MCunningham
Well-known Member
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2002
- Messages
- 196
I apologize for not getting this review up last night but I wanted a bit more time to play with the deck before writing it up.
General:
The first thing that you'll notice during unpacking of the unit is the size of the power cord. Diameter of the cord would match that of a very heavy duty outside extension cord. This has to be the heaviest cord I've ever seen on an electrical device.
Second,is the weight of the unit. I expected the unit to be a little heavier considering the cost of the unit. It weighs in at around 9-10 pounds.
I can almost guarantee that you'll have to open the manual at least to find out how to navigate the different settings in the menu system. There are a number of items that are set to default that I'm sure you'll want to change. For example, the deck is set to downmix all multichannel streams to stereo until you change it.
This unit has both DTS and DD decoders built in and they are on by default. If you prefer to have your receiver do the decoding, you have to set the unit to pass the DTS stream direct. The setup is very easy to do if you just step through all of the items one at a time.
TOC read times are extremely fast (See times in individual sections below). One of the biggest complaints with DVD-A has been the necessity to have your tv on to navigate the menus to start disc play. This is not a problem with this unit. Pop in the disc, let it read the TOC and wait for the word Menu to appear on the display, hit Enter, the display will flash. Hit Enter again and the disc will launch. I played a number of titles over the weekend and it worked on everyone I tried. By the third disc, I turned off the TV and never turned it back on again. Interestingly, Fleetwood Mac-Rumours is self launching. That's the only one I've discovered that does it so far, but I have lots of discs to try yet.
Bass Management, Speaker Distance and Speaker Gain:
Although this wasn't mentioned in pre-release info, all are available. Bass management is minimal and only allows you to set speaker size for the center and surround speakers only, the fronts are locked at Large and can't be changed. There is no option for setting crossover points. This wasn't a problem for me as all my speakers are full range. Speaker distance range is 0.3m-9m and is adjusted in 0.1m increments. Volume gain range is + or - 6db in steps of 0.5db.
DVD-Audio:
When I first heard dvd-a on my JVC, I was very impressed. I can honestly say that playback on this unit impressed me even more. Although all formats sound good, dvd-a is where this player really excels. I was enjoying the playback so much, that I had to force myself to move on to try the other formats. TOC reads amazed me at a consistent 5-6 seconds.
Redbook CD:
I'm sure that there are a number of highend players that can top redbook playback, however, for a multi format player, this unit holds it's own very well. I listened to a number of cd's and was very satisfied with the sound. Being as how I'm spoiled by surround music and I normally don't listen to much stereo playback, I might be a bit biased here. TOC reads at 7-8 seconds.
SACD:
Being as this is the first time I've been able to listen to SACD, I wasn't sure what to expect. Nobody that I know personally has an SACD player, and the couple of local retail stores that carry them, don't have them hooked up to listen to. Because of this, I have nothing to compare playback against. I can say, that I'm more than pleased with what I'm hearing from this player. SACD seems to be a bit softer on playback than DVD-A. (Like listening to a recording with just a tad to much noise reduction applied.) Listening to classic rock like Aerosmith, the sound seems slightly muted when compared to DVD-A. When listening to more subdued music like James Taylor, the sound is exceptional. I also liked both of the Billy Joel multichannel releases although The Stranger was the better of the two. TOC reads at 9-10 seconds. (This was the slowest of all the formats, but at 10 seconds, blows the doors off of the TOC read times of Sony's own SACD players, some of which have been reported at 1-2 minutes. As a final note, it has been confirmed from Pioneer themselves that the DSD stream is NOT converted to PCM for output, but is output direct, something that was berated on the top end Pioneer DV-AX10.
DTS CDR:
This was probably one of the biggest surprises for playback quality. I played a number of Tab's conversions and although they've always sounded good on my other dvd player, I was totally unprepared for how great they sounded through this unit. I had a tough time believing that I was listening to a 2nd generation recording. Pink Floyd-DSOTH just totally blew me away as did Chicago IX and the Moody Blues-Threshold Of A Dream. These just have to be heard to be believed. TOC reads at 7-8 seconds.
DVD-V
This is the one area that I didn't get much chance to check out. I only managed to play a couple of movies. Next to DVD-A, this is probably the second strongest point of this unit. I have yet to set up the picture with my Video Essentials disc (I'll get to it this weekend). Even so, straight out of the box, the picture is exceptional. Colors and contrast look very good, and picture is unbelievably clear and very sharp. I have yet to see the Chroma Bug raise it's ugly head, something that was readily apparent on both of my other players.
Final Thoughts:
After two complete days of playing with this unit, I can honestly say that I couldn't be happier with the results. This unit played everything I threw at it (including a couple of Video cd's) and didn't hiccup even once. The only fault I could find was the weight of the unit, but considering that it performed so well, it's a fault I can overlook.
Bottom line is that I can honestly recommend the DV-47A to anyone looking for a truly universal player. In addition, I can answer the question, knowing what I know now about the player, would I still buy it? Absolutely!
