Picture quality.
Stereo and AV Sound.

Remote control.
Had to return one machine.
Track splitting when record CD to MD.
Price
Noisy transport at times

Firstly many thanks to all those who contribute to this page, as it convinced me that I should try the DV88 and see for myself how good it is.

I wanted a good CD player and a DVD to make use of my AV set up as per below;

Sony KV32DS60 32" Digital TV
Sony STRDB930 AV Amp
Arcam A85 Stereo Amp (Soon to have the P85 poweamp added)
Mordaunt Short MS816 Stereo speakers
Mission 77C1 and 77DS surround sound speakers
Sony MDJES 510 MD

The Sony AV amp does a fine enough job for surround sound, and the A85 is a wonderful stereo amp. The Sony TV has an unbelievable picture quality, which I really wanted to make the most of with a good DVD player.

I also wanted a better CD player than thea cheap Sony that I'd had for four years, and a one box solution was what space would allow.

The reviews below, complain of many problems with the DV88, including poor reading of DVD's and CD's. With the first one I got, I had similar problems, I also had no analogue output. This I put down to rough treatment during transportation to the store, as the laser pickup system was obviously misaligned, and the analogue output card must have been displaced from it's slot.

Sevenoaks swapped the machine without any fuss (quite right too) and the new machine fulfills, as far as I can see, what the rave reviews below say.

For CD playing the bass goes all the way down, whilst remaining controlled. The top end is fully extended too, without any harshness. Overall, the sound is very detailed and balanced.

As for DVD playing, the 3D effect referred to below, due to the detail, quality and solid colouring of the picture is very evident on my digital TV. I thought it's own digital turner produced unbeatable pictures from broadcast programs, the DV88 shows there is still more that the TV can give. DVD's such as Neil Finn and Friends really do make you feel like you are there, picture-wise.

DVD sound is as good as the STRDB930 will allow, and the full use of it's dts and Dolby Digital surround sound digital decoder unleashes a very precise soundscape which rises to the challenge of very dynamic movies such as X-Men, Hannibal and Pearl Harbour (a crap film apart from the FX and sound). Again the bass and top end are noticably much better than when I use the TV's own tuner, Sky Digital films or a Nicam VHS player.

My only problems are the so called 'Teaching' remote, which is pretty, but impractical, though you get used to it, or replace it with a learning remote, and the fact that the DVD doesn't send the signals to split tracks when recording onto MD. I am going to write to Arcam to see if this is merely a software upgrade.

In summary for the price you pay, you get an excellent DVD and a superb CD player, not as good as a dedicated CD player but for a one box solution, a very good compromise.

If space is at a premium then the DV88 should be considered.

But at £900 ($1,350) I'm sure the Arcam CD72 ($600) plus a £500 ($750) DVD could better the performance of the DV88, but then you've got to test two products instead of one, and pay for more interconnects, which when you are buying in this market start at $50 and are more typically $150 if you are not going to compromise the signal path.

Buy the DV88, but if you have absolutely any doubt about it's quality, then you've got a dud one, take it back ASAP and get it replaced with another DV88, you won't be disappointed.

Similar Products Used:

None

CD playback

I compared this player and the Sony 9000ES to determine which one to ultimately buy. I had both at my house for about a month and found some interesting results.

Audio (CD playback): by far, Arcam beat Sony - even my wife (a serious non-audiophile) commented on the difference between the two. What qualities made Arcam superior? Dynamics, "space between the notes", treble resolution, and most importantly (and hard to quantify) - rhythm. Perhaps this last is due to lower jitter in the Arcam? Whatever the reason, I was most impressed with the rhythm. I found myself tapping my foot to almost everything when listening to the Arcam, while with the Sony I just sat there.

