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DVD player in lieu of a CD only player....

yaya97

yaya97

Super Member
In spite the fact that I am a 90% of the time a vinyl listener ( not because of any nostalgia but because I listen to 60s jazz and 70s rock) I do find that sometimes ( OK rare occasions IMHO) a CD version sounds better than the vinyl one ( my 1955 Glenn Gould Goldberg variations has a bad tape hiss whereas the cd does not). When my Sony CD player died recently, I wanted to get something not too bad BUT not pay $$$$.
I went to fryes to purchase some computer material and ran into a salesman who I know is a vinyl collector and fan. we chatted and I told him I was looking for a CD player. He showed me one Denon player that was OK according to him. He then mentioned that he has a DVD player that has surprisingly good audio on it and its under $25!.
I took the risk and plugged it in. To my surprise it does sound very good! A warm sound. Anyone else have this experience with a DVD player???
 
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I have not been able to tell the difference with my equipment between dedicated and multi-purpose players.
 
I have used a DVD player as a transport, and currently use one in the living room and the bedroom for DVD's and CD's. They sound fine to me.
 
yaya97 said:
I took the risk and plugged it in. To my surprise it does sound very good! A warm sound. Anyone else have this experience with a DVD player???
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I have, and I use both vintage CD players with good reputations and more modern DVD players to play back music CDs. I like them both. I can't say I hear a difference, but perhaps there is one. I do note that some DVD players can have slightly noisy motors, and the flimsiness of the tray can be offputting, although that is strictly asthetics.

I also appreciate that many modern DVD players can also play CD-Rs with MP3, FLAC, AAC, or WAV files (not all, but many of them), as well as perhaps SACD, CDHD, and other formats, and they may have a digital output, either coax or optical or both. Those are nice conveniences to have.

The CD player I currently like the best is a thrift store wonder - a Yamaha DVD-2300MK2. Plays SACD, digital output, what's not to like? Especially for the less than $20 I paid for it. Not bad for a $2,000 USD unit (in 2004).

http://www.cnet.com.au/yamaha-dvd-s2300-240000144.htm

So yeah. Enthusiastically. Let the haters hate. I don't care at all.
 
I have both a dedicated CD player, an older very high end unit, and a newer model BluRay DVD player. In all fairness to the CD player only crowd I actually prefer the sound from the DVD player verus the CD player. I am currently looking to purchase a new high end dedicated CD player and will be anxious to do an A/B shootout...................
 
I picked up a high end Marantz DVD player at a thrift store. Sounds better than my dedicated Kenwood CD changer for audio CD's.
 
cgutz said:
I picked up a high end Marantz DVD player at a thrift store. Sounds better than my dedicated Kenwood CD changer for audio CD's.
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It's actually a great time to find DVD players at thrift stores, as people move from component video to HDMI video output and now Blu-Ray. Leaves those older DVD players as 'obsolete' for video playback, but it doesn't change their audio capabilities a bit! Whoo-hoo!
 
Wigwam Jones said:
The CD player I currently like the best is a thrift store wonder - a Yamaha DVD-2300MK2. Plays SACD, digital output, what's not to like? Especially for the less than $20 I paid for it. Not bad for a $2,000 USD unit (in 2004).
Click to expand...

I need to move closer to better Thrift Stores. :D
 
Wally Swift said:
I need to move closer to better Thrift Stores. :D
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I hit them all the time, seldom find anything interesting. Then sometimes it seems like it's raining vintage high end gear all up in here! I found this DVD player at a non-name-brand thrift store that only takes cash and the store is run down and dingy and stuff is just piled up in stacks and people pick through it and steal knobs and cartridges and push in woofers and so on. I seldom even go into it. But this one time, it was like WOW! As soon as I saw 'SACD' and felt the weight of this monster when I picked it up, I knew it would be coming home with me.
 
I had 2 old DVD players (one was a pretty decent SONY) collecting dust, since I upgraded to HDMI/Blu Ray players. I hooked them up to a basement and another to a garage system that I have. They both sound great! Glad I didn't trash them.
 
When my Yamaha cd player died, I replaced it with a Pioneer DVD player with SACD capabilities for a fraction of what SACD players were selling for at the time.
 
I'm setting up a system for my wife, and wasn't sure if any of my old CD players still work (I use my computer for playing CDs), but I've got several DVD players gathering dust, and I know that they are fully functioning. Thanks for the inspiration!
 
jsisk said:
When my Yamaha cd player died, I replaced it with a Pioneer DVD player with SACD capabilities for a fraction of what SACD players were selling for at the time.
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my thoughts exactly! I have the impression that some of the dvd players have capabilities that are very underestimated and at a very small cost. I know the Denon I was looking at was at $179 and the dvd player...$24
 
Biggest thing I've found, is many DVD players controls aren't set up as well for music listening. My main system player is a Panasonic DVD-Audio unit, with well set up controls. Things a real trooper too, as doubt it would skip if you threw it against the wall. Can't say this for other players I've had.
 
Renzor213 said:
Biggest thing I've found, is many DVD players controls aren't set up as well for music listening. My main system player is a Panasonic DVD-Audio unit, with well set up controls. Things a real trooper too, as doubt it would skip if you threw it against the wall. Can't say this for other players I've had.
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True that. I have had some issues where the DVD player wanted to be 'set up' using the onscreen menu, which there isn't one. Good point, I had forgotten about that.
 
I used a cheaper Sony DVD player for a while as a CD player. It sounded perfectly fine to me, but I didn't like the lack of controls on the player itself and I was always losing the remote. The main reason I bought a dedicated CD player though was because most of the time when the CD ended, the DVD player would just start over again from the beginning instead of stopping play. For some reason that really bugged me.

It has played some pretty scratched up discs (borrowed, not mine!) without any trouble or skipping.
 
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