Video Asylum: REVIEW: Sony DVPS9000ES DVD Players by Gary

I got my DVP9000ES last Wednesday (just befor Turkey day #:o)), after I saw the first one walk out the door at the dealer on Friday - someone was faster. As they had received more stock, I got one of the two. The dealer is a mass market dealer and offered it for $1200. Here it includes the AVIA disk, ans MIB speical edition and an SACD sampler.

SACD sounds just awesome compared to CD - so much detail at such ease - wow, and many of the recordings on the sampler are stuff that easily sounds screetchy -but not with this player. As this is my first SACD player I have no referrence to other SACD players though, but I definitely liked what I heard.

CD is very good, very detailed, definitely a great transport, and I was quite stunned when I initially listened to some CDs. In direct comparison with the CAL CL-15, it is close, but does not quite mesure up in how it establishes the soundstage. The CAL is warmer and gives many voices and instruments more body. Still the CAL is a $1800 CD only player with dual mono design, and even though it's $1800, it actually beats out many players at double that price. I think the Sony is on par with most CD players up to $1500 though.

DVD is awesome too. That's actually the main reason why I bought it. I do own a Panasonic A120, which by all means is a good player, though not prog scan. I also for a week auditioned (or is it viewed) the Pioneer 434 cheapo prog scan player. All I can say is that this players picture sets a new standard in terms of color correctness (neither too red nor to pale), as well as in detail and in the absence of picture noise. All at standard settings. With the additional possiblity of tweaking the picture of some bad transfers, it definitiely blows away whatever competion may be left.

Sure $1500 is a lot of dough, but basically one gets a lot for that money, so I think it's worth every Penny.

REVIEW: Sony DVPS9000ES DVD Players Review by Gary at Audio Asylum