By Will Sullivan
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

The pre-CES backtracking continues: A week ago, I announced the Oppo BDB-83, a Blu-ray/Universal player from that well-regarded Chinese manufacturer—at a rock-bottom $499-$599 price. Not mentioned on [GAS] (except buried in my followup comment to the original post) has been the first such universal player, from Denon, the A1UDCI, announced for Europe a month ago (Dec. 4, 2008).

I have nothing but the greatest respect for Denon, but the now-confirmed $3800 MSRP (down from the $5,800 estimate based on the yen/dollar conversion a month ago!!!) is still so far removed from reality as to be absurd. Sure, check out the Denon (see link, below), but give a VERY long look and listen to the oppo, at ~15% of the price, and chock full of electronics goodness, including the well-regarded new Anchor Bay Technologies (ABT) video processor, discrete analog and digital stages—with shielding—and high-end parts…

[Via Sound and Vision’s “Bitstream” Blog]