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Marantz is a well known and much respected name in the audio and video industry. Started back in the 1950’s by Saul Marantz the company was initially known for producing solidly built and great sounding audio components. Today they carry on that tradition and have added video components as well which have also received many industry accolades for performance excellence. Personally I have always admired Marantz gear. Their attention to detail not only in terms of aesthetics but internal components and build quality has always appealed to me. I have to admit that I was thrilled when I was offered the opportunity to review one of their products.

It seems like only yesterday that the first DVD players capable of handling not only DVD videos and music CD but the new high resolution audio DVD Audio and Super Audio Compact discs hit the market. In reality it’s been over four years since they became available and today these players are available from varying manufacturers at several price points. In reality today’s players offer a bit more than their earlier counterparts because today these player’s are capable of video up conversion via a digital interface for output at high definition scan rates. This is accomplished through the use of internal video processing which deinterlaces and scales the video contained on the DVD.

As you would expect the unit came very securely packed from Marantz. Included in the box along with the unit were an owner’s manual, remote control, remote control batteries, power cord, and A/V cable. I have to admit that I always get a thrill whenever I un-box a new piece of gear. The DV7001 is very much typical Marantz in its appearance. It has an unstated elegance that identifies itself with quality and pride. The faceplate is black with silk screened gold lettering. The raised Marantz logo sits proudly in the upper left hand corner. The golden SACD logo is well placed directly above the disc transport drawer as well as a “Super Audio CD” embossed plate on the front of the drawer. There are 8 control/function buttons, a large power switch, and a standby indicator LED.

The DV7001 is 17” wide, 5” high, 13” deep, and weighs 16 lbs 15 oz.

I connected the DV7001 to my Anthem AVM-50 pre/pro/video processor via HDMI, two channel and 5.1 channel analog connections. This would allow me to test its chops with stereo CD, multi-channel high resolution DVD Audio/Super Audio CD and digital movie soundtracks. The unit’s chassis has a very solid feel and appears to be well braced internally. I liked the idea of horizontally aligning the HDMI connection on the rear panel. Once my HDMI cable was connected it had a much sturdier feel rather than the loose feel that vertical alignment generally gives with other HDMI connections.

Once all connections were made I depressed the front panel’s power switch. Once the power switch is depressed and the unit is turned on the only way to get it into standby mode is by using the remote control. Under the hood the DV7001 offers the following:

The setup menu is straight forward and offers plenty of flexibility. The video setup menu offers settings for PAL and NTSC TV systems. The Picture menu has options to tweak the image for Standard, Bright and Soft settings as well as a Personal sub menu which has further settings for brightness, sharpness, contrast, tint and color. I left all settings at defaults which equaled Standard and 0 for all of the picture settings.

The audio setup menu allows the setup of the digital outputs, HDMI audio and speaker settings. Speakers can be set to either large, small or off with an on/off option for the subwoofer. There are adjustments for both speaker levels and distance with enough leeway for most room sizes. Lastly there is a CD up sampling option that will up sample two channel analog audio to either 88.2 kHz or 176.4 kHz.

A few other items worth noting in the setup menu are a screen saver, sleep timer, auto standby, disc lock, component video YCrCb or RGB settings, and audio DRC which is used during late night viewing to keep the system from waking the family.

HDMI was my primary video output and I set the resolution to Auto in the video setup menu and Auto in the HDMI audio setup menu. This allows decoding of the Dolby/DTS/MPEG via bitstream over HDMI. The player correctly set the output resolution to 1080p and sent it on to my Anthem AVM-50 pre/pro/video processor which passed the video through to my Sony 1080p front projector and decoded the audio.

I set the player up for 5.1 channel analog audio output for playback of Super Audio CD. DVD Audio can be decoded and sent via HDMI. The setup menu contains settings for speaker size, distance, and time alignment (Delay). The speaker levels can be adjusted up to + or – 6 db and distances can be set anywhere from 3 to 30 feet. There is no option for setting a crossover for bass/LFE signals however it appears to be fixed at 80 Hz. All other audio/video settings were left at system defaults.

The RC001DV remote control provided with the 7001 is not backlit nor do its buttons glow in the dark. The transport buttons are large which made them easy to identify in the dark. The chapter/track advance and fast forward/rewind commands are combined in a single button for each direction. The latter is accomplished by a single press to advance to the next chapter/track. FF/RR is done by pressing once and holding down in the desired direction. Various speeds are available by continuing to press while in FF/RR mode. The cursor and enter buttons are centrally located and are right below the transport buttons. All of the other standard control buttons are present which allow complete operation of the DV7001. Included is an HDMI button that can be used to change the video output resolution without having to enter the setup menu (nice touch).

Powering the player on from standby mode is accomplished by opening the disc drawer or pressing the power button on the remote. Opening the disc tray revealed smooth and quiet operation that seems to exude quality. The display is average in size and easily read at 16 feet away. Other than the small logo on the front panel it would be hard for most to identify the DV7001 as a DVD Audio playback device. In contrast to that the fact that it plays Super Audio CDs is certainly not understated. As you can see from this shot of the player’s screen menu.

I calibrated the player using the Digital Video Essentials setup DVD. Calibration went fine although it should be noted that the DV7001 will not pass below black information over HDMI. This is not an issue at all with program material and is nothing to be concerned about.

