Coming to the US: Pioneer Elite UDP-LX500 Hi-Res Disc Player with stereo analog outputs $999.00*

To be fair there is a progressive tax system in Canada where the first $11,000 or so is income tax free. There was a calculation done for baseball players and the Toronto Blue Jays have to attract free agents - Toronto sits in the middle of the market for taxes on players meaning if a player had to choose a team to play for they would pay higher income tax playing in 10+ US markets than playing in Toronto. So it's not quite as bad as it seems since the US does also have a progressive tax system.

Further I am a Canadian teacher teaching in Hong Kong - I pay the Hong Kong income tax not tax in Canada since I don't live there - but the US double taxes - so a US citizen working and living overseas must pay the HK tax but ALSO US tax over a threshold. Further - if you win a lottery in the US - you will pay a LARGE amount of tax - in Canada if you win $50 million you pay ZERO tax on that winning. Of course there are few winners so this doesn't much matter in the big scheme of things.

One of the reasons I moved to Hong Kong was that I worked in accounting for 10 years - changed my mind went back to University for 5.5 years to become a teacher because the BC, Canada government said they needed teachers desperately back in 1998. Came out of university and a different government came in and instead of hiring teachers they cut all the special needs programs and dumped them all into the mainstream classes - upped the class size limits and basically doubled the workloads - no jobs - so I moved to South Korea, then to Mainland China then to nowhereville Canada for 2 years where there is one available female to date - or else a seal - not real good.

So Hong Kong I managed to get real lucky and get hired where there are many hot Asian women, the pay is better than any place in Canada and the tax rate maxes out at 17% and there is no sales taxes. And I was in hospital for 14 days in May with two operations on my hand (anesthesiologists, surgeons) . I have no insurance - IV every day, insulin injections, 3 meals a day, bed, bandages, 13 doctors looked me over, etc etc - Total bill $500 Canadian. Doctors graduate from places like Harvard med too so not a bunch of know nothing clowns. They have their issues here but man I think we in the west have to take more notice of what is going on in the rest of the world. People always saying X can't be done because of expenses etc - but then you see that it can be done - and without paying absurd taxes either.

The sad part is if we had more money in the west we could afford higher end audio equipment and those businesses would benefit by selling more products. And then if people had more cash - Pioneer could keep putting the nice rosewood side panels and piano black finish without having to SKIMP because everyone panics if they have to spend $1400 on a player instead of $1250. That $150 is now a back breaker, while in the 1990s - $2,000 on Pioneer Elite laserdisc player and buying $100 Laserdiscs was not THAT big of a deal. I read an article about bluray where they were saying the high end ones were the Sony 800/1000 and this was if you wanted to splurge. In the 1990s a $250 player was considered buying total rubbish. What has happened?

 

Can we leave the tax discussions to the tax forum, please!

 

So is there a silver faceplate 4k bluray player available in north america?

 

I would tend to doubt that there will be a silver version of the LX500 or LX800. Has Pioneer offered silver versions of it's most recent players?

 

I also just got a price on the Panasonic DP-UB9000 @ less than $1300 CAD. This is way less than all those prices that have been thrown around for this player that I have seen. We'll see come October!

 

The Panasonic DP-UB9000 is not a universal player. No DVD-A or SACD playback capabilities.

Panasonic Shows Off Its New Flagship DP-UB9000 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player

 

Really?!? Wow, that's a lot for money for an almost plain-vanilla (by todays standards) BluRay player!

 

I totally agree. The Panasonic DP-UB9000 is supposed to have an upgraded analog stage but it's only for CD and Blu-ray Audio content. I don't see the DP-UB9000 being a big seller as Panasonic missed the boat by not offering it as a universal player. If Sony can come to their senses and offer DVD-A playback why can't Panasonic offer SACD and DVD-A (has in the past) playback?

 

I was just looking at a YouTube video discussing the Panasonic DP-UB9000. It's in French but it shows the UB9000's front and back panels. It doesn't look like a high end player and it has a cooling fan. The build quality doesn't look even close to that of the Oppo 203 or 205. Oppo players haven't had cooling fans since the 95. One would think that in 2018 Panasonic could design their flagship Blu-ray player without one. The Pioneer LX500 doesn't have a cooling fan.

 

Where does the market even exist for a player such as this? I might sort-of understand if the thing was a gold plated high-end effort which weighed a ton... But if Oppo couldn't survive in this segment of the market with players which were more than twice as good for the same price, then how can a player like this have any market at all?

