Budget DVD Player Sound Quality

AndrewLevine · 09-15-2006, 11:16 PM

I currently have a Magnavox DVD player that is probably a couple years old. It does its job fine, but its a little noisy (You can hear thedisc spinning in the tray). I want to upgrade, however being a college student I have very limited funds. I do not have a fancy TV and sound quality is most important to me. (half audio, half video- CDs, MP3 CDs, and DVD-Video) If I am using digital coax to go from the DVD player to my receiver, does one DVD player have any advantage over another? Would a DVD player with 6 channel outputs be better than my current set up? What is the advantage to more expensive DVD players? Anyone have any ideas on which products to look for? (saw hk dvd players on ebay, but theyre still expensive... although they do match my set up...) So far all I have is:

-2 year old Magnavox DVD player
-HK AVR235
-Athena F2.2
-DIY 15" Quatro sub
-Monster Cable Digital Coax (only got it cause it was on sale for $8)
-BJC Belden 10 awg w/ locking banana plugs
-Raymond Cables 3m sub cable
(Eventually I will add an Athena Center channel and some extra bookshelf speakers for rears.)

Thanks everyone,
AL

Alon Goldberg · 09-16-2006, 12:45 AM

Hi Andrew - The best budget Upconverting DVD Players on the market are the Oppo 970 and Oppo 971. Both are capable audio players (DVD-Audio, MP3, WMA, Dolby Digital/DTS/LCPM Bitstream Output, 5.1 analog Ouputs, etc). The Oppo 970 also features SACD.

If you are looking for a step up then you may want to take a look at the Denon DVD-1930CI, which is a very capable CD player in its own right.

AndrewLevine · 09-16-2006, 12:51 AM

Alon-
Thanks for the reply and I was looking at the oppo based on other peoples comments as well. However it was my mistake to not clarify what I meant about my budget and being a college student. I would like to keep this as inexpensive as possible, hopefully not above $80. (Harman Kardon DVD27 can be obtained for about that much on ebay)

Thanks,
AL

johnADA · 09-16-2006, 09:14 AM

First do you have a TV for upconverting?????
Second upconvertors while some do, do good jobs are mostly smoke and mirrors over a decent progressive scan unit. So having the TV type for upconverting is primary, its not then still important even if you did.
As far as playing a CD, DVD for quality of music, that is all hype!! A $1000 CD player isnt going to make, at best, a subtle difference in quality over a $50 unit!!!
Names are just names, dollars are wasted, but digitial out is the preferred hookups!!!

Seth=L · 09-16-2006, 09:38 AM

Allow me to at my 2 cents here. Sound quality of a DVD is mostly based on its DAC's. If your receiver only has 96khz/24bit processing and most new DVD players, even cheap ones have 192khz/24bit processing. Panasonic or Sony players might be something to consider, since you say your tv isn't the best you don't need an upconverting player at present.

I wouldn't look for a DVD player with a 6 channel output because that isn't likely to save you any money. The way I would hook up a new player is this. Connect the DVD player's analog out to the receiver's CD input, then connect the Coax or Toslink to the DVD input. So when watching movies you can use the receiver's decoding and DAC's and then use the DVD player's DAC's for music listening. If you find that it sounds better to listen to music over the digital input then do that, it is possible the onboard sound of the DVD player may not be as good as your H/K. I think a Panasonic would be best for your situation.

Hope this helps.

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Dave H · 09-16-2006, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnADA

First do you have a TV for upconverting?????
Second upconvertors while some do, do good jobs are mostly smoke and mirrors over a decent progressive scan unit. So having the TV type for upconverting is primary, its not then still important even if you did.
As far as playing a CD, DVD for quality of music, that is all hype!! A $1000 CD player isnt going to make, at best, a subtle difference in quality over a $50 unit!!!
Names are just names, dollars are wasted, but digitial out is the preferred hookups!!!

While I agree upscaling isn't always a benefit, it's virtually impossible to buy a brand new, *good* progressive scan player that doesn't already upscale. Upscaling has almost become a standard feature (as progressive scan became a few years ago) in 2006.

Seth=L · 09-16-2006, 11:16 AM

I don't think Andrew has HD anyway, he is just like me, a poor college student who can't afford a Panasonic 50" plasma, Arthur.

AndrewLevine · 09-16-2006, 12:54 PM

Thanks everyone!

Yeah, it's too bad but Seth is right about my tv :-/ Currently its a 20" Panasonic thats atleast 6 years old. Anyways, thanks to everyone for the input, looks like I'll just try and find a Panasonic or Sony dvd player and play with the connections. (The avr has 192/24 DAC so I can't imagine that a budget dvd players dac would be better if theyre both rated the same, but I have the cables so its worth a try)

AL