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I recently visited the Japanese factory where Denon and Marantz make the hi-fi and home theater gear, and the best part of the seeing the facility was getting a demo of the reference home theater listening there, with its 9.4.6 channels of Dolby Atmos sound delivered via $250k of Bowers & Wilkins speaker.
While snooping around the room, the shelving in the corner that houses their disc library naturally caught my eye. Marantz's engineers had already told me that they consider Gravity to be one of the ultimate stress tests for AVRs (you can read why in the piece I linked above), but what else do they keep on hand for testing AV receivers and other gear?
I wanted to make a list to share with the many 4K Blu-ray and home theater enthusiasts out there, looking for fresh demo disc ideas — but given that we had limited time in the room and a major portion of the movies are in Japanese, I took a few photos of the shelves, and came back home to analyze them.
The list is below, and it's in two sections: movies, and concert discs. I excluded anything that isn't a Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray — the shelves were obviously also full of CDs and SACDs (and a few DVDs).
It's not an exhaustive list: I used Google Gemini to help me translate Japanese titles that I couldn't discern myself anyway (I did not need help identifying which disc was Mad Max: Fury Road, naturally), and sometimes its translations were either vague or otherwise uncertain, so I didn't include those titles unless I could verify them another way. And also, I probably missed some because this whole exercise made me go a little stir-crazy.
So if you want to see the shelves and comb through yourself, here they are — but my written-out list is just below.
The list is inevitable in places — Blade Runner 2049 and 1917 are obvious inclusions, and two versions of Interstellar is the normal number of versions of Interstellar to own, in my opinion — but it was also really interesting and surprising in places.
I loved seeing Bridge of Spies in there; I didn't expect Hairspray (2007), but it makes a ton of sense; I'm very curious what makes Taxi 3 specifically a good disc to have; it absolutely rocks that they have RRR, and I can't recommend it enough for your own library; and in contrast to Interstellar, I really don't think anyone needs two copies of Pixels…
The music side includes a fun mix of jazz sets, classical music, movie music and huge stadium events — and with a very healthy dose of metal.
Movies
- 1917
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- 28 Years Later
- 9 (Nine)
- A Clockwork Orange
- A Complete Unknown
- A Star is Born (2018)
- Akira
- Alien Romulus
- American Made
- American Sniper
- Apocalypse Now
- Apollo 13
- Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
- Argo
- Avatar
- Back to the Future Trilogy
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
- Battleship
- Birdman
- Black Rain
- Blade Runner
- Blade Runner 2049
- Blue Giant
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Breakfast at Tiffany's
- Bridge of Spies
- Burlesque
- Casino Royale
- Chicago
- Civil War
- Crimson Peak
- Deadpool & Wolverine
- Donnie Brasco
- Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness
- Dune (2021)
- Dune: Part Two
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
- Ford v Ferrari
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
- Get On Up
- Ghost in the Shell
- Ghostbusters (2016)
- Gladiator II
- Godzilla vs. Kong
- Gran Turismo
- Gravity
- Green Book
- Hairspray (2007)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
- Hidden Figures
- The Huntsman: Winter's War
- I, Frankenstein
- Inception
- Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures [Doesn't include Dial of Destiny]
- Inside Llewyn Davis
- Interstellar
- It: Chapter One
- Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
- Jason Bourne
- John Wick
- Joker: Folie á Deux
- Jumanji: The Next Level
- Lucy
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Man of Steel
- Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
- Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
- Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
- Mission: Impossible – III
- Moana 2
- No Country for Old Men
- No Time to Die
- Nope
- Oblivion
- Oppenheimer
- Pacific Rim
- Pacific Rim: Uprising
- Paris, Texas
- Pixels
- Pokémon: The Movie
- Quantum of Solace
- Red Tails
- Rocketman
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
- RRR
- Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends
- Seven (Se7en)
- Sherlock Holmes
- Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
- Sinners
- Sisu
- Skyfall
- Solo: A Star Wars Story
- Spectre
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- Spider-Man: Far From Home
- Spider-Man: Homecoming
- Star Trek Beyond
- Star Trek Into Darkness
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Superman (2025)
- The Legend of Tarzan
- Taxi 3
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Tenet
- The Batman (2022)
- The Cell
- The Creator
- The Expendables 3
- The First Slam Dunk
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- The Greatest Showman
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
- The Phantom of the Opera
- The Shallows
- The Sky Crawlers
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie
- Top Gun
- Top Gun: Maverick
- Transcendence
- Transformers: Age of Extinction
- Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
- Twisters
- Unbroken
- Venom: The Last Dance
- West Side Story (2021)
- Wonder Woman
- X-Men: First Class
- Yowamushi Pedal
Music and concerts
- Adele: Live at the Royal Albert Hall
- Ado Special Live
- Babymetal: Live at Tokyo Dome
- Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7: Wiener Philharmoniker
- Berliner Philhamoniker: The Asia Tour
- Billy Joel Live at Shea Statdium
- Black Sabbath: The End
- Bob James Trio: Feel Like Making Live
- Bob Marley and the Walers Legend
- Bon Jovi Live at Madison Square Garden
- Chihiro Yamanaka: Somethin' Blue Quintet – Live at Blue Note Tokyo
- Chris Botti: Live in Boston
- David Gilmour: Live at Pompeii
- George Mccrae - Love
- Hans Zimmer: Live in Prague
- Harvie S Trio: Too Late Now
- Hit Man David Foster & Friends
- Joe Bonasmassa Live at the Greek Theatre
- John Mayer: Any Given Thursday
- John Mayer: Where the Light Is
- John Williams in Tokyo
- KISS Rocks Vegas
- Lady Gaga Presents The Monster Ball Tour
- Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same
- Megadeth: Countdown to Extinction
- Metallica: Quebec Magnetic
- Michael Jackson: This Is It
- Misia: Soul Quest World Tour
- MR. BIG – The Big Finish Live
- MTV Unplugged ayaka
- Norah Jones: Live at Ronnie Scott's
- Pat Metheny Group: The Way Up - Live
- Pat Metheny: The Orchestrion Project
- Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii
- Prince Sign o' the Times
- Queen: Rock Montreal & Live Aid
- Quincy Jones: The 75th Birthday Celebration
- Roger Waters: The Wall
- Rolling Stones: Shine a Light
- Scorpions: Live in 3D
- Shogo Hamada: On The Road 2015-2016
- Steve Vai: Live at the Astoria
- Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris
- Take Me to the River
- The Beatles: 1
- The Beatles: Get Back
- The Great Jazz Trio Hank Jones – The Legend of Jazz: Live at Blue Note Tokyo
- The Last Waltz
- The Rolling Stones: Hyde Park Live 1969
- Tony Bennett: An American Classic
- Toto: Live in Poland
- Vienna Philharmonic: New Year's Concerts – 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021
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