Looking for a DVD player with good CD playback (1 Viewer)

[Yu-Ming]

Hi! This is my first post on this forum, so let me start off by saying its great to be on board! I hope that I am not treading old ground with this post, but I would be grateful for some help with the following...

I'm looking for a mid priced DVD player which is good for CD music playback (this is my number 1 priority as I will be listening to music more than watching films). Good image quality is also important. DVD-A or SACD would be a bonus, but being realistic, I'm not going to use it much.

I'm got the following on my shortlist but have not demo'd yet:

DENON DV-2800 MKII,
Pioneer DV-747A
Toshiba SD-900E (I think it's known as the SD9200 in the states)

Is this a decent choice or are there better models for music out there? What would be your personal preference? I'd be very grateful for any advice/recommendations for suitable DVD players as I something of a newbie and am drowning under the options that are available!

I listen to a lot of different music, with an emphasis on old soul, jazz and r'n'b/hip-hop. Though I'm no audiophile, I know that I prefer a slightly warmer sound and don't like systems which are too trebly or harsh.

FYI, I am in the process of uprading my entire system (though my current crappy 20" tv and 10 year old midi hi-fi could hardly be termed a "system"!). I've pretty much settled on the following for the rest of my setup:

TV: Sony KD-32NX100
Amp: Denon AVR-3802
Speakers: KEFQ9C(centre), KEFQ5's(fronts) and Mission M5DS(rears - the guys at the shop recommended dipoles as my sofa is up against a wall)
Sub: None for now, I don't think I'm ready for that kind of bass yet!

Thanks for your help,

Ming

 

[KeithH]

Ming, welcome to the Forum! Here in the States, the Toshiba '9200 has garnered an excellent reputation as a CD player. I have used it a bit, and it is an impressive machine. I imagine the '900E is good as well. Denon DVD players generally are good with CD, though I don't know how it compares with the Toshiba unit. The Pioneer Elite DV-47A, which is the US version of the '747A, has gotten mixed reviews on the audio side. Based on what I have read, I would not expect it to be as good as the Toshiba unit. The '900E is a very nice unit in terms of build quality and performance, plus it offers DVD-Audio. Looks like a winner to me. Of course, if you can spend more, you should get better CD playback. For example, Arcam FMJ DV27 has an excellent reputation as a CD player.

 

[Yu-Ming]

Thanks for the reply.

I'll make sure I audition the SD900 and the DV-2800 this weekend!

The toshiba was the king of its day but its almost a year and a half old now...how much do you think the newer mid-priced DVD players have caught up?

 

[Andrew Pratt]

The older Sony 7700 and newer 9000ES are both very good CD players as are the Cambridge Audio players. The only thing I've seen about the toshiba players when used as CD players was that they all had very high jitter values...though they may have fixed that for the latest model?

 

[Dave_Dunk]

Yu-Ming

The sd9200 is a great DVD player, however I would draw attention to what seems to be a big problem with this machine: The noisy drive mechanism. This manifests itself as a low rumble when certain discs are played (on mine it happens on the first few songs / chapters ). doesn't happen on all players, but if you look around at reviews on the web ( try audioreview.com ) you'll see it's fairly widespread. Shame because it's a great player, first rate build etc etc.

Dave.