Pioneer Elite DV-47A : First Impressions (1 Viewer)

[Geo]

Going on my third day with the DV-47A. I have the unit connected to the Denon 4802 via coaxial digital input, it's 5.1 outputs through the Outlaw ICBM into the 4802s multichannel inputs and the 47A's 2 channel output into one of the 4802s analog inputs. I'm comparing the 47A performance against the Sony XA777ES SACD player and Panasonic 91RP DVD player.
Yes it is a light weight. However it does come with a surprisingly heavy duty removeable power cord. Build quality, looks, remote and onscreen setup menus are pretty much what one would expect from a mid-level Elite unit, that is very good but not spectacular.
The big attraction of this unit for me is being able to run multichannel SACD and DVD Audio through the excellent Outlaw ICBM and into the single analog multichannel input of my 4802.
I've listened to 2/multi channel SACD, multichannel DVD Audio, DVDs, DTS and good old redbook CDs through the 47A.
So far the only areas that the 47A comes up short is when 2 channel SACD or redbook CDs are directly compared to my XA777ES SACD player, no suprises there. The XA777ES is just the best. Otherwise it's performance with DVD Audio, DVDs and multichannel SACD is remarkable even compared to the heavy hitters it's up against.
Of course I've only had the unit a short time so my impressions are subject to change. But so far the 47A is,
Definitely a KEEPER..............
geo

 

[KeithH]

Geo, thanks for the info. You are comparing the '47A to some nice equipment there. Will you keep the 'RP91? Have you compared the picture quality of the '47A and 'RP91? It's been said that the '47A shows the chroma bug. Have you noticed this?

 

[Geo]

Keith,

No chroma bug here, yet..............

I'll keep my 91RP at least until I've lived with the 47A a while longer.

geo

 

[KeithH]

Geo, thanks for the info.

 

[Stan T]

Geo I have a question about stereo SACDS. I have the 47A also. I only have the 5.1 channel analog outputs connected to m receiver. Do I have to also have the 2 channel analog outputs connected to my receiver for the stereo SACDs or just the 5.1 analog outputs for stereo & multi-channel. Thanks for your reply.

 

[Geo]

Stan, I hooked up both the 2 channel and 5.1 channel ouptuts only because I wanted to compare the two outputs on 2 channel sources. If there is a difference I can't hear it. So unless I'm mistaken or hearing-impaired, I'd say either output is good to go for 2/ch SACD or CD.

If Rachael is out there I have some bad news for the Boz Scaggs - Dig disc............ For some reason the disc will play but there's no audio at all. This disc is pi**ing me off.

geo

 

[KeithH]

Geo, I assume the '47A has bass management for SACD. Is that correct? If so, can bass management be applied to both stereo and multi-channel SACD playback as with the Sony multi-channel players? I ask because I am pretty sure one has to use the 5.1-channel outputs on the Sony players to apply bass management to stereo SACDs.

 

[Geo]

Keith,

No, the 47A does not do bass management for DVD Audio or SACD, that is as far as I can tell so far. Regardless of how you set the 5.1 speakers sizes within the 47A setup menus, when a DVD Audio/SACD disc is played all speakers reset set to large and then return to their settings for a DVD/DTS disc.

Hence my use of the Outlaw ICBM...........

geo

 

[Phil A]

Stan, I lent mine out for a few days but I connected both the 5.1 and 2 channel outputs for the purpose of going analog direct on the 2 channel input. I have a Rel sub that has a crossover set at the speaker level inputs.

 

[KeithH]

Geo, thanks for the info. I am disappointed by the fact that the '47A has no bass management whatsoever. I was hoping you were using the ICBM just to dial in the crossovers.

 

[Don Wheeler]

I have the 47A and a 555ES and want to try multi channel is the Outlaw a way of doing this since my pre-pro does not have extra 5.1 inputs I know the Sony TA-P9000ES will

give me the inputs but I am waiting for an upgrade to be available that will give me the inputs on my pre-pro

 

[Rachael B]

Geo, say it ain't so! DIG won't play! Did it play in your RP91? I was thinking about trading the RP91 for the 47A down the line maybe? John Kotches said he hadn't had any trouble paying DIG in any of the players he's tried. It played just fine in the JVC 723 I used to have.

