? for those who have DVD-audio players

[Ilovemovies]

Hello, I've been researching a bit on the "Universal DVD audio players", I was able to hear one last weekend, and to be honest the quality and clarity of the music blew me away!!

So I'm looking forward to responses from those on the forum who own one of these players, pros/ ccons , are you happy with it? any little tips I should know in searching for a player?

basiclly anything you could share would be greatly appreciated, hubby and I are newbies in terms of this type of music and disks.

One thing I have come to realise is that if your Canadian ,(we are) the disks themselves are not easy to come by

[Mort Corey]

If you get one, may as well find a unit that offers both DVD-A and SACD. The only drawback is (as you've found out) is limited software. If you purcahse a unit that plays both multi channel formats you'll have a better selection available.

Mort

[DISCMAN]

I had nothing but trouble from a Mitsubishi DVD-A player. Much happier with my Yamaha C-750 that was reviewed (http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/YamahaDVD-C750DVDChanger1.php) elsewhere on this forum.

[Edit - added review link]

[footman]

purchase a universal player. you will be able to sample both formats. audioholics in the past year has reviewed positively
at least two machines , a yamaha and a pioneer. i own the pioneer and am quite happy with it. I make it a point whenever i purchase new titles to check the hi rez format first. i also use the internet to track down discs. also i buy new titles i have never heard and do not duplicate works i own on cd, lp or tape. why these formats have never caught on with consumers is a mystery to me as in most cases they do add to your musical enjoyment.

[shokhead]

Younger crowd is into quanity instead of quality.

[Rob Babcock]

I've been very happy with my Denon DVD-2200. The sound is great, it offers good bass management and the picture is terrific. It also has a memory buffer to eliminate the hangup you get at the layer change point. It's been replaced by newer models, but you can probably still find one. Of course, the new models would be "better" in that they have even more features, but you might get a good price on the '2200 since it's been replaced.

[matthewraz]

i'm in ontario too and just got the universal 5-disk from yamaha c750. you may have some hybrid stones or dylan disks already! (both cd and sacd)
love the player and amazon.ca has good prices/selection with free shipping on orders over $39. best buy also has sacd and dvd-a sections.

[20to20K]

I've been very happy with my Denon DVD-2200. The sound is great, it offers good bass management and the picture is terrific. It also has a memory buffer to eliminate the hangup you get at the layer change point. It's been replaced by newer models, but you can probably still find one. Of course, the new models would be "better" in that they have even more features, but you might get a good price on the '2200 since it's been replaced.

...and performance wise I have no complaints. With the functionality of it I have a few...perhaps Mr. Babcock can inform me how he overcomes these:

1) The inability to easily que up tracks to play. You can't skip to a particular track prior to playing to cue up for say recording purposes. You hit play first, wait for the disk to actually start playing, skip to the track you want the quickly hit pause (if you're REALLY fast) or skip backwards again and hit pause again.

2) No accelerated/muted scan feature. If you want to scan to the middle of a track you can only do so at a speed which is barely faster than normal play and you hear the scan at full volume.

My 2200 replaced a second generation Pioneer 6 disk magazine changer from
1988 and it performed both of these features (and still does).

There are a couple more quircks like this that have bit me in the past that I can't think of off the top of my head right now...

Don't know if the new Denon line handles these issues any better, but I will check them out. If they do, I may look to upgrading to the 3910 so I can take advantage of the Denon Link with my 3805.

[westie7]

I've tried researching the topic of DVD Audio and have come up short. Can someone please tell me the difference between playing a DVD Audio disc in an appropiate player and playing it in a standard player DVD player?

Thanks

[MDS]

In addition to the multi-channel, high resolution tracks on a DVD-A, the majority of them also have at least one of PCM or Dolby Digital.

A regular DVD-Video player will play the PCM or DD tracks, but not the high res tracks. Only a dvd-audio or universal player will be able to decode and play the high res tracks.

