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#1
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Pioneer 578
If any of you would like to have an inexpensive all-round machine in order
to dip your toes into DVD-A, SACD, or multichannel, I can recommend this machine. I would rate it as follows: CD - very, very good. Has the Pioneer "house sound" of slightly warm upper bass and slightly rolled off deep bass, but very transparent in the midrange and very dynamic. Excellent CD sound. DVD-A - very good - not as transparent as the best, with exceptionally good dynamics and an overall very listenable and reasonably transparent sound. A little less "house sound", but still there. SACD - acceptably good - converted to PCM and in the process looses a bit of transparency...the ambience is drier than either of the above...same slight "house sound" .. but to it's credit it "fixes" instruments in space with stability that eludes my Sony C222ES. DVD-V - excellent - after a few adjustments, pretty much a ringer from my old Toshiba 4700, which up to now had the best video on my conventional tv set. Far, far better than either the JVC 600 or the Panasonic S55 that followed, as a DVD-V player. Excellent sound; nuanced picture. All this for $150. It's a minor miracle. -- Harry Lavo Retro Sound Holyoke, MA 01040 "It don't mean a thing if it aint got that swing" - Duke Ellington |
#2
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"Harry Lavo" wrote:
If any of you would like to have an inexpensive all-round machine in order to dip your toes into DVD-A, SACD, or multichannel, I can recommend this machine. I would rate it as follows: CD - very, very good. Has the Pioneer "house sound" of slightly warm upper bass and slightly rolled off deep bass, but very transparent in the midrange and very dynamic. Excellent CD sound. DVD-A - very good - not as transparent as the best, with exceptionally good dynamics and an overall very listenable and reasonably transparent sound. A little less "house sound", but still there. SACD - acceptably good - converted to PCM and in the process looses a bit of transparency...the ambience is drier than either of the above...same slight "house sound" .. but to it's credit it "fixes" instruments in space with stability that eludes my Sony C222ES. DVD-V - excellent - after a few adjustments, pretty much a ringer from my old Toshiba 4700, which up to now had the best video on my conventional tv set. Far, far better than either the JVC 600 or the Panasonic S55 that followed, as a DVD-V player. Excellent sound; nuanced picture. All this for $150. It's a minor miracle. A very good player Harry and worthy of recommendation. However, while this _is_ an audio group, you fail to mention the DVD video quality of this unit! I would suggest one look closely at the much higher rated Denon DVD-2200 in video mode 1. Top notch audio and MUCH better video! Yes, it is more costly at ~$599 so the Pioneer 578 is quite the bargain. However, I would suggest that if you are also looking for a DVD player that plays = audio and much better videos than the Pioneer 578 and can afford to spend a bit more, look at the Denon DVD-2200 and get a B unit (factory refurbished) for a delivered price of ~$296.00. Both units have no layer change delay because the video is buffered. A BIG plus in my opinion! My Denon 2200 looks better to me than my brothers Lexicon RT-10 which is a $3,495.00 player! Of course the Lexicon has many controls that allow adjustment of video that other units do not have and the audio is quite excellent. The thing is, the Denon video looks better _without_ these extra controls! One might want to wait to see how the new units from Denon do in actual tests before purchasing. However, the Pioneer is available at an already good price and the Denon 2200 is being discontinued so you may be able to bargain for a better price. Richard |
#3
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"Richard" wrote in message
... "Harry Lavo" wrote: If any of you would like to have an inexpensive all-round machine in order to dip your toes into DVD-A, SACD, or multichannel, I can recommend this machine. I would rate it as follows: CD - very, very good. Has the Pioneer "house sound" of slightly warm upper bass and slightly rolled off deep bass, but very transparent in the midrange and very dynamic. Excellent CD sound. DVD-A - very good - not as transparent as the best, with exceptionally good dynamics and an overall very listenable and reasonably transparent sound. A little less "house sound", but still there. SACD - acceptably good - converted to PCM and in the process looses a bit of transparency...the ambience is drier than either of the above...same slight "house sound" .. but to it's credit it "fixes" instruments in space with stability that eludes my Sony C222ES. DVD-V - excellent - after a few adjustments, pretty much a ringer from my old Toshiba 4700, which up to now had the best video on my conventional tv set. Far, far better than either the JVC 600 or the Panasonic S55 that followed, as a DVD-V player. Excellent sound; nuanced picture. All this for $150. It's a minor miracle. A very good player Harry and worthy of recommendation. However, while this _is_ an audio group, you fail to mention the DVD video quality of this unit! I would suggest one look closely at the much higher rated Denon DVD-2200 in video mode 1. Top notch audio and MUCH better video! Yes, it is more costly at ~$599 so the Pioneer 578 is quite the bargain. However, I