Marantz wants to feed your need for the best that Blu-ray can offer. The company just announced four new Blu-ray Disc players, with prices starting at $550.

Yes, that's just the starting price. If you've got the coin, they've got the component: The UD9004. Coming in at a cool $5,999.99, the UD9004 is a universal player. That means it can play Blu-ray, but also CDs, DVDs, SACDs, and DVD-Audio discs.

The unit has two Sharc Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) for HD Audio and Marantz's HDAM technology, the Hyper Dynamic Amp module, for SACD. Audiophiles should also get giddy about the inclusion of the 32-bit floating point type Analog Devices DSP. On the image side, the unit gets a nice boost from 36-bit Deep Color and a 10-bit Silicon Optix Realta chipset, with a 297MHz/14-bit Video DAC.



Other features include a Vertical Stretch feature, which eliminates the black bars during 2.35:1 playback in fixed height screen installations. The UD9004 also has support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. There's also an SD card reader, two HDMI outputs, an RS232C interface and an Ethernet connection for BD-Live content and software upgrades. All of that is packed into a braced chassis with a thick bottom plate and machine-milled copper feet. That not only looks cool, but also provides stable playback.

Many of these features are also available in the UD8004 ($2,199.99), including HDAMs, a dedicated audio board, 7.1 analog outputs, video scaling, internal HD Audio decoding and the easy-operation user interface.

The UD9004 will be coming this month, with the UD8004 scheduled for an October release.

In case you can't wait, Marantz has two other new models out now. The BD7004 ($799.99) and the BD5004 ($549.99) both support Profile 2.0, with Ethernet connectivity. Other features on each include SD/SDHC card readers, HDMI 1.3a support and Anchor Bay VRS Technology video scalers. They're selling for $799.99 and $549.99, respectively.

Where to Buy:

• Marantz UD9004 Flagship Universal Player (Amazon.com)
• Marantz BD7004 Blu-ray Player (Amazon.com)
• Marantz BD5004 Blu-ray Player (Amazon.com)

For More Information:

• Marantz UD9004 Flagship Universal Player (Product Page)
• Marantz BD7004 Blu-ray Player (Product Page)
• Marantz BD5004 Blu-ray Player (Product Page)