Marantz DV9500 (2004)
The Marantz DV9500 was the company's flagship universal player when it arrived in July 2004, priced at ¥150,000 in Japan. It was a heavy machine at 8.5 kg, built around a newly developed DVD/SACD mechanism derived from the SA8400 design. The video processing was cutting-edge for its day.
On the video side, the DV9500 used a 216MHz/14-bit video D/A converter and 10-bit progressive processing, which Marantz claimed offered four times the precision of 8-bit designs. A 10-bit scaler could upconvert 480P to 720P or 1080i for output over the HDMI interface. Noise Shaped Video circuitry pushed video noise into less visible frequency bands. There was a full set of image adjustments - sharpness, contrast, chroma, hue, gamma, black setup, and more. The player supported PAL/NTSC conversion and PAL progressive output, and offered component, D1/D2, S-Video, and composite outputs. A "video off" mode could shut down the video circuits after I/P conversion to keep noise out of the audio path.
The audio side got the same attention. The DV9500 used three Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC chips - one per stereo pair for front, surround, and center/sub channels - fed by a dedicated power transformer for the audio circuits. All six channels got equal-quality output boards using Marantz's HDAM modules, and the analog outputs used brass-machined, gold-plated terminals. It handled SACD (stereo and multichannel) and DVD-Audio, and it was the world's first stand-alone DVD player with Dolby Headphone processing. A Lip Sync function corrected audio/video delay in 10ms steps up to 200ms, and an RS-232C port allowed custom-install integration with systems like Crestron. The specs: 130dB S/N ratio on DVD-Audio, 110dB dynamic range, and 0.0008% harmonic distortion.
Audioholics praised it as a machine that "not only fits into the most premium of home theaters but also has features for those that are building a system one piece at a time," noting that "Even for the two-channel audiophile who isn't sure about home theater, the DV-9500 has excellent stereo formats." Owners on forums echoed that enthusiasm, with one AVS Forum user who upgraded from the earlier DV8400 reporting that the video was dramatically better.
Known specifications:
- Disc support: SACD (stereo/multi), DVD-Audio/Video, S-VCD, Video CD, CD, DVD-R/RW (video mode), MP3, JPEG
- Video DAC: 216MHz/14-bit; HDMI output with 720P/1080i upconversion
- Audio DAC: Cirrus Logic CS4398 ×3; SACD 1-bit DSD, DVD-Audio/CD 192kHz/24-bit
- Frequency response: 4Hz–88kHz (DVD-Audio, fs=192kHz)
- S/N ratio: 130dB; Dynamic range: 110dB; THD: 0.0008% (DVD-Audio)
- Outputs: HDMI, component, D1/D2, S-Video, composite ×2; analog 5.1; optical and coaxial digital; RS-232C
- Power consumption: 29W (0.4W standby)
- Dimensions: 440 × 115 × 384 mm; Weight: 8.5 kg
The DV9500 still appears on the used market, and its reputation has held up among enthusiasts. Owners have reported that the laser transport is replaceable. One diyAudio user ordered a new transport from Marantz directly, though that same owner noted that multichannel output stopped working after the replacement. A service manual exists for the DV9500F1N variant, and replacement lasers and aftermarket remotes are available. No long-term failure data or production timeline beyond the 2004 release has been documented.
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