Panasonic UB9000 Flag ship uhd player with XLR output

[jdh500]

I wouldn’t get to excited about the 15% off, this eBay seller Is a regularly part of a group of sellers that have 20% off sales anyway, more than likely would be even cheaper later in the month.

 

JDH

Edited May 12, 2019 by jdh500

[jdh500]

On 08/05/2019 at 10:37 PM, betty boop said:

@Happy Sacks 

All good here... really nothing to report in that yes all is really good. Does everything says on the tin ! No surprises  nothing to question...

 

do do still have my OPPO 205 just relocated it to 2ch side as universal player there. Got a long hdmi for it so can use as back up player to pana if ever need and particularly for multi region blu-Ray/DVD that 9000 cant do

What does the Panasonic UB 9000 bring to the table as extra features or quality that is missing in the OPPO 205, sorry but I haven’t been able to figure it out from some of the earlier posts, just interested in knowing?

 

JDH

Edited May 13, 2019 by jdh500

[minireza]

@jdh500 I believe one of the main benefits is the tone mapping capabilities (in addition to the picture quality being class leading - at least according to some comparisons) 

[betty boop]

1 hour ago, jdh500 said:

What does the Panasonic UB 9000 bring to the table as extra features or quality that is missing in the OPPO 205, sorry but I haven’t been able to figure it out from some of the earlier posts, just interested in knowing?

 

JDH

as per minireza ... tone mapping....

 

1st pana player with decent build fit finish, check the first post of this thread JD I have both oppo and the pana 

 

keep in mind oppo not even an option for many these days... for me oppo is more useful as a universal player  and multi region.... and the oppo 205 does also have that excellent analog stage .... .

[Mobe1969]

On 13/05/2019 at 9:15 PM, betty boop said:

as per minireza ... tone mapping....

 

1st pana player with decent build fit finish, check the first post of this thread JD I have both oppo and the pana 

 

keep in mind oppo not even an option for many these days... for me oppo is more useful as a universal player  and multi region.... and the oppo 205 does also have that excellent analog stage .... .

Aside from the tone mapping, I so love the subtitle luminance I hate it when I have to use the oppo for region a titles. I'm considering buying a US 820 as a backup and region A unit...

[Kazz]

On 08/05/2019 at 6:17 PM, Happy Sacks said:

So @betty boop you've now had your UB9000 for 6 months. Has it lived up to your expectations???

 

Have you or @Kazzhad any operational niggles or anything that would make you question its build quality or reliability. Do all the functions work as expected??? Do you still use your Oppos or have they now been forever superseded???

 

 

No niggles here for me, I'm loving this player, everything works as expected.

My Oppo 203 has been sold but I still have the Oppo 103d in my system for multiregion BD playback.

[Snoopy8]

I listened to a friend's UB9000 unit yesterday and its analogue stereo output trounced the AVR stereo as expected.  It led me to wonder whether the UB9000 multi channel analogue output is any good.  Anyone compared the multi channel analogue output with that of an AVR?

[Perth.hifi]

Interesting, just trying to decide if the u820 is gonna be good enough for movie sound via hdmi. If so then my marantz av8805 preamp should fill the void for analogs 2 chan analog sound. Or am i wrong to think this way?

Struggling to justify the jump from the ub820 when i have a good pre amp already.

 

I love my music playback but that's normally via spotify or tidal via the marantz heos system.

 

Am i right to think there's no point to go to the 9000 pana based on this?

 

 

[cwt]

1 hour ago, Perth.hifi said:

Struggling to justify the jump to the ub820 when i have a good pre amp already.

I love my music playback but that's normally via spotify or tidal via the marantz heos system.

Am i right to think there's no point to go to the 9000 pana based on this?

If you had a large static music collection on a hdd or NAS Ide consider the upgraded analogue output on the 9000; but with streaming primarily instead the heos is doing a good job .

The 820 is certainly good enough for movie titles over hdmi as you think ; in fact the next echelon down -the 420 will suffice as it also has identical dual hdmi outs for isolation  if you want to feed a display separately rather than feed the signal through your Marantz[ depending on lipsync]. It also has the same UHD processing chipset . The 820 has dolby vision but that's null and void depending on your display 

 

The 9000's analogue stages are higher quality than the 820's but its moot possibly as these are mainly for different file types like AAC;FLAC; WAV etc not sacd ; dvd-a discs as its not a universal player.. Maybe put the money saved into a good 2ch pre with h/t bypass if you want better 2ch analogue if you can rationalise this based on your habits ? good luck .