[shokhead]

In a DVD-A,it Hi Rez and not recorded the same as a reg DVD. You need a player and reciever that has the 6 analog inputs and outputs. Theres a ton of info on this site that will explain it much better then me.

[Rob Babcock]

Yes, direct track entry is impossible with the Denon. You can do this with SACD but not DVD-A. This "problem" is very common with DVD-A and most players I've used have this quirk. It occasionally irks me, but overall it's not a huge issue to me personally. I have no idea if newer Denons exhibit this quirk, either.

I virtually never ff/scan thru an audio track, so I'm not even sure how fast it goes. That one's a total non-issue to me, but I can see how it could bug someone else.

[Ilovemovies]

well the Sony player we got today doesn't play DVDA-A but SACDS and CDS

So i picked up a copy of Pink Floyd SACd .......... And honestly I'm not as impressed as I thought I would be...
Don't get me wrong it is a nice mastered SACD, but i just dont think the "quality" it is worth the cost of the disks (IMHO)

so just for the hey of it.... I played the SACD/ hybrid on our Dennon cd player and I prefered the Dennon lol go figure!

I'm also dissapointed in the SACD selection in comparrison to the DVDA's there really is not a selection at all.... for the SACDS

however the gentleman who sold me the disk , encouraged me to take the sony SACD/DVD player back and consider a universal, he said alot of stores have decided to not even carry SACDS....

[shokhead]

Sony's dont pllay DVD-A but you knew that. I'd like to know which stores he's talking about. Are you sure you have the bass management set right on the player?

[Ilovemovies]

Is it comon to purchase a DVD-A disk and find one or 2 songs on it that have hiss in the speakers? yet the rest of the songs are perfect?, very clear and no back ground his coming from the speakers

[DISCMAN]

no, I've never heard that on any of my players.

[Ilovemovies]

well this DVDA is a comiliation of artists singin with Santana

so maybe the couple of songs that hiss are from the original masters, and because it is DVDA it is picking up the hiss

[shokhead]

No hiss on any of mine.

[Ilovemovies]

>>No hiss on any of mine<<<

Just thought I would follow up on this Just incase someone is interested in purchasing the "Santana" supernatural DVDA.....

I went to Future shop and the rep has this disk so he played it in 2 seperate DVDA players Samsung and I cant remember the other brand, we discovered it was deffenetly the disk

[WooHoo]

well the Sony player we got today doesn't play DVDA-A but SACDS and CDS

So i picked up a copy of Pink Floyd SACd .......... And honestly I'm not as impressed as I thought I would be...
Don't get me wrong it is a nice mastered SACD, but i just dont think the "quality" it is worth the cost of the disks (IMHO)

....

What did you pay for the Pink Floyd SACD? I bought mine from Amazon for $13.99 US. I'll pay that for that kind of sound anytime! :)

[Ilovemovies]

I paid 27.00 Canadian at Music World, I had a choice of 3 SACDS, all the rest were DVDA's I'm having a H** of a time finding SACDS in my corner of Ontario, but the DVDA's are quite plentiful... Can't figure that out however

[matthewraz]

I paid 27.00 Canadian at Music World, I had a choice of 3 SACDS, all the rest were DVDA's I'm having a H** of a time finding SACDS in my corner of Ontario, but the DVDA's are quite plentiful... Can't figure that out however

amazon.ca has dsotm sacd for $14.99 cnd. http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008CLOA/qid=1110992976/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/701-9510431-3625140
free shipping for orders over $39 and lots of sacds (at least for now). usually arrives within 3 days if marked as "ships within 24 hrs." not recommending for amazon, but rather for canadians outside of big cities.
just ordered roxy music avalon for $21 cnd.

[krabapple]

If you buy a DVD-A /SACD player, be prepared to educate yourself on matters such as bass management and speaker delay, where the performance of different players, and between formats in the *same* player, can be vastly different. There are very few players or receivers today that apply similar bass management and delay across the board, as they should. This will eventually change as more and more makers adopt all-in-one digital connections such as ilink/Firewire...but by then SACD and DVD-A may be dead as formats.

