Yamaha DV-S1800

TJLitt

Super Member
backstory: ever since my old Pioneer CD player died in December, I've been casting about for affordable, listenable options. I came into a nice used Cambridge DAC-Magic II, and had been running from my wife's Toshiba DVR. Not bad, at all, but the Toshiba had a sort of cheesy tray mechanism, and my fear was that using it for CD's and movies and recording would kill it off early. Then, after reading a few threads, and finding a really nice price, I bought a Yamaha DV-S1800, capable of playing CDs, DVD-A and SACD. Currently, I have none of either of the latter two, so this initial report is on Redbook CD playback only.
First off, as others reported, this is a well built machine. Solid, with nice quality connections. I set it up with the optical out to my DAC, and the analog out to a free line level input on the Sansui(see sig). The tray mechanism is much more substantial than the Toshiba that had worried me, and all controls on the Yamaha were easy to figure out. Time to read disc was pretty quick and it plays automatically(no need to press a 'play' button). I set the player to Audio Direct setting for best playback. Comparison between the two alternatives gives a VERY slight edge to playback through the DAC. Still, the playback through the Yamaha's internal DACs was quite good. The external seemed to ever-so-slightly smooth and extend bass response, and put just a little extra room in the soundstage. All in all, for the bucks, I think it would be hard to beat this setup for CD playback. Now, to acquire some music on SACD and/or DVD-A!!:music:
 
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Just bought one of these off Amazon for $80 to replace my still working 1984 Yamaha CD-X2. If it doesn't sound better than the old cd player, I'll launch it across the street!
 
I just got it's big brother, the Yamaha DVD-S2700. From the Yamaha website, it's hard to tell the difference between the DVD-S2700 and the DVD-S1800. Now I forget what the difference is- better components maybe?

Shish, for $80, I might pick up a DVD-S1800 for my mountain cabin!

My Yamaha DVD-S2700 sounds great. I'm just doing 2CH analog since I only have two speakers.

Pink Floyd DSOM on SACD now playing- totally cool! :banana:

PS SA-CD lites up on the front panel when playing SACD.
 
Is there much of a difference between the DVD-S1800 and DVD-S2700?

Old stock prices have gotten quite low. I see the DVD-S1800 coming down as low as $129.99. The DVD-S2700 can be had as low as $60 more. But if the DVD-S1800 was $249 MSRP and the DVD-S2700 $999 MSRP, that's a HUGE difference and begs to just toss in the extra $60.

Thoughts?
 
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