Verdict

This impressive 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player offers universal disc playback, sleek styling and solid build quality. There’s no HDR10+ support, analogue outputs, or wireless connectivity, but none of those are biggies, and the flawless operation, Dolby Vision support, and excellent upscaling means this digital transport should keep physical media fans happy without breaking the bank.

Introduction

The Reavon UBR-X110 is a universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player from the French manufacturer, and sits between the entry-level UBR-X100 and high-end UBR-X200.

The X110 is essentially the same as the X100, but adds full DVD-Audio and SACD playback, making this model a universal disc player. Just like the X100 it’s also a digital transport, so if you want analogue outputs you’ll need to look at the much more expensive X200.

Otherwise all three players are very similar, with identical designs, solid build quality, and large backlit remotes. There are dual HDMI outputs, Dolby Vision support, excellent image processing and upscaling, and extensive file multimedia support.

At first glance the X110 might seem expensive, but once you consider all that it can do, this impressive player is competitively priced compared to other high-end 4K disc spinners.

Availability

The Reavon UBR-X110 is available from reputable audio and video retailers in the UK, US, Europe and Australia, and costs £899 / US$999 / €999 / AU$1,795 depending on where you live.

If you’re interested in the rest of the Reavon line-up, the UBR-X100 retails for £799 / $899 / €1,050 / AU$1,390, while the flagship UBR-X200 will set you back £1,499 / $1,699 / €1,799 / AU$2,699.

As far as competition is concerned, pickings are slim but there’s the excellent Panasonic UB9000 that adds HDR10+ and analogue outputs, but doesn’t support DVD-Audio and SACD. This player costs £999 / $1,099 / €1,045 / AU$1,670.

There’s also the superb Magnetar UDP800, which is a universal disc player that includes HDR10+ and analogue outputs, but is more limited when it comes to file support. It’s also very pricey, retailing for £1,399 / $1,599 / €1,599 / AU$2,599.

Design

• Ultra-rigid construction
• Twin HDMI outputs
• Backlit remote control

The Reavon UBR-X110 looks and feels solid, with a thick aluminium front plate and black brushed metal finish. The 1.6mm chassis base is reinforced by a 3mm steel plate to reduce mechanical vibrations, while large feet provide further support and isolation.

At the front there’s a centrally mounted disc tray, with an informative display underneath. There’s also a power button on the left, and some basic controls on the right, along with a USB 2.0 port. The X110 measures 430 x 85 x 300mm (WxHxD), and weighs in at 6.3kg.

Since this is a digital transport there are limited connections at the rear, and no analogue outputs. What you get are twin HDMI outputs, with picture and sound from one, and audio only from the other for those who need to connect to a sound system that can’t pass features like 4K and HDR.

In terms of other connections there are coaxial and optical digital audio outputs, an Ethernet port, and a USB 3.0 port (although it would make more sense to have this at the front and the USB 2.0 port at the rear). However, there is no wireless connectivity available.

The provided remote is a fairly big controller, but comfortable to hold and easy to use with one hand. All the necessary buttons are present and correct, with large keys laid out in an intuitive fashion, and there’s even a handy backlight.

Features

• CD/DVD/DVD-Audio/SACD/Blu-ray (Full HD/3D/UHD) playback
• HDR10 and Dolby Vision playback
• Excellent image processing and upscaling
• Extensive multimedia file support

The Reavon UBR-X110 is primarily designed to be a universal disc player, and can handle CD, DVD, DVD-Audio, SACD, Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, and UHD Blu-ray. So whatever flavour of physical disc you happen to be interested in, this baby has you covered for years to come.

The X110 supports HDR10, but it can also handle Dolby Vision, so if your TV can display this HDR format, you can enjoy the benefits of dynamic metadata. Dolby Vision is often included on 4K Blu-rays, and while the X110 doesn’t support HDR10+, this format is less common on UHD BDs.

The X110 uses the same Mediatek chipset previously used by Oppo (and now by Magnetar), and as a result this player includes excellent 4K upscaling that can get the most out of lower resolution disc formats. There are also a number of picture processing features, although these are best avoided for accuracy.

These days even physical media fans have large collections of digital files, either because that’s the only way something is available or they’ve ripped their discs to save space. Either way, the X110 offers extensive multimedia file support, only missing ISO folders and BDMV.

