Yamaha S-2500 universal player - DCDi, HDMI, i.Link, video scaling - Page 6

Unauthorized is OK until you have a problem, then you get what you pay for. Tweeter happens to be a local authorized dealer near me. That, in my book, is worth the extra ~$50. May not be in someone else's.

I, for one, decry the dearth of service in business today. The "quick-buck" internet sales machine has only fueled this. Not that there are not some good internet dealers, it is just that there is a lot of anonymity, and that can lead to questionable business relationships.

Oh, and by the way Johnla, if I need someone to take hacks at my buying practices, I will let someone who's opinion counts, my wife.

Can't we all just get along?

You can do whatever you want with your money, I never said otherwise. But I'm gonna wait and see what the real prices are, before spending MY money! Because Tweeter has proved in the past many times, never be the cheapest authorized dealer for buying anything! And with the "new ways" they are running many of their stores now, their service is not even 1/2 as good as it used to be. So I don't consider their so-called "great support" to be worth paying any premium for anymore. Just as long as I buy one from a authorized source in order to have a valid warranty, is the only thing that really matters.

Johnla, if you have a bone to pick w/Tweeter that's fine. But start your own thread on this topic and don't come pissing on this one out of the blue. We're talking about the Yamaha DVD-S2500 here, not throwing rocks at each other's purchasing habits.

And that IS what I was talking about. And I certainly did not just come out of the blue into this thread either! Just because I said I would not pre-order one at a set price until the actual pricing market is known for it, does NOT mean I was throwing rocks at someone else for doing so. Even IF that is the way you want to look at it. He stated what he did, and then I stated what I would or would not do! Besides he was one that brought up the issue of the pre-order pricing, so he should expect others will respond to that and that they may not necessarily agree with him on that. And if he don't realize that, then he never should have mentioned any sort of price at all! Not to mention, there is another reason I will not jump on one sight unseen, and that is because NO ONE has any idea of how good it may or may not be until they are out and being used.

Johnla,

I'll admit you've got that right. Someone needs to report on this unit in actual use. Maybe I can be of service on that.

I also have to admit that my preorder has as much to do with being excited about this product as it does with a perceived quality with Yamaha along with good sound.

Let's see what happens when I get that little bugger in my system.

Other than the HDMI upconverting capability does anyone know how this unit stacks up agaainst the 2300 MK II? I am talking DACs, weight etc.

JTmav

The first page of this thread has some information regarding the DACs. From the info sheet (thanks to Q.) it says 12.3 lbs... but surely you're not going to judge its quality based on heft, are you?

Like everybody else I'm excited about this player. I have the S1500 (for music only) and to my ears it's a step up from the Pioneer 578. I had the Denon 2900 for one night but it couldn't read half of my redbook CD's so back it went. I haven't had one problem with the 1500 and am hopeful that the 2500 will give the Denon 3910 good competition for half the price.

Certainly not by weight alone. I have the 2300 MK II and have been satisfied for the last year. Last week however I got my first H03 error while trying to watch a DVD. Cleared up quickly but has me concerned.
This looks like a great player.
JTMav

Trust me, I am the kind of person that loves to have something new and with the newer features. But with something like this, you are talking about a lot of things that are yet unknown about it. And no one yet knows if it will be as good or better than the other players that are out right now. I'm looking at it more due to the fact it will have i-link for less than any player out, than the up-conversion feature. But it's still pricey enough that I don't want to jump blindly into owning one, just to find out it's really not at all as good as it appears to be by looking at it's "specs". After all just about everything looks good on paper. And there has been a lot of higher priced DVD players that never fully lived up to their "paper" specs, just as there has been a few budget ones that have exceeded theirs. By it's specs alone, it should equal or exceed the others that have i-link in its class. In short, all I want to know is that it's at least equal to some of the other i-link equipped players. And if so, I'm in. And if it happens to actually exceed the others such as the Pioneers, then that's just a added bonus for me.

I thought I had my choices narrowed down before this player was announced. I certainly hope it arrives as promised. My Sammy HLP needs a new partner and it will be an upconverting player. Any reports positive or negative will be much appreciated.

going with yamaha track record, i found both their CX1 and 2300 excellent products!

Audio wise it should be fine and not make that much of a difference if you use the firewire output, since your receiver will be doing most of the work.

