DVD / CD Player (1 Viewer)

[Kenny Li]

Hi,

I'm new to HT and am setting up my system. Right now, I'm looking at:

Denon AVR 3803
KEF Q9C

I'm looking for a DVD Player and a CD Player. Should I get both a DVD Player and then a CD Player or will a DVD/CD Player work? How are the Denons? DVD 3800 or DVD 2900? Any suggestions on models or what I should look for?

Thanks,
Kenny

 

[Don_Berg]

All DVD players play CDs, so you don't need a separate CD player. The Denons are excellent - good choice.

 

[Kenny Li]

Thanks! Just one more question. Is there any benefit to get a DVD player to specifically play DVDs and another CD player to specifically play CDs? Or is it better to pool my money together to get a good DVD player to play both?

 

[Don_Berg]

No reason I can think of - just use a good DVD player for both. With the DVD player you could make a CDR that holds 100+ MP3 files too - put on all your favorite music tracks from your CDs.

 

[Victor Chan]

Honestly it depends how much emphasis you put on music playback. Any DVD player, especially some of the better ones like the Denons, Toshibas, and Philips players will play CDs pretty well. However, just due to costs involved and the added complexity of two transports instead of one, a DVD player will be outperformed by a CD player that is considerably cheaper.

I've been looking around and demoing CD players recently and I've been looking quite seriously at the Arcam CD73. Very good player that is about $650 street. Blows away any DVD player anywhere near its price range. The DVD player that is comparable in CD playback quality in the Arcam line is the DV-89. Cost? $1900.

I think this is more or less true with any CD to DVD player comparison. If you want top notch CD play, you either need a dedicated CD player or a very high end DVD player. If you are happy with the CD play of your DVD player, then leave it alone. Whyspend time worrying if you are extracting the last iota of musicality from your CDs when you could be spending that same time listening to your CD collection or watching some great movies on your system?