Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Multi Disc Universal Players-again!

Thanks Rick. When it comes time to actually buy one, I’ll be picking your brain some more. I found a source for new 2900’s. Non-authorized of course, but I don’t really care about that anyway. There is no such thing as a repair shop in Alaska anyway, so everything gets sent off somewhere, or round filed.

K- the Integra has no hesitation loading or popping in and out of menu’s with the remote. Push the button and it does its thing. I am very impatient too ( I have A.D.D. ). Not real quick changing disks though. Kinda noisy too, now that I think about it. That sixth disk is nice when I’m puttering around the house. I load her up, point the line on the Rotel at about 10 o’clock and grab the tools. The sound quality is outstanding. I had a Kenwood, seven disk changer for CD’s. I noticed a big difference with the Integra over it. The Kenwood is about 6 years old. I don’t recall the model, but it was their top of the line back when I bought it.

Well, they're pretty much the same. Looks like the Integra may have a different video DAC. Neither says which type they have. I know the Yammie has Farouja for video (pretty good, I guess) and Burr-Browns for audio (so that's a plus, I suppose). Noisy changer doesn't really bother me a lot; it'll be in a closed cabinet, and my JVC is certainly noisy.

It's too bad you need a Universal player. I have the Cambridge Audio 540D and it is fantastic. Unfortunately it doesn't play SACD and it doesn't have DTS decoding (I use my Pioneer for that). Here's what it does offer:

Crystal CS4360 six-channel 24-bit/192kHz audio DAC
DVD-Audio capability
DVD+R, DVD+RW, MP3 and Kodak Picture playback
Built-in Dolby Digital decoding
6 - 12-bit/54MHz video DACs
PAL and NTSC compatible
Component (progressive), RGB (SCART), S-video, and composite video outputs
Low-resonance chassis and aluminum front panel
Removable IEC power cord
Progressive scan

http://www.hometheatersound.com/equipment/cambridge_audio_azur_540d.htm

I own the C750, and overall it's not a bad universal player. The load times/disc changes are slow. The crossover can only be set to 100Hz, which is a little high for some.

I found the video to be much better than my old Sony, and better than an LG 7832 upconverting unit (which I returned after buying the Yammy). And the layer changes are very quick.

When I bought it last year, it was pretty much the only "budget" 5-disc universal player. The store I bought it from was clearing them out for $250 CDN, which included a set of AR cables for the analog audio ($100 retail).

I'm sure there are better out there these days. But if you can find one for a smokin' deal, it's not that bad.

Well, I've been looking around online, and still have found nothing on the DVD-C950. Also, the only shops that claim to have it are not authorized resellers... sigh. Guess it's not really out yet. Anyone else have any tips?

Well, I doubt anyone cares but me, but I finally found a long thread of customer reviews of the DVD-C950 on AVSForum that made me feel a bit better about it. The faults they cite don't really affect me, since I've got an iPod and no HDTV at the moment. Now to decide whether to get this or the camera...

I picked up a Yamaha DVD-C750 a week ago. It's not perfect, but I'm very pleased with it overall. My biggest complaint is how long it takes to power on the unit and open the tray from standby mode. Everything seems to run through the central processor, as a cost-cutting measure I guess, including the tray release mechanism. As a result, you have to wait for the unit to boot up from standby before the tray will open. Having said that, the load and tray opening times are reasonable once the unit is running.

I'm running it with an H/K AVR330, and the sound and video quality are great.

The good Yamaha multi-disc units not easy to find in Canada, but I think they're a good bang for the buck. Given the low price, my complaints are minor. From what I've heard, the build quality is pretty decent.

Finally got my hands on a 950. (at Good Guys, where the clearance is, um, crappy.) Boy, that thing is really slow to start up! I didn't have any discs on me (just stopped by after work) so I don't know about a lot of stuff on it, but it seemed to take 10 seconds per disc to tell it was empty.

Kevin, would you mind trying some stuff on your 750 forme? I'd like to know how fast it changes audio discs on random; ie if you've got a combo of say SACD, DVD-A, and redbook CD in there, how long does it take between tracks/discs on random play? Also, does yours have the 10 disc memory thing? If so, does it just do this automatically, or can you designate which discs you want to save the last bit played info on?

Mike, on your Integra--same questions. I know that the six disc memory thing is designatable on the Onkyo version, according to the manual. How's the disc change speed?

And if anyone has the Onkyo 802, I'd love to hear about it. How's the video quality? If the only difference between the Integra and the 802 (sorry, Mike!) is the amount of outputs, I don't really care. But if the video quality is better on the Integra, well... then I might care.

Thanks, all!

I haven't tried it in random mode across discs, but I suspect the C750 would be pretty slow in that mode. I can say that it will run faster fully loaded, with 5 discs in the tray, as it takes extra time to determine that there really is no disc in an empty slot. I'm out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday, but I can give it a try when I'm back on Monday.

I assume that by memory you mean the ability to save the playback point of DVD's before ejecting. If so, then yes the C750 can remember this for up to 10 discs. Normally, the playback point is saved automatically. However, if you hit the stop button twice before ejecting a disc, you can prevent the playback point from being saved into memory for that particular disc. Not sure if this answers your question.

For music playback I usually load 5 discs into the carousel and let them play sequentially, so for me the load time is a non-issue. I love the sound and video quality of this unit, and the price was right. If you're willing to spend more $$$, you can probably find a unit that loads faster though.

The upshot of slow load times is that you have time to really appreciate the process. Kinda like watching the roof of the Skydome in Toronto open reeeeaaaallly slowly...

- Kevin

Heh. If you wouldn't mind trying it out Monday, I'd be thrilled to know the results.

Yeah, you pretty much answered my quesiton on the memory. On the Onkyo units, you have to tell it that you want to save the playback point; it doesn't do it automatically from what I understand.

Actually, it's almost impossible to find universal changers. The Onkyos and the Yamahas are the only games in town, and the 950 is the only one with HDMI.

Yeah, I almost got hit in the head by the tray while I was waiting for it to open in the store... looked away, and then there's this thing coming at the side of my face!