Luvmonterey
Member
Yeah, sometimes I wonder. Thanks!They wouldn't be putting those Sabre chips in a low cost machine. That was my point.
Everything is highly rated on the internet, isn't it??
Yeah, sometimes I wonder. Thanks!They wouldn't be putting those Sabre chips in a low cost machine. That was my point.
Everything is highly rated on the internet, isn't it??
Thank you! Several people on this thread have recommended Pioneer Elite players. I know Burr-Brown has an excellent reputation. Finding something with both a decent transport and DAC seem daunting given how often the manufacturers switched them up between models. I'm formulating a list and hopefully I will be able to find one at a reasonable price.I have a Pioneer Elite DV-45A I found at a GW for peanuts. It places special importance on stereo music replay, and it's exceptional in that area. It uses Burr-Brown DACs for the Audio. I have 5 other DVD players, all major brands, and none come close — in fact, none are good enough on music even to consider.The 45A was the only good music player, I used it for my Redbook CDs for a few months, and it was great. It was better than most of my standard CD players. Google the model and you'll find rave reviews in forums like this one.
It's almost as good for music as my current CDP, which is a far more costly 2-box set-up, a $1000 Panasonic DVD-A used as a transport, into the Adcom 700 DAC (also Burr-Brown, also $1000). The difference is negligible.
Thanks!Denon DVM-3700 DVD is what I found and really sounds nice. When it came out was called The Ultimate in Audio and Visual. Sure its a 5 Disc player, but, fill it up with discs and hit shuffle.
Opus
Thanks for replying. As the OP I will say that I did not allow for a multi month burn-in on the C-7030. I had 30 days to return the unit and opted to return it once I determined that it sounded at best equal to my existing old Sony. I have heard both opinions that burn-in is a figment of the listener's imagination and also that it is real. The same with cables, so I'm not sure what to believe. I will admit that it is possible that I jumped the gun. Thanks for your reply!
Thanks for the reply. Yes, a digital out and an acceptable transport mechanism are requirements for my next player, so that I have the option of inserting an external DAC to my system when/if I come across one. I appreciate the recommendations!If I had a budget, I would almost be looking at a player with an optical or coax digital output, and get an inexpensive external DAC either now or in the near future. If the basic player is good at spinning discs, then changing out the DAC is a good way to get a different "flavor". That is another option available.
FWIW, I owned a DV-45A for over a decade and (being very, very nice here) did not like the sound of it--it had all of those typical qualities of digital sound that I dislike. It took me a while to save up enough to make a big leap upward. I own a cheap DV-578A I had in a cheapo system and thought that actually sounded a little smoother (although it had its own issues). The 578A would actually have made a decent transport for an external DAC.
It's an older two channel Marantz SR4120. Connected to the CD "in" with generic RCA cables. The Marantz is driving Wharfedale Diamond 8.4 speakers. Thanks!What is the player connected to?
The rest of the system has to be capable of resolving the differences between players or you aren't going to hear any difference.
Thanks for the information! Good to know about the "bug"! I will check out these players.Personally I recommend one of the Denon DVD universal players. DVD-2910 (or better DVD-3910) for example can be found on eBay at a decent price. They play all the audio formats (CD/HDCD/DVD-A/SACD), their DAC and analog stages are very good. The DVD-3910 has extra the proprietary (very good) Denon upsampling algorithm Advanced AL24 Processing.
As a bonus, the 2910/3910 series had a "bug" in their hardware that allowed playing of the home-burned SACD's (legal personal backup copies of course). That bug was "fixed" in the 2930/3930 series.
I'm using a Denon DVD-5910 in my garage/shop system. TOTL back in the day, it's still a fantastic player for music.
I have to agree that the Wolfson chipset mentioned earlier would not be my preferred DAC chipset, either. I much much prefer the ESS Sabre units.
Very interesting. Does that require a setting or selection on the player, or does the DAC chip always send the signal in mono mode?That Denon DVD-5910 is IMO better than a cheap DAC, even with the Sabre's ESS chips. What Sabre has done was to incorporate in their DAC's better filters and jitter reduction that is incorporated in competitors chips. But Denon used a true DSP in the DVD-5910 that beats in performance the capabilities of the ESS chips, and that processed signal is send to each of the "stereo mix" channels, is using PCM1792 in mono mode, for the best quality.
Thanks for the information!On the DVD-5910 (PCM1792), those outputs are always in dual mono, hardware wired. Basically it has 3 DAC chips for the 5+1 channels (stereo mode) and other 2 DAC chips for the L+R mix (mono mode). The AL24 Processing happens only for that stereo mix channel on this model, on newer models they extended the AL24 for all the channels.