Setup and operation

• Simple to setup and operate
• Quiet disc tray and playback
• Fast boot-up and load times
• Media and output information

The Reavon UBR-X110 benefits from its heavy chassis and solid build quality, resulting in a disc tray that slides smoothly in and out. It’s also quiet in operation, and you can barely hear the disc spinning during playback. This is definitely one of the benefits of buying a more expensive player.

The boot-up and loading times are also fast, which means you’ll be at the disc’s menu page in seconds, and the player is equally responsive when navigating around a disc or its menu features. The X110 correctly identified CD, DVD, DVD-Audio, SACD, Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray discs, and played back everything I tested without issue.

Since the X110 uses the Mediatek chipset, it has a very similar home page to Oppo and Magnetar with options for discs, video files, music files, photos and setup. The latter is where you’ll find sub-menus for Display, Audio, HDMI, Network, Language, Playback, and Options. The player is very easy to set-up, with the default settings generally being the best option.

The settings menus can be accessed directly by pressing the Setup button on the remote, and if you press this button while a disc is playing you can also bring up the Video Parameters picture controls. These include brightness, contrast, colour, hue, sharpness, and noise reduction, but are best left alone, because these settings should only be adjusted on the display.

The final main feature is the Info button, which provides playback information when pressed once, although holding it down also shows you what metadata the player is reading off the disc, and what it is outputting to the display.

Picture Quality

• Impressive 4K upscaling
• Excellent Blu-ray and 3D playback
• HDR10 and Dolby Vision decoding

The Reavon UBR-X110 has fantastic 4K upscaling, so if you still have standard definition DVDs in your collection this player will squeeze every last pixel of detail out of them. The conversion of the interlaced signal into a progressive one is also flawless, resulting in very watchable images.

A regular Blu-ray can look stunning when upscaled to 4K by the player’s internal processing, and were it not for the lack of HDR you’d swear you were looking at a native UHD disc. As a result your collection of Blu-rays will get a new lease of life thanks to the X110’s impressive upscaling.

If you still have a collection of 3D Blu-ray discs and a display capable of handling them, the X110 is capable of flawless playback. The player will simply send the left and right 1080p images to the display, although how good it looks will depend on the capabilities of your 3D TV or projector.

When it comes to native 4K discs with HDR the results are superb. While picture quality will largely depend on your display’s capabilities, the X110 plays its part by perfectly rendering what’s on the disc in terms of resolution, frame rate, dynamic range and wide colour gamut.

The player can handle HDR10 and Dolby Vision without any issues, although as previously mentioned there’s no support for HDR10+. The player will output the HDR based upon the metadata on the disc itself, and it’s up to your display to tone map the content accordingly.

It’s worth pointing out that while the X110 has controls for adjusting the image quality, these should be left alone. A player’s job is to send exactly what’s on a disc to the display without manipulating the image, leaving the TV or projector to correctly render or tone map the results.

Despite what you may read elsewhere, DVD and Blu-ray discs are digital, with the picture and sound information encoded as ones and zeroes. Since these can’t be ‘subtly improved’, any attempt to manipulate the image in the player will simply result in a picture that deviates from the original creative intent.

Sound Quality

• CD, DVD-Audio and SACD playback
• High-resolution audio support
• 7.1-channel decoding

The Reavon UBR-X110 is a digital transport, which means all of its audio and video outputs are digital in nature. As a result the audio quality will really depend on the digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) in your sound system – be that a soundbar, AV processor, or AV receiver.

However, assuming you have a decent sound system, the audio quality of the X110 is excellent in terms of its digital delivery. It handled the audio from CD, DVD, DVD-Audio, SACD and Blu-ray without any issues, supporting all formats up to and including lossless high-resolution audio.

You should use the HDMI output for audio as well as video, although if your sound system can’t pass video features like 4K and HDR, there is also a second audio-only HDMI output. HDMI allows you to bitstream lossless audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

The X110 can also decode these multichannel audio formats internally and output them as 7.1-channel PCM, but if you want to enjoy immersive audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, you’ll need to bitstream them to your suitably capable soundbar, AV processor or AV receiver.

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