I have recently had the opportunity to home audition the new "professional
model" Marantz PMD325 CD Player, and I am amazed how good it sounds, and by
ts relatively low cost.

The PMD325 CD player offers practically every conceivable, and then some
feature, and costs (if you shop carefully) about $380. It also carries a
two year parts and labor warranty.

It uses a Cirrus Logic CS 4396 D to A converter which I believe is used in a
number of very expensive "audiophile" CD players, and last, but by no means
least, it offers balanced XLR analog outputs, which no "consumer" Marantz CD
player incorporates.

So perhaps today it is indeed possible to enjoy "champagne" music on a
"beer" budget. Give it a listen.

P.S. you won't find this CD player in any Hi-Fi store you'll have to contact
a "pro-shop."

Peter wrote:
I have recently had the opportunity to home audition the new "professional
model" Marantz PMD325 CD Player, and I am amazed how good it sounds, and by
ts relatively low cost.

The PMD325 CD player offers practically every conceivable, and then some
feature, and costs (if you shop carefully) about $380. It also carries a
two year parts and labor warranty.

hmm..if it doesn't play DVD, DVD-A, and SACD, then someone hasn't
done sufficient conceiving.

--

-S.

"They've got God on their side. All we've got is science and reason."
-- Dawn Hulsey, Talent Director

Steven Sullivan wrote in message news:TZ17c.48727$1p.807813@attbi_s54...
Peter wrote:
I have recently had the opportunity to home audition the new "professional
model" Marantz PMD325 CD Player, and I am amazed how good it sounds, and by
ts relatively low cost.

The PMD325 CD player offers practically every conceivable, and then some
feature, and costs (if you shop carefully) about $380. It also carries a
two year parts and labor warranty.

hmm..if it doesn't play DVD, DVD-A, and SACD, then someone hasn't
done sufficient conceiving.

What use is DVD etc on a professional CD player ?

A pro CD player is intended to play CD's only, has transports from
usually either Sony or Philips especially designed for that purpose
that are more resistant to shocks and dirt etc. (although these
transports show up in high end CD players from time to time as well),
with options like balanced outputs, extended buffer memory for instant
start and skip protection, they have cueing and programming features
and such like, not to mention usually having automation features and
RS232 or similar interfaces for that sort of purpose.

All very useful in a professional enviroments like radio stations,
studios, etc, etc etc.

But DVD ? How would a DVD function be helpful to say a small local
radio station ? For staff enterainment purposes ?

Olafur Gunnlaugsson wrote:
Steven Sullivan wrote in message news:TZ17c.48727$1p.807813@attbi_s54...
Peter wrote:
I have recently had the opportunity to home audition the new "professional
model" Marantz PMD325 CD Player, and I am amazed how good it sounds, and by
ts relatively low cost.

The PMD325 CD player offers practically every conceivable, and then some
feature, and costs (if you shop carefully) about $380. It also carries a
two year parts and labor warranty.

hmm..if it doesn't play DVD, DVD-A, and SACD, then someone hasn't
done sufficient conceiving.

What use is DVD etc on a professional CD player ?

The same use as on any other media player.

A pro CD player is intended to play CD's only, has transports from
usually either Sony or Philips especially designed for that purpose
that are more resistant to shocks and dirt etc. (although these
transports show up in high end CD players from time to time as well),
with options like balanced outputs, extended buffer memory for instant
start and skip protection, they have cueing and programming features
and such like, not to mention usually having automation features and
RS232 or similar interfaces for that sort of purpose.

All very useful in a professional enviroments like radio stations,
studios, etc, etc etc.

Yes, but those hardly constitute every almost every conceivable
feature.

But DVD ? How would a DVD function be helpful to say a small local
radio station ? For staff enterainment purposes ?

Conceivably,yes, or to play DVD CDs, or Dolby Digital/ DTS audio tracks
from DVD or DVD-A. And DVD-A and SACD cabilitiy
themselves could also be
useful for a radio station.

ANd, too the original poster said he auditioned the player *at home*.
It isn';t clear that this thread is aimed only at owners of
small radio stations.

--

-S.

