CD/SACD Player: Good AND Cheap, $111 delivered
Written: Oct 17 '03
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Pros: The lowest cost player with anywhere near these features. co-ax & optical S/P-DIF outputs.
Cons: No headphone jack. Ignores Alesis ML-9600 ISO9660 CD-24 disks. Region-Free is a hack.
The Bottom Line: This is a bargain. Buy now at $99 or they will go out of stock and be replaced with models that just barely work.
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| rufus13's Full Review: Philips DVD763SA DVD Player |
They say that you want fast, cheap & good, but have to pick only two. I would say that Philips picked cheap and good, but let track access time slide. This player takes a few extra seconds to decide that the disk you put in is a CD/DVD/ISO9660, or whatever, then it plays track one (auto-start).
Audio quality is very good. This is not a suprise, considering that Philips used a Burr-Brown converter chip (24 bit/ 96 KHz) and a 5532 opamp as an output driver.
I consider audio quality as the most important detail in my search for a cheap player. This player retails for 400 Euro's , and was recently over $200 in the USA.
There are some .de web sites showing how to make this unit "region-free" so that I can play Hong Kong (region 3) DVD's, but I haven't done it, yet.
I was hoping to be able to play Alesis Masterlink ISO 9660 24 bit 96 KHz CD-R's, because of the ISO support and the high-quality converter. It won't recognize the disk.
The solution may be to use a computer to transfer the 24/96 audio to a supported DVD-R, then play back with the DVD763SA.
I'm only using this deck for audio, and have a 6 inch color composite monitor hooked up to view menus. It looks fine.
The acoustic noise from the drive is much lower than most dvd-cd transports. It wouldn't have to be enclosed to be unobtrusive during very quiet passages, your air handling units in house or apartment make more noise than this. Some recording studio ducts make more noise than this.
The remote is good. European design is nice.
I'm looking forward to playing some SACD's.
This is a VERY INEXPENSIVE entry into a middle-good quality audio/video component with analog surround outputs. SACD playback is a nice bonus that is not anywhere else for the low price. Component video (RGB) is another feature not often found at the bottom price range. If your display supports RGB input, it will be an improvement over S-Video connection and hugely better than composite.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 99.00
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Epinions.com ID:
rufus13
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Reviews written: 7
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