Marantz DV9600 vs. DV7001 performance comparison?


I've been looking for a good non Blu-Ray capable universal player and have been a Marantz customer for years.

I followed the release of the DV9600, and then DV7001, but when new were too pricey. Now a few years after their release, both can be had for similar prices that are what I think are a pretty good deal.

The DV7001(2007) was released after the DV9600(2005/2006), but both at the time were touted as their top of the line universal players from what I recall.

It seems that the specs on both units are similar, but do vary. The DV7001 loses the headphone jack. The DV7001 uses a different Cirrus Logic chipset for the audio. And the video scaling in the DV9600 is by Anchor Bay, where the DV7001 uses the Faroudja DCDi. The only issue I know of here is that the Faroudja does suffer from some macroblocking errors. But I don't know if it in general is an upgrade, or downgrade, from the Anchor Bay.

Unfortunately Marantz doesn't make it clear on a feature by feature comparison to know whether the DV9600 or DV7100 has superior specifications/features.

So, with all that in mind, my question is simple: Has anyone had the opportunity to compare the DV9600 and DV7001 for both audio and video?

If so, I'd be very interested in hearing your observations.

Thanks,
Al
little_al
I have dv7001 and it giving me frustation when it pause while playing movie for a few seconds only good thing is it play both ntsc and pal format if you do not care about pal go with 9600
Yes, I have heard and seen both. The picture quality on both is impressive. However in every regard the audio on the 9600 was a bit better. Keep in mind the 9600 will not out audio via hdmi and the 7001 I believe will.