Pioneer 563A

[zipper]

<font color='#000000'>I've read some of the comments in this forum on this player but cannot reach a verdict. Went to Best Buy &amp; the guy there told me to save my money &amp; buy a better player. Does this thing have serious drawbacks? Does it play everything good,OK, or some better than others? I've got a Mitsu. DD-6030 right now that is an excellent all-around unit but,of course,does not play DVD-A or SACD. Want to take the next step but can't lay out $600 to do it.
&nbsp;Should I wait to buy up or is this Pioneer a good start? Just bought &quot;Dark side of the moon&quot; on SACD($13) &amp; am itching to hear it.</font>

 

[jeffsg4mac]

<font color='#000000'>It is a great player and you can not beat it for the money. Of course there are better ones but at a lot more money it is the perfect unit to get your feet wet, no drawbacks at all. I still have one for sale, $110 bucks and it is yours and I will pay shipping in the USA. My player only has about 10hrs use on it and is in mint condtition. You will not find a better deal.</font>

 

[ED27]

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>

zipper : <font color='#000000'>I've read some of the comments in this forum on this player but cannot reach a verdict. Went to Best Buy &amp; the guy there told me to save my money &amp; buy a better player. Does this thing have serious drawbacks? Does it play everything good,OK, or some better than others? I've got a Mitsu. DD-6030 right now that is an excellent all-around unit but,of course,does not play DVD-A or SACD. Want to take the next step but can't lay out $600 to do it.
 Should I wait to buy up or is this Pioneer a good start? Just bought &quot;Dark side of the moon&quot; on SACD($13) &amp; am itching to hear it.</font>

<font color='#000000'>Best Buy doesn't carry anything better than the DV-563A. &nbsp;I agree, with the previous post. &nbsp;It's a solid performer in all areas and should meet your requirements. &nbsp;For those who have ultra-high resolution systems, then a better unit will make more sense. &nbsp;But if you aren't at that point yet, then definitely get the DV-563A.</font>

 

[Shinerman]

<font color='#000000'>This is where it all went wrong!

&quot;Went to Best Buy &amp; the guy there told me to save my money &amp; buy a better player&quot;

Never put much weight on the advise from a Best Buy saleman.  There are exceptions but more times than not they have no idea what they are talking about.  I would bet money that he has never even used the 563A.  

Shinerman</font>

 

[footman]

<font color='#000000'>The Pioneer &nbsp;has been a fine addition. Have had &nbsp;the piece for three months and can say only good things about it.</font>

 

[zipper]

<font color='#000000'>Shinerman

&nbsp;I agree.Trust me,if I thought the guy was a lout I would have just blown him off. But it was evident to me after talking to him for about 15 minutes he was no novice. He probably thought I had,or was moving towards,a high end system.I am,albeit at a snails pace.
&nbsp;I guess mostly what I was looking for was feedback on the players' reliability &amp; performance.I know I'm not going to get top-notch performance for $140. But after reading about all the issues with the Denon 2900(?) I didn't want to buy something that died in a months time or was flat out unacceptable in most cases.
&nbsp;Thanks to all of you for your response.Sounds like I can't go wrong for the price.

Thanks Jeff. But I think I'll just buy one new.It'll be easier to deal with should I have problems.</font>

 

[Guest]

<font color='#000000'>With regard to Pioneer 563A; I do not own that unit, but I do have the Pioneer Elite DV45-A, and have been more than pleased with its DVD video, DVD audio, and SACD performance. &nbsp;From all that I have heard, the 563A is not far off from the performance of my unit which I paid $500 for a year ago. &nbsp;Buy the 563A, and when you feel you need or want better, relegate it to the bedroom, and get something else. &nbsp;By the way, I have personal experience with Denon, and their reliability is an issue. &nbsp;I would not purchase anything Denon again.</font>

 

[zumbo]

<font color='#000000'>Yamaha has a universal player on the way. It will retail for $399 US. If you can wait, I would say get this one. I was going to wait, but I went with DVD-A only. The model will be S1500.

