DVD Players good for movies or music ?

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hi all ,
for the last 10 years i was using a vcd player for watching movies and listening to music . i was fully satisfied by the result for both. but recently i purchased a DVD player . while watching movies on dvd it was o.k. but not great, but the real setback was listening to music on my new DVD player. when playing my audio CD's on my new DVD player i felt that life has suddenly gone out of my music system.

i have switched to my old faithfull vcd player for listening to my audio cd's. i invite all members of the forum to share there views on listening to audio cd's on a DVD player.

regards
sushil_pareek31:
 
A DVD player will never sound as good as a dedicated CD player but some are a reasonable compromise. Marantz, Cambridge Audio and Denon make DVD players that are quite capable performers with regard to CD audio - especially their universal players. The commonly found DVD players like Pioneer (not the 9xx series), LG, Samsung, Akai, Philips etc. are the worst offenders. They are best used as transports, i.e. a digital out fed to an AVR or DAC to do the actual decoding.
 
Using the coaxial/ optical output and decoding and amplifying from a better receiver is the best way. How good could be the 5.1 decoder or DAC in a DVD player which costs Rs 3000 or 4000?
 
Sound will be good to fair depending on a whole lot of factors. The source should be good, but even then 2 channel will not sound that great on a HT system. You will need music in DTS/5.1 for it to sound good on the HT.

BTW what speakers are you using connected to the DVD player? Is it a dedicated HT system or PC speakers? What about the AV Receiver?
 
Sushil,

I am using Philips DVP 642K DVD player for music. According to me, it sounds excellent. I have dedicated this player for music and bought a Samsung P480 DVD player for watching movies. On comparing these two players at flat tone controls, Philips sounds good than Samsung. In addition, Philips has preset equalizers to choose. I usually listen using Rock mode and enjoy to the fullest.

Probably, the audio circuitry in your VCD player is better than your DVD player. If you are happy with the VCD player, you can continue enjoying with that.



hi all ,
for the last 10 years i was using a vcd player for watching movies and listening to music . i was fully satisfied by the result for both. but recently i purchased a DVD player . while watching movies on dvd it was o.k. but not great, but the real setback was listening to music on my new DVD player. when playing my audio CD's on my new DVD player i felt that life has suddenly gone out of my music system.

i have switched to my old faithfull vcd player for listening to my audio cd's. i invite all members of the forum to share there views on listening to audio cd's on a DVD player.

regards
sushil_pareek31:
 
Last edited:
What I'm curious to understand is how significant would be the difference between a budget DVD Player (say < 5K, Philips, Samsung, PlayStation2?) and an entry level CD player (say 15K, CA, NAD, Marantz) in the following scenario :

# A 30-40K AV Receiver is used for amplification. So say we are talking of a Denon 1909/Onkyo 606/Marantz 4002.

# DVD Player is connected to the AVR through a digital coax or optical cable. Hence we are using the DAC on the AVR.

# CD Player is connected to the AVR using analog cables, thus using it's native DAC?

I understand the best way to gauge is to listen yourself, buttt ... it would be nice to know others' views.

Please try to provide your responses based on the indicative equipment mentioned above and not in general terms of 'CD-Players are better than DVD Players' etc.
 
shuvc said:
Please try to provide your responses based on the indicative equipment mentioned above and not in general terms of 'CD-Players are better than DVD Players' etc.

Shall try my level best, Oh Master !!! :):):):)

shuvc said:
# A 30-40K AV Receiver is used for amplification. So say we are talking of a Denon 1909/Onkyo 606/Marantz 4002.

I have heard the Denon 1909, the Onkyo 606 and the Yamaha equivalent 663. I think in all these what finally mattered were the speakers.

The Denon I heard with Polk monitors 40 and then the Polk Monitors 60. The Denon really opened up with the 60s, and sounded a little tight with the 40s. I have heard the Onkyo 606 with Wharfedalle 9.6s, and it was certainly quite musical though a little bright for Hindi film songs. But this is a problem I have faced even with system costing a few lakhs. In my mind the best combination of these three would have been the Yamaha 663 combined with Epos M12i. I listened a few tracks of Fleetwood Mac, and they sounded very nice to me. Now the price of the Epos is more than that of the AVR!!

