Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Denon 3910 Opinions ?

Once again, seeking any information from members that have used the Denon 3910. Have decided the three Sony mega players are going to be eBayed, and replaced with hard drives/digital jukebox storage. Will use the Dennon for movies and individual CD playing when wanted. Any input will be much appreciated.

Virtually everything you see/read says the 3910 is a winner. Also, search around the forum for "2900" - it's an excellent choice as well. Discontinued, but if you can find one, it will be quite a bit less expensive than the 3910.

Thanks Ray, and ya, another decision, 2910 or the 3910, big savings in price going with the 2910. Will think for a few days well getting the Halos up and running I guess.

Dennis

Dennis, (love your new avatar. I'm a big Disney fan )

I just got a refurbed 2910 from [url=http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecsplash/shop/detail.asp?dpno=192739]eCOST[/url for $449 shipped. If you click on that link you'll find they've got it listed for $419 now (DRAT! ), although they apparently are not in stock at the moment.

I'm happy as can be with my 2910 but, that being said, If you'll check the Secrets of Home Theater DVD Benchmark, you'll see the 3910 is ranked ahead of the 2910, though not by a great deal (highest 3910 score - 92; highest 2910 score - 86)

You'll notice that there are more than one score for each player. The different scores reflect different settings within the setup menu in each player.

IMHO, if the budget is NOT crucified by the price of the 3910, I'd go for it. If price is a factor, you won't be losing a lot, and can feel good by going with the 2910.

Jack -
Thanks, found Mickey in one of my files today and figured I could use a sorcerer about now to finish up this system. Need to start making some decisons on hardware/software for the jukebox.
As for the budget, think the 3910 can make it, and should be able to get a few years useage from it before something a way better is out. At leas I have myslef convinced of that. [tounge]
Was just seeing if any members have as used one, nice to have the recomendation and not be the first to try it out.

The 3910, 2910 or the 2900 will all work well. Given the price point etc and after seeing them all in action in my own basement, I dumped my 2800MKII and bought the 2900............yes the older one. I thought it had a better picture then the 2910 and although the 3910 had a slightly better picture (At least on my TV), it wasn't that much better and to be real honest, the 2900 does a few things better then the 3910. At the end of the day, I just couldn't justify the price of the 3910.

The link Ajax put up is a good one. Note the 2900 rates higher then the 2910 and only slightly below the 3910. You can't go wrong with a 2900.

Oh sure John, make it easy for me.

Serioulsy, as for the TV, put a Sony KDF-60WF655 (60" HDTV) in back in December, so that is what the Dennon will be using. Info like your is what I was asking about, not going to save money and give up quality, and having personal use helps a lot.

:-) lol I'm only reporting what I have seen and heard in my own house! If you want the honest truth, I think the 2900 is a better Red Book CD player then both the 2910 and 3910 but again that is based on my own system..................ah crap, you seem to have lots of money, go for broke and buy the 5910 for $3500.00!

I would love to try one but even if I could afford it, I would never in this lifetime spend $3500.00 on a DVD player especially when the 2900 or even the 2910 do what they do for a hell of a lot less.

FWIW, I just purchased and refurbed Denon 2900 from eCost. I have very happy with it. Ray was the main influence, but I did a lot of research on my own and came to much the same conclusions that NH did....although I did not have the 3910 or 2910 to compare...it was just reading.

I almost decided to save $100 and go with a refurb 2910...but would have had to wait until refurb units were in stock again. So I pulled the trigger on the 2900.

Jack and Ray have pointed/influenced me toward three items, the MX-700 remote, the Denon 2900, and Ideal-lume bias lighting. All three have proven to be excellent and worthwhile purchases. I think the two of them should put together some kind of buyers guide.

Jump on the 2900 and then look into the bias lighting!

A little off-topic:
After looking at the parts of the Ideal-lume...I think I can put one together myself for less money.....the lamp is readily available, the issue is finding the right fixture.

Thanks Curtis, seems this is all going towards me spending less money, and contray to what it may seem, I'm not wealthy, and save money where ever I can.

In searching tonight, seems what 2900's that are available are selling for as much as the 2910, and since I prefer not to go used off of eBay on this, looks like the 2910 is winning out simply becasue of cost and availability. About to call it a night and make a decicion in the morning. Need to get it ordered, so I can start removing all of the CD/DVD out of the Sony mega players, want to have them out before the Halos go in.

