Denon 2200 or 2900? (1 Viewer)

[TerryHub]

I intend to pull the trigger today on a Denon 3805 receiver and Denon Universal DVD player. At this point based on reviews and the lower price, I'm looking hard at the 2200. Any opinions?

Also, the 2200 is said to have a blue display and the 2900 is said to have a white display. Has anyone seen both? What is the difference? What color is the display on the 3805 compared to the DVD players?

Thanks.

 

[ScottCHI]

if you can swing it, get the 2900

 

[John Garcia]

The display is white on both, and I believe both have the ability to adjust the brightness of the display from the remote (2200 can for sure). I've been very pleased with my 2200. If you just want the ability to start getting into DVD-A/SACD, the 2200 would be a good choice. If music is a priority, and you will be doing critical listening, the 2900 would be a better choice.

 

[TerryHub]

John:

Music performance is a priority, however, many reviews say the 2200 is almost as good. That "almost" is $400.00. This may be a sacrilege, but at this point I really prefer the sound of my Audiotron (2-channel MP3) over SACD. I consider my current setup pretty hard to beat. 2-channel stereo sounds incredible. I have Norah Jones and Alice in Chains SACD's. I myself and a friend of mine both prefer the 2-channel over the multi-channel on my system.

All that said, I will not forgive myself if I regret spending the money now and end up wanting to upgrade in a few months.

Thanks.

 

[James W. Johnson]

I took some pics of my 2200's guts today it looks an aweful lot like the 2900, especially the video and SACD/DVD-A boards, I got one of the Ecost units for $278 w/free shipping.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bentvalve/misc2.htm

 

[PatrickM]

If you care a lot about audio the most recent issue of the absolute sound has a review of the 2200 and the reviewer, Robert Harley I believe, said it was very good. It wasn't the best in any given format (CD, SACD or DVD-A) for a sub $1000 player but was near the top of each format making it an excellent universal player.

He also noted that he must have had a broken 2900 for his previous review because the 2200 was so much better.

Patrick

 

[John Garcia]

I've auditioned the 2900, and it sounded better with SACD than the 2200 does. Did not get to compare DVD-A or video.

I believe the video section is more or less identical. The board that handles the audio is likely the same as well, but the DACs are quite a bit different. Notice the power section between the two, the power supply for the 2900 is about twice the size of the 2200s, and the 5900 is even larger (that whole player is a beast). I noticed the chassis of the 2900 is also a bit more solid than the 2200 when I picked each of them up, not that the 2200 feels cheap, by any means. The 910, now that feels cheap.

For the price, the 2200 is a fine unit.

 

[Matt_Smi]

Not sure if anyone else has noticed this or not but it seems that all of Denon’s lower line of components (The 910, 1815 and 2815 DVD players, and the AVR 1604 and 1804 receivers for example) are made in China rather than Japan like most of the Denons more expensive components. And it seems that some of them, like the 910 as you mentioned have a cheaper feel to them. Another thing I noticed, take a look at the back panel of the 1804 (Made in China) V.S. the 2803 (Made in Japan), the 2803’s back panel has a much nicer layout IMO, the 1804 looks ok but everything is scattered everywhere it seems, for example why are the S-video inputs on the opposite side of the composite inputs? I don’t know if this means anything or what I am really trying to prove, but maybe Denon does not put as much quality into their lower end of products. I don’t know if it has anything to do where they are made, as the 2200 is made in China yet it seems like a quality component.


Link to back panel of 1804
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-qeidgMp...=XL#morephotos


Link to back panel of 2803
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-qeidgMp...=XL#morephotos

 

[Alan Wise]

I recently purchased the Denon 2900 to go along with my new AVR-3805 receiver. I am thoroughly satisfied thus far with both the audio and video capabilities of this machine.
However, I just did a side by side data comparison of the 2900 and the 2200 and have found the following differences:

Display color: 2900 = White, 2200 = Blue

RS-232 Port: 2900 = Yes, 2200 = No

THD (all media): 2900 = 0.0009%, 2200 = 0.001%

S/N Ratio (all media): 2900 = 118db, 2200 = 115db

Dynamic Range (all media): 2900 = 110db, 2200 = 106db

The numbers between the two are very close. Probably too close for me to discern during playback. I bought the 2900 mainly because a got a great deal on it. A friend of my daughters works at an authorized local dealer and discounted it to $ 725.00 for me (similar discount on my AVR-3805 as well). Had it not been for this, I may have gotten the 2200 instead.

Al. Wise

 

[James W. Johnson]

Thanks for that info Alan.

Did you test them yourself or are you comparing the specs?


Personally the 2200 is the best DVD player I have ever owned by a nice margin.

Just sice last October alone I have had the following players...
* = unit has Faroujda DCDi
Denon DVD-1600 *
JVC BK50 ( JVC uses their own progessive chip)
Philips Q50 (2) *
Panasonic RP-62 *
Sharp DV-S2U *
Pioneer DV-563-AS (poor video quality but nice audio section)
Mitsubishi DD-8040 *

 

[dan-0]

You may want to check one of the recent The Perfect Vision magazine issues. They do a nice job reviewing DVD players by price range.

