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best dvd player for audio

rocknroll1

rocknroll1

Well-Known Member
I am wanting to add a dvd player to my tube (mac c20 pre and c30's) and wondering whats are some good ones for mainly 2 channel audio. It will mainly be used for CD's with an occasional music dvd. Would like to stay under $1500.
 
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I have a Pioneer DV-610AV and it sounds great for audio playback. It has a small footprint so it is easy to fit anywhere as well. I compared it to my former Marantz cd player, a $1200 machine and it matched it sound-wise. If you can find one on Ebay, I'd go for it.
 
It's going to be hard to find a new DVD player these days that isn't blu-ray but if I were looking for a player, the Cambridge Audio CXU wold be one of my top contenders. A little hard to find, but just last year they blowing them out for under $500 on Amazon. Also look at Oppo. They have a great reputation and low price.

Your budget will actually get you a surprisingly diverse assortment of high end players both new and used.
 
I personally use a Sony DVP‑NS999ES and it sounds great to me. They can be had now for about $200 in great condition.

If I had to buy a newer player, I'd probably give one of the Oppo players a try. BDP-105 to be specific.
 
The Pioneer Elite DV-45A al-mode player shows up often cheap and sounds great. I use it thru a passive controller into a Marantz 8 amp.
 
I paid $15 for the Elite with remote and cables at a flea mkt, it is an excellent red book/ SACD player. Any preowned upper end DVD player should be a good candidate.
 
Why not stay with Mac to complete your rig? I use a Mcintosh MVP831 which I think sounds excellent and I paid less than half your allotment
 
I have the Sony DVP-CX777ES.
I recently purchased it off Craigslist for $30 (No remote, but I have a Logitech....so no big deal).

Pros:
-It plays SACD, 5.1, Hybrid, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, MP3 Discs, and of course CD and DVD. Basically, everything except Blu-Ray and HDDVD.
-It holds 400 Discs.
-Fantastic sound.

Cons:
-Damn thing is HUGE! I had to place it on a separate table from everything else. And it looks extremely out of place and off balance (visually).
-Due to others' comments on these carousels, I refuse to play my Pink Floyd Discovery discs as I am deathly afraid of them getting scratched up and possibly broken. So I only play those on my Yamaha player that is also an SACD / 5.1 / Hybrid player.

Verdict:
-I like it. But, it doesn't have that "ES Feel".
-Hard to beat for the price I paid.
 
Pio1980 said:
The Pioneer Elite DV-45A al-mode player shows up often cheap and sounds great. I use it thru a passive controller into a Marantz 8 amp.
Click to expand...

I just picked up a Pioneer DV-45A at Goodwill for $5 (No Remote).

Listening to it now. Jury is still out.
 
Denon DVD-3910 and 5910 come to mind. There are a lot of other TOTL Denon DVD players that should do well for two channel duty. Toshiba SD-9200 was an ambitious offering but was released a little early so suffered teething problems. Today's survivors should be a good bet, mine works great and sounds as good as CD only players. The SD-9200 has a CD Direct Audio feature which is a nice feature for a DVD player, Copper plated chassis and very heavy.
 
I was going to suggest the Sony SCD-XA-5400ES, but the Sonys don't play DVD Audio discs.

Going in a completely different direction, I really like my Philips DVD SA963. I just posted about it in another thread, but it might also meet your needs:

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It looks great and sounds great with both SACDs and regular red book CDs (it has a built in 24-bit 192KHx upsampling DAC). It has a AUDIO DIRECT button on the front panel for bypassing the video circuitry - which is perfect for me as I use it as a dedicated audio player. I'm listing to the Steely Dan Gaucho SACD on it right now and it sounds pretty darn good.

Best of all, it was only 0.666% of your $1500 budget at my local Goodwill store.
 
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