Kudos: Incredible build quality results in reference performance; fantastic picture and sound
Concerns: Price; buying Control4/Nice driver
People have been proclaiming physical media’s death for a while, yet it persists. (Just think if Taylor Swift released 4K Blu-rays in addition to vinyl!)
However, when it comes to shiny, round discs, even though people might not be purchasing as much new content as they did in the past, they likely have a large, existing library of titles they still want to play and enjoy. And if you’ve got a client who has been a years-long collector, they could have a thousand or more combined CDs, SACDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K discs.
Even if they have already digitized this content and stream it over the network via a NAS or use a large USB drive for playback of these various files and formats, they likely want to experience it in the highest quality possible.
What if instead of using multiple players or devices that offer varied user, performance, and integration experiences, you could have a singular, premium, purpose-built player designed with reference audio and video playback performance in mind? A single deck capable of playing all this content in the highest quality possible, while also integrating into your control systems? A product that could also sit confidently and proudly in your rack next to other high-end components, and that comes from a company dedicated to building strong relationships with boutique dealers who understand the value of performance and service?
If all that sounds like something you could sell, then you’ll be very interested in learning more about Magnetar and the company’s second-generation UDP900mkII universal 4K disc player. And if you have been looking for that white whale to replace your Oppo UDP-205 sales, your hunt is over, Ahab!
Who is Magnetar?
Other than a brief stop at the company’s booth at CEDIA, I knew almost nothing about Magnetar, and it turns out some of what I thought I knew was totally incorrect. I was able to chat with Rob Jones, president of Magnetar, USA, to get a little background on the company, and how they seemingly came out of nowhere to commandeer the flagship disc player market.
Jones said that Magnetar’s parent company is one of the largest physical media hardware manufacturers on the planet and has been around for almost 30 years. (To maintain brand identity and separation, he did not mention the parent company’s name.) They noticed that there wasn’t a high-end solution in the premium market once Oppo left, and Magnetar’s creation was borne from the thought process of filling that hole in the market.
Based on that, they looked to build a premium product that was designed in-house from the ground up, and they wanted to position themselves — and the UDP900mkII specifically — as a reference source device that supports a ton of content via universal disc playback, as well as NAS and USB streaming.
“Magnetar’s vision is to redefine high-end home entertainment by offering universal media players that combine innovation with long-term reliability,” Jones said. “Magnetar fundamentally understands that many customers have built and cherish extensive libraries of physical media and do not wish to entirely transition to streaming-only formats. Our goal is to provide a solution that preserves the integrity of their collections while simultaneously delivering unmatched performance.”
The company’s first product, the UDP800, was launched in 2022, with the UDP900 following in 2023. Both models received mkII upgrades last year.
What I had thought was true was that Magnetar was in some way related to — I’d heard “sister company” — Reavon, a now-defunct 4K Blu-ray player manufacturer that appeared a few years ago. “We have nothing to do with Reavon,” Jones clarified. “Reavon and Magnetar just shared a U.S. distributor, and there is no company relation.”
Another semi-persistent misconception is that Magnetar is just an Oppo clone, and it’s easy to see where this idea would have started. Visually, the UDP900mkII shares a lot of similarities with the Oppo UDP-205 (which is still in such demand that there are units selling on eBay for upwards of $3200, almost 250% over their original MSRP). Also, both units have a very similar GUI and menu structure, and even use the same IR remote codes in many cases.
“To maintain our brand identity, we didn’t want to produce an Oppo clone,” Jones commented. “If you look at the hardware, there are similarities, but Magnetar is using our boards, our designs, and different components. There are significant differences in our power design and our power isolation. If we really wanted to just clone an Oppo, then we would be making an Oppo player, and that’s not what we’re doing.”
A large part of the commonality is that both companies use the MediaTek chipset as the player engine. Jones says that these similarities are intentional, as many Magnetar customers are coming from Oppo players, and they wanted to retain “a user experience that creates familiarity and that is seamless so you’re not having to relearn an entire menu structure and platform,” and could even continue using the same remote in many cases.
Another big difference? Magnetar is still in business and provides ongoing service, support, and firmware updates.
While I didn’t get to — or rather, need to — experience it, Jones said that part of Magnetar’s commitment to being a premium brand and delivering a premium experience is in delivering top-shelf customer service and support. He said that the company offers true 24/7 support, and that 99% of calls are responded to within an hour, with 80% within 15 minutes. If you install this player in a system and it goes down after hours on movie night, Magnetar will be there to support your client.
