What % of High End Universal Players Are You Paying Just for SACD/DVD-A?

[EdwardGein]

Would appreciate someone giving me their best guestimate about this, using say the Denon 2900, a highly rated Universal player that retailed for around $1,000. Without getting into a debate about the merits of DVD-A/SACD, I myself don't have any use for these features at all. So my sole purpose in buying a Universal player would be solely to watch DVD's & listen to regular CD's not DVD-A or SACD. What I'm curious about is then what something like the Denon 2900 would go for without those features, using your best guess, assuming everything else is the same. I'm just using this to price against purchasing a regular CD player as a frame of refernce.

[kexodusc]

Would appreciate someone giving me their best guestimate about this, using say the Denon 2900, a highly rated Universal player that retailed for around $1,000. Without getting into a debate about the merits of DVD-A/SACD, I myself don't have any use for these features at all. So my sole purpose in buying a Universal player would be solely to watch DVD's & listen to regular CD's not DVD-A or SACD. What I'm curious about is then what something like the Denon 2900 would go for without those features, using your best guess, assuming everything else is the same. I'm just using this to price against purchasing a regular CD player as a frame of refernce.

Impossible to say, I'm guessing 10% to 25% though. Even that estimate is probably too high. Cost and pricing schemes are often poorly correlated.
You have to keep in mind in audio, one additional bit of performance or one new feature often costs a ton more. I don't think the costs of making a universal player are much more than a normal DVD player, but sometimes the prices are significantly higher. One of my universal players was only a few dollars more than th standard DVD player model, though, so it might vary from company to company?

The question is kind of interesting, but it's a bad way to go about buying equipment.

[ToddL]

The way I see it is like this: You might pay $50 for DVD-A th same for SACD. $100 for the better audio and video outputs, $50 for Faroudja $75 for HDMI. But if you want a player with all of these on there you will pay $600 dollars more.The price versus features seems to have an exponential curve when it comes to higher-end audio or player gear.

[shokhead]

Well lets take a nice $300 DVD player. What are they adding to make it SACD and DVD-A and for that matter,DTS? Adding all of this,how much more money for this $300 player? Another 100 bucks?

[EdwardGein]

Well, put Shokhead. Todd L, are you saying that the additional parts that are put in just for DVD-A & SACD, will also improve regular CD audio sound?

[ToddL]

Well, put Shokhead. Todd L, are you saying that the additional parts that are put in just for DVD-A & SACD, will also improve regular CD audio sound?
No, but that would be nice though. What I am saying is that the upgrade price from basic DVD to a player that also does Sacd is around 50-75$.
But with extra features that have nothing to do with each other the price will sky rocket while these features are not worth the end amount individually.
Am I making any sense?

[topspeed]

When you buy a mid-fi/hi-fi universal, the manufacturer doesn't just toss in a dsd decoder and charge the consumer exponentially for it. People don't pay for just a higher model number on the face plate. Upgrades are across the board with better dac's, vid processors, power supplies, transports, et. al. You aren't paying just for the ability to play anything on a 5" disc. You're paying for the unit's ability to play it better than the $45 Toshiba DVD player at Costco. For example, a higher end universal will employ dac's that don't downconvert dsd signals to pcm for SACD, it will use dac's that process dsd discretely. How does this help rbcd, you ask? Simple: this is a more advanced dac therefore it's processing of rbcd should be superior as well. The same holds true on the video side. Notice how Denon progresses from Faroudja chips to Realta chips as you climb the ladder.

The flip side to all of this is a dedicated cdp. This is a unit that doesn't need to worry about vid processing, dsd decoders, or anything else besides producing rbcd as perfectly as possible. Therefore monies spent on all the other stuff a universal brings to the table can now be dedicated to only reproducing rbcd. If you don't care about hi-rez, this would be the way to go.

I bought a universal for two reasons:
1) Hi rez sounds better and I'm more into music that HT
2) My surrounds are complete overkill for HT, so this way I can justify their expense to myself :).

Your priorities will determine the % advantage of hi-rez.

[jamison]

What im wondering is how much longer manufacturers of SACD and DVD will continue to make the players and the media... I havent found any SACD or DVD A ive wanted to listen to in months.

[gjpham]

Talking about high-end DVD players. I'm wondering anyone of us have known or seen a dvd cost over $10K?

[shokhead]

What im wondering is how much longer manufacturers of SACD and DVD will continue to make the players and the media... I havent found any SACD or DVD A ive wanted to listen to in months.

Thats why i started looking at DTS music discs. A few more choices.