Btw, I say this as an owner of a Pioneer DV-45a uni-player, a Pioneer 56txi AVR, an Outlaw ICBM to normalize bass management for 6-channel analog sources, and a few dozen DVDAs and SACDs.

[dorsm365]

I have a Denon DVD-3910 and life is great. Although it does sometimes take loger to "read" the disc, it is worth investing in up-and-coming formats like SACD. Although I am mainly an audio fanatic, movie capability is a major plus. Make sure to look for true 24 bit conversion, though, as this will let you take full advantage of SACD and DVD Audio.

[drogulus]

A good source for SACDs (www.sa-cd.net/).

[Ilovemovies]

thx for the info maybe you could educate me , btw I am using the Pioneer 578a-s

>>all-in-one digital connections such as ilink/Firewire...<<< What exactly is this ilink and firewire? what does it do?

[Ilovemovies]

I thought my pioneer 578a does have true 34 bit conversion ... am i understand you correctly

I'm totally a newbie at this format

[ben_wood]

I also own a Denon DVD-2200, and while I am very happy with this player I am not pleased with the lack of Hi-Rez software available. I'm thinking that a high quality redbook cd player like the Cambridge Audio 640C Azur might be my next audio player.

[STSinNYC]

We have two: Onkyo DV-CP802, Yamaha DVD-6770 (same as DVD-750). Both are excellent audio players, DVD-A, SACD and RB CD. We think they are both good video players also, but we may not be quite as critical as viewers as some others here. We are pretty discriminating listeners, with formal training.

S.

[krabapple]

thx for the info maybe you could educate me , btw I am using the Pioneer 578a-s

>>all-in-one digital connections such as ilink/Firewire...<<< What exactly is this ilink and firewire? what does it do?

When a player can pass a digital signal to the receiver, the receiver can do all the decoding/processing of the signal -- the player becomes little more than a 'transport' for the audio part of the signal. If you have your player hooked up using an optical or coaxial digital connection, for playback of CDs and movie sountracks, this is what it's doing. The usual optical/coax digital cable can't pass SACD or DVD-A audio, however -- that's why those players offer 6-channel analog output and their own level/bass amanagement/ delay settings. For hi-rez sources, most players are transports AND decoders/processors. (It's like in the 'old days' of a few years ago, when A/V receivers were sold as 'surround ready', and you had to do Dolby Digital or DTS decoding in the player, and send it out over analog cables to the AVR).


ilink/Firewire/IEEE1394 are different names for the same thing: another means of passing digital information over a single cable. In particular, it can pass 'high-resolution' digital audio such as SACD and DVD-A, as well as the the usual CD, Dolby Digital, DTS, etc audio that 'regular' digital cables can carry. Some Pioneer, Yamaha, Denon models and a few others brands offer ilink connectivity between players and receivers. In addition to reducing the number of cables, the advantage is that the receiver can apply the *same* bass management , channel level, and delay settings to *all* kinds of input. This standardization is nice given that modern receivers can do things like room calibration too. It also keeps the signal in the digital domain during all processing, rather than putting it through multiple rounds of D/A conversion , which has theoretical benefits.

HDMI connectiors are another up and coming alternative to standard optical/coax digital. HDMI goes ilink one better by offering *video* signal transfer too. However, with respec tto hi-rez audio, AFAIK HDMI is currently available only for DVD-A , but not SACD, transmission. I think it' s been approved, but no players yet incorporate that feature.

[WeAreSurrounded]

..universal player ! Especially when I play multichannel DVD-As and SACDs through the 6 analog connections with my Denon AVR 3803. Although stereo is not bad at all either ! The quality of the music is fantastic, as for the movie DVDs I didn't care that much but I think you will be satisfied in this aspect as well.
The biggest problem is to find good quality (and interesting titles) DVD-As/SACDs themselves, even here in States sales people are mostly ignorant in that matter. Internet helps quite a bit ...
Happy hunting !