Marantz DV-17 (2000)
The Marantz DV-17 came out in October 2000 at ¥125,000. It was a DVD player with THX Ultra certification, which was Lucasfilm's highest playback quality standard at the time. The surviving documentation points to a machine built with unusual care for both the audio and video paths.
The DV-17 had separate power supplies for audio and for video/digital circuits, and a double-layered chassis. Marantz called the layout "direct twin mono construction." The 96kHz/24-bit audio D/A converter and the HDAM circuits sit on the shortest possible signal path. Video went through a 10-bit/27-MHz D/A converter with a DC-coupled amplifier. A video-off function gave clean audio-only operation. The outputs were generous: composite video (two, gold-plated), S-video, component video, optical and coaxial digital audio, two analog stereo pairs, and a headphone jack. It played DVD, Video CD, CD-DA, CD-R, and CD-RW, even non-finalized discs.
The documented specs are an S/N ratio of 115 dB or better, dynamic range of 102 dB or better, THD of 0.002%, and 15W power consumption. The unit measured 458 × 88 × 313 mm and weighed 6.0 kg. The remote was aluminum on top and had a joystick. The DV-17 was also sold under the model numbers DV17F1N and DV17N1G, which indicates regional versions.
The record is otherwise thin. One German dealer page from the period called the player "even for 'nur-' listening to music really good," so it was appreciated for more than home theater. A Dutch forum discussion asked whether the Marantz CD17 sounded better than the DV-17 for music, which is an understandable question given the DV-17's audio-focused engineering. A region-free hack circulated among European owners. It involved a code entry through the setup menu.
Beyond these fragments, no production end date, no corroborating reviews, and no collector pricing have surfaced. The DV-17 appears to have been a serious, well-built machine from Marantz's early DVD era — one that treated disc playback as a music component first.
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