Cambridge Audio DV99 review

sushanthace

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Hi All,


Finally after a week of confusion went ahead and got DV99 for 13000. Will give a complete review after the weekend .

Cheers
 
After 3 days of torturing my DV99 with loads of CDs and DVDs here come the initial impressions

1. The player looks solidly built and definitely looks like an expensive player. The black finish gives it a more upmarket looks(my opinion). The remote is easy to use and has a silver finish. but the buttons on the player needs some getting used to. My Earlier DVD player buttons were soft touch.not the case here.

2. Connected the DVDp to AVR by Optical and HDMI to Panasonic Pv8.

3. The OSD is great and easy to browse around. Has loads of options which i have never seen on a DVDp.. Looked more like an AVR settings:p

4. Colours, texture, stability and clarity are all excellent and black levels outstanding . The picture quality of any DVD i played was amazing. The player does a nice job in handling older generation movies too which didnt have much clarity. The upscale is top notch and there seemed to be less picture noise

5. This is the best thing about the DV99. The sound.One word"Amazing ".listened to some DVD songs and the voice was crisp and clear and each instrument was clearly heard. And when the popped in a CD and played in stereo mode.. It was just superb. Definitely better than my previous DVDp(I am not an expert audiophile.. but i am sure what i hear now is much better than earlier)


6. Popped in DVD of the Laya project and it was really clear on all the instruments used. For anyone looking for reference material please go ahead and get the Laya Project DVD. Definitely worth the 800 bucks. The live sounds are great and you can absolutely hear the ocean sounds and would feel like you are listening to the music in live. Anyways coming to the point... The player handled this brilliantly..



More reviews to come after i play around some more with the settings and also play an SACD or DVD audio CD.


Cheers
Sushanth

P.S- Writing a review for the first time so kindly excuse the immature ramblings :)
 
Simple and Precise - with a genuine write up. Thanks for sharing Sushanth.

I have an old Denon 1920, nice dvd player. After experiencing the Marantz DV7001, thought about an upgrade but dint convince myself from a value point of view since these days i prefer the NAS way to archiving movies.

Congratulations on your new purchase. Enjoy!
 
nice review sushanth.very good for initial impressions.congrats and enjoy the new toy:eek:hyeah:.as i have the same player will post my take as well once i do some serious listenin.must have been a great weekend;).cheers
 
Yeah was a great weekend at least for my ears .... i cant imagine i spent a whole 3 days in the HT room.. even sleeping there and watching movies late into the night..

I have a question regarding the LPCM settings- What should it be set to - 48/96/192??
 
aaahh,..sorry mate.like i posted prior,have got the player and its waiting for me at home as i work abroad.the setting up and serious listen will come only in a month or so when im down for my vacation.am sure senior members will be a better bet for help regardin the same.do keep me updated on settings and such tho.cheers
 
After 3 days of torturing my DV99 with loads of CDs and DVDs here come the initial impressions

1. The player looks solidly built and definitely looks like an expensive player. The black finish gives it a more upmarket looks(my opinion). The remote is easy to use and has a silver finish. but the buttons on the player needs some getting used to. My Earlier DVD player buttons were soft touch.not the case here.

2. Connected the DVDp to AVR by Optical and HDMI to Panasonic Pv8.

3. The OSD is great and easy to browse around. Has loads of options which i have never seen on a DVDp.. Looked more like an AVR settings:p

4. Colours, texture, stability and clarity are all excellent and black levels outstanding . The picture quality of any DVD i played was amazing. The player does a nice job in handling older generation movies too which didnt have much clarity. The upscale is top notch and there seemed to be less picture noise

5. This is the best thing about the DV99. The sound.One word"Amazing ".listened to some DVD songs and the voice was crisp and clear and each instrument was clearly heard. And when the popped in a CD and played in stereo mode.. It was just superb. Definitely better than my previous DVDp(I am not an expert audiophile.. but i am sure what i hear now is much better than earlier)


6. Popped in DVD of the Laya project and it was really clear on all the instruments used. For anyone looking for reference material please go ahead and get the Laya Project DVD. Definitely worth the 800 bucks. The live sounds are great and you can absolutely hear the ocean sounds and would feel like you are listening to the music in live. Anyways coming to the point... The player handled this brilliantly..



More reviews to come after i play around some more with the settings and also play an SACD or DVD audio CD.


Cheers
Sushanth

P.S- Writing a review for the first time so kindly excuse the immature ramblings :)

Hey man some pics of the player along with the review would be welcome. Can you stress more on the SQ of the player? What speakers are you using?

And congrats for the great buy.
 
Hey man some pics of the player along with the review would be welcome. Can you stress more on the SQ of the player? What speakers are you using?

And congrats for the great buy.

Yes i will post some pics soon.. Dont have a good camera with me now :(.... I am using Wharfedale diamond 8.3 speakers for the fronts...

As i mentioned earlier the SQ is definitely better than the conventional budget DVD players i have listened to ( not sure about other brands but i have used LG, SONY and Philips and i can safely say this is better than the former)
 
So nice work:clapping:

Now one more thing awaited-

USB option with-

1.MP3/WMA playback (pls compare WMA to CD playback)
2.VOB on pendrive
 
5. This is the best thing about the DV99. The sound.One word"Amazing ".listened to some DVD songs and the voice was crisp and clear and each instrument was clearly heard. And when the popped in a CD and played in stereo mode.. It was just superb. Definitely better than my previous DVDp(I am not an expert audiophile.. but i am sure what i hear now is much better than earlier)

I believe you listened to CD by connecting the player's digital output to the AVR. can you try the CD performance with the analgoue outs and let me know how it sounds?
i'm desparately trying to get rid of my current player and need a player in this budget. I'll be more interested to know the SACD performance via analogues.

LPCM rate is to be set based on your AVR capability. check your receiver's manual to see if it will support higher sampling frequency.
 
great,been lookin forward to this for a while!!am sure they will turn out to be very,very closely matched.enjoy!!cheers
 
fantastic sir, now all we need to fix up is the time for this. Can I assume you would be okay with us doing this shootout at your place (since you probably have the best amp+speaker setup among the lot of us)? If you are indeed okay with it, let us know what date and time would be convenient. And I will bring my sheffield labs disc (and some other junk) along. The others can get their own standard comparison material.

I am game. I MAY be able to get my hands on a 981 also. No guarantees, though.

Cheers
 
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