Putting a bow on it, Jones remarked, “Our dedication to quality, customer support, and long-term product reliability positions us as the go-to brand for those who refuse to settle for anything less than excellence.”
MkII Upgrades
At $3000, it isn’t like the original UDP900 player was lacking in build quality or performance, but it did leave some room for some performance upgrades in the new mkII version.
Under the hood, the new player sees internal electrical upgrades, with all PCB connectors upgraded to JST and Ampenol brands to enhance stability and reliability, and further reduce distortion and noise. Additionally, all internal wiring has been upgraded to higher-grade copper-core to optimize signal transmission performance, reduce signal loss, and preserve more audio detail, with additional anti-interference capabilities.
On the hardware side, the mkII adds a Texas Instruments TMDS (Transition-Minimized Differential Signaling) retiming chip on the HDMI Audio 2 output to compensate for random jitter to improve signal and HDMI audio quality. A new USB power supply improves compatibility of the USB 3.0 port and better supports for a larger variety of USB flash and hard drives (up to 16 TB). USB Audio via an XMOS processor now supports audio up to 768 kHz PCM and 512 DSD, significantly improving audio data transmission and processing capabilities. The mkII also upgrades to dual SABRE ESS 9038PRO DACs (versus 9028PRO in the Gen 1), which improves audio decoding capability, lowers noise, and offers enhanced surround sound (on 7.1-channel output).
Magnetar also made improvements to the optical drive structure to deliver better durability and quieter performance, with sound-absorbing cotton on the outer casing and a spray-painted frame. The company also improved its proprietary video image processing algorithms, said to deliver more detail, richer and deeper color output, and improved upscaling.
All told, a fair amount of improvements for the mkII’s additional $300 asking price of $3300.
First Impressions
The UDP900mkII makes a huge impression the moment you lift the box. To be fair, sheer weight alone doesn’t necessarily correlate to quality, but it is historically a good indicator.
The player arrives double-boxed, and unboxing it definitely feels like a premium experience. Inside the packaging is a power cord, owner’s manual, and remote control, with the player itself carefully wrapped in a black, velour-feeling cover. Customers unboxing their own units will feel like they are getting something special.
Once removed, you have your first opportunity to lay eyes and hands on the player itself, and, again, I was astonished by its weight. By the scales, the player weighs 34.17 pounds. To put that in perspective, my Marantz AV8077 7×150-watt amplifiers weigh 45.41, and my Trinnov Altitude 16 weighs 24.9, making the Magnetar the second heaviest component in my rack. In contrast, my Samsung 4K Blu-ray player weighs 4, and the Kaleidescape Strato E player weighs 1.6.
The deck is carved from an all-aluminum alloy body with a reinforced dual-layer chassis, all designed to eliminate any vibrations or resonance. The thick front-panel faceplate is visually divided into four sections with contrasting gray and charcoal aluminum and the dark plastic of the display area, along with the disc tray door in the center. One friend describes this as being akin to “a red Honda with a black carbon fiber hood and a chrome fuel door,” which is extreme, but it is a different look compared to traditional electronics. For the record, I thought it looked cool and added a bit of flair.
A look under the hood reveals meticulous design and layout, with purposeful attention to detail. Internally, the unit is divided into three, metal-shielded enclosures to keep everything isolated and reduce any possible interference or cross-contamination. Magnetar describes this as “isolated metal chambers [that] suppress vibration and improve thermal behavior, ensuring quiet operation and unwavering fidelity across every format.”
Power delivery is split for maximum stability, with a custom-designed, high-power switching supply driving the digital mainboard, and a massive, dedicated two-stage 60-watt toroidal transformer feeding the analog audio stage.
Does all of that necessarily guarantee better performance? No. But it sure indicates that Magnetar put a lot of thought into the design and points to a product that should deliver long-term reliability. Jones commented that one real-world benefit of this over-building is that, because of the 900’s better components, better clocks, and better power supplies, it supports full 18 Gbps transmission over longer HDMI cable runs.
The front panel has six buttons for basic control (power, open/close, play/pause, stop, skip +/-), a USB connection behind a covered panel, and a 1/4-inch headphone plug. The buttons have a nice, firm feel to them, with good resistance.
Around back you’ll find a full suite of connections that include dual HDMI (output 2 is audio-only), Toslink and Coaxial digital audio, RCA and XLR analog stereo, and a 7.1-channel RCA analog audio suite. Other connections include a USB DAC, USB 3.0, Gigabit LAN connection, and RS232C.