 

Very good question! Looking at the Panasonic DP-UB9000 again the build quality looks like that of a sub $500 player. Not a player costing well over $1000. They'll be blowing these out for $500 in a few months . Even at $500 I wouldn't buy one. The Pioneer LX500 looks to have much better build quality and features. If I didn't have a 203 and 205 I'd be all over the LX500.

 

My point in all this is that the Pioneer should be about $800 in the US and the Panasonic about $900 in the US. I was on YouTube a while back and one of the videos quoted a price for the UB-9000 at just over $1400 USD! ... crazy guessing price for a player that wasn't even out then. So maybe you guys may be right both players may be selling for even less than this.

 

Most people are not going to get an OPPO 205 from the last runs and will have to find something else if they want a new player.

 

An update on the LX800. Per Robert Zohn, the 800 will not be released in the US.


The link below is in Chinese, so use Google Translate at your own peril. There is a great youtube video there that shows the player off very well as well as a bunch of on screen display photos. Looks just like an OPPO display.

【評測】Pioneer UDP-LX500 4K 藍光機首試 + 設定教學 | Post76玩樂網

 

Yes, but you have "free" health care.

 

I think we have to face facts, DVD-A is a good as dead and SACD is irrelevant in terms of driving large scale sales, especially as most people "in the know" looking at a universal player already bought an Oppo 205 (or 2). I still think there is a market for high end SACD players but "universal" players are a dying breed whether we like it or not.

 

I would have to disagree with you in regard to the lack of interest for universal players. Oppo players are in huge demand by the interest in the 203 and 205. Pioneer is going to be selling two universal players the LX500 and LX800. Sony shocked everyone by offering DVD-A with a few of their recent universal players. So the demand has to be there otherwise why would Pioneer and Sony still be producing universal players? I think universal players would far outsell high-end CD/SACD players by far.

 

You are right that Universal player shift more units than SACD players but dedicated SACD players are only for a niche market with much larger margins. 99.9999% of blu ray player buyers don't even know what SACD is let alone DVD-A so when margins are small then leaving off a couple of licences can drive more sales/profit than including them for a really small minority of people (like CD players for Cars). Yes Sony did put DVD-A onto a couple of players but then dropped it on their latest offering. This combined with the fact that Oppo ( the clear market leader) couldn't make it work indicate to me it's a dying market. Don't get me wrong, there will still be the odd player released but I think the Oppo maybe the last with multi-channel analogue and I don't see them still being made in 10 years time (hence dying). Maybe the same could be said for dedicated SACD players?

 

Pioneer Elite used to make nice stuff but I've not read much positive over the last 10+ years.

 

There's no hard evidence that indicates Oppo "couldn't make it work". One would never know that by the high demand for their players even before Oppo Digital announced it would be stopping production. There's more discussion that Oppo Digital's parent company decided to focus more on cell phone production than producing universal players. Of course the decline in interest for physical media didn't help I'm sure.

I wonder if the decline in the quality of Pioneer's Elite components is due to the fact that production is no longer in Japan. The LX500 is made in China.

 

Seems most stuff is made in Asia now. Where was the OPPO 203 and 205 made?

 

Oppo's players I believe have always been made in China. My point was that maybe the quality of earlier Pioneer Elite components were of better due to being made in Japan. With that better quality control on Pioneer's part. I'm not saying that just because components are made in China that the quality isn't there. Oppo players are an example that quality components can be made in China.

 

There is the Cambridge Audio CXU-HD, Pioneer LX-500 & LX-800 (if they bring the LX-800 to NA because some have said that it wasn't coming - don't understand why it wouldn't?) and Panasonic UB-9000. Anything else out there worth considering in this price range as I need another player?

 

I think the biggest factor would be if you have the need for a universal player. If you do then the Panasonic UB-9000 would not be an option as it doesn't have DVD-A or SACD playback. The other factor is if you need analog (stereo) outputs. If you do that eliminates Cambridge Audio CXU-HD. If you want a universal player but do not need analog outputs the Cambridge Audio CXU-HD would be my choice. Essentially an Oppo 203 without an analog output stage and a well made dependable player and costs $300 less than the LX500. But the Pioneer LX500 looks like a great player as well. I'm very interested to see how the LX500 will be reviewed once it's released.