Denon DVD-9000 -- pictures and problems

Never heard of this player? Not too surprising, maybe, considering it was $3500 in 2002-3 when it was released and had multiple early-production design flaws that ultimately led to its early retirement as the TOTL bad boy for Denon. It was replaced initially by the DVD-5900, but that was really a step down, and it wasn't until the subsequent 5910 came out that the same level was aimed for (both in performance and MSRP). The 5910 is more advanced in several ways (as you might expect), doesn't suffer from any known bugs like the 9000, and is more or less the highest-rated DVD player of all time according to several websites. But for all that, the 9000 still manages to have better build quality and attention to detail in it's design. And it has digital inputs! Here are pictures of the unit I just picked up, which turns out to have a motor and/or laser issue that shows up with some DVDs (I'm in the process of negotiating either a partial or full refund).

cdfac said:

turns out to have a motor and/or laser issue that shows up with some DVDs (I'm in the process of negotiating either a partial or full refund)

Click to expand...

just heard back from the seller, he wants to go the full refund route. he might not believe me about the issue, because otherwise, i think he'd be better off giving me something like a 50% refund. if this needs a new transport, which apparently was one of the early problems (and this is an early unit), then it's going to cost. i'm not sure you can still get them NOS from Denon's authorized parts dealers.

Nice machine, but a paperweight at the same time. sad.

well, it works pretty well with CDs and most DVDs and can at least be used as a standalone DAC (the PCM1704-based DAC circuit is fantastic, better than the DVD-3930ci), so not quite a paperweight yet...but i couldn't justify keeping it for the full price. i was hoping the seller would bite on the partial refund idea, but no such luck.

and this is actually the second time i've tried to buy a DVD-9000 -- the first time, that seller backed out after "remembering" an issue he neglected to mention. i think somebody is trying to tell me something here! looks like i'll be sticking with my Sony 7700 for a while longer.