This is a review and detailed audio measurements of the Panasonic DP-UB9000 UHD streaming 4K disc player. It was kindly purchased by a member from my friend @Robert Zohn of Value Electronics. The DP-UB9000 costs US $1,000.
The moment you grab the DP-UB9000 and feel its incredible heft you forget about all the bargain UHD players:
The weight is evenly distributed telling me it is the chassis that is heavy and not just one single transformer in a corner. The back panel is where the difference becomes clear between this unit and mass market players:
We have dedicated balanced and RCA outputs for left and right channels!
There is also an "audio-only" HDMI output which is a misnomer as you cannot have audio without video with HDMI. You have to at least send a black video signal for it to carry the audio samples (in the "invisible" parts of the image data). The main purpose is to send the video to a projector and then have another output to go to your AVR or processor if it can't handle 4K/UHD (which they all do today anyway).
There is USB input to play files but not for it to act as a DAC. The former is how I tested it which limited me to static test signals (i.e. no sweeps).
UHD Player Audio Measurements
I put my reference 24-bit 1 kHz tone on the USB drive and played it while capturing the output from XLR connections:
I was disappointed that the output was just 2.1 volts and not the nominal 4 volts. That likely hurt it a bit, reducing its otherwise very nice SINAD (sum of noise and distortion) to 112 dB. This puts the DP-UB9000 squarely in the excellent section of all devices with DACs in them tested so far:
Zooming in for better clarity (click for larger image):
As you see, the now discontinued but beloved Oppo UDP-205 does a bit better with its 4 volt output. Still, there is a ton to celebrate as other AV products have done nothing but disappoint us when it comes to noise and distortion of their DACs.
Here is the same test but with RCA unbalanced outputs:
At first I thought the left and right in the multi-channel output section would be the same. But then puzzled why you can turn them on and off independently. So I turned them on and was disappointed to see this:
This is the type of performance we typically see in AVRs/AV Processors. Likely an 8-channel DAC was used to produce this showing the stark difference in distortion and noise compared to much better implementation for stereo connectors.
Going back to the first graph, I forgot to note that turning off video and front panel in the so called "High Clarity" modes made no difference. So might as well leave the displays on so you know what the unit is doing.
Next I ran my dynamic range test:
Not state of the art but within the performance envelop already established.
32-tone test signal to resemble "music" shows very good performance:
Finally we have the jitter test:
Yes you can have "jitter" even though I am using a USB connection. Most noise and unwanted signals in DACs is generated internally by noise and interference than anything coming over the wire. We see that here with a sequence pulses in low frequencies. Fortunatley they are below -130 dB or way under threshold of detection by any human being so not a problem.
Conclusions
Panasonic DP-UB9000 shows that when AV companies put their mind to it, they can produce excellently performing and engineered products when it comes to audio performance. Despite having HDMI in there whaling away and the rest of the streaming bits, we have high performance desktop class DAC results.
Performance is almost the same as Oppo UDP-205 so for people mourning the loss of that unit, be sad no more. No, you don't get that units HDMI input and "mini AVR in a box" features but you do get a very performant and supported UHD player.
I am happy to recommend the Panasonic DP-UB9000 to my recommended list.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
I make this short. Donations are welcome using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The moment you grab the DP-UB9000 and feel its incredible heft you forget about all the bargain UHD players:
The weight is evenly distributed telling me it is the chassis that is heavy and not just one single transformer in a corner. The back panel is where the difference becomes clear between this unit and mass market players:
We have dedicated balanced and RCA outputs for left and right channels!
There is also an "audio-only" HDMI output which is a misnomer as you cannot have audio without video with HDMI. You have to at least send a black video signal for it to carry the audio samples (in the "invisible" parts of the image data). The main purpose is to send the video to a projector and then have another output to go to your AVR or processor if it can't handle 4K/UHD (which they all do today anyway).
There is USB input to play files but not for it to act as a DAC. The former is how I tested it which limited me to static test signals (i.e. no sweeps).
UHD Player Audio Measurements
I put my reference 24-bit 1 kHz tone on the USB drive and played it while capturing the output from XLR connections:
I was disappointed that the output was just 2.1 volts and not the nominal 4 volts. That likely hurt it a bit, reducing its otherwise very nice SINAD (sum of noise and distortion) to 112 dB. This puts the DP-UB9000 squarely in the excellent section of all devices with DACs in them tested so far:
Zooming in for better clarity (click for larger image):
As you see, the now discontinued but beloved Oppo UDP-205 does a bit better with its 4 volt output. Still, there is a ton to celebrate as other AV products have done nothing but disappoint us when it comes to noise and distortion of their DACs.
Here is the same test but with RCA unbalanced outputs:
At first I thought the left and right in the multi-channel output section would be the same. But then puzzled why you can turn them on and off independently. So I turned them on and was disappointed to see this:
This is the type of performance we typically see in AVRs/AV Processors. Likely an 8-channel DAC was used to produce this showing the stark difference in distortion and noise compared to much better implementation for stereo connectors.
Going back to the first graph, I forgot to note that turning off video and front panel in the so called "High Clarity" modes made no difference. So might as well leave the displays on so you know what the unit is doing.
Next I ran my dynamic range test:
Not state of the art but within the performance envelop already established.
32-tone test signal to resemble "music" shows very good performance:
Finally we have the jitter test:
Yes you can have "jitter" even though I am using a USB connection. Most noise and unwanted signals in DACs is generated internally by noise and interference than anything coming over the wire. We see that here with a sequence pulses in low frequencies. Fortunatley they are below -130 dB or way under threshold of detection by any human being so not a problem.
Conclusions
Panasonic DP-UB9000 shows that when AV companies put their mind to it, they can produce excellently performing and engineered products when it comes to audio performance. Despite having HDMI in there whaling away and the rest of the streaming bits, we have high performance desktop class DAC results.
Performance is almost the same as Oppo UDP-205 so for people mourning the loss of that unit, be sad no more. No, you don't get that units HDMI input and "mini AVR in a box" features but you do get a very performant and supported UHD player.
I am happy to recommend the Panasonic DP-UB9000 to my recommended list.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
I make this short. Donations are welcome using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/