There’s no Wi-Fi antenna because there’s no Wi-Fi. This is to avoid any possible RF interference. If a network connection isn’t possible, player firmware can be updated via USB.
Unlike the Oppo 205, the UDP900 doesn’t offer any HDMI or digital audio inputs that would allow you to use it as a DAC or video processor for external sources. For Oppo owners migrating over to the Magnetar, I imagine this will be a feature that is sorely missed. Also, the UDP900 lacks a rear panel IR input for those who need it. Clearly not a deal-breaker, but at this price, that feels like a small miss.
Like the unit itself, the remote control is hefty and substantial. The remote is fully backlit, but I found it a bit of a challenge to read the button labels even in regular room lighting. Chalk some of that up to old eyes, but the remote’s color and finish produce some glare that made it difficult to read, and I often found myself adjusting its angle and position until I could get it correctly positioned for me to read. Most users will likely incorporate it with a control system, so this is likely not a real-world issue.
Should you need to rackmount the player, Magnetar offers a kit.
Setup and Features
I connected the main HDMI output to my Trinnov, which will likely be the most common connection, providing both 4K video and bitstream audio for external Dolby and DTS decoding. However, since this output bypasses the upgraded DAC set of the player, I also connected the XLR outputs so I could experience them. For users wanting a premium 2-channel experience, this would be a likely install. Audio is simultaneously output from all outputs.
Configuring the player is similar to any Blu-ray setup, with sections for Display, Audio, Playback, Network, Security, Language, and Option.
The Display options let you select TV shape, resolution, Color Space, Deep Color, HDR, and Dolby Vision settings. Resolution offers a variety of choices, including 4K2K and 4K2K 24 Hz, as well as Source Direct, which outputs whatever is on the disc without any upscaling. Source Direct would be the preferred setting for those using an external processor like madVR or Lumagen, allowing the player to serve as a transport feeding a native, untouched image to the processor.
Related: Why physical media is still relevant in home entertainment
While I didn’t use it, the player is said to do a terrific job of handling HDR-to-SDR conversion, so if you have a projector that struggles with delivering enough light for engaging HDR, this is a great feature. Note that while there is a button on the remote for HDR adjusting, the change doesn’t take affect while a movie is playing. You need to stop the video, make the change, and then restart it.
Audio lets you choose whether to output bitstream or PCM, select the max sampling frequency, set DRC, select SACD Output (PCM or DSD), and choose which layer (multi-channel, 2-channel, or CD) to prioritize on SACDs.
If you are using the 7.1-channel output — and, if you are, please let me know why; I’m genuinely curious why you haven’t upgraded to HDMI — then you have a full host of speaker settings, including size, distance, and level adjustment.
Other notable adjustments include the ability to set a static IP, whether to have CEC on or off for the HDMI outputs, the ability to export/import player settings, and check for firmware updates.
For those using a control driver, you’ll want to have Standby Mode set to “Network Standby,” and you’ll need to grab the MAC address from the About Player screen.
Speaking of control, there are drivers for Crestron, RTI, Control4, and Nice, however the Control4 and Nice drivers were developed by Chowmain and sell for $100. I don’t love that I have to tell my client that just dropped $3300 on a player that they need to spend another $100 to integrate it, but here we are. The player can also be a Roon endpoint.
Another mkII upgrade is the addition of wake-on-LAN (WoL), which was missing from the Gen 1 unit. This meant that the Gen 1 player was limited to using one-way RS232 control versus the full two-way IP driver. And while I don’t love the idea of having to pay $100 for the driver, I have to commend Chowmain for doing a great job. Adding to my Control4 system was simple, requiring just entering the player’s IP and MAC address. Beyond just basic control, there are lots of cool ways you can integrate the player into your system, such as triggering lighting events when the movie starts or when the player is in the home menu. I programmed my system to turn on, select the Trinnov’s XLR input, set the volume and audio processing settings, and start playing the disc whenever the UDP900mkII recognized that a CD had been inserted.
Magnetar does offer a free iOS and Android control app, and when it connected, it provided a complete replication of the handheld remote control. However, it frequently wouldn’t connect for me — just saying “Connection failed!” — and never connected after I integrated the player with my Control4 system.