In the $300-$999 range the 2200 came in second as a recommended buy. Mostly due to the excellant bang-for-the-buck factor. The 2900 did rate higher on audio, but the authors did not feel it was worth $400 more. An Arcam ($999) model took first in the above price range, the 2900 was not mentioned as a recommened buy.

BTW, I have the 2900 and love it. Never heard the 2200 though.

[edit] Looks like issue #53 is dvd player review issue.

 

[Alan Wise]

James, I was merely quoting specs in my previous reply.
I have not heard the 2200, but then again, I had only listened to/watched the 2900 twice before I bought it.
A couple of other differences I have dug up since my last posting:

1-The Burr Brown DACs are different; the 2900 uses a DSD-1790, while the 2200 uses a DSD-1791 (what this difference means I do not know).

2-The 2900 weighs in at 17.6 pounds, where as the 2200 is a svelt 10.4 pounds. A 70% weight increase from the 2200 to the 2900 is quite a lot in my opinion. When reviewing the features the two are relatively equal, except for the RS-232 port on the 2900. That can not weigh 7.2 pounds. Any ideas from anyone?

Regards, Al. Wise

 

[PaulDA]

Denon is said to have asked Burr Brown to make a specialty DAC for the 2900 (1790) whereas the 1791 is an off the shelf DAC.

As to the weight difference, the chassis, power supply and internal dividers are responsible for much of the difference. The stiffer, heavier chassis is said to minimize vibrations of the transport.

 

[Drew_W]

And the 2200 does vibrate as well. I held my hand on the front of the top of the unit while a disc spun up and there is some vibration in there. I don't know what effect this has, but I'm sure that that can of worms doesn't need to be opened again.

Any news on when the new Denon DVD players are due?

 

[Lewis Besze]

The 2900 is made in China as well,first Denon I owned that wasn't made in Japan.No worries though it is as good of a quality as the "Nipponese" ones.After over a year with this player I still recommend it without hesitation,however if Hi-Rez isn't a prioroty,then I wouldn't bother with either of them.Pretty much all DVD players can play MP-3s.

 

[John Garcia]

I don't know where you get that the 2200 has a blue display, it is white flourescent, and looks exactly like the 2900. Look on Denon's site, I can't tell the difference between their images, nor could I in person.


The 1790 was customized for the 2900 and is a superior DAC to the off the shelf one in the 2200. The main difference showing in slightly more detail and an overall greater smoothness in the 2900, possibly the larger power supply contributes to this as well.

My 2200 vibrates as well, but not any more or less than any other player I've owned in 6+ years.

 

[Alan Wise]

John,
I got the "Blue" versus "White" display info from performing a comparison on the Crutchfield site. The Denon site did not mention the color of display. The weight and Burr Brown DAC information was quoted directly from the Denon site. Again, I have never tried the 2200 so I do not know about it first hand. Is possible that older 2200's had the "Blue" display, and Crutchfield never updated their data sheets?
Sorry for the misinformation. Heresay is never a substitute for first hand knowledge.

Al. Wise

 

[Thomas Willard]

Have had the 2200 for two weeks. I have tried some SACD's and some DVD-Audio disks. They sound great, but quite frankly so do my regular stereo CD's playing Pro-Logic II. I could not see the justification for the price difference and since half of the use will be showing movies, I wonder if the 2900 can do any better than the 2200 with the available resolution of current DVD's (480 lines).

In fact my Panasonic S35 did a great job with movies and also had the shrink 4:3 option which I found the 2200 does not have (but have been told the 2900 does). In other words when showing a movie with a 4:3 aspect ration I must manually go to the front projector (or the 2200 menu) and select 4:3 other wise the player shows the movie in 16:9 aspect ratio.

I would call the display white (same as my 2803) with four levels: high, medium, low, and off.

This hopefully will be my last player for a few years until the high definition units are available at a reasonable price with enough titles to support the new format, be it Blu-Ray or HD DVD.

 

[ScottCHI]

i call my 2200 and 3803 display "blue". not as blue as some blue displays, but definitely a tinge of blue there.

perhaps the display color varies from lot to lot.


now, regarding the 2200 vs. 2900 question..... i can tell you that i've encountered more than one off-center or unbalanced cd, that i never ever had a problem with on several different "cheaper" players from other manufacturers in the past, that my 2200 just will NOT load or track, period, (my disc1 of "the wall" comes to mind). another one of my cds will play fine, but the transport rumbles so much it sounds like a 40Hz tone.

i don't know if the 2900 suffers from this problem or not. i've been considering taking some of these discs to the dealer to see if the same thing happens on both the 2200s and 2900s that they have there.

 

[Lewis Besze]

It[2900] played so far any CDs I tried without any problems.The only disc sofar it won't play all the way or sometimes at all,is and SACD from Channel Classics[La Stravaganza disc 1],but I think for a different reason then the "off center" issue.