Marantz UD9004 Universal player with Blu-ray

"At the High End in Munich, Marantz Universal's Blu-ray player called "UD9004" (working title) imagine this is based on the high Player SA-7S1 ". Besides the Blu-ray and DVD playback is also CD and SACD can be played (this uses Marantz's HDAM technology, Hyper Dynamic Amp module). The facilities include an SD card reader, an RS232C interface and an Internet connection for BD-Live content. The picture and sound quality of Marantz uses technology, such as,

36-bit Deep Color 36-bit Deep Color
10-bit Silicon Optix Realta Chipsatz 10-bit Silicon Optix Realta chipset
297MHz/14-bit Video DAC and two Sharc DSP for HD Audio Decoding"

From BluRayler.de

You are probably right in that it will share design features if not whole components or sub assemblies but thus far Marantz products exclusively contain HDAM's and have a much warmer sound than any thing Denon has brought to market. This might not be the one for me but I am definitely interested at the $2000 price point. Marantz has a history of bringing products to market at much higher MSRP's than what they ultimately settle down to and much higher than street price.

another email from Marantz, "expect price to be more than $4000 but less than $8000." Ouch!

Marantz makes some nice sounding gear of that there is no doubt. I own several pieces including some from their reference line. I wanted their new Reference integrated amp until I saw a picture of the interior and the MSRP. They lost a sale because of that picture. It may be the best sounding integrated amp ever made but it looks like a $300 Sony on the inside.

Yes, I am afraid that the UD9004 will be out of my price range. I was looking at their product offerings yesterday. For the life of me I cannot figure out why they have a 2+ year old universal player that does not do BD and is not HDMI 1.3a compliant and they have 2 BD players that do everything except SACD (and DVD-A but I could live without that). And evidently to fill in the gap, they are going to market with a reference priced UDP but it will not be in the Reference line.