New Panasonic DVD-S55S progressive-scan DVD-Audio player: Just $130! (1 Viewer)

[KeithH]

In briefly comparing the 'F65 and 'F85 on panasonic.com I noticed that the 'F65 lacks the "Audio Only" feature. This shuts off the video circuitry. Some feel that engaging the Audio Only feature improves the sound quality through eliminating interference caused by the video circuitry. Whether or not that is true, I would feel better having the feature. The 'F85 has it.

 

[KeithH]

For those who are interested, panasonic.com states that the 'F65 and 'F85 are/will be available in both black and silver. Thus far, I've only seen the 'F65 in black and the 'F85 in silver.

 

[Brett_H]

Does anyone have any idea whether the build quality of the F85 would be on par or greater than the RV31 of the past? That was my first player and it only lasted a little over a year before the tray stopped working. I've been without a player for a while now, so I'm ready to pick up the F85 if I could be reasonably assured that it would last longer than a year or two. I know in general the added complexity of a changer would make it more failure-prone, but it seems that people here are at least not deterred by the build quality of the newer units.

Thoughts/speculation?

Oh, ans has anyone seen one of these in NE Ohio (Cleveland area) in black? I've yet to see one, silver or black, in person...

Thanks,
-Brett.

 

[JohnnyG]

IMO, that sure is rather dumb on their part: the F85 is $150 and the F65 is $130. A dinky $20 price difference--what the.....?

That's exactly why I haven't ordered a single F65 for stock! What's the point?!

I'll be getting our first shipment of F85s today or tomorrow and one of them is coming home with me to replace the RP67 I currently have. I'll try to do a decent back-to-back comparison of the two.

 

[LanceJ]

Thr tray on the black F85 I messed with had a nice smooth/quiet sound as it moved in and out. Same with the disc tray itself (no whiny gear noises like on my R31 dvd player :frowning.

FYI: Anybody else notice that unless you want some weird off-brand or a huge megachanger, the only way to buy a mid-fi "Compact Disc" player is to buy a dvd-player? Luckily the prices are about the same--Technics' last CD changer cost around $120--but unfortunately you don't get many of the special CD-only functions they used to have. And many of the new players from many brands don't even have proper chassis feet--there's just some little metal blisters with a rubber sticky stuck to them. Bleh!!

LJ

 

[AaronBatiuk]

Did anyone else notice that Panasonic's product info page shows that this player has their "Double Re-master" technology, which is basically upsampling for CD's to 176.4 kHz 24 bit ?

While some people think up-sampling is pointless, others swear by it. This looks like a nice feature to have in a low priced unit.

 

[JohnnyG]

I've currently got a Panasonic SA-HE200 receiver at home that has the same re-master feature. I find that it makes a subtle, but nice difference - especially on MP3 material.

 

[KeithH]

Aaron, Matsushita has been using the Re-Master upsampling feature for awhile. The Technics DVD-A10 first-generation DVD-Audio player I sold recently has it, and I didn't think the Re-Master feature on that player did much of anything. Some magazine reviews a couple of years ago actually said that CDs sounded better with the Re-Master feature turned off. Perhaps this feature is implemented better on the current models.