"They've got God on their side. All we've got is science and reason."
-- Dawn Hulsey, Talent Director

Steven Sullivan wrote in message news:3ar7c.53373$JL2.715308@attbi_s03...
Olafur Gunnlaugsson wrote:

A pro CD player is intended to play CD's only, has transports from
usually either Sony or Philips especially designed for that purpose
that are more resistant to shocks and dirt etc. (although these
transports show up in high end CD players from time to time as well),
with options like balanced outputs, extended buffer memory for instant
start and skip protection, they have cueing and programming features
and such like, not to mention usually having automation features and
RS232 or similar interfaces for that sort of purpose.

All very useful in a professional enviroments like radio stations,
studios, etc, etc etc.

Yes, but those hardly constitute every almost every conceivable
feature.

eh.... ?


But DVD ? How would a DVD function be helpful to say a small local
radio station ? For staff enterainment purposes ?

Conceivably,yes, or to play DVD CDs, or Dolby Digital/ DTS audio tracks
from DVD or DVD-A. And DVD-A and SACD cabilitiy
themselves could also be
useful for a radio station.

No, you would not use any of these formats in a professional
situation, not at this moment in time anyway, SACD is encrypted so
it's not possible to create a variant that will tolerate skips, dirt,
scratches, inane DJ's etc that a professional player will be asked to
since Philips/Sony will not license or publish the encryption
standard, much the same goes for DVDA for a slightly different reason
and that is apart from the fact that there is almost no software
available for that format, but the simple thing is that there are no
pro level transports available for the format to costruct a pro-spec
DVDA-SACD player out of, remember that a DVD disk has a filesystem and
a CD does not so such a beast will require a totally different design
than either a consumer DVD player or a pro CD player. And the DVD
video format is so hevily compressed it's only usable in a
recreational situation.

and a video format is of no use to an audio only situation like PA,
sound reinforcement, radio etc. etc., I would in fact have thought
that went without saying, but live and learn....

And what radios stations are broadcasting in surround sound to warrant
the use of DTS/DD ? News to me, both of these formats use lossy
compression so no one would consider using the stereo variants (I
hope).

ANd, too the original poster said he auditioned the player *at home*.
It isn';t clear that this thread is aimed only at owners of
small radio stations.

No, but I used the small radio station as an example, re-read the
sentence please. The gentleman was talking about playing CD's, not
watching DVD's and this is rec.AUDIO.higend not rec.video.lowend, and
he has a full right to enjoy a CD on a high quality CD player if he
wants to and discussing it with sundy and all without having to listen
to someone dissing him because it does not feature a washing machine
and a mechanical babysitter or whatever, and this newsgroup in unusual
in the respect that quite a large percentage of it's readers buy
entertainment devices actually to listen to music on, not to be bored
senseless by the latest Spielberg movie or the "bestof" the Osbournes.
And believe it or not some of us here even have a music system that
does not feature a TV as a centerpiece or even at all.

I can fully understand that you buy audio devices as auxilary
functions of multimedia devices but by the same token you can surely
at the least imagine someone out there actually buying stuff primarily
to listen to music from, besides it should be easily understood that
you pay for the video/DVD functions even if they are relatievly cheap
and if a good sound is your primary motivation for purchasing and
evaluating equipment a SCART plug will not enhance it one little bit

Olafur Gunnlaugsson wrote:

I can fully understand that you buy audio devices as auxilary
functions of multimedia devices but by the same token you can surely
at the least imagine someone out there actually buying stuff primarily
to listen to music from, besides it should be easily understood that
you pay for the video/DVD functions even if they are relatievly cheap
and if a good sound is your primary motivation for purchasing and
evaluating equipment a SCART plug will not enhance it one little bit


I believe it is wrong to assume that the dedicated CD players have
higher audio performance than the universal or multi-format combo
players. For one thing, current R&D is directed at producing DAC's for
the multi-format players, DAC's with linearity in excess of 20 bits. For
another, the SACD/DVD-A players actually require a much higher level of
performance in order to meet the standards of the high-resolution
formats. It's not unheard of to see S/N specs better than 110 dB, or
flat response up to 40 KHz, for the combo players. This means superior
performance throughout the audio chain, including the output stages.

I would say that if you want good sound, from CD's as well as from
high-resolution formats, definitely consider the combo players. They may
even be cheaper, because price is a strong function of sales volume.

Olafur Gunnlaugsson wrote:
Steven Sullivan wrote in message
news:3ar7c.53373$JL2.715308@attbi_s03...
Olafur Gunnlaugsson wrote:

A pro CD player is intended to play CD's only, has transports from
usually either Sony or Philips especially designed for that purpose
that are more resistant to shocks and dirt etc. (although these
transports show up in high end CD players from time to time as well),
with options like balanced outputs, extended buffer memory for
instant
start and skip protection, they have cueing and programming features
and such like, not to mention usually having automation features and
RS232 or similar interfaces for that sort of purpose.