I began my evaluation by viewing test patterns from the HQV Benchmark Test DVD. The DV7001 utilizes Faroudja’s FLI2310 chipset featuring their Directional Correction Deinterlacing (DCDi) for deinterlacing and video scaling. The unit breezed through the various test program material. Specifically during the deinterlacing tests I noted smooth edges on both the flag waving and white bar tests. Detail and noise reduction was quite good and it quickly picked up the 3:2 cadence during the race track film sequence.

I continued my evaluation by watching some DVD material that is known to present a challenge to video processors. I watched both chapter 12 from Gladiator and the opening sequence from Star Trek Insurrection. The flyover of the stadium in Rome from Gladiator was reproduced with smooth lines and no jagged edges. The same was true of the rooftops in the opening of ST Insurrection as they appeared solid with no signs of shimmering or moiré effect.

Next I viewed some DVDs that would present somewhat of a challenge to see how well they would look when scaled to 1080p by the Marantz. Places in the heart is a wonderfully acted film starring Sally Field, Danny Glover, John Malkovich, and Ed Harris. Shot in 1984 this is certainly not a newer film and its lower video bitrate does not lend itself to what would be considered reference quality. Dark City is a newer film (1998) from New Line’s Platinum DVD Series and features extremely dark sets and lighting that can provide some insights into how well detail in dark backgrounds is being conveyed. Final Fantasy the spirits within is an animated full length feature that contains many dark and shadowy scenes as well as complex photography.

Colors were rendered beautifully which made the period clothing worn by the cast both natural and pleasing. I was impressed by the level of detail present during a scene where Sally Field’s character visits a local bank. The interior of the two tier lobby revealed subtle textures on the woodworking near the teller’s windows and on the stairwell leading to the upper floor. Video noise was minimized and there appeared to be no signs of video related artifacts associated with poor deinterlacing/scaling.

Final Fantasy the spirits within is a very dark film that has many scenes that contain fog/mist and complex backgrounds that contain lots of detail. The Marantz had no trouble with reproducing the film’s fine detail in both close up and backgrounds. It did exhibit the same macro blocking artifacts during numerous scenes. Examples are during the scene in chapter 1 where Dr. Ross lands in the abandoned city. The buildings in the background seemed to crawl with a purplish blocky haze. The interior of the spaceship’s walls in the background in chapter 4 were similar. It was distracting enough that it made those scenes almost unwatchable. Those same scenes viewed through the Oppo 970HD/Anthem scaled to 1080p were much better. Once again I could see that the artifacts were present but to a lesser degree which was not noticeable unless I looked for it. The Faroudja FLI2310 is known to exhibit macro blocking more on some displays than others. In this case I believe that it was inherent on the video itself and intensified by the Marantz.

Having completed my critical viewing I watched a multitude of DVDs through the DV7001 in every case image and sound quality was first rate with pristinely rendered video and crystal clear, spectacularly dynamic audio. There were no hints of the macro blocking artifacts mentioned earlier.

The DV7001 is an excellent upscaling DVD player. Its video processing is top notch and soncially it delivers the goods with superlative audio quality. While signs of macro blocking were visible in two instances, both seemed attributable to the source video which left no way to quantify to what extent the DV7001 may or may not have contributed to it.

When talking about universal disc players it has been my experience that in general they are considered DVD players first and music players second. I have also found that in this price range music playback has not been a true strength of universal players. Until now.

I started my listening with two channel CD. James Taylor’s Hourglass is an excellent recording and weaves a beautiful pattern of vocals blended with excellent instrumentation and musical structure. My first impression of this recording played back through the Marantz was one of sheer fascination. Taylor’s opulent vocals never sounded so good through my system. I found the overall perspective to be slightly laid back but not so much that the presentation felt too far away from the sweet spot. There was a terrific balance between the bass and treble. Bass was quick and tight while the treble was smooth and airy with no signs of harshness or brittle dryness.

Listening to multi-channel high resolution surround sound music was no less engaging. Dire Straits Brother in arms 20th anniversary edition dual disc was truly an aweinspiring experience. Imaging was pinpoint accurate with sound staging that was enveloping and broad. The crystal clarity with which the vocals and instrumentation was reproduced was the best I have heard from any surround sound music in my listening room. Wanting to push the envelop a bit I decided to give Jane Monheit’s Come dream with me a spin. She has a very strong voice that can sometimes come across as a bit on the hard trebly side when paired with bright sounding gear. The Marantz handled her vocals with absolutely no signs of hardness or edge in the mid to upper frequencies. The recording came across as open, airy and only slightly forward sounding in the treble.

CD-R and CD-RW discs containing .mp3 and .wma music files played back flawlessly and sounded as good as any pre-recorded discs through the DV7001.

Critical listening aside I just sat back and listened to music which included but was not limited to the following:

As described above, sound quality with DVD Audio, Super Audio CD and red book CD was coherent, with superb detail, a well delineated soundstage and an exquisite overall tonal balance.

The Marantz DV7001 is the best music player I have ever auditioned in my system. I am sure that there are better sounding machines available however you won‘t find them at this price point.

Below are a few things that Marantz saw fit to include on the DV7001 that I feel deserve honorable mention.

Click Here to download the DV7001 owner‘s manual.

The Marantz DV7001 is a complete universal disc player in every sense of the word. It offers outstanding sound quality and digital video that can be upscaled all the way to 1080p with stunning results. I have always found Marantz to be a name associated with high quality and excellent performance. The DV7001 continues that tradition and does so at a price that makes it affordable to most. I liked it so much I have decided to make it a part of my review system. How much better of a recommendation can you ask for?

The Review at a Glance (max possible = 5 paws):

Performance:

Build Quality:

Ergonomics:

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