Video (DVD playback): surprisingly, in my experience, Sony provided superior picture resolution and to a slight degree color quality. With the Arcam, I noticed some motion artifacts and decreased resolution (most noticable with words on the screen). I must note that I have a Sony TV. But I did bring the Arcam back to the dealer to check this out, and saw the same effects using the Arcam with a Panasonic TV. Further, I saw the same resolution problem using Marantz and NAD DVD players with the same Panasonic TV. I concluded that this was not a fixable problem on the Arcam, since the dealer performed the latest software upgrade with no resulting improvement.

In the end, I bought the Arcam because my ultimate criteria was 70% audio, 30% video. The audio was clearly superior, while the video was somewhat inferior. I hope Arcam can remedy this video problem with software upgrades in the future - what a great concept! I love this player and listen to it everyday.

My system:

Arcam DV88 DVD player
Arcam AVR100 receiver
Paradigm Reference Studio 40v2
Audioquest Coral Interconnecct
Audioquest Slate speaker wire
Atlantis Reference audio rack
Brightstar Little Rock (on DV88)
PS Audio Ultimate Outlet

Similar Products Used:

Sony 9000ES

Pic. Quality, Looks

Build Quality, Service Response

A previous reviewer talked about split second pauses while playing certain discs. Two of my newly purchased DVD’s started to have these problems, but they only occurred on the second half of the disc (after the little layer-changing pause). Ring a bell, Mr Lopez?

This behaviour has nothing to with dirty or old disc, but (I suspect) is associated with crappy mechanics (Korea no-name) and low competence at Arcam. I’ve had the player at service for 7 weeks now. They've changed stuff inside the machine and upgraded the software in several steps, but the problems consist. For the Love of God, give me my money back and I promise to stay away from British-made audio/video-machines for as long as I live...

picture

remote

THIS IS A FOLLOWUP TO MY PREVIOUS REVIEW!!!

words of advice to everybody who buys this model:

this is a great player, granted the remote sucks eggs.

the region tweak works....try it.

if you are a person who "handles" your disc's....stop!!!, the dv88 is very unforgiving when it comes to dirty source material, and in some cases will not read the discs at all or it will cause minor problems with the picture, a good example is split-second pauses during play, or complete pausing while audio is still playing. however i dont believe the player is at fault, this is a good unit, but unlike arcam cd players, it cannot read through smudges or scratches.

this player is only for those of us who want the best performance from our dvd's.

on that note, be sure and pick up the new "superbit" dvd's coming out on oct. 9th, all the bits go towards audio and video, no special features, just audio-videophile quality at its best!!

Similar Products Used:

lots

Picture Quality, Looks

Built Quality? Customer Service

Well, it is time for me also to write a follow-up review. As I said, the player was in for service (for half an eternity it seemed...) and it ended up in a replacement machine from Arcam. The new player works and the disc that previously were unplayable due to pauses every 30 seconds, now plays without problems.

Do I have a “disliking against Arcam products”? – No, of course not! Remember I bought a DVD-player from them for hard-earned money. The DV88 has 1) a really, really excellent picture quality, 2) a complete “array” of in- and outputs on the rear and 3) it is quite easy on the eye. The CD-sound I do not care much about, since I have an external D/A-converter that feeds from the optical output on the DVD-player.

Do I have a disliking of expensive audio/video products that works worse than a no-name, crap-all-over player from Galne Gunnar (a Swedish low-price market)? – Yep, you bet! It is not “High end” if a $1500 DVD-player has trouble playing discs that a $250 Pioneer takes on with ease. This would be like buying a $100k sportscar that would only run fine on fuel from certain gas stations (and you would not know in advance which ones). My player was obviously defect, as Arcam replaced it, and the new one works fine. But I guess that it is no use to you two who considers the split-second pauses as almost a desirable feature for a high-end player. You are talking nonsense, guys! Have your Arcam dealer fix your players!

Picture, Sound, Build quality.