All very useful in a professional enviroments like radio stations,
studios, etc, etc etc.

Yes, but those hardly constitute every almost every conceivable
feature.

eh.... ?

A reference to the original post. If you'd read it, we wouldn't
be in this silly ****ing contest now. The original poster
raved about a pro CD deck that he auditioned at home, and in the
course of his rave he claimed it had about every conceivable
feature. I noted that it hardly could be said to have that.


No, you would not use any of these formats in a professional
situation, not at this moment in time anyway, SACD is encrypted so
it's not possible to create a variant that will tolerate skips, dirt,
scratches, inane DJ's etc that a professional player will be asked to
since Philips/Sony will not license or publish the encryption
standard,

er..wha? 'Create a variant'?

On second thought,having read the rest of your post, never mind.



--

-S.

"They've got God on their side. All we've got is science and reason."
-- Dawn Hulsey, Talent Director

chung wrote in message news:KTr8c.86983$_w.1178526@attbi_s53...
Olafur Gunnlaugsson wrote:

I can fully understand that you buy audio devices as auxilary
functions of multimedia devices but by the same token you can surely
at the least imagine someone out there actually buying stuff primarily
to listen to music from, besides it should be easily understood that
you pay for the video/DVD functions even if they are relatievly cheap
and if a good sound is your primary motivation for purchasing and
evaluating equipment a SCART plug will not enhance it one little bit


I believe it is wrong to assume that the dedicated CD players have
higher audio performance than the universal or multi-format combo
players.

On a dollar for dollar (or Euro for Euro or whatever) basis ?

Some players come close, the Philips SA963 for instance is a mind
boggingly good buy, but they have discontinued it anyway, but close is
not good enough if your only intenetion is to play CD's, and yes the
Krell SACD standard for instance does CD's with aplomb, but above my
price point, and most peoples, and the SACD portion is uninspiring
next to much cheaper players.

or one thing, current R&D is directed at producing DAC's for
the multi-format players, DAC's with linearity in excess of 20 bits. For
another, the SACD/DVD-A players actually require a much higher level of
performance in order to meet the standards of the high-resolution
formats.

With "linearity in excess of 20 bit's" ? Did you mean to say with
resolution ?

Linearity is not expressed in bits.

SACD players do not use converters in "excess of 20 bits", the
converters in SACD players are not PCM converters, they are pure 1 bit
devices.

It's not unheard of to see S/N specs better than 110 dB, or
flat response up to 40 KHz, for the combo players. This means superior
performance throughout the audio chain, including the output stages.

That is just the PCM DAC section (and published specs nb.), a minor
portion of the cost and manufacturers are using the same DAC's (or
variants) in the CD players, but for 2 channels only (6 for DVD*) and
if the player has an SACD section, a seperate sets of DSD DAC's is
needed (conversion to PCM is possible and the approach that the
cheapest multi players take but renders the issue of the superiority
of DSD a bit pointless no matter if you agree with that assertion or
not, in other words a great convinence feature for low end players but
not for audiophile components).

Also there are no licensing costs involved with building CD players,
the P/S patents ran out a few years back making the CD a commodity
product intelectually as well as price/volume wise, contrast that with
DVD based formats, just imagine the administrative costs, your average
DVD+SACD player has licensed materials from the DVD Forum (cannot
remember the name of their lic. patner/aggregator), the DVD licensing
authority (yup there are 2 of those), Philips (x2 or 3 depending on
features embedded), Sony, Thomson, Dolby (Dolby and Meridian/BS for
DVD-A) and DTS. Not perhaps an issue with players bought in
superstores for 40 Euros and manufactured in hundreds of thousands but
certainly an issue for audio specific manufacturers. And the reason
why most mid end DVD players from smaller manufacturers are lightly
modified designs rather than inhouse (and in some cases simply badge
engineering).

I would say that if you want good sound, from CD's as well as from
high-resolution formats, definitely consider the combo players. They may
even be cheaper, because price is a strong function of sales volume.

