What we don’t get quite as much of as we’d like is dynamics. The gunfire is nice and tight, no matter how busy the action, and there’s good clarity to the dialogue, with the High Priestess’ clicks of annoyance particularly fun. There are bleeps and cheeps from the Milano’s navigation and defence systems that we rarely pick up on. Switching gears to something with more attack, in more ways than one, we head to the stars with the “massive space battle” in chapter 3 of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2. It’s a real pleasure to listen to, transporting us right back to another age of cinema, now nearly 50 years ago. Half-heard conversations from nearby, the sounds of pigeons and the distant hum of traffic pop up at enough angles in the soundstage for us to get an excellent feeling of the 1970s New York streets. There’s some lovely detail too as our anti-hero walks back to his apartment from his job interview. The lighter moments come out with a particular sweetness to the midrange underpinned by an excellent rhythmic prowess from this player, which picks out the beat from the plucks of the double bass with real expertise. There’s a wonderfully glossy haze to Bernard Herrmann’s score as it drifts through our speakers, ebbing and flowing between the casual jazz riffs and the dangerous, all-instrument chords that remind us of Travis Bickell’s unsettled psyche.
Plugging the Reavon into our reference system, we sit back to a cinematic treat with Taxi Driver on Blu-ray. If you’re invested in Samsung’s dynamic HDR standard, then this might not be the disc player for you. Lastly, it’s worth noting that while HDR10 and Dolby Vision are supported, there’s no place for HDR10+. Anything more complicated that’s layered on, such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, can be bitstreamed over to your AVR. On the playback front, the UBR-X100 can itself decode up to 7.1 channels, supporting both DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. It’s only going to be a problem during quiet moments if it’s positioned close to your ears when watching (an unlikely setup for most), and it’s nothing compared to the noise of most projectors. The only other minor gripe is that it’s a little bit noisier as it spins than others we’ve tested. Powering up the device presents no significant delays and it’s as speedy to read discs as one would hope, although the tray is a little bit jerky when it opens and not quite as silky smooth as we’d like it to be at this price.
There is no on-board wi-fi and no smart platform. Home Theater Audio Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos, DTS, DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HRA, DTS:XĪlso on the rear are dual HDMI ports (main and audio-only), optical and coax outs, and an Ethernet port for networked playback, including DLNA support. File support MKV, FLAC, JPG, M4A, AIF, AIFF, DSF, DFF, MP3, OGG, APE