Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo How much difference does a good CD player make ??

Well I have a Toshiba in my bedroom that was $129.00 from WalMart and I have my trusty Denon 2800MKII downstairs. If you think they output the same quality picture more power to you. They don't look anything at all alike. Not even close.

The Toshiba has a severe Chroma problem and has trouble passing blacker then black. That is two out of about 20 differences in these players.

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The Toshiba has a severe Chroma problem and has trouble passing blacker then black.

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Here's where I switch sides.

DVD players *gasp* do make differences in their video output. Good reason for this - video processing.

Since version 1.00001 of everyone's DVD-P, they've been adding video processing circuitry, why? DVD video stinks on ice, search the forums for any of my rants on this previously. The unadultered video on DVD discs suffers from crawling blacks - you can usually see banding in close black gradients - the MPEG macroblock compression used doesn't deal with it well and you end up seeing what look like puzzle pieces changing shape in the dark areas of the screen. Again, I'm sensitive to digital aliasing in audio and video, because I've used it so long. So how did they fix this problem? They use black clamping, crushing a range of blacks down to pure black. This does get rid of the crawlies, but it also crushes the luminance channel. Throw the output of a DVD-P into a waveform monitor and you'll see there is either no detail between, say 7.5IRE and 11 IRE or that there is an extraordinary amount at 7.5IRE and the rest of the range has been expanded to fill the gap (throwing off the video gamma).

Add to that the difference in video amp circuits, internal shielding, etc, etc and you can see how different DVD players can produce different results.

Whereas you want a CD-P to pass exactly what's on a CD to the receiver, you WANT a DVD-P to do something to the video to make it more eye-friendly.

Bren R.

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video processing

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I agree with you on this one! Dam, what's up with that?

I leave for 10 minutes and the conversation goes from audio quality to video quality.
I can't keep up.

When it comes to music reproduction, personally I think the biggest limitation is speakers. I wouldn't doubt one amp could sound different than another, same as CD player, but the differences is minimal. IMO those people who fell into these kind of hype will most likely believe in the superiority of those "high end" interconnect and speaker cables that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars as well! LOL

But hey, it's your money, if it made you happier and you can afford all those high end stuff, then by all mean go for it. :-)

I think the Faroudja processing in my Denon DVD player is overrated. My old Toshiba seems just as good - if not better.

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Once again I disagree. My Denon 2815 sounds vastly different then my Denon 2800MKII when it comes to CD quality. The 2800 is by far and away a better transport. Hell it doesn't even play SACD or DVDA and the 2815 does DVDA and it still sounds better.

What's next in here, a $99.00 WalMArt DVD player is as good as a $1000.00 one?

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Please explain first what the hell your comparing to. You are not seemingly comparing apples to apples.

Well first of all I don't follow you. Secondly you are actually in agreement with me that a player that is expensive will vastly sound better than a cheaper player.
The 2815 is way cheaper than the 2800. If you actually read what I was saying I was summarizing that a really expensive player can have some advantages but not always. I do not believe that all CDs & DVDs are created equal like some people on here do.


Denon 2815 5-Disc Progressive Scan DVD-Audio/Video Changer • 10-bit, 54-MHz Video DAC • Burr-Brown 24-bit, 192-kHz Audio DACs •



Denon DVD-2800 single disc Progressive Scan DVD Player • Analog Devices 24-bit, 96-kHz Audio DACs
• HDCD decoding and audiophile circuitry
Silicon Image DVDO PureProgressive Sil504 decoding
Audio is served by an Analogue Devices differential-mode DAC with HDCD. 96kHz data is available from the digital outputs for discs that conform to the DAD (24/96 stereo) standard

Did you actually read my post or were you replying to someone else?

Saturn,

I for one am in agreement with you as I would not use a cheap dvd or cd player in my system.Yes I did try it and the sound of a Jvc dvd player was not up to par with my Sony es cd player and Msb Link Dac III combo.

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Did you actually read my post or were you replying to someone else?

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Jeeeeeeees, my post had nothing to do with yours but thanks for the tongue lashing anyway............and I'm fully aware of what DAC's both my Denons run. I was actually agreeing that a better quality CD player can and more often then not does sound better.

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I think the Faroudja processing in my Denon DVD player is overrated. My old Toshiba seems just as good - if not better.

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Ok I will bite. Before I say your wrong, what model Toshiba did you have? You may still have it, I have no idea. There are a lot of processors out there that rival Faroudja.

But......yeah there is a but............can't let it go that easy................. for you to say that Faroudja is over-rated is odd. Over-rated by who exactly? Your either trying to get something going here or you don't fully understand video processing. Faroudja is a lot of things but over-rated it is not. Silicon image maybe, Faroudja not.