Also working on the hardware list for the jukebox, plan is for storage capacity of 2,000 discs, wirless unit to the network giving access for any music on the machines in puter room, along with music stations online. All this becasue the original 48" television along with all of the equipment was black, then the new TV was the silver, the HDTV Tivo box silver, then the Halos, so now the mega players are totaly out of place.

No wonder why the companies change thier equipment colors frequent.

Thanks for the info and expierances with the Denon players, it has really helped me arguing with myslef which way to go.

I stream music from my PC(high quality MP3's) to my system wirelessly using an Apple Airport Express. The Airport Express is hooked up digitally to my pre/pro. EXCELLENT sound quality......not quite as good as the 2900....but for endless music, it is great!

I only have about 2000 songs ripped so far.

Listening to it right now.

Ya, checking for software as well since we have three PS's and 3 Sun boxes on 24/7, and most have music files stored. So any help will be considered on that project.

I suggest looking at the Roku Soundbridge:
http://www.rokulabs.com/products/soundbridge/index.php

and the SqueezeBox
http://slimp3.com

There are some units now that can files right off of NAS devices or PC/Servers without the need of any special software.

You got all that hardware running the whole time?

Oh ya, the Suns are for the roomie that is a Unix sys admin, my PC and the other two PC's for the roomie that is a programer, with them and 6 monitors, spa and things, PG& E loves us.

One Sun runs the dns, domain, web pages, have about 7 users that use the Suns remotely, and if the DSL has a problem for a few minutes,have people calling me and bitching.

Last mind change for the evening, since Ray, John, and Curtis are all agreeing, I'm going with the Denon 2900 it seems.

Off to bed, tomorrow night could be a late one if there is no delay in the Halos arriving. Nite

a slite hijack but how do all you guys justify buying $1000 dvd players with bluray and hd-dvd lurking just arounfd the corner?

A reasonable question, Jacob.

Firstly, the 2900 or the 2910 will be considerably less than $1000 ($419 -$600), though that still is a fair amount of money.

Secondly the HD players won't be coming out until the end of the year, and when they do they will be prohibitively expensive. It'll take at least another year or two for the prices to come down to affordable levels. So, realistically, the absolute earliest I could even start thinking about one will be two years, and I suspect it will probably be longer before I can actually get one.

Thirdly, there initially will be the inevitable format war (blu-ray vs. HD DVD). It would seem prudent to wait until one of them surfaces as the dominant format. No fun to spend a big chunk of dough on a player that quickly becomes obsolete. Although, like the SACD vs. DVD-A war, this one could go on for a long time. No telling how long it will be until players are released that play both formats.

And, of course the 1080p HDTV sets are coming out too, so there is a LOT of money to be spent. Time to get saving!

Could not have explained it better, thanks Jack. Also most of my life, something is always just around the corner, only issue is its like walking the street blind, you never actually know how far it is to that damn corner. I'm still waiting for the local repeaters on streets, so that people that live beyond the 16,500 foot limit from a central office can have high speed internet, and end the problem with pesky phone lines, signal through the ari, great concept, that was suppose to happen soon, and in the works like 15 years ago, and well looking at new houses in 2000, we still needed to know where the CO was so we could limit our search.

Actually, Toshiba is to have the first $1000 HD-DVD player to market in the 4th quarter, and HD-DVD recording media is only suppose to cost 10% more.

I think HD-DVD is going to win the format war, at least from what I have read. For me, the issue is when will it be mainstream. Most TVs in homes still can not handle progressive output....most home systems still can't handle digital audio.

While I love multi-channel/hi-rez audio....look how small that market is. I think the HD-DVD/blu-ray situation is going to be the same for a while.

These new formats are also going to bring on new audio formats.....so there is another upgrade.

Anyways, I think it is going to be another 2-3 years before it will be worthwhile going the HD-DVD/blu-ray route.

I'm just waiting for Denon to make a 5 disc changing Blu-ray, HDDVD, SACD, DVD-A, Redbook CD, DVD-video playing machine for $600-$800 that I can get at ecost for $510!

I agree with ya, at the present just going finish this sytem up, and enjoy it, well it may well not be the best, I can live with it, and guests will have input as always. I think for the amount invested, I have the best for my ears/eyes and that is the only issue that matters.

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I have the best for my ears/eyes and that is the only issue that matters.

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No you don't...I do!

Actually...I want the Halos.

"Although, like the SACD vs. DVD-A war, this one could go on for a long time."