would suggest that if you are also looking for a DVD player that plays = audio and much better videos than the Pioneer 578 and can afford to spend a bit more, look at the Denon DVD-2200 and get a B unit (factory refurbished) for a delivered price of ~$296.00. Both units have no layer change delay because the video is buffered. A BIG plus in my opinion! My Denon 2200 looks better to me than my brothers Lexicon RT-10 which is a $3,495.00 player! Of course the Lexicon has many controls that allow adjustment of video that other units do not have and the audio is quite excellent. The thing is, the Denon video looks better _without_ these extra controls! One might want to wait to see how the new units from Denon do in actual tests before purchasing. However, the Pioneer is available at an already good price and the Denon 2200 is being discontinued so you may be able to bargain for a better price. You raise a good point. I would say, however, that while the video of the 578 is not very good out of the box (at least mine wasn't), it was easily adjusted using the built in adjustment controls. After adjustment, it came in very close to the Toshiba 4700, my previous standard for use with my (conventional) tv. It was far better than the Panasonic S55 (fairly bad) and JVC 600 (mediocre). My 20 yr old son is the "video expert" in our household, and he concurs. So the Pioneer may be better than you think, but certainly not out of the box. |
#4
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Harry Lavo wrote:
If any of you would like to have an inexpensive all-round machine in order to dip your toes into DVD-A, SACD, or multichannel, I can recommend this machine. I would rate it as follows: CD - very, very good. Has the Pioneer "house sound" of slightly warm upper bass and slightly rolled off deep bass, but very transparent in the midrange and very dynamic. Excellent CD sound. DVD-A - very good - not as transparent as the best, with exceptionally good dynamics and an overall very listenable and reasonably transparent sound. A little less "house sound", but still there. SACD - acceptably good - converted to PCM and in the process looses a bit of transparency...the ambience is drier than either of the above...same slight "house sound" .. but to it's credit it "fixes" instruments in space with stability that eludes my Sony C222ES. DVD-V - excellent - after a few adjustments, pretty much a ringer from my old Toshiba 4700, which up to now had the best video on my conventional tv set. Far, far better than either the JVC 600 or the Panasonic S55 that followed, as a DVD-V player. Excellent sound; nuanced picture. All this for $150. It's a minor miracle. How would you compare this new player to the DV 563 player that preceded it, especially in the SACD and CD formats? CD |
#5
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"Codifus" wrote in message
... Harry Lavo wrote: snip How would you compare this new player to the DV 563 player that preceded it, especially in the SACD and CD formats? Unfortunately, I never owned one (a 563) and therefore have no basis for comparisons. Alex Peychev, a modifier that posts on AudioAsylum, has said that it is cheaper in design...but whether or not that means it sounds worse has not been established. If I interpret other conversations on that site, the 563 may have tapped off the DSD stream separately, whereas the 578 converts it to 88khz pcm. Certainly, both the CD and DVD-A reproduction seem to capture ambience a bit better than the SACD on the 578...so it should not serve as primarily a SACD player. But as a backup, a second system, or just to try out multichannel.....fine. I *do* know that the 563 had control chip problems that led it to not being able to read the SACD layer on many UMG hybrid disks...so a lot of people who liked the sound gave them up because of the hassle. That is also why I never even tried it. |
#6
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Harry Lavo wrote:
"Codifus" wrote in message ... Harry Lavo wrote: snip How would you compare this new player to the DV 563 player that preceded it, especially in the SACD and CD formats? Unfortunately, I never owned one (a 563) and therefore have no basis for comparisons. Alex Peychev, a modifier that posts on AudioAsylum, has said that it is cheaper in design...but whether or not that means it sounds worse has not been established. If I interpret other conversations on that site, the 563 may have tapped off the DSD stream separately, whereas the 578 converts it to 88khz pcm. Certainly, both the CD and DVD-A reproduction seem to capture ambience a bit better than the SACD on the 578...so it should not serve as primarily a SACD player. But as a backup, a second system, or just to try out multichannel.....fine. I *do* know that the 563 had control chip problems that led it to not being able to read the SACD layer on many UMG hybrid disks...so a lot of people who liked the sound gave them up because of the hassle. That is also why I never even tried it. I have the 563. Not too impressive with either CD or SACD. As a matter of fact, they both sound the same. Nothing to write home about. Compared to my Parasound CDP1000, the sound is flat with no dynamics. I was able to compare the analog out with the digital (to DAC) out and the difference is "night and day". But, I use it as a transport. Works fine for that. I don't have it hooked up for video, so can't comment on it's sound. |
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