Stan, if you don't have a bass manager like the Outlaw unit, you'll proably get more bass on stereo SACD's by hooking up the stereo outputs too for that purpose. That's how it's worked for me with the 555. I'm going to get the Outlaw unit in the next month or two, when I recover from the 555 purchase.

 

[Geo]

Rachael,

I couldn't get DIG to play on the 91RP either. As a matter of fact it would lock up my 91RP. The 47A doesn't lock up, it acts like it's playing it, track, time and everything, but no audio is produced. Very weird............

But it will play on my Pioneer Elite DV-07 via digital output as Dolby Digital. I don't know what's going on with this disc??????????!!!!!!!!!!!

geo

 

[Mavrick]

Geo,I also own the 47a, and having identical problems with the DIG disc ,everything lights up but no sound.I did find however that if I skip forward through all the tracks ,it

takes you to group 2 and then begins playing DD.I previously had the Toshiba 4700 and it had problems playing

Billy Cobham and Metallica but the 47a plays these discs just fine,its funny how some payers have problems with certain discs and other players dont and vicey versy.So far

I really like the 47a other than the DIG disc,am just now starting to get into SACD .

Alice in chains...Roger Waters....David Johansen

 

[rodneyH]

so is this unit generally said to sound as good as the 555es and the 91 in their respective formats?

 

[rodneyH]

Has this player gotten a lot of publicity, it seems that the public has been frustrated since every player that has claimed to be a multi-format player either lack the MULTI-channel part of the SACD, or is NOT progressive scan. I don't know why, but I haven't heard much about this player??

 

[Kevin T]

i was watching fresh gear on techtv and they had a dvd-a / sacd shootout so to speak. they used the apex universal, what appeared to be a pioneer dv-38 (or whatever model number their elite dvd-a player is) and the dv-47a. oddly enough, they quoted the dv-47a as having an msrp of $3000 (pretty far off from it's real msrp of $1200)!! they "decided" that dvd-a would have more mass appeal due to the inclusion of video and sacd is geared more toward the audiophile but they also noted that right now they are both just a niche format.

kevin t

 

[Mavrick]

Rodney the 47a has only been out a couple of weeks

progressive scan...yes

multichannel sacd...yes

dvd audio mc...yes

As far as comparing it to the 555es and the 91 I cant say

having never heard these players, I dont know if I could

hear the difference any way,since I work in steel manufacturing and my hearing isn't as good as it used to be

But I certanily can hear the difference from SACD DVD-A and

CD and I am hooked........

Also Geo I wanted to say in my previous post that the

Toshiba 4700 played my DIG disc just fine...go figure.

 

[Micahel C]

I've had my DV-47 for just over a week and I have yet to find anything that won't play in it, although I have a large number that I haven't tried yet. Upon reading this thread, I pulled out my copy of Dig and popped it into the player and it spun right up and played without any problem whatsoever. There are a couple of things that are a bit different on this vs other DVD-A's. The TOC read is a bit slower at around 10 seconds vs 5-6 seconds on the rest of the DVD-A's I've played. There is no menu on this disc, so after the TOC read finished, the disc automatically started playing. The only other disc that I've played that launched atomatically has been the Fleetwood Mac: Rumours disc. I played the entire disc, then popped in the stereo version disc, played it through and then went back to the DVD-A and played it completely through a second time, all without problems. I don't know if it makes a difference or not, but there are two different versions of this set available. I have the deluxe clothbacked book version. I realize that the DVD-A should be the same in both sets but I'm curious as to what version you're using.

 

[Stan T]

I've had my DV-47A for about a week now. I have a question about SACD. I'm new to SACD & just purchased Carole King's multichannel SACD "Tapestry". It sounds like air coming from the speakers. I'm thinking that since this is an older album it might be the tape hiss of the original analog recording. The other SACD discs that I bought were stereo & older albums also. It seems like all of these have the same sound as the Carol King album. They sound great don't get me wrong. I was just wondering if the air sound that I was hearing was the tape hiss on the original recording.

It's strange that on Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" DVD-audio album I don't hear the "airy" sound and that's a pretty old album also.

Anyone have any ideas on this. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't my new player. Like I said I'm new to SACD so I don't have any experience with it like I do with DVD-audio. I've had a DVD-audio player for about a year now & haven't heard any tape hiss or air sounds on my DVD-audio discs & some of them are older albums like the Fleetwood Mac album.

Thanks for your replies.