</font>

 

[nm2285]

<font color='#000000'>I just purchased one to see if I wanted to upgrade/downgrade from my H/K DVD101. &nbsp;I enjoy the CD sound of my HK more, its more full and musical. &nbsp;SACD sounds very nice but I doubt this player does it the same justice that a more expensive one will. &nbsp;Since I only have a 2channel setup, I'm personally going to wait until prices come down or my budget goes up and get a nicer piece. &nbsp;This guy is decent but not worth the change to me.</font>

 

[hopjohn]

<font color='#000000'>I've owned this player since just after it came out. I wanted something that would do it all so I could decide whether or not to invest further in multi-channel audio discs. At this price it's nearly impossible to be unhappy with the perfomance, which was better than I expected. The video performance ain't too shabby either. A great bang for your buck player, which in many/most cases is exactly what I look for in a component. Oh...and I'm still buying multi-channel discs as fast as I can afford them if that tells you anything.</font>

 

[nm2285]

<font color='#000000'>I just watched a movie on the set I bought 2 days ago. &nbsp;It had a little bit of difficulty with the disk: &nbsp;a few scenes stuttered or pixels were obvious. &nbsp;I finished the movie on my HK DVD 101 with no problems. &nbsp;Maybe it was an isolated problem.

I agree with hopjohn. &nbsp;At this price, with all these features, it's hard to dislike this player. &nbsp;Keywords are &quot;at this price point.&quot; &nbsp;I'm going to wait until I can afford something better.</font>

 

[Guest]

<font color='#000000'>Can anyone give me an unbiased opinion of the similarities and/or differences between the 563A and the DV-45A. &nbsp;I have a DV-45A that is in for repair, and I fear that Tweeter will be unable to duplicate the problem I am having, which is that, after the unit is on for about an hour and a half, the picture freezes, and the unit goes into stop mode.

MY point is that I may need to replace the 45A, and I wonder if the 563A is a suitable replacemment.</font>

 

[jeffsg4mac]

<font color='#000000'>Yes it is and I still have one not being used that is for sale

</font>

 

[JVC]

<font color='#000000'>I have owned the 563A since November, and I love it. I thinks it's the best piece I've bought in years. I've had no problems at all.
I've read where some people have had problems, but some have problems with Denons and Yamahas too. You can get a bad one of anything. Best Buy and Circuit City have good return policies.....
Good luck!</font>

 

[Stuart]

Purchased the 563A to replace my ailing DV45-A, and it sounds incredible, detailed, even with cd's. However, it will not play some newer DVD-Audio discs, such as Brian Wilson Live at the Roxy Theater. Pioneer is offering to update the firmware if you send them the unit. I will be returning the unit to Best Buy later this week or next, and pushing Pioneer to get my other unit repaired or replaced. It doesn't pay to invest a lot in a DVD player right now, as the HD format will be surfacing later this year or early next year.

 

[av_phile]

I would hate to rain down on your parade guys, but the Pioneer 563A is one of the pioneer models that convert the native SACD 1-bit format into LPCM prior to analog waveform shaping. This may not matter to many, but I consider it a serious tampering of a format that is precisely what makes SACD superior to CD's LPCM. I've read a number of sites on this, here's one I bookmarked, and I quote:

http://www.goodsound.com/equipment/pioneer_dv563a.htm

"...while the Sony processes the native DSD signal, the Pioneer converts DSD to PCM before processing. Pioneer does this to save the cost of making a player that includes two processors. While this may have a slight negative impact on performance, it’s one of the things that has allowed Pioneer to drive down the DV-563A’s cost to something the mass market can afford."

 

[zipper]

I think I'm gonna give this model a test drive. I have "DSOTM" on regular & SACD. I'll listen to both & see if there is a marked difference.I get good performance from the Mitsu. player so I'll continue to watch movies on that.If there is little improvement in sound on the 563 I'll take it back. If it sounds that much better I've upgraded cheaply. Like I said, I don't expect pro performance for $140 but maybe I'll get a taste of what's in store for me should I enjoy this format & want to upgrade further. I'll also bear in mind that, if the improvement is very slight, I am using a bare bones player.

Thanks to all for the info.Much appreciated.

 

[JVC]

I believe you are going to hear a major difference. I own the cd, album and sacd of DSOTM. None comes close to the sacd.......
Keep us posted on how you like it.

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

I would hate to rain down on your parade guys, but the Pioneer 563A is one of the pioneer models that convert the native SACD 1-bit format into LPCM prior to analog waveform shaping.

Dang, I just knew it was too good to be true at that price, and I was wondering about just that point. It's often hard to tell from the mfrs. specs whether that's the case or not.

It looks like the new Yamaha 1500 that Zumbo mentioned doesn't downconvert the SACD format -- judging from the verbiage on their site about the "separate SACD" signal path or words to that effect. I trust we can expect an Audioholics review soon, yes?

 

[av_phile]

Dang, I just knew it was too good to be true at that price, and I was wondering about just that point. It's often hard to tell from the mfrs. specs whether that's the case or not.

The specs won't say it. That's why there are many SACD player borchures and ads that claim "genuine SACD decoding." That implies there are products with false decoding.