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!
does the Jedi have little kids?
Call me a peacenik, but I couldn't buy something named after a nuclear missle.
aw, come one... What if I told you that gyroscopes used in missile navigation circuitry are also known as rotels?
Well, I'd be talking out my a**, but it
sounds possible, doesn't it?
In reply to:
does the Jedi have little kids?
Not any more. They're 17 and 15. 10 years ago I had to worry about my speaker domes being pushed in. Now I have to worry about where the volume level is when I turn my system on.
Mark
In reply to:
Not any more. They're 17 and 15. 10 years ago I had to worry about my speaker domes being pushed in. Now I have to worry about where the volume level is when I turn my system on.
Yeah...I am where you were 15 years ago. My kids are 6 and 4, they still do not know that the speaker grills come off....but they do know how to use TiVo!
6 & 4 and they can use Tivo? Pretty smart kids. You are starting them out right. Make sure they never catch you removing the speaker grilles!
Mark
I bought myself the 563a for Xmas today. It's sitting under the tree, still in the box, unwrapped. Now for some more axiom speakers.
Take it out of the box and put your old DVD player in the box. Maybe no one will notice, and you will be able to enjoy it now.
I was going to buy one this week until I got an amazing deal on a pair of speakers, which ate up my extra money for another week.
It's too late for that. The wife already hid it on me. She says she is going to wrap it and pretend it's a surprise.
I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but I was quite unimpressed with the SACD performance of the 563a. My wife also bought one for "us" this Christmas, and it's being returned tonight. SACD's did not have the same luster that they did with my older 5-disc Sony DVD/CD/SACD player (DVP-655). Let me say that I truly dislike the Sony player (it's been in for service twice and still locks up from time-to-time), so I was terribly excited about the prospect of banishing it to the guest room and using the 563 as our primary player in the Den. In fact, I was totally ready to be biased in favor of the Pioneer, almost no matter what. My receiver is a Pioneer Elite 43TX so I was also happy about having the same brand components as well.
Back-to-back comparisons with between SACD's yielded quite a difference. Cymbal clashes on several SACD's lost quite a bit of definition, details heard (YoYo Ma's breathing, for instance, on his Solo Cello SACD) weren't there anymore. And where did all the warm mid-range go? Yes, I double checked to make sure the speaker-size management was set up correctly, but it sounded like it was routing next to nothing to the subwoofer channel, even after adding +6db (the max it will do) to the subwoofer. Yes, we were listening to the SACD layer too. Perhaps if you have more full-range speakers it would better, or if you used an ICBM to route the bass correctly, but in my standard 5.1 connected, m22 + sub setup I found the sound unimpressive and weak. Still, it simply didn't sound as fine as the old Sony does (sigh).
I didn't even bother to test CD and DVD performance, so I can't comment on that.