressed codecs of Blu-ray!