A DVD-player for over half a lac? Just a DVD-player?
In the world of high-end home-theatre, that sum is considered mid-priced. But to those who are able (and willing!) to appreciate the difference, the money is SO worth it.
The Denon 2910 (now evolved to become the more up-to-date 2930) has graced my equipment-rack since 2005. And has proved itself more than worthy of the Arcam and B&W ancillaries it has partnered. And given hours of unalloyed pleasure and (like all love-affairs?) some heartache as well.
Straight out of the box, and putting on a vintage EMI recording of a Beethoven symphony (Teddy here is a classical junkie) I said, “NO. This can NOT be a DVD-player….it sounds more like a high-end CD-spinner. Let me check if it really does video”.
So, out came the DVI cable, carrying the video-signal digital-direct to my LG plasma monitor. And in went Baz Luhrmann’s stunning, modern take on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”.
And colours were supremely natural. Blacks were, at the same time, inky AND detailed. On top of a sound that supported the visual with clarity, warmth and impact.
I was, to put it mildly, pleased.
Days passed. CD after CD, movie after movie….it was like an addiction!
And then, disaster struck.
One night, after dinner, I thought of revisiting an old favourite, “Sophie’s Choice”, that hair-raising film by Alan J. Pakula, starring the magnificent Meryl Streep (giving the finest performance I have ever seen by an actress….with the exception of Meena Kumari in “Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam”). It played….and then froze. I thought, maybe a glitch….and put on something else.
The next day, a DVD-R did the same thing. And I thought, “This is BAD. What do I now do???”
Letters and telephone-calls to Denon (in Bombay, Bangalore and Singapore) brought forth much sympathy; and a suggestion to bring the machine in for detailed investigation….and a gentle reminder that high-end machines have a mind of their own while dealing with imperfectly-mastered raw-material!
I thought, performing major surgery on any machine is fraught with pitfalls, so lets not tamper with perfection....and bought myself a simple Sony to service the Denon’s rejects.
I’m happy to say, it played EVERYTHING. And with more than decent competence.
Which brought me face-to-face with the questions:
WHY the Denon? Why suffer its *nakhraas *at all?
The answer lay in a head-to-head, no-holds-barred comparison with the Sony. And the verdict was: the machine that was one-tenth the price offered something like 70% of the quality.
So, was the Denon SO worth it?
And the answer was an unequivocal….YES !
Because music and movies touch the soul; and passion for either precludes practical considerations.
What the “high-end” does is communicate the ESSENCE of what you’re hearing and seeing, effortlessly and without dilution. It doesnt try to “impress” nor try to cover its own, or the software’s, faults. It is, in fact, what our parents used to call “high-fidelity”.
This is what makes it different from mass-market products….and yes, it IS all worth it.