A1 or A2? (1 Viewer)

[lsnooker9]

I have a EDTV plasma and Yamaha RX-V757. No HDMI on reciever or plasma. Will the A2 not give sound quality equal to A1 without inputs for 5.1? Or is the A2 PQ worth the upgrade? What will work the best for this set up?

 

[Dave>h]

Seeing as you have a standard definition TV with no HDMI, why would you bother with either one? Get yourself a good upconverting DVD player and be happy with your current equipment.

You cannot reproduce HD content on your current set up, or that is how I understand it to work, so having an HD DVD would be of no use in your current set up.

Wait out the format war and save yourself a few bucks.

Dave

 

[Tim Glover]

Well...I have to differ. My bedroom TV is only 480i and we did some comparos....there IS a noticeable difference watching HD DVDs on it. Serioulsy, much cleaner image and overall better. We compared the Harry Potter Goblet of Fire HD DVD & the standard def version.

Very noticeable difference even when the player is set to 480i. The source is the key here and it's just leagues better.

Might be hard to find a A1 though. I'd say grab an A2.

 

[lsnooker9]

I can input 720p and 1080i. I guess my main concern is the audio. How important is the analog 5.1 outs compaired to toslink optical?

 

[Chris Gerhard]

You won't be able to do Dolby TruHD. The other differences will be dependent on whether the player or amplifier connected by toslink offers the better audio performance. Most likely the performance using analog 5.1 or digital connection is going to be very similar, at least that is what I have routinely found when comparing player decoders to amplifier decoders. I guess the possibility exists the difference between decoder in the player and amplifier could be significant, it just doesn't ever happen with my modest equipment. The advantage of one cable over 6 is significant and the fact I need the 5.1 inputs for SACD/DVD-A is as well.

Chris

 

[LUKassZ32]

I too am in a debate as to whether or not I should get the A1 or A2 because of the analog 5.1. I wasn't too worried about it until after I read this http://www.highdefforum.com/showpost...05&postcount=1
Can someone who knows there stuff read this and verify? If this guy speaks the truth maybe the A1 is a better choice than the A2.

Also the A1 can be had for around $250-275 shipped on ebay or the

HD-D1 which I guess is the same thing but with a black face is like $380 through walmart. Can someone verify that these are indeed the same player? I know pioneer car audio makes a "walmart line" of speakers and puts the same name on them but they are cheaper and inferior. Walmart speakers have a blue cone, true pioneer speakers have a gold/yellow cone.

 

[Dave>h]

HI,

The guy indeed speaks the truth. At least IMHO he speaks the truth. I did a side by side - not double blind - comparison between the HD- a1 via analog (which means the D to A conversion was done in the A1) and my Yamaha cd 845 via toslink through my Yamaha DSP A1, which has DA 24/96 Burr Browns [I think] doing the D to A conversion. I used identical copies of MFSL Dark side of the Moon and a few other CD's that I have duplicates of.

My quote from my initial review is as follows:

Using the HD A1 as a cd player, I spent some time comparing the analog output from the HD A1 with the digital input from my Yamaha CDC 845 to my Yamaha DSP A1, which has some very good DA converters in it. I was very impressed with what I heard. The HD A1 compared very favorably with my CDC 845/DSP A1 combo. I used the MFSL CD of both Rush Moving Pictures and Pink Floyd Dark Side of the moon (I have two copies of each so could do back to back comparisons). In some instances I actually preferred the analog out from the HD A1 to the more digital sounding combo I currently have. Albeit the differences were slight. In some cases I found the HD A1 provided a more musical reproduction - the bass sounded more natural, or the drums sounded more natural although I did notice that some of the highs did not appear as high during the vocals on DSOTM. However, the was no "digital" harshness to the reproduced sound from the HD A1, something I was hearing sometimes in the combo set up. Both did faithful reproductions of the source material but the HD A1 sounded more record like and my combo sounded more CD like, if that makes sense. Personally, I found there was more presence to the production from my current combo. I just got a better sense of "being in the room" when piano was playing or during soft lyrical bits, but when the full orchestration kicked in, I really like the way the HD A1 created a real sense of a band playing.

Whether the HD a1 performs better than my current combo is debatable but considering that both my CD player and my Amp were Yamaha's top of the line several years ago, I think that speaks volumes about the build quality of the HD A1 .

It is a very good CD player, upconverting DVD player and a wicked HD DVD player.

Not sure about the HD-D1 at Wal-mart

Hope that helps. I have been very happy with HD A1, so much so, that i stopped using my faster and more convenient panasonic 480p 5 disk player.

Regards,

Dave

 

[Thomas W]

The article you referenced is extolling the virtues of the Toshiba A1 and X-A1 compared to off the shelf CD players. It is not comparing the A1/X-A1 to the A2/X-A2, nor is it comparing digital vs. analog 5.1 audio connections.

I believe the A2/X-A2 players are built with the same quality of hardware and chassis as the A1/X-A1 models.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Have owned 2 gen 1 players and my current A2. Other factors aside, it was always a crapshoot with either of the gen 1 players as to whether they would actually load and play an HD DVD all the way through with no hiccups, even with the newest firmware. Both units eventually quit loading HD discs alltogether, but still did gorgeous upconversion on SD discs.

The HDA2 worked first time, every time, never a single glitch.

Both gen 1 players had analog 5.1 outs for Dolby TruHD, but their speaker management was lousy.