Yamaha DVD-S2300....a wise purchase? (1 Viewer)

I'm looking for a good universal format player and I came across this Yamaha model at the $1000 pricepoint. The unit seems to have gotten fair to good reviews. Can anyone confirm that? Should there be any other makes/models that I should look at around the $1000 pricepoint?

For $1000 the Yamaha is considered the best universal player available by many. It would be a wise choice. However, it would be a wiser choice to wait a couple of months until the new Denon 2900 has been reviewed. It is also $1000. It may or may not be a better choice than the Yamaha.

The Yamaha has gotten great reviews for *video*, especially by Secrets, www.hometheaterhifi.com . But. It was reviewed by Sound & Vision a while back, and measured poorly for noise in all audio formats except for SACD. I would suggest, that depending on if you're going to use it mainly for video based material, DVD-V (and to some degree DVD-A), then it is a good choice now. But if you're going to use it mainly for audio based sources, CD, SACD, and DVD-A (to some degree), there are better players out there.

FYI, local hi fi store near me is closing them out at $700. If you do get one, make sure to shop around 1st for a good price!

I've had the 2300 for about two weeks now. So far, I'm very impressed with the unit; video is outstanding. As for the so-called "noise,'' I don't know what that means since I haven't seen the S&V article. I know that it plays all formats quite capably without any noticeable noise.

Peeves: it takes a while for the unit to figure out what type of disc was fed. If you just finished watching a DVD, and you put in a SACD, the 2300 is going to ponder this longer than I would like.

Overall, it's a winner for what it does.

I'll have to echo what James said earlier, the Yamaha is generally recognized as the best combi-player to date, yet the Denon 2900 will be out in about 2 weeks.
As far as anyone can tell, the noise issue has only been reported by Sound and Vision and no one else. All 2300 owners at AVS forum haven't noticed the "noise" and everyone seems to concur in that their review sample was partially defective.
That said, it is still probably a good plan to wait a couple weeks to check out the Denon.

Current Universal Players:
Marantz 8300/8400 coming soon
Integra 8.3/Onkyo 800
Pioneer (45, 47(a)(i) models)
Yamaha 2300
Denon 2900 (soon)
Lexicon RT-10
Linn Unidisk
MSB SuperDVDAudioPlayer