Another cool feature is the ability to adjust the vertical position of subtitles on discs. For people who have a cinema-wide (2.35+ aspect), this is very helpful for films that embed the subtitles in the black bars that would otherwise be lost off-screen. Users who have ripped their own libraries can also adjust the size, color, font, and display timing of the subtitles.
I had expected the player to offer a host of video adjustments in order to fine-tune and tweak the picture quality, as well as provide HDR tone-mapping settings and vertical stretch for anamorphic lenses. However, it has only the most basic brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and sharpness adjustments, which are savable in three presets. And when you pull up the player’s video adjustments, the large video overlay takes up a large part of the screen, making it difficult to see the impact on the entire picture area.
I asked Jones about the lack of these settings, and he commented, “This is intentional. Any adjustments made within the player, like HDR tone mapping or image scaling, inherently require altering the video signal, whereas Magnetar’s goal is to reproduce the content as faithfully as possible to the original master, allowing viewers to see what the filmmaker or producer intended without reinterpretation inside the playback device. Magnetar is designed to function as a reference-grade transport focused on delivering the cleanest possible signal from the disc, feeding the display the cleanest signal possible.”
On the audio side, there are seven filters you can use on the DAC — Brick Wall, Hybrid Fast Roll-off Minimum Phase, Apodizing Fast Roll-off Linear Phase, Slow Roll-off Minimum Phase, Fast Roll-off Minimum Phase, Slow Roll-off Linear Phase, and Fast Roll-off Linear Phase. I honestly couldn’t hear any real differences between them and went with the Fast Roll-off Linear Phase Filter, which is Magnetar’s recommendation for the most neutral and accurate playback.
Performance
Of course, all of the above is for naught if the UDP900mkII doesn’t deliver when the tray closes and the disc starts playing. Regarding that, I found the 900 speedy when it came to reading and loading discs of all types, and that the transport tray was solid and stable. And while I can’t comment on the sound-dampening upgrades of the mkII over the Gen 1, the drive noise was never noticeable when watching or listening, even with the player sitting on top of my rack about 10 feet from me. For those especially light-sensitive, the front-panel display can be dimmed or turned off, however, the white power LED cannot.
The recent 4K release of the original Hollywood epic Ben Hur had just dropped when the Magnetar arrived at my home, so that happened to be the first movie we watched. (I was going to say “first disc we watched,” however, the near-four-hour runtime has the movie spread over two discs!) I have to say, it is stunning just how good a movie made almost 70 years ago (1959) can look and just how good this restoration is! Even my somewhat jaded 19-year-old commented on just how beautiful the film looked. (She was less kind about its overall length and pacing.)
The movie was filmed using a combination of MGM Camera 65 and Panavision APO Panatar 75mm lens with anamorphic 65mm film that allowed for a wider 2.76:1 aspect, capturing more detail, depth, and light than previous films, and this transfer, along with the Magnetar, gives you all of it.
The film’s highlight is the chariot race, which captures up to nine chariots in frame at once. What really struck me was that the production crew clearly had to go through and sweep the Circus arena after every take, and just the sheer grandeur of the crowds with up to 6000 extras being used in the scene, along with the scale of the statues in the center of the arena.
While close-ups have focus and detail rivaling modern films, it is the depth and focus across wide shots that are so amazing. Grand outdoor scenes like the crowds listening to Jesus speak have lifelike focus and depth. Throughout the film, you can appreciate the incredible work that went into the costumes and set design, from the deep, richly saturated reds of Roman cloaks/capes, to the gold fabric sparkle in Messala’s racing vest, to the texture and scratches on tunics and helmets. This is a reference disc that represents the best of what physical media can deliver and certainly belongs in your collection.
Another film that I kind of hate-watch for video quality is Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. This 4K disc, shot and presented in 4K at 60 fps, looks absolutely stunning; however, it comes at the expense of enduring bad dialog and acting. Once you get past that, and almost watch while clinically detached, you can appreciate just how good it looks and what 60 fps does for video motion and depth capture. A fantastic scene for this is the cemetery service, where the camera slowly pans along rows of graves, allowing you to read the engraving on headstones several rows back, even while the camera moves. The football shots inside the stadium also show off the motion handling, and throughout there is incredible fine detail, from the tight patterns in Chris Tucker’s blazer to the texture in ribbons worn on the soldiers’ uniforms.
We tried watching a movie a night while we had the player, so we cycled through a ton of our discs — The Hunger Games series, Jurassic Park films, Marvel movies — and that was part of the joy of rediscovering and reconnecting with our collection. As Jones told me, “Physical media continues to hold unmatched value for enthusiasts and collectors alike, offering a tactile, immersive experience that goes beyond simply ‘watching’ content,” and it was true.
