Fans of physical 4K Blu-ray media have more reasons to be optimistic about the future, even as rumors of an imminent market exit by Sony gather pace. Magnetar, the Hong Kong-based electronics firm that sells some of the best and most modern 4K Blu-ray players in the business, said this week that its UDP800 MKII and UDP900 MKII devices have achieved THX Certification less than a year after they launched.
Magnetar debuted the UDP800 MKII and UDP900 MKII last December. They’re high-end models for home theatre enthusiasts who demand the very best in picture quality, serving as a dedicated source for 4K Blu-ray, SACD and dozens of other physical media formats. Earlier this year, the Magnetar UDP800 MKII and UDP900 MKII received the Roon Ready certification, and now THX has put them through its own rigorous testing process to confirm they meet its high standards for video and audio quality.
We must stress that THX Certification doesn’t change anything about either of the players. THX is an industry standards body that tests consumer hardware against a rigorous set of standards, evaluating it through more than 200 tests that look into picture accuracy, signal integrity, decoding, audio performance and overall fidelity. Any product that has THX Certification oozes quality, in other words.
THX’s video testing process looks at everything from colour accuracy to contrast, to black and white levels, to luminance and gamma. It also looks to see if the players’ video processing algorithms introduce any unnatural artefacts or soften the picture on screen. It also looks at the quality of their upscaled content, which is important as the UDP800 MKII and UDP900 MKII (pictured above) can both play standard Blu-rays, DVDs and other lower-resolution media and claim to boost them to 4K quality.
On the audio side, THX looks at both stereo and multichannel output to measure the accuracy of the players’ sound output and see if there’s any distortion. It also measures how faithfully the players can reproduce the original soundtracks featured in films and shows, and checks to see that it plays nicely with external audio systems.
The fact that both the UDP800 MKII and UDP900 MKII achieved THX Certification means that they do all of this to a very high standard, and it’s an achievement that Magnetar President Rob Jones is only too keen to boast about. “THX Certification is a critical independent validation that enthusiasts and integrators look for when building reference-grade systems,” he stressed. “We’re proud to see both MKII models earn their certification. It reflects the engineering and feedback from customers and dealers that went directly into their creation, and gives customers added confidence that they’ll deliver the performance they expect.”
Consumers have every right to expect exceptional performance from the UDP800 MKII and UDP900 MKII, for they’re both very pricey pieces of kit. The UDP800 MKII (pictured below) costs $1,899, while the UDP900 MKII is priced at $3,399, putting them in a completely different class to Sony’s sole remaining (for now) 4K Blu-ray player, the UBP-X700/K 4K.
“Magnetar is a strong force in premium disc playback, and the UDP800 MKII and UDP900 MKII earned their THX Certification after extensive testing and evaluation,” said THX Vice President Steven P. Martz. “These media players are built for those who care deeply about seeing and hearing entertainment the way creators intended, which is the founding mission of the THX Certification programme.”
Martz added that he’s looking forward to collaborating with Magnetar in the future, too, which gives us reason to think that it could soon put the company’s even more expensive Magnetar Ultima player through the same testing process. The Magnetar Ultima is truly something to behold, consisting of two distinct modules, including an external DC power module equipped with lithium-based power stages, so it can eliminate the subtle signal interference that stems from fluctuations in electricity voltage. At a price of $11,999, the Ultima is truly the crème de la crème of physical media players, and we’d be shocked if it doesn’t pass THX’s tests with anything less than flying colours.
Magnetar’s announcement comes at a tumultuous moment for the broader physical media market, which has been in serious decline for years thanks to the emergence of streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ etc. As consumers embrace the convenience of those platforms, the popularity of physical media has dropped like a stone, with sales limited to only the most demanding and enthusiastic of… err, enthusiasts.
The most recent blow to physical media came last month when reports out of Japan suggested that Sony is about to exit the market for 4K Blu-ray players. The company has curiously refused to confirm or deny the reports, but its flagship UBP-X700/K 4K has already been discontinued in its home country and is listed as “out of stock” in many other markets. If Sony does exit, it would follow in the footsteps of Samsung, LG Electronics, Pioneer, Oppo and Reavon, which have all thrown in the Blu-ray towel in recent years. Some lesser known brands, like Krovotar and Laser, have stepped up to replace them, announcing relatively low-cost models to fill the gap in the market vacated by the big boys.
Magnetar is something of an outlier with its aggressive push to raise the standards of physical media, but there will likely always be a small, niche market of cinemaphiles who refuse to contemplate streaming their content. For them, nothing but the best will do, and Magnetar is going all out to set that bar.
