Arcam DV139: latest DVD/Universal Audio player
HDTVUK covered the Arcam DV137 back in May, and now Arcam have stepped up a gear with the introduction of their DV139 DVD/Universal audio player that they claim is their best ever.
Arcam really aren’t buying into the whole next-generation optical disc (HD DVD / Blu-ray) war/fiasco at all – instead they’re focused on producing quality equipment for playing your existing DVDs and CDs with the best quality possible.
Now you can get DVD players for less than £20 these days, but Arcam aren’t one of the brands you’ll get for that. This £1800 player is for serious audio and videophiles, claiming that as well as playing DVDs in brilliant ‘near-HD’ quality, it will also match a high-end CD player.
Features include a quality 1080p upscaler from Anchor Bay, cutting-edge video technology using Zoran Vaddis 888S core processing engine, broadcast quality video deinterlacer, twin audiophile-grade toroidal transformers, “Mask of Silence” electromagnetic damping technology, and anti-vibration SDS (Sound Dead Steel) chassis.
The 10-bit video scaler will upscale to 720p, 768p (not a standard HD resolution but often found on computer monitors and some TVs as their native resolution), 1080i and 1080p. It has an HDMI output. It will playback DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, CD audio, SACD audio, and DivX video.
It has an onboard display wizard for calibrating the display it’s connected to, and features NTSC to PAL conversion when required.
Audio wise, it features Dolby Digital, DTS, CD, plus stereo and multi-channel DVD-Audio and SACD playback. It has top of the line 24bit 192kHz Wolfson WM8740 DACs for all 6 audio channels, and a 32bit Zoran audio DSP.
That really is just the tip of the iceberg – this is a very capable machine truly for home cinema fans. It’s available from December, priced £1800.
