Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Pioneer 563a or ?

I told the wife that I would like a Pioneer 563a for xmas. Are there any other choices in this price range for a multi-player? Or should I forget about SACD and simply tell her to get me a DVD-A player?

The 563a is supposed to be one hell of a deal, and has gotten some very glowing reviews. I will be getting one towards the end of the month.

nothing else in the price range of a 563A. I considered that but ended up w/ a Denon 2200, and am very happy w/ it.

Depends on your needs, if you care about SACD or DVD-A for audio or are more concerned with video performance. The 563A seems like a good compromise for all things, considering the price. Take a look at:

http://www.slottweak.com/DV_563A/563review.htm

I have had a 563 for about a month. You will find some glowing reports on the 563, and some not-so-glowing ones if you peruse the boards. Most of the negative reports are from "audiophiles" who are comparing (unblinded) the 563 to their "reference player" which is usually a $2,000 Denon.

I don't expect a $179 player to be as good as a $2000 player, so I think some of the dissing of the 563 is justified, but I also think that some of it is audiophile snobbery. After all, if the 563 sounds as good as their $2,000 reference player, it means that they basically wasted over $1800. I saw one post over at the SPOT that said the 563 wasn't worth buying. I couldn't agree less.

The 563 plays everything. It has (albeit rudimentary) bass management. DVD's look good. CD's sound good. DVD-A's and SACD's sound great. Nothing else close to the price of the 563 does what it does.

So, my advice is to pull the trigger on the 563, unless spending $700, $1000, or $2,000 on one of the Denons sounds like a good idea.

Mark

Good post, Mark!!

I recently had occasion to buy a DVD player for the bedroom. I ended up with an $89 Toshiba from Best Buy that plays MP3's and also...DVD-A. I'm not using that functionality right now, but it did give me pause. I got a "universal except SACD" player for under $100. It made me think that SACD hardware better bridge that gap pretty damn soon, or the format will not continue to compete. With DVD players becoming ubiquitous, and new ones having DVD-A capability, and at that price point....

Now, please understand, I accept that there are differences between the cheap one and the expensive one. But for me, I'm not planning on beginning to invest in SACD any time soon.

Philips has an SACD DVD-Video player for $100. So they are pretty comparable in price.

I own a 563a and think it is a great bargain.

That said, unless you have a receiver or pre/pro that can perform bass management in the 5.1 inputs, I think I would get the Denon 2200 instead.

The crossover points on the 563a are very high....I think 100mhz for DVD-A and 120mhz for SACD. The reasoning, as I understand it, is that the unit was meant for the HTIB crowd.

You can get a 563 and an Outlaw ICBM ($179+$249) for less than the Denon 2200 ($700).

Yeah...that would be more economical, but then you would have another piece of equipment, and an additional external process.

Don't we all live for getting additional pieces of equipment?

The ICBM has all kinds of knobs and dials to play with!