[Snoopy8]

2 hours ago, Perth.hifi said:

Interesting, just trying to decide if the u820 ous gonna be good enough for movie sound via hdmi. If so then my marantz av8805 preamp should full the void for analogs 2 chan analog sound. Or am i wrong to think this way?
Struggling to justify the jump to the ub820 when i have a good pre amp already.

I love my music playback but that's normally via spotify or tidal via the marantz heos system.

Am i right to think there's no point to go to the 9000 pana based on this?

Somewhat confused about what you are trying to do?  There will be no difference in sound quality for movies using HDMI between the UB420, 820 and 9000. The sound quality of movies using HDMI is determined by your Marantz prepro.

 

If the source of the stereo is Spotify & Tidal via Heos, then the Marantz prepro determines the sound quality.

 

If the source consists of music files, CDs, it is likely that the UB9000 feeding analogue to the Marantz prepro is better than a UB420, 820, 9000 HDMI feed to the Marantz. 

[jdh500]

Considering you own the Marantz AV8805, you may as well buy the ub9000 just to match the overall build quality.

 

JDH

Edited June 14, 2019 by jdh500

[jem2006]

Hi

 

Does anyone know how to change the country region from Aus to US to play Region A blu rays? The instructions on the web I have to  enable the Advanced features function below are alittle confusing. 

 

Thanks for your help.

 

https://www.regionfreedom.com/index.php/enhanced-firmware/panasonic-blu-ray-players/67-dp-ub420-dp-ub424-dp-ub820-dp-ub824-dp-ub9000-dp-ub9004/182-dp-ub420-ub424-ub820-ub824-ub9000-ub9004-enhanced-firmware-for-selected-models-eb-ef-eg-gn-p-pc#rccombined

 

[Snoopy8]

Borrowed a Panasonic UB9000 and set it up with my NAD T758V3 AVR, Panasonic ST60 Plasma TV and Opp 103 BD player in a 5.2 setup.  All audio tests were using Dirac Live enabled on NAD, volume needed to be manually adjusted for some inputs.  Some interesting findings:

• As expected for 2 channel (2CH) audio, UB9000 analogue beat HDMI output to NAD. No question that UB9000 analogue is better than Oppo analogue
• For multi channel (MCH) audio, UB9000 analogue is ahead of HDMI output to NAD but not as much as 2CH. For movies, there is a small gain in sound quality, but much more noticeable with MCH music where there is more body and detail.  ** Have watched a few movies since this writeup and the improved MCH analogue audio is certainly noticeable and makes for a better movie experience..
• UB9000 produced slightly better picture than Oppo 103, more detail and contrast between dark and light, better skin tones. Was not expecting to see this on a 1080p TV but that showed how good the 7 years old Pana plasma still is.

For clarity, 2CH analogue means connecting dedicated 2CH RCA output on UB9000 to 2CH stereo RCA input on NAD. MCH analogue uses the cluster of 6 (there are actually eight) on the UB9000 to the 6 RCA inputs on the NAD. These multi channel ports are separate to the stereo ones.  There is no Atmos channels analogue output. Note that HDMI audio output is disabled when 7.1 analogue output is enabled on the UB9000.

Most people would use a HDMI cable between the UB9000 and AVR or AV prepro.  The quality of the audio is thus dependent on the AVR or AV prepro. For non Atmos use, suggest trying the UB9000 analogue outputs. In fact, I will make the bold prediction that the UB9000 will beat low and middle tiered AVRs and likely match, maybe beat a few, high end AVRs and AV prepros for audio!

The UB9000 cannot play SACDs, unlike the Oppo. It does however play both 2CH & MCH DSFs. It works well as a renderer controlled by BubbleUpnp app on a tablet (which is used on stereo system), so playing DSFs this way overcomes one of my objections.

Will I get one? It will be an indulgence at current retail prices.  Have seen how good the UB9000 picture is in a superb 4K setup but am waiting for OLED pricing to drop further before I upgrade to 4K.  I spend maybe 75% of time on separate stereo setup and 25% on movies and multi channel music.  However, I could be tempted if someone here wanted to sell their UB9000.....