To be fair, I’ve never seen a 4K Blu-ray player that looks bad, so I watched multiple Blu-ray discs to see how the Magnetar’s upscaling compared. For many discs in my collection, I was able to directly compare the UDP900mkII playing a Blu-ray upscaled to 4K/24 versus my Kaleidescape Strato playing downloaded native 4K content.
Consistently, the Magnetar did an incredibly impressive job upscaling BD content to 4K resolution. Things like the fine details in outfits, the texture in the pyramid walls, or the circular rings in the tunnel before Leelo jumps off the building in The Fifth Element rivaled the true 4K content. Interestingly, really effects-heavy scenes — like the rows of space traffic as Leelo jumps off the building — had less difference in picture quality than regular shots.
On the opening scene of The Dark Knight, where the camera slowly zooms into the buildings before the bank heist, the Magnetar does a fantastic job reducing line twitter in the fine patterns in the buildings and windows. Again, comparing the BD to the Kaleidescape 4K, the differences are often far more subtle than you’d expect. When viewing images with a lot of depth, like the cityscape in Hong Kong when Lucius Fox goes to meet with Lau, you see more fine sharpness and micro-detail in the distant buildings and windows, but this often required pausing and then A/B-ing back and forth to hunt for differences. In real-world, full-motion viewing, the differences are far less apparent.
Does the true, native 4K content ultimately look better? Yes. And this is more apparent with some material than others. Is it night and day? No. Long story short, the Magnetar will make your Blu-rays look as good as they possibly can. Usually, when I’m “settling” on watching a Blu-ray over a 4K title, I often feel like I’m cheating myself. But with the image from the Magnetar, I never felt like that was the case.
Users who like to analyze F/X shots will love the Magnetar’s ability to slow-play forward and reverse at 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 speed, or frame-by-frame with perfect clarity. (Note that reverse play doesn’t work with UHD discs.)
Another thing that I was able to really rediscover with the player was my CD collection. I have a furniture tower that my wife purchased years ago that houses nearly 350 discs. While the discs are still inside — carefully and lovingly sorted alphabetically, thank you very much — the tower’s primary function now is being a plant holder as the vast majority of my music listening is done via Tidal.
But with the Magnetar in the system, I was inspired to go back and enjoy treasured CDs. Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, John Mayer’s Continuum, Diana Krall’s Live in Paris, George Michael’s Ladies & Gentlemen, Cowboy Junkies’ The Trinity Session, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, and more. I’d say that the Magnetar gave me an excuse to listen to these, but that’s not true. What it did was give me a chance to enjoy them again. And with the music coming from the player’s XLR outputs into the Waterfall Audio Niagara XT3 glass speakers, the sound was warm, rich, and detailed, with terrific imaging and soundstage.
While physical media sales may be declining, many out there have large collections they would like to enjoy. With the UDP900mkII, Magnetar has firmly sunk its flag atop the “best universal disc player” hill, delivering a unit that provides no compromise, no-excuse build quality and performance. In short, for audio and videophiles who want to simply insert any disc and know it will play and that they are enjoying it in the highest quality available, the Magnetar UDP900mkII is the last place they need to look.
888-433-4843 phone – magnetarusa.com
Product Specs:
- Improved mkII design upgrades performance and build quality for reference-level playback
- Universal disc player supports 4K UHD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, BD-R/RE, DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-Audio, AVCHD, SACD, CD, and CD-R/RW
- Network audio playback through DLNA, SMB, and NFS, including MKV, AVI, MP4, WAV, FLAC, APE, DSD, M4A, MP3, OGG, AIFF, DSF, AAC, and ALAC
- Dual ESS9038PRO DACs (one for 2-channel XLR/RCA, one for 7.1 RCA)
- USB DAC via XMOS supports files up to PCM768 and DSD512
- Third-party control drivers for Control4, Nice, Crestron, and RTI; Roon Ready
- Inputs: 1000 Mbps LAN, RS-232, USB DAC, USB 3.0, USB 2.0 (front); Outputs: 1/4-inch headphone (front), RCA stereo, XLR stereo, RCA 7.1, Coaxial digital, Toslink optical, HDMI x2 (1 audio only), Power
Dimensions and Weight: 17.51 x 5.23 x 12.64-inches (WxHxD); 34.17 pounds