General:
The first thing that you'll notice during unpacking of the unit is the size of the power cord. Diameter of the cord would match that of a very heavy duty outside extension cord. This has to be the heaviest cord I've ever seen on an electrical device.
Second,is the weight of the unit. I expected the unit to be a little heavier considering the cost of the unit. It weighs in at around 9-10 pounds.
I can almost guarantee that you'll have to open the manual at least to find out how to navigate the different settings in the menu system. There are a number of items that are set to default that I'm sure you'll want to change. For example, the deck is set to downmix all multichannel streams to stereo until you change it.
This unit has both DTS and DD decoders built in and they are on by default. If you prefer to have your receiver do the decoding, you have to set the unit to pass the DTS stream direct. The setup is very easy to do if you just step through all of the items one at a time.
TOC read times are extremely fast (See times in individual sections below). One of the biggest complaints with DVD-A has been the necessity to have your tv on to navigate the menus to start disc play. This is not a problem with this unit. Pop in the disc, let it read the TOC and wait for the word Menu to appear on the display, hit Enter, the display will flash. Hit Enter again and the disc will launch. I played a number of titles over the weekend and it worked on everyone I tried. By the third disc, I turned off the TV and never turned it back on again. Interestingly, Fleetwood Mac-Rumours is self launching. That's the only one I've discovered that does it so far, but I have lots of discs to try yet.
Bass Management, Speaker Distance and Speaker Gain:
Although this wasn't mentioned in pre-release info, all are available. Bass management is minimal and only allows you to set speaker size for the center and surround speakers only, the fronts are locked at Large and can't be changed. There is no option for setting crossover points. This wasn't a problem for me as all my speakers are full range. Speaker distance range is 0.3m-9m and is adjusted in 0.1m increments. Volume gain range is + or - 6db in steps of 0.5db.
DVD-Audio:
When I first heard dvd-a on my JVC, I was very impressed. I can honestly say that playback on this unit impressed me even more. Although all formats sound good, dvd-a is where this player really excels. I was enjoying the playback so much, that I had to force myself to move on to try the other formats. TOC reads amazed me at a consistent 5-6 seconds.
Redbook CD:
I'm sure that there are a number of highend players that can top redbook playback, however, for a multi format player, this unit holds it's own very well. I listened to a number of cd's and was very satisfied with the sound. Being as how I'm spoiled by surround music and I normally don't listen to much stereo playback, I might be a bit biased here. TOC reads at 7-8 seconds.
SACD:
Being as this is the first time I've been able to listen to SACD, I wasn't sure what to expect. Nobody that I know personally has an SACD player, and the couple of local retail stores that carry them, don't have them hooked up to listen to. Because of this, I have nothing to compare playback against. I can say, that I'm more than pleased with what I'm hearing from this player. SACD seems to be a bit softer on playback than DVD-A. (Like listening to a recording with just a tad to much noise reduction applied.) Listening to classic rock like Aerosmith, the sound seems slightly muted when compared to DVD-A. When listening to more subdued music like James Taylor, the sound is exceptional. I also liked both of the Billy Joel multichannel releases although The Stranger was the better of the two. TOC reads at 9-10 seconds. (This was the slowest of all the formats, but at 10 seconds, blows the doors off of the TOC read times of Sony's own SACD players, some of which have been reported at 1-2 minutes. As a final note, it has been confirmed from Pioneer themselves that the DSD stream is NOT converted to PCM for output, but is output direct, something that was berated on the top end Pioneer DV-AX10.
DTS CDR:
This was probably one of the biggest surprises for playback quality. I played a number of Tab's conversions and although they've always sounded good on my other dvd player, I was totally unprepared for how great they sounded through this unit. I had a tough time believing that I was listening to a 2nd generation recording. Pink Floyd-DSOTH just totally blew me away as did Chicago IX and the Moody Blues-Threshold Of A Dream. These just have to be heard to be believed. TOC reads at 7-8 seconds.
DVD-V
This is the one area that I didn't get much chance to check out. I only managed to play a couple of movies. Next to DVD-A, this is probably the second strongest point of this unit. I have yet to set up the picture with my Video Essentials disc (I'll get to it this weekend). Even so, straight out of the box, the picture is exceptional. Colors and contrast look very good, and picture is unbelievably clear and very sharp. I have yet to see the Chroma Bug raise it's ugly head, something that was readily apparent on both of my other players.
Final Thoughts:
After two complete days of playing with this unit, I can honestly say that I couldn't be happier with the results. This unit played everything I threw at it (including a couple of Video cd's) and didn't hiccup even once. The only fault I could find was the weight of the unit, but considering that it performed so well, it's a fault I can overlook.
Bottom line is that I can honestly recommend the DV-47A to anyone looking for a truly universal player. In addition, I can answer the question, knowing what I know now about the player, would I still buy it? Absolutely!