Name one, there are a lot of good combo players out there but they are
a much better value for the videophile than the audiophile. Audio only
DVD-A players are fairly thin on the ground since much of the software
for them requires the use of menu interaction (a tv in other words),
the Sony audio only players where a great value as SACD players but a
bit sub par as CD players and most of them discontinued anyway.

Steven Sullivan wrote in message ...
Olafur Gunnlaugsson wrote:
Steven Sullivan wrote in message


Yes, but those hardly constitute every almost every conceivable
feature.

eh.... ?

A reference to the original post. If you'd read it, we wouldn't
be in this silly ****ing contest now. The original poster
raved about a pro CD deck that he auditioned at home, and in the
course of his rave he claimed it had about every conceivable
feature. I noted that it hardly could be said to have that.


I read it.

And I read it as every conceivable feature for playing CD's, cannot
for the life of me understand how anyone would equate that with video
functions

As for "****ing contents", speak for yourself.


No, you would not use any of these formats in a professional
situation, not at this moment in time anyway, SACD is encrypted so
it's not possible to create a variant that will tolerate skips, dirt,
scratches, inane DJ's etc that a professional player will be asked to
since Philips/Sony will not license or publish the encryption
standard,

er..wha? 'Create a variant'?

A professional variant, as in a "Professional CD player" versus a
consumer one, they both do the same basic thing eg play CD's but go
about it a different way and offer different features since the needs
and the budget of the professional and the consumer are different.
This is not just the user interface, the pro variants handle errors
differntly to consumer models and that is diffucult to archive with
the DVD disk based formats.

"Peter" wrote in message
news:v5Q6c.45410$_w.699202@attbi_s53...
I have recently had the opportunity to home audition the new "professional
model" Marantz PMD325 CD Player, and I am amazed how good it sounds, and by
ts relatively low cost.

The PMD325 CD player offers practically every conceivable, and then some
feature, and costs (if you shop carefully) about $380. It also carries a
two year parts and labor warranty.

It uses a Cirrus Logic CS 4396 D to A converter which I believe is used in a
number of very expensive "audiophile" CD players, and last, but by no means
least, it offers balanced XLR analog outputs, which no "consumer" Marantz CD
player incorporates.

So perhaps today it is indeed possible to enjoy "champagne" music on a
"beer" budget. Give it a listen.

P.S. you won't find this CD player in any Hi-Fi store you'll have to contact
a "pro-shop."

The DAC of my $40 Hercules PCI soundcard is also a Crystal Semiconductors
4396.

Olafur Gunnlaugsson wrote:

chung wrote in message news:KTr8c.86983$_w.1178526@attbi_s53...
Olafur Gunnlaugsson wrote:

I can fully understand that you buy audio devices as auxilary
functions of multimedia devices but by the same token you can surely
at the least imagine someone out there actually buying stuff primarily
to listen to music from, besides it should be easily understood that
you pay for the video/DVD functions even if they are relatievly cheap
and if a good sound is your primary motivation for purchasing and
evaluating equipment a SCART plug will not enhance it one little bit


I believe it is wrong to assume that the dedicated CD players have
higher audio performance than the universal or multi-format combo
players.

On a dollar for dollar (or Euro for Euro or whatever) basis ?

Yes, of course. Please note the comment about selling price being a
strong function of sales volume.


Some players come close, the Philips SA963 for instance is a mind
boggingly good buy, but they have discontinued it anyway, but close is
not good enough if your only intenetion is to play CD's, and yes the
Krell SACD standard for instance does CD's with aplomb, but above my
price point, and most peoples, and the SACD portion is uninspiring
next to much cheaper players.

Never heard the Krell SACD player, but a lot of people have raved about
the Sony DVP-NS900V, which sold for about $600. The replacement is the
Sony DVP-NS999ES for less than $1K. Is that in your price range?

or one thing, current R&D is directed at producing DAC's for
the multi-format players, DAC's with linearity in excess of 20 bits. For
another, the SACD/DVD-A players actually require a much higher level of
performance in order to meet the standards of the high-resolution
formats.

With "linearity in excess of 20 bit's" ? Did you mean to say with
resolution ?

Linearity is not expressed in bits.

A DAC may have 24 bit resolution, but less than 24 bit linearity.
Linearity is a measure of how the output deviates from a straight line.
Linearity error at the 20 bit level means the error is smaller than 1
LSB (or +/- 1/2 LSB) of a perfect 20 bit DAC.