Remote is useless

I have had the pleasure of owning all the above Sony players but was looking for an upgrade in the audio end of things. I purchased the Arcam strictly on the excellent world wide reviews and have not looked back since. Picture is better then any of the players listed above and yes even the 9000ES which I still have. The 9000 honestly sounds a bit better depending on source material but the Arcam overall provides a better picture then the 9000 and is light years ahead of the other 2 Sony models. Don't get me wrong the Sony's are wonderful players but the video image on the Arcam is clearly superior, and yes the 3D image thing that other reviewers mention is true. AMAZING! A nice feature of the Arcam is the ability to play MP3's. Personally I think that after making a disc of MP3's recorded at 160, MP'3 still have a long way to go. Nice feature but I will not be using it. Needless to say I have decided to use the Arcam as my primary player as the sound is close enough to the 9000 and the video quality is better. I'm sure I will ruffle the feathers of a few 9000 owners but I own them both and the picture on the Arcam is better. I had several friends over to do a comparison between the 2 players using various movie titles and with a room full of 8 people all 8 thought the Arcam had a better picture and they found little if any difference in sound(On DTS soundtracks, everybody preferred the Arcam). The only down side to this fine player is of course the remote. For the most part it's useless, unless you like watching a movie with the remote in one hand and a flashlight in the other. If your looking for a player with exceptional video and excellent sound and don't want to pay a lot more money for the Sony name, get the Arcam!

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVSP7000, Sony DVSP7700, Sony9000ES

Outstanding picture, sound, build quality, dependability

Price; tiny buttons on the remote

So far this dvd player has either met my expectations or surpassed them in every way. There have been NO digital artifacts that some other players exibit. It seems to track perfectly. It does take a few seconds longer than one might think it should to load and read a disc. When advancing to another track while listening to cd's, the change is instantaneous! It has the quickest layer change I have yet seen - it's not perfect, but almost.
There is a strange sense of 3D video on occasion. For the first time I have caught myself pushing back in my chair to avoid something on the screen - I believe that says it all!!! The contrast is almost magical.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba, Sony

stellar picture, excellent sound, hardware/software upgradeable

none I've found

I was reluctant to try the player, being interlaced, as I wanted a progressive player to use with my Elite 510 RPTV. I just didn't think it would be or could be better on video. I also knew it used a Zoran MPEG decoder which I know has the red chroma bug which plagued the Sony and Denon. The Sony 9000 is an excellent player with great audio/video but the chroma problem really started to bother me. I sold it for the Denon, thinking that with the SI503 deinterlacing chip on board it would surely beat the Sony on video. Well the Denon turned out to be very buggy, even after 3 firmware upgrades as I'm sure most of you know. Given my reluctance to try the Arcam, I had read many great reviews plus it received numerous awards over in the UK. So I have a local dealer that carries Arcam and he let me bring it home for a weekend to try out in my system. I hooked it up, ran through the setup menu then popped in a few discs to get a quick look(haven't calibrated with Avia or VE yet). It lloked very nice. Later that night I plopped in Avia and dialed it in. On all the other player I'vve demoed in my home, I could never dial in the color and tint on Avia quite right, just close enough. With the DV88, not only could I get spot on color, but with absolutely no flickering either. The other settings changed just slightly. I then rewatched scenes from TS1&2, Matrix, Bug's Life, Dinosaur, Gladiator, Galaxy Quest and Titan A.E. I know these direct digital animations from Pixar look pretty good on anything, but this was by far the best I've ever seen them. Clearly better than on the Sony and Denon progressive player. The colors are so good on this player I was amazed. I've hear people say that such and such DVD player looks almost 3 dimensional or HiDef, but I had never seen it or thought that until now. Objects in the foreground were strikingly seperated and defined from background material with fantastic color. That's all it took. The video was so good I ordered on the next day. It was more than I wanted to spend on a DVD/CD player but it turned out to be an easy decision. This player was designed and built from the ground up by Arcam. It is not a rebadged OEM. It was also designed to hardware and software upgradeable and a progressive scan and DVD-Audio upgrade are already in the works. The progressive upgrade will use the SI503 chip. Really nice and impressive player.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DVM-3700(owned), Sony DVP9000ES(owned), Denon DVD2800(owned), Pioneer DV37(demoed), Tosh 6200 & 9200(demoed)

very high quality audio and video this side of something $5000 named Theta somethingsuchandsuch.