**  Part 2 of investigation here.

Edited July 10, 2019 by Snoopy8
Typo, added **

[cwt]

Good points Snoop on the well thought out dacs ; analogue stages and isolation of the 9000 when paired with a mid priced avr  . For anyone that doesn't need disc playback and is content with 2ch/multichannel dsd and converted flac file playback it means 1 less universal player 

 

I liked the logic of Pana from the start with this as multiple disc formats [as oppo does] complicates laser design with differing depths depending on the format being played and too accessibility is much improved with a hdd or similar . When the 1st oppo 203's had problems with the new transport and freezing etc ; I thought coincidentally hmmm

 

A 9000 is more likely to turn up than a pioneer lx500 

[Snoopy8]

10 hours ago, cwt said:

A 9000 is more likely to turn up than a pioneer lx500 

Aside from being a little bit more expensive, there is the tiny difference with the Lx500; it does not have multi channel analogue outputs! 

 

Watched Dunkirk last night on the UB9000. Movie came across as more engaging with the improved bass giving the subs a good  workout. Perhaps I happen to be in the right mood, but with the improved audio and picture combing well, I was more into the movie than previously...

[cwt]

4 hours ago, Snoopy8 said:

Aside from being a little bit more expensive, there is the tiny difference with the Lx500; it does not have multi channel analogue outputs! 

 

Watched Dunkirk last night on the UB9000. Movie came across as more engaging with the improved bass giving the subs a good  workout. Perhaps I happen to be in the right mood, but with the improved audio and picture combing well, I was more into the movie than previously...

Yes indeed ; forgot even the 800 has dropped them   Unlike the pio you can route the 2ch separately with its balanced outputs too [ separate dacs for 2ch and 7.1 and the 2ch has isolated dual 5v power supplies to drop distortion I read  ]

The sort of thing that helps when integrating a 2ch system ..

[wooferocau]

Interesting post from AV Science forum.

 

Then i guess you have looked at the chroma pattern like Panasonic ilustrate it, like a zone plate.They claim superior chroma handeling due to multitap processing, the problem is that the processor used have a very very bad chroma loss, Panasonic compensated that with a chroma sharpening/ enhancement, to make the patterns apear more right, but the good eye will notice a agressive chroma ringing introduced by the enhancement/ backdoor processing.
You can reduce chroma sharpness to -3 and reduce most of the ringing, but you will loos some high frequence chroma response, the chroma issue apply to all formats.
They did also apply sharpness enhancement to the luma channel, except with UHD playback.That makes the Panasonic players apear more vibrant and punchy/ sharper than a reference player, and why the panasonic fainth chroma zone plate looks more detailed, its the chroma overshoot/ peaking, and not how its surposed to look.
A lot of people like that kind of look these days, but if your into reference image quality, and care about details/ acurate reproduction and calibration, the Panasonic players are not capable, no matter what model you chose, they all suffer from the same chipset limitation and backdoor processing.

If you want chroma multitap processing with no side effects the only solution i seen is the Xbox, it maintain perfect bandwidth respons and no funky enhancement distortion, and upscaling from DVD Blu Ray to 4K is better than all the OPPO, Panasonic, and Pioneer, it just have other shortcommings.
 I guess that makes the OPPO the best compromise, and then figure out a alternative way to do the tonemapping, or do as many do, realise that it will never be perfect for projection and just use the Blu Ray edition that is mastered perfectly for that aplication.

[cwt]

Some telling comments from Vincent about the SDR conversion capabilities of the 2 machines Interesting that the pioneer gui hasn't improved since my pio 51fd  

[Snoopy8]

20 minutes ago, cwt said:

Some telling comments from Vincent about the SDR conversion capabilities of the 2 machines Interesting that the pioneer gui hasn't improved since my pio 51fd  

Thank you.  Lost me with all the gibberish on the pictures, am more into the audio side.  Interesting to hear that the reviewer preferred the LX500 to the UB9000 for music, being more relaxed.  It reminds me of similar findings with LMS vs MPD software music players with LMS more relaxed as well.    Don't have a LX500 to compare, but no issue with UB9000 for music (but then I also prefer MPD).

 

Have the UB9000 for a few more days, will focus on how it can be used as a music player.  This could be useful for someone who has only a HT system but wants decent music.

[cwt]

35 minutes ago, Snoopy8 said:

Thank you.  Lost me with all the gibberish on the pictures, am more into the audio side.  Interesting to hear that the reviewer preferred the LX500 to the UB9000 for music, being more relaxed.  It reminds me of similar findings with LMS vs MPD software music players with LMS more relaxed as well.    Don't have a LX500 to compare, but no issue with UB9000 for music (but then I also prefer MPD).