Resolution refers to the number of possible output levels. A 24 bit DAC
has 2**24 output levels. But those levels may not be monotonic, or may
deviate by more than 1 LSB from an ideal straight line.

Actual dynamic range is a strong function of the noise and the linearity
of the DAC. A 24-bit DAC may have a THD+N of only 120dB, which is
equivalent to a linear 20 bit DAC. That seems to be the limit in today's
implementations, despite the fact the DAC's may have 24-bit resolution.

SACD players do not use converters in "excess of 20 bits", the
converters in SACD players are not PCM converters, they are pure 1 bit
devices.

Yes, but there is still a linearity spec. Or do you think that the DSD
converters are only 1-bit linear in the audio frequency range? There is
also an equivalent resolution spec (and it's not 1 bit). If you don't
like the way I use the term linearity, substitute dynamic range.


It's not unheard of to see S/N specs better than 110 dB, or
flat response up to 40 KHz, for the combo players. This means superior
performance throughout the audio chain, including the output stages.

That is just the PCM DAC section (and published specs nb.), a minor
portion of the cost and manufacturers are using the same DAC's (or
variants) in the CD players, but for 2 channels only (6 for DVD*) and
if the player has an SACD section, a seperate sets of DSD DAC's is
needed (conversion to PCM is possible and the approach that the
cheapest multi players take but renders the issue of the superiority
of DSD a bit pointless no matter if you agree with that assertion or
not, in other words a great convinence feature for low end players but
not for audiophile components).

Yes, but the DAC's are highly integrated. In other words, a 6 channel
DAC does not cost 3 times what a 2-channel DAC costs. Certainly in DVD-A
players, the same DAC's oupput redbook CD and DVD-A audio. Also, since
R&D is most active on multi-channel DAC's, that's where you get the most
bang for the buck.

There are also DAC's that handle both DSD and PCM data. For example, the
Cirrus Logic CS4382

And how about the line output stage (which a lot of audiophiles swear
makes a huge difference)? The SACD, DVD-A and CD formats all share the
same line output stage in a multi-format player. Ditto for power supply.
Line spurs have to be kept to lower levels in SACD/DVD-A players because
of the more stringent specs.


Also there are no licensing costs involved with building CD players,
the P/S patents ran out a few years back making the CD a commodity
product intelectually as well as price/volume wise, contrast that with
DVD based formats, just imagine the administrative costs, your average
DVD+SACD player has licensed materials from the DVD Forum (cannot
remember the name of their lic. patner/aggregator), the DVD licensing
authority (yup there are 2 of those), Philips (x2 or 3 depending on
features embedded), Sony, Thomson, Dolby (Dolby and Meridian/BS for
DVD-A) and DTS. Not perhaps an issue with players bought in
superstores for 40 Euros and manufactured in hundreds of thousands but
certainly an issue for audio specific manufacturers. And the reason
why most mid end DVD players from smaller manufacturers are lightly
modified designs rather than inhouse (and in some cases simply badge
engineering).

Perhaps you way underestimated the importance of sales volume? The same
chipset powers hundreds of thousands of multi-format players. What is
the sales volume of the CD only player compared to DVD players?

And how much is licensing cost for the players? $5? It is a small
percentage of the selling price of these players.

And, by the way, who are the audio-specific manufacturers? Do you count
Sony, Panasonic, Denon, etc. among them?

I actually do not recommend buying "mid-end" DVD players from small
manufacturers. That's not a good price point at all.

I would say that if you want good sound, from CD's as well as from
high-resolution formats, definitely consider the combo players. They may
even be cheaper, because price is a strong function of sales volume.

Name one, there are a lot of good combo players out there but they are
a much better value for the videophile than the audiophile.

This is too easy. If you have followed this newsgroup, you would know
that the Panasonic S55 is very highly regarded by some. This player
sells for about $100, and plays DVD, CD and DVD-A formats. Redbook
playback is supposed to be exemplary. And I would agree also that this
player should sound as good as many more expensive CD-only players.

Here is another one that I have listened to: Pioneer DV563. I have
compared CD playback against my $1K Sony CD-only player, and I can
detect no difference after level matching. The Pioneer is an universal
player, selling for $150.

And then there are the Sony DVD/SACD players mentioned earlier. They all
seem to hold their own against CD players that cost more.

Audio only
DVD-A players are fairly thin on the ground since much of the software
for them requires the use of menu interaction (a tv in other words),
the Sony audio only players where a great value as SACD players but a
bit sub par as CD players and most of them discontinued anyway.

