Survey: Best CD Audio Sound for DVD Player

[Woochifer]

At only ~$600, the Denon 2910 is a top contender. Very good picture combined with excellent audio in all formats. Faroudja chipset and top of the line BB DAC's. It's connected via Harmonic Tech ic's for analog and a Monster optic cable. My avr has the exact same BB DAC's as the 2910 and when switching between digital and analog inputs, the only difference I can discern is more bass when using the digital input, but that's a product of the bass management. Naturally, this is for rbcd only, not hi-rez.

I previously had a Sony DVD, along with a few Sony CDP's, and none of them reproduced rbcd to my liking. The DAC's are the key. I'm partial to BB and Wolfson, but always audition everything yourself and see what works for you.

Actually, the Sony SCD-CE595 (their entry level SACD player) and the ES model that I bought both use the Burr-Brown 179x series DACs that the 2910 and Denon's current batch of receivers use. The improved performance that I got with CD audio was a pleasant surprise when I switched to that CD/SACD changer.

This same DAC was also used in the Arcam CD72 CD player (the successor to that model changed to the same Wolfson DACs that Arcam's more expensive CD players use). Believe it or not, that Burr-Brown DAC has also shown up in the entry level Toshiba SD-4960 and Pioneer DV-563A universal players, both of which sold for under $200 and are very popular with modders who claim that with analog section upgrades, those players can approach the performance of far more expensive high end CD players. Pioneer went to a different (and cheaper in all likelihood) DAC when the successor model was introduced; not sure what Toshiba did with their newer model.

[musicman1999]

my current dvd player is a cambridge audio 540d and when connected by analog cables it is not a bad cd player,i would estimate it to be as good as a cheaper dedicated cd player,such as cambridges 340c or perhaps 540c.it does not however hold a candle to my arcam cd73t cd player in any way.the highs are rolled off,midrange lacks body and the lows lack body.soundstage is also not as wide or deep.to be fair however i did not expect it to be,it costs half as much.
thanks
bill

[EdwardGein]

Anyone know of any links that rank DVD/Universal Players or CD players?

[RJW1138]

Anyone know of any links that rank DVD/Universal Players or CD players?

Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity has the most comprehensive ranking of DVD players based on highly extensive video testing that I've ever seen. It's awe-inspiring, really. However, it's video only. They do not test the audio performance. If you're interested, though, it's totally worth checking out.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi

As for a review site that does the same for the audio performance of Universal and CD players, I'm not aware of any such thing. I'd kill for there to be one! User review sites where any shmuck can chime in with their often unprofessional, limited, and ignorant opinion (like AudioReview et al.) have incredibly limited usefulness - they're mostly useful to satiate curiosity and for a bit of fun, and that's about it. With professional review sites, you're limited by the selection of products they choose to review, and often the impracticality of their price ranges and pretentiousness of their reviewers. But the crux is that I've never seen a site like this actually have the guts to RANK anything. Rather, they just assign grades, often but not always taking price into consideration, and leave it at that. It's up to you to determine what ranks better than what else, taking price and performance into consideration and determining for yourself what sits at the best price/performance ratio for your budget. Then again, I completely admit the difficulties in ranking audio performance anyways, where subjectivity can be a significant factor. It's not like there's a suite of audio tests that can obtain the same objective results analogous to the video tests that Secrets uses. Oh well, I'm afraid this is how it will probably always be.

However, if I didn't need to work for a living, I just might try to make such a site....

Ryan

[EdwardGein]

I agree with you on the worth of consumer online reviews, but I do seem to think if a bunch of different reviewers on different sites are totally gung ho over something, the product merits further research by me. Amazon.com reviews are the worst as some of those people are in left field looking at right. My favorite "review" Non Electronics kind, for a DVD, this is a classic, is some idiot who said that the whole DVD was ruined because in the special features for directors commentary (where they show the whole movie with the directory commenting) the director gives away what will happen in the movie in the beginning of the commentary. Like the idiot doesn't realise you're suppose to watch the movie first with this!

Also I definately wouldn't be surprised if some professional reviewers have either taken money, product favors or been told by their boss to write something positive or more positive.
Didn't say all of them but I'd venture a fraction of them do.