dvd players that do cd quality playback?

[zuzu]

I'll give this a second try. I had a Older CD only player about 15 years old that I paid $3000+ for. I bought a used 7 year old Sony S9000ES DVD/CD player. For CD's it blew the $3000 CD player away. Almost every CD in mt 600Cd collection sounds incredibly better. I don't even play DVD's. Cost on Ebay $335. I think the s9000es sold for $1500. Good luck.

[MatrixDweller]

Denon 3910 for under $500??? Where???

Gotta get me one.

I was thinking the 2910 because it was cheaper but the 3910 has the Denon Link III that I want for my AVR3805.

[UFObuster]

I'll give this a second try. I had a Older CD only player about 15 years old that I paid $3000+ for. I bought a used 7 year old Sony S9000ES DVD/CD player. For CD's it blew the $3000 CD player away. Almost every CD in mt 600Cd collection sounds incredibly better. I don't even play DVD's. Cost on Ebay $335. I think the s9000es sold for $1500. Good luck.

Thanks for your patient replies...I guess you've been hearing me beat this to death. Yea, I think that's where I'm probably headed....fairly recent digital products with good music playback bona fides.

[UFObuster]

Denon 3910 for under $500??? Where???

Gotta get me one.

I was thinking the 2910 because it was cheaper but the 3910 has the Denon Link III that I want for my AVR3805.

I should have said B-stock, slightly used, or refurb...but nevertheless, perfectly good machines as seen on Ebay or Audiogon. That's why I'm looking into this category with potential grade A playback for audio......and what was excellent video until the HD machines and Oppos hit the market. I'm still thinking that the new video buzz will beat down these great players to a "steal". And....video ain't bad on these old Denons...used to be the best... upconverted to 1080i...esp if you're not into the macho 60+ inch screens...I use a modest 32 1080i and will likely never have use of a "monster" video.....keep $$ on the audio side.

[Morton]

The 2910 is amazing!! Plays all surround formats plus HDCD. Just heard Mannheim Steamroller Fresh Aire III remastered in HDCD and was blown away. The 2910 was $800 for a long time and that was fairly recently. Believe it or not I got it through Best Buy's Magnolia store brand new. Paid $500 but that was 6 months ago. Cd's sound better than My SonyES (9AES) top of the line player.

[Islander]

Analog to the Tubes......................Digital to the Yamaha...............I prefer the Digital myself, like the optical............

I've got the Yamaha DVD-S550 feeding analog to the receiver's CD input and digital coax to the receiver's DVD input. For movies and videos, naturally I use the digital coax, but for CDs I can go either way, using the DAC in the DVD player or the DAC in the receiver. Some CDs sound better one way, some the other way.

Incidentally, I just picked up the Neil Young Live at Massey Hall 1971 CD & DVD package. To my surprise, the DVD sounds markedly better than the CD. They didn't waste any info on the video aspect, since it has roughly home movie production quality, but it suits the presentation and the sound is really outstanding. Neil's performance is really good, too. I'd never realized he was so skilled on the guitar and piano. BTW, the DVD is strictly 2-channel.

[bluesboy]

Thanks for the replies so far...I think I'm on track looking at the Denon 2910 and 2900, Oppo, and the Sony 9000 mentioned above which is new to me...Left out the Pioneer.

I agree that multi-channel is a non issue but I own some....and want it if I can get it. I'm a relative newby....spent a lot of money to find out how really good my old CDs can sound. So I'm trying not to make a mistake after investing about $4K in electronics and then trying to get good music out of a cheap DVD player....but still, I've got to compromise a little while longer....likely will go with one of the Denons now and hope that Santa has a Jolida CD player in my future..

Last question: The Oppo is known for excellent video....is it really OK with CD playback?....or is that wishful thinking?

Roger

Roger,

I'm here in Wilmington and have a Sony 9000es you can check out if you want. My friend Chuck (Tarheel) has a nice Jolida tube CD player in his system that I'm sure he'll let you listen to. Send me a pm if interested.

Don

[WMcD]

I'm not conviced either way. I use laptops, an old cheapo portable CD player, and old cheapo DVD players for audio and think they're okay. It may be a matter that I've not hear the good stuff, or have a tin ear.

It is interesting that Stereophile recently reviewed a $5000 CD player from Canada and found it a very good performer. There are graphs of playing the LSBs (least significant bits) and a reportedly good waveform. This is presented as a figure of merit. And it may well be.

What would be interesting to see is a shoot-out between this (or any) high end unit and anything else (say a cheapo DVD player) on whatever objective test is considered a figure of merit.

Gil

[tommyboy]

Why not just buy a separate CD/SACD player? I bought a Marantz player, and love it. My dvd player was also weak in the CD department.

[rcarlton]

I believe the OPPO's CD playback matches the Denon DVD-2200 and Cambridge Audio Azur 640C. Difficult to tell which is which in blind tests.

[MatrixDweller]

Oppo players have a lower S/N ratio and a higher THD than the better players out there. They are par for the course in players in that price range however. Expect around 100dB S/N and .004 or so THD in the $100 to $250 price range. The better players in the $500 range, like the Denon 2910, will have a S/N of 110dB and THD of .0009 or better. Dynamic range and jitter is better of course on the higher end players as well.

For those unfamiliar with the terms S/N ratio is signal to noise ratio. Signal-to-noise ratio compares the level of a desired signal (such as

music) to the level of background noise. The higher the ratio, the less

obtrusive the background noise is.

The total harmonic distortion, or THD, of a signal is a measurement of the harmonic distortion present and is defined as the ratio of the sum of the powers of all harmonic components to the power of the fundamental. The lower the better.

For more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_system_measurements

Of course discerning the quality of the different players is subjective to the listener. A trained ear can hear the difference. It's similar to wine tasting and how the taster has developed their pallet in my opinion.