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MVP851 vs MCD201

M

mcintoshaddict

Active Member
I have a few DVD-A and 24/96 DAD DVDs that won't play on a MCD201 and am seriously considering a MVP851. I'm not considering the MVP861, as it does not seem to have the mastering capabiliities found on the MVP851. Has anyone compared the MVP851 and the MCD201?
 
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Hey Ron,

What is macaddict referring to in his comment about the 861 not having the 851's mastering capabilities? Just curious.

Thanks!
 
The MVP851 has a two channel 'remastering' option which was a type of upsampling. Some like it as it gives a thicker sound to thin sounding CDs. Subtle stuff to be sure though.

Thanks,
Ron-C
 
Sorry folks, I should have been more specific... has anyone compared the CD sonic qualitities between the 851 and 201. Has anyone done that comparison? (I'm not considering the 861, as I've heard from a number of folks/dealers that, for CDs, it does not sound as good as the 851 with mastering.)
 
Although it wasn't a side by side comparison, I prefer the MCD201's sound on CD playback to the MVP851's. It also adds the SACD option which is yet another sonic step up from redbook CD's. I've never compared SACD to DVD-A.
 
The 851 and the 201 are more complementary than anything else. SACD on the 201; video and DVD-A on the 851. I guess one will need both eventually ;)

I didn't A/B but I've heard all three players (201, 851, 861). They all sounded great to me, but I still think the 201 has an edge. BurrBrown ain't the top dac anymore ;)
 
It has been awhile since I have posted here as I have been well satisfied with my MAC stuff and just got lazy and didn't log on.

Anyway, I typically ditched the option of the remastering on my 851 thinking that it would bring in some sort of EQ'ing. I wish the manual would have elaborated on this option some more.

The manual basically described the remastering oftions being suited for different styles of music. For instance: "Setting 1 is to improve sounds of Pop and Rock Music". Then there is a setting 2 and 3 as well. This sounds like EQ'ing to me. I guess I got it all wrong and I need to try this feature a little more thouroughly.

The manual only has two short paragraphs explaining this option.

Ron or someone....can we get a little more elaboration on this option please.

jc
 
It was my understanding that the mastering feature on the MVP851 was very similar to the 4x rotation that the 201 had. I wouldn't consider either of them EQing, but rather techniques to get more information from a 16bit 44khz CD.

Ron... what was the rationale of not supporting DVD-A on the 201?
 
mcintoshaddict said:
It was my understanding that the mastering feature on the MVP851 was very similar to the 4x rotation that the 201 had. I wouldn't consider either of them EQing, but rather techniques to get more information from a 16bit 44khz CD.

Ron... what was the rationale of not supporting DVD-A on the 201?
Click to expand...

I had the understanding that the 201 4x revs gave it an advantage when reading discs with damaged surfaces. Haven't read anything where it actaully extracted more info from a disc in good condition.
 
It was my understanding that both did upsampling (using different techniques) and redithering, which increased quality of sound and dynamic range.
 
The MCD201 is a two channel CD. SACD, MP3 player. DVD-A is a DVD player function. Fish and foul I would say. If you want Universal playback the MVP861 is the way to go.
The remastering feature on the MVP851 was used by Panasonic, Meridian, Mc and others. It does give a fuller sound and setting two sounds best to me. The trade off is a slight rise in distortion though.
If you are outputting the digital out from the 851 the remastering may need to be shut off as it raises the data rate to 88.2 KHz. The MX119, 135 and MDA1000 will all lock on to this digital frequency but most DACs will not.

Thanks,
Ron-C
 
mcintoshaddict said:
What causes the increase of distortion?
Click to expand...
The reconstruction (interpolation) filter. To upsample to 88.2 you have to add a zero between each sample and then design an interpolation filter. There you have to choose between aliasing noise floor, pass-band ripple, and the often forgotten time (transient) response.. trade-offs!

mcintoshaddict said:
Why no remastering on the 201?
Click to expand...
It's a sigma-delta dac, so it's pretty useless to upsample the input data, these already can upsample internally. The 201's dac does have a selectable filter for PCM, but mac decided to keep that choice away from the user (maybe only one setting works or sounds good at 44.1kHz).

So are my guesses all right ron ;)
 
As far as remaster goes on the MVP851 I think it is great.

At first on my MVP851 I did not hear a difference with the remaster on or off as it takes a second for the circuit to switch over so it is not a very good AB test. Then I was comparing my MVP851 to the old Sonic Frontiers 3 box CD player with copies of the same disc at matched levels for a better AB test. With the MVP851 remaster off, the Sonic Frontiers player sounded better in the high frequencies, it was smoother and clearer and less harsh. With the MVP851 remaster on, I could not tell the difference between the players. I could not tell any difference between the 3 remaster positions so I just left it in the middle (position 2).

I highly recomend using the remaster on the MVP851 to me it makes a significant improvement in the high frequencies.

Victor
 
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