I noticed something interesting while at BB yesterday. It looks like they are dropping DVD-A. There were only about 3 titles left in that format, but they stilll had plenty of SACDs, and their high rez audio section has shrunk by 2/3. CC has discontinued both and I bet BB is going to do the same thing.
At this point I dont care which one holds on just as long as one does.
(but i have my doubts)
And all I have is SACD.

LOL
When you are ready to purchase, let me know, I found an online Paraound dealer to late, or I would have purchased the C1,A51,A21 B grade, for $ 8k to the door and saved some money. The C1/C2 are identical except for the 3 things that don't really justify the additional $2k.

I am actually very happy with my Sherwood/Newcastle P-965 pre/pro. Excellent features and sound quality...in fact, many think it is at least as good as some units cost much more.

It is your amps that I want to try.

bray...most of my SACD and DVD-A purchases are done online now. I don't BB and CC attract the kind of people that listen to hi-rez.

Most of mine are online or my semi-local Tower music, but BB is/was very convienent for me.

Will be heading down to Disneyland for my b-day and Mickeys 50th celebaration in June, but don't think I want to haul the Halos down for you to try. But you are welcome to drive up anytime, bring some music/movies and see what you think of them.

Still plan a BBQ for Axiom owners, as soon as I can manage to get this system finished up.

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Still plan a BBQ for Axiom owners, as soon as I can manage to get this system finished up.

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awww...man.....I don't own Axioms!!

Well, that includes contacts made from the Axiom forum of course.

I am using the 3910 and am very happy with it. I thought you might find the following review helpful:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_12_1/denon-dvd-3910-dvd-player-1-2005.html

In this review, the reviewer compares the 3910 to his existing player, the 2900. Plus, in the audio portion of the review (which I found very interesting), you will notice the reviewer uses Axiom speakers...similar to what you are using (M60 vs M80).

While I haven't heard or seen the 2900 in action, I know the 3910 looks and sounds amazing. One last note, while it may not be a big issue in deciding between the two, the 3910 has an HDCD decoder, which the 2900 does not.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for the info, and your time. After all of the reading and talking to members here, have decided to order a 2900. Since Parasound is talking about a long delayed player, and till players are out and , and less confusion about what to buy, decided to go a less expenive way for now. The Denon is to replace the Sony mega plaeyrs, as I'm trying to get a better and faster way to access CD's/DVD's, the disadvantage to the mega units is the menu system for finding and loading discs. So since they are are only units out of the new system that are sort of the weakest link now, seems the 2900 for the price will be a good solution, and should have no less and may be some improvemnt in audio and video, plus regain same space in the cabinet.
The 2900 should arrive tomorrow, and the Halo's this evening, so will be a long night, but hope to have the sound system working before going to bed.

Good choice, you cant go wrong with the 2910, 2900 and 3910. I am amazed you didnt want an upconverting DVD player like the 2910 or the 3910. Oh well, I will bring up my 2910 one day so we can compare the difference. There may be none, or the difference will not be what we expect.

Definitely good you did not wait for the Parasound. Denon makes the best DVD players on the market, in any price class. Especially if you get an aftermarket mod. Get ready for a big change in quality with the sound. The DAC's in Denon's DVD players are so superior to "budget" DVD players it is incredible.

GO buy some SACD's NOW!

If you do the research, it is debateable if the upscaled video from a 2910 is better than the non-upscaled video of the 2900. You can also debate which has a better deinterlacer. Audio wise, from my research, the 2900 is better.

Whatever the tradeoffs are...I think they are minimal. I know the 2900 is built like a tank, and its successor is the 3910, not the 2910. If I had the cash...I think I would have still debated the 3910 vs 2900.

I'm running out of time to debate, thats why I needed to make a decision now, the weather is going to chage in days/weeks, and really need to finish up the HT project, as I will be stuck in the back yard on a few big projects, and still have about 500 square feet of mable to install and grout, can't spend weeks more on the HT system. lol

The 2900 was an expensive way out for a year or two.

IMO...you went the right route.

It is time to enjoy!

Make that an inexpensive way out. LOL

The Denon 2900 just arrived, I have boxes and equipment every where and have guests tomorrow at 1 pm for a auditioning party, I could use some tech help here.

With all your new toys, and my envy, I am inclined to say "You're on your own, buddy!"

If I weren't already going skiing on Saturday, I'd want to drop by to witness (and assist with, of couse!) the giant mess of cables you're going to have to deal with.