 

Have the UB9000 for a few more days, will focus on how it can be used as a music player.  This could be useful for someone who has only a HT system but wants decent music.

Its interesting that pioneer seems laid back ; due no doubt to the AKM 4490 DACs "velvet sound tm" which isn't as "etched" say as some sabre dacs and decent analogue stages . No slouch ; its used in the Emo RMC1 too . The Panasonic typically doesn't specify what dac is used but the isolation and signal path is better than say an oppo 203 as it uses common mode rejection it seems 

Edited July 8, 2019 by cwt

[Snoopy8]

12 minutes ago, cwt said:

Its interesting that pioneer seems laid back ; due no doubt to the AKM 4490 DACs "velvet sound tm" which isn't as "etched" say as some sabre dacs and decent analogue stages . No slouch ; its used in the Emo RMC1 too . The Panasonic typically doesn't specify what dac is used but the isolation and signal path is better than say an oppo 203 as it uses common mode rejection it seems 

The UB9000 uses the AK4493 DAC!  Clearly "velvet sound" needs more than the DAC chip and the analogue stage plays a huge role.  

[cwt]

5 hours ago, Snoopy8 said:

The UB9000 uses the AK4493 DAC!  Clearly "velvet sound" needs more than the DAC chip and the analogue stage plays a huge role.  

That's a good find ; nothing on the pana  web site , says a lot about the r&d time that pio went with the earlier 32bit dac  Yes a few db of s/n ratio means little compared to the capacitors and ic's later .

 

On a different tack ; must say Its not too flash that the dolby vision versions between different brands are not to the same colour gamut standards ie an oppo and pana comparison Vincent did . dolby needs to do better inspections before giving final licensing to ce;s it seems 

[Snoopy8]

Part 2 of my investigations of the audio capabilities which began here.  

 

The UB9000 audio can be tweaked using the following buttons on remote:

• "High Clarity"   
  Disables video and front display, had a subtle improvement.  To enable/disable “High Clarity”,  press the button several times
• "Sound effect"  
  Night surround useful if the AVR does not have it.  Remaster increases high frequency portion of pop/rock, jazz or classical, but lost on my old ears.  Also 6 digital tube sounds, no. 3 (soft rich sound) sounded good.
• "Option"
  Needs TV to navigate. Change DSD decode sampling frequency (for PCM conversion),  DSD low pass filter plus dialogue enhancer for centre channel. Analogue out filter are the filters from the AKM DAC chips, subtle impact.

(For stereo, DAC chip is a AK4493, for multi channel, guessing it is a AK4458, same AKM “velvet sound” family, only one with 8 channels and DSD).

 

In Setup/Player Settings/Sound menu,  dynamic range compression is off by default. Can change high clarity sound settings (video, front panel display) as well as enabling analogue multi channel (which turns off HDMI audio).  There are also settings for various digital audio.

 

While you can use the UB9000 to browse through a music library on a USB drive or on a NAS, it is much better to set it up as a music player (UPnP renderer) with Minimserver (UPnP server). BubbleUPnP App controls and manages the music but volume control is on the AVR. You can also use other UPnP servers and Apps. A Logitech Harmony remote (with a custom start sequence) is a neat way to enable the UB9000 as a music player without turning on the TV and manually setting things up.

 

In summary, the UB9000, with the 2 channel analogue outputs, will definitely improve stereo music playback in a typical HT system. Using the multi channel analogue outputs, the UB9000 will most likely improve the audio of non-Atmos movies and multi channel music (blu ray audio discs and DSF (SACD) files).

[elmura]

Part 2 of my investigations of the audio capabilities which began here.  
 
While you can use the UB9000 to browse through a music library on a USB drive or on a NAS, it is much better to set it up as a music player (UPnP renderer) with Minimserver (UPnP server). BubbleUPnP App controls and manages the music but volume control is on the AVR. You can also use other UPnP servers and Apps. A Logitech Harmony remote (with a custom start sequence) is a neat way to enable the UB9000 as a music player without turning on the TV and manually setting things up.

Can you please elaborate on how to set up the Panasonic as a UPNP player, or point me in the right direction.

Appreciated

[Snoopy8]

5 hours ago, elmura said:

Can you please elaborate on how to set up the Panasonic as a UPNP player, or point me in the right direction.

 

On Pana Home page, go to Home Network/Media Renderer/Home Network

 

This will setup the Pana as an UPnP Renderer and can be selected from an App such as BubbleUPnP.