sssslllooooowwww source recognition (compared to my CD player)

I have had the thing only for a few days but am familiar with Arcam generally. I have owned an Arcam Alpha 8 CD player for a couple of years but wanted a DVD player that could do both audio and video very well. There aint much out there if you want both and have standards.
On the video side the DV88 is hard to beat. I am no expert here but its better than anything I have ever seen. The user menus are very easy to use. The picture crisp, clear and all that with none of the usual hiccups from the piece of junk I had before (dont ever buy anything bearing the name Proscan holding itself out as a DVD player-they make (made) great TVs but jesus!). A tip, go with the 0 in the black setup menu, not the 7 (two choices) the black are better.
On the sound side the Dv88 is not as good as my Alpha 8 CD player-not by a long shot or anything, but it is noticeable. The detail is missing as compared to the 8. I noticed this immediately without comparing to the 8 (because part of the price for admission on the DV88 was to trade in the CD player) The cool thing about this is that Arcam tells you that up front. Ultimately though it shouldn't matter because my digital processing is about to be darn good via outboard pre/pro depending on which one I buy.
One thing that just pisses me off is that it takes forever for the thing to lock and load sources. This will not affect the purchase decision of hardly anyone, but I like to listen to Cd's DJ style sometimes and had the 8 down. So its probably quicker than lots of other DVD players but a tortoise compared to Cd players.
The chassis and drawer are a hell of a lot stouter than the Alpha line of Arcam products and a lot stouter than the japanese ever would make.
The upgrade path is easy to appreciate. I'm not ready for progressive scan and its not ready for me. Most of the top digital companies say its hard to do right and they are not going to sully their components with such a feature until they can properly sort it out.
In sum, great video, great sound that will get only better, plus upgradeable. And lets see you try and take those Sony/Pioneer players that you paid more for than the DV88 back to the dealer for a trade in. I'm not saying every one would do it (I sort of puzzled myself, but I assure you it is not because my local dealer values me as a special customer, all warm and fuzzy like), but let's see you try anyway. And heaven forbid you ever have to get on the phone for a week of your life for some "cusomer service" with those other two, or a year of your life in the case of a certain Thompson electronics subsidiary that shall remain nameless.
I'm into it. And I promise when rating it to remember it is a DVD player and not my long lost Alpha 8 Cd player.

Similar Products Used:

sony, pioneer higher end

Audio (CD and Surround), Image, Upgradeable, reads CD-R,CD-RW, HDCD,MP3, cool streamlined design (available in two colors), Uses four 24/192 DACS for the audio section

Splash screen is kind ugly (but will be updated soon), Remote is hard to read

This player is a hot rod!!! It has already won two best buys awards as well as the CES 2001 Innovations Award in Las Vegas! ( It beat the Sony 9000ES and the Pionneer for Player of the year award...)

The sound is absolutely astounding, it beats the Arcam CD72 hands down (the CD72 is basically an improved Alpha 7SE...). The imaging and low level detail is superb!

Video playback is impecable, zooming and the slow motion features show the quality of the video components.

Everything is hand assembled in England, not in a sweat shop in Asia.

Looks are cool if you like minimalist design.

The beauty of Arcam's philosophy is that all their digital sources are upgradeable. In this case, the DV88's software can be upgraded by simply inserting a CD-ROM, and Arcam is already working on a Progressive Scan and DVD-Audio upgrade module. So basically you can't get screwed!!!

I did have a few technical glitches with the first player, but Arcam's Customer support was very helpfull, via the web, and they were able to help me out

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic RDV-80 for DVD and Arcam CD72 for sound