The UD8004 (pictured) is said to fuse “the best of Blu-ray and reference-quality CD replay”. A more affordable sister product to Marantz’s £5,000 flagship universal Blu-ray player, the UD8004 Blu-ray/CD/Super Audio/DVD-Audio player – priced at £2,299.90 – is said to pack “an equally impressive performance punch”.
Marantz UK MD Jason Dear told IE Residential that the UD8004 “brings Marantz’s flagship ‘Blu-ray universal’ technology – as found in the multi-award-winning, reference UD9004 – to a far more competitive price point. Not only that, but the UD8004 also offers such class-leading capabilities in a much more compact design, making it friendlier for installers.”
The specification of the new Marantz product includes: a state-of-the-art Anchor Bay ABT2015 processor; a newly developed proprietary mechanism for “extraordinarily accurate” disc reading; and audio replay handled by three separate audio circuit boards with Current Feedback technology and all powered by their own transformer.
The UD8004 also incorporates HDMI 1.3 connectivity for 36-bit Deep Color support, Profile 2.0 for BD-Live capability, built-in decoders for Dolby True HD and DTS HD High Definition replay, and 24FPS capability.
The player – which is available now – sports an SD-Card slot ready for SD-HC (high-capacity) cards, offering playback of WMA, MP3, AVCHD and JPEG. Disc compatibility includes SACD, DVD-Audio, Blu-ray, DVD and CD.
