Okay, after all the talk about how the Pioneer 45a is inferior to newer players, I decided to look around. There was so much good press and reviews on this unit that I decided to pick one up today. The price was right as well at $167 CDN. The store was also 5 minutes away from my work so the planets came into alignment. Well, I give up. The 45a is not close to the quality of this unit either in the audio or video category. It's sitting in it's box at the present time. So far I have noticed tighter bass in greater quantity, a smooth frequency output that is warmer with more detail. More depth and air, especially with SACD. There was distortion there before which I didn't realize. It's gone now. SACD sounds totally different. This thing doesn't sound like it is converting DSD to PCM and if it is, it is doing a phenomenal job of it. I'm very happy after the few hours I have spent listening. The video wins hands down as well. More detail there as well. Both the player and my receiver will now decode the 640 Dolby on Pulse. So I can play it through the 6 analog and the digital out to the receiver. There is a firmware upgrade that I will download sometime in the next week that fixes some SACD menu issues and some DVD-A discs that it was having trouble with. The customer service apparently is excellent as well from what I have read. I recommend this unit without any negatives at this point. Totally incredible. A less than $200 expenditure just added a whole lot more $$$ to the sound and video quality of my system. There is better out there and this unit definately proves it at a very low price as well.