Why buy audio-only DVD-A players, even if they are available? You can
play DVD-A and CD on a combo player without using the TV. There is the
additional benefit of combo players: the video portion of the DVD-A's
can carry interesting and useful info. Of course, you can also play
those music DVD's with very high quality LPCM sound tracks. I highly
recommend A-S Mutter's Beethoven Violin Sonatas on DVD. Honest 48K LPCM
stereo sound tracks!

chung wrote:
SNIP

Some players come close, the Philips SA963 for instance is a mind
boggingly good buy, but they have discontinued it anyway, but close is
not good enough if your only intenetion is to play CD's, and yes the
Krell SACD standard for instance does CD's with aplomb, but above my
price point, and most peoples, and the SACD portion is uninspiring
next to much cheaper players.

Never heard the Krell SACD player, but a lot of people have raved about
the Sony DVP-NS900V, which sold for about $600. The replacement is the
Sony DVP-NS999ES for less than $1K. Is that in your price range?


If looking for a universal media player that plays DVD, DVD a and
SACD, one might consider the following which were tested and rated at:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi

SCORE
90% Denon DVD-2900 http://tinyurl.com/3ae24 $769.95 - $999.00

84% Yamaha DVD-S2300 http://tinyurl.com/27sza $723.00 - $898.00

81% Pioneer Elite DV59AVi http://tinyurl.com/2ghdh $998.00-$1,149.00

Compared to the aforementioned Phillips 963SA and Sony DVP-NS999ES
(non SACD / DVD A players):

72% Phillips 963SA http://tinyurl.com/38blm $364.96 - $429.00
46% Sony DVP-NS999ES http://tinyurl.com/2yf78 $719.94 - $999.00

Richard

Richard wrote:
chung wrote:
SNIP

Some players come close, the Philips SA963 for instance is a mind
boggingly good buy, but they have discontinued it anyway, but close is
not good enough if your only intenetion is to play CD's, and yes the
Krell SACD standard for instance does CD's with aplomb, but above my
price point, and most peoples, and the SACD portion is uninspiring
next to much cheaper players.

Never heard the Krell SACD player, but a lot of people have raved about
the Sony DVP-NS900V, which sold for about $600. The replacement is the
Sony DVP-NS999ES for less than $1K. Is that in your price range?


If looking for a universal media player that plays DVD, DVD a and
SACD, one might consider the following which were tested and rated at:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi

SCORE
90% Denon DVD-2900 http://tinyurl.com/3ae24 $769.95 - $999.00

84% Yamaha DVD-S2300 http://tinyurl.com/27sza $723.00 - $898.00

81% Pioneer Elite DV59AVi http://tinyurl.com/2ghdh $998.00-$1,149.00

Compared to the aforementioned Phillips 963SA and Sony DVP-NS999ES
(non SACD / DVD A players):

72% Phillips 963SA http://tinyurl.com/38blm $364.96 - $429.00
46% Sony DVP-NS999ES http://tinyurl.com/2yf78 $719.94 - $999.00

Richard


The emphasis of that shootout is video performance. Very little is
mentioned about audio performance.

chung wrote:

Richard wrote:
SNIP
If looking for a universal media player that plays DVD, DVD a and
SACD, one might consider the following which were tested and rated at:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi

SCORE
90% Denon DVD-2900 http://tinyurl.com/3ae24 $769.95 - $999.00

84% Yamaha DVD-S2300 http://tinyurl.com/27sza $723.00 - $898.00

81% Pioneer Elite DV59AVi http://tinyurl.com/2ghdh $998.00-$1,149.00

Compared to the aforementioned Phillips 963SA and Sony DVP-NS999ES
(non SACD / DVD A players):

72% Phillips 963SA http://tinyurl.com/38blm $364.96 - $429.00
46% Sony DVP-NS999ES http://tinyurl.com/2yf78 $719.94 - $999.00

Richard


The emphasis of that shootout is video performance. Very little is
mentioned about audio performance.

Of course and I should have pointed that out. However, I would rather
evaluate the audio performance among the best available DVD players
but perhaps others may not. Also, I believe that you will find the
Denon and Pioneer mentioned by others as producing excellent quality
sound. In any case I was just trying to be helpful by pointing to a
site that seems to test quite a few models, though not all, and they
seem to have no obvious prejudice.

Richard