One unit for DVD/CD or separates?

[JJNab]

At about the $1,000 total price point, does it make more sense to buy a single unit for both movies and music, or to split the funds between a DVD player and a separate CD player? I listen to music more than I watch movies, so I want to be sure that CD playback is as good as I can get for the money. And, after reading lots of helpful reviews of combo units by Yamaha, Denon, Sony, etc., I am still at a loss as to whether these are the way to go. The Denon combo sounds great, for example, but I'd like to have track memory after turning the unit off and a sleep timer for DVD watching. If separates are a better bet, can anyone suggest good ones in my price range? Thanks a lot.

 

[jjwinc]

one unit dvd/cd

I purchased the Integra DPC 5-3 5 disc dvd/cd changer for $500 .I also listen to music more the watch dvd's.I was looking to upgrade my cd player(onkyo 6 disc carousel)But also wanted a dvd player for the living room where my stereo eqipment is located.The DPC 5-3 is a gem.Plays dvd,cd,cd-r,cd-rw video cd.s and mp3 disc.The sound is wonderful,Full pristine clear sound.I now hear every detail of the music.My wife is going to kill me because i have now heard sacd(wow). There are units coming out that play sacd and cd,s and dvd,s.They may cost you a little more that $1000.But it may be worth your while to check them out.SACD is awesome.Good luck in your search.

 

[mtrycrafts]

At about the $1,000 total price point, does it make more sense to buy a single unit for both movies and music, or to split the funds between a DVD player and a separate CD player? I listen to music more than I watch movies, so I want to be sure that CD playback is as good as I can get for the money. And, after reading lots of helpful reviews of combo units by Yamaha, Denon, Sony, etc., I am still at a loss as to whether these are the way to go. The Denon combo sounds great, for example, but I'd like to have track memory after turning the unit off and a sleep timer for DVD watching. If separates are a better bet, can anyone suggest good ones in my price range? Thanks a lot.

CD/DVD players are a commodity product today. Nothing much to it.
If a $80 RCA CD player cannot be differentiated sonically from ones costing $1000s, why bother witht he $1000 player unless it has soemthing you need and the $80 doesn't.

So, in response, no it doesn't make any sense to have two players, or such expensive players, for that matter.

 

[JoeE SP9]

If you only get one player get one that plays everything. CD, DVD, SACD, DVD-A and anything else out there. Spending more on a player can be for nothing more than esthetic reasons. As long as you realize that, so what. This "hobby" is supposed to be fun. If your not here to increase fun levels. Why?

 

[fgordon]

Use the player for a transport

IMHO virtually any player will do, as long as it reads and/or error corrects the digital information accurately; the more formats, the better! This doesn't cost a lot of $$$. However, use the "player" as a transport.

THEN, for quality---send the digital signal to a good digital-to-analog converter for audio (I use a MSB Link DAC III with half-nelson upgrade), and a good home theater receiver (higher end Yamaha, Onkyo, H-K, Adcom, etc) with Dolby, DTS, etc., for movies.

 

[JoeE SP9]

The MSB Link is definately a good buy. If you can access a digital data stream the MSB can work it. Up and over samplinging and lots more.

 

[av_phile]

I don't know if your $1,000 can buy a PC adequate to function as a "jukebox" CD and DVD server. But getting one is a real convenience. I had all my CDs stored as uncompressed wav files and grouped them in categories, artists, genres, etc. So I can just click on a playlist of favourites and my PC routes them all to my Rotel-Acurus-Mordaunt/SHort set-up, either for a few minutes or a 4-hour marathon. No need to bother about track memory. I would need another 120GB harddrive for the rest of my CDs and some favourites DVDs.

Though I still have the usual coterie of CD and DVD players. Specialization is often the prefered path in this hobby. So a dedicated Rotel CD/HDCD player is there, a dedicated Yamaha DVD/DVD-A player, a back-up Onkyo DVD player and a forthcoming dedicated Sony SACD player. That's my personal preference.

I've read about some excellent universal players out there which I would have bought if they only came out at the time I was buying. They sport discreet circuits for DVD-A and genuine SACD decoding and have twin lasers pressumably for CD and DVD/SACD tracking. ("genuine" to distinguish from some cheap universals that downconverts the SACD native format into PCM prior to analog shaping) So you effectively have two players in one. If i were to get all-in-one universals, that's one specification I'd look for.

 

[Rob Babcock]

Exactly what I aim to do eventually, AV Phile. I'll obviously need to retain a DVD player, both for convenience (eg playing a new purchase right away without ripping it) and for playing DVD-A & SACD. A media computer has a lot of advantages.

 

[JJNab]

Thanks very much for the helpful replies. I think I may have found my unit, by the way: the Yamaha DVDS2500, which is previewed in the CEDIA coverage. Wow! At a list price of $750, I don't see how anthing can beat it. I hope it actually comes out in January, as Yamaha says it will.