Again in all three cases, only a DVD Player was used. I am sure if a CD Player were used, all these AVRs will give good performance for music.

shuvc said:
# DVD Player is connected to the AVR through a digital coax or optical cable. Hence we are using the DAC on the AVR.

On my system consisting of the Onkyo 875 and the Wharfedale 9.5s, I switched rapidly between the two connections. I use a VDH Optocoupler MKII for optical, and a Tara Labs Prism 300s for digital coaxial. For the same tracks, frankly I could not make out any difference. I have been saying this quite often, but for short lengths, there is no difference between the two connections as long as you use good quality cables. In my comparison there could have been a very very small bit improvement in the presence and low frequencies (drums were a bit tighter) with the optical cable, but I would say this was because of the superior quality of the VDH cable. But you needed to focus like hell, and play the same tracks some umpteen times to hear the difference. Maybe it was all imaginary and in my mind. For pratical purposes, given the same DVD Player, and AVR, using the AVR's DAC, and using good quality cables, you will not hear any difference between the optical and coaxial cables.

shuvc said:
# CD Player is connected to the AVR using analog cables, thus using it's native DAC?

This is very general question, and cannot be answered so easily. For example if you use a receiver such as a Denon 1909, it will have much better DAC than most entry level CD Players such as the CA 340C, 540C or NAD's 315BEE. But the minute you step into the level of a NAD 542 CD Player of the CA 640C, you are stepping into the realms of specialised DACs such as Burr-Brown Sigma-Delta 24 bit Digital to Analogue Converter. With circuitry focused for two channels, and the capacity for multiple reads, these CD players can eliminate jitter much better than any external device. The CA 640C, for example, uses two Wolfson WM8740 24-bit/192kHz DACs, one for each channel.

Cheers
 
Shall try my level best, Oh Master !!! :):):):)


you are stepping into the realms of specialised DACs such as Burr-Brown Sigma-Delta 24 bit Digital to Analogue Converter. With circuitry focused for two channels, and the capacity for multiple reads, these CD players can eliminate jitter much better than any external device. The CA 640C, for example, uses two Wolfson WM8740 24-bit/192kHz DACs, one for each channel.

Cheers

Hi, can you rate DACs- Cirrus,Burrbrown,Wolfson ?
 
Hi, can you rate DACs- Cirrus,Burrbrown,Wolfson ?

Spirovious, I have answered this many times before. Cirrus Logic, Burr Brown, and Wolfson all make excellent DACs. If you look at the specs of the chips by themselves (at the same bit rate and frequency), they will be very close to each other. In an laboratory environment where they are tested, these chips will deliver very close results.

Ultimately what matters is the way the chip has been integrated into the circuit by the company that make the CDPs, DVD Player, and amplifiers.

If you think just replacing a Cirrus with a Burr Brown will elevate a CDP or an amplifier to a different level, that is day dreaming. Even modders in the US may fool around with capacitors, transistors, fuses etc., but they don't fiddle with the basic circuitry.

Cheers
 
Spirovious, I have answered this many times before. Cirrus Logic, Burr Brown, and Wolfson all make excellent DACs. If you look at the specs of the chips by themselves (at the same bit rate and frequency), they will be very close to each other. In an laboratory environment where they are tested, these chips will deliver very close results.

Ultimately what matters is the way the chip has been integrated into the circuit by the company that make the CDPs, DVD Player, and amplifiers.

If you think just replacing a Cirrus with a Burr Brown will elevate a CDP or an amplifier to a different level, that is day dreaming. Even modders in the US may fool around with capacitors, transistors, fuses etc., but they don't fiddle with the basic circuitry.

Cheers

Thanks,

One more Q,can you compare CA DAC magic with Parasound 1100HD DAC?
Which is better?
 
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