Video wise is what will be the biggest deal breaker for most probably. The 2300 I have is great in both respects. I have been using it and am very happy. My only concern is that it is based on Phillip's products. An so far from what I have seen from Phillip's and their DVD players is terrible. The 2300 was based on Panasonics players and they are great for the most part.

i agree , lower than flag ship are philips based and are not trouble free!! I hope this one is not

Not so! Because using the i-link out, instead of the analog outs, can make a big difference when it comes to things like setup and bass management for playback of SACD and DVD-A.

FWIW, I inquired at my local Tweeter this past weekend about the S2500. They said they could special order it ($699) , that I could get a 0% financing deal, BUT that there would be no returns allowed and no 'price watch' guarantee (find a lower price within 30 days etc). I understand the logic of the latter, but the fact that they won't take a return killed the deal for me. They said they don't plan on actually displaying or selling this model
in their store at all (!) ..so they won't take a return. The salesman then proceeded to try to steer me towards a similarly-priced Denon which they *did* have on display...

I think I'll wait for an authorized dealer who *does* plan to actually stock the S2500..and support it with their return policy...and hopefully has a lower retail price.

I think good guys and magnolia, might have it!

But neither of those is an authorized internet Yamaha dealer.


http://www.yamaha.com/yec/customer/dealer.aspx

krabapple,

Was the no return policy tied to the 0% interest offer, or just no returns, period?

Why would Tweeter do that? I wonder if it's because they have a higher margin on the Denon 3910 and 2910. On specs alone the 2500 is closer to the 3910 than the 2910 at almost half the price.

No returns, period, regardless of the finance offer.

The guy had no idea about he specs of the S2500, I'm sure; he didn't know anything about it until he looked it up on his computer. After that he only knew that it was 1) MSRP $700, 2) a few other people had already special ordered one, and 3) that his store wouldn't be stocking it.

I'd be interested to hear if other Tweeter buyers asked about the return policy at their stores. (The one I went to is in northern Bethesda/Rockville, MD, the only one for miles around)

I really don't understand why people are chomping at the bit to get this player *now*. a) It has Faroudja processing, so it *will* have some sort of macrblocking, and, b) once it's been out a month or two, you'll easily be able to find it for 20% off of MSRP even from authorized dealers.

BTW, the Yamaha will *not* have the build quality that the 3910 does.

This stinks as Tweeter is the only Yamaha authorized dealer for me according to their website.

Kevin,

You make an interesting point. I have always been one to wait and see how something turned out before I plunked any money down.

Well, I getting too old, and I'm tired of waiting. I decided I would be "daring" and be one of the first to get it. Please allow that some people like to get excited, and after all, we're talking about $70-$140 potential savings if we wait. I'll survive.

Someone has to buy it, if we all wait, Yamaha might go bankrupt.

A lot of posts from disgruntled Denon buyers have made me think twice about Denon quality, which I always thought was a given.

Frankly, the only reason I'm interested in the Yammie is for ilink. I'm not sure there will be a difference in video quality between it and my current player, the Pio DV-45a (whose video performance got a rather bad writeup in Secrets, though it looks fine to me *shrug*)...and since my Mitsu TV is calibrated to the Pio, it could be that if I could see a difference, the Yamaha would look *worse*. I was willing to be an early adopter, though...but my Tweeter experience has dissuaded me for the moment. I'm waiting for the box to turn up on authorized Internet sites.

Now that Denon has finally finished dicking around with its own ilink, and has permission to pass both kinds of hi-rez ...on its *next* generation of players...I might consider them, if the price is right. But more likely I'll just buy the Yammy at the best authorized price I can find.

Finally, ilink could turn out to be a blip -- since SACD and DVD-A seem to
gasping for air. If pioneer decided NOT to introduce a price-competitive ilink model to the Yammy, I wouldn't be surprised, given that plain old toslink works fine for the only *popular* surround formats.

Is this player really coming out soon? I searched the Yamaha Japan site and didn't see anything. No listing of the 2500 in the DVD player section. Not even announced. They have the search function for the whole site. Nothing about the 2500 came up. Nothing from Japanese Internet dealers either. ???

Call up Yamaha and ask them if there are any other dealers near you. Because what they show on their website is also not 100% accurate as far as being totally up to date. So it's possible there may be some others that they have not listed yet somewhere by you.

Yeah, that is one of the "new" things that are doing in their stores, that has turned me off of dealing with Tweeter now anymore.

Only if people also stop buying their motorcycles and musical instruments.....