Pioneer have released a player, who can play DVD-A and SACD. It costs about 1300 bucks here in Germany... that's the best way for all audiophile lovers. Why waste $$$ for a DVD-A or SACD, when you can get both in one! I will wait til one of the high end manufactures (dCS, Krell, Mark Levinson...) will offer such a combination... Sorry Steve, I don't like this japanese crap... not good enuff for my ears!
That's exactly what I'm waiting for, a good player from a reputable company that can play both formats -- plus redbook CD -- well. As soon as that's affordably available, I'll take the plunge. Not before.
There was a long discussion thread on the Pioneer here. I remember at least one posting there from a person that tested SACD and DVD-A performance of the Pioneer using Sony SCD-777ES as reference for SACD.
The original Pioneer "universal" player (the AX10) indeed does convert DSD to PCM. The new Pioneer SACD/DVD-A/DVD-V player (733, 747, Elite 47A, etc. in various markets) decodes DSD directly to analog. Ryan
At risk of having bricks thrown at me, has nayone here ever heard an Apex player? I don't assume that the sound sucks just because they sell them cheap. My orig. JVC cd player was cheaper than the Onkyo (when I bought the JVC), but the Onk did NOT generate a front-to-back soundstage.
Well I have gone through 4 7701's from APEX. The first snapped and cracked playing SACD's and DVD-A disks (all 4 samples displayed this "feature"). The second would not recognize audio CD disks. Their third would stop playing video DVD's and freeze up the unit, every time. The last would emit a loud buzz, loud enough to wake the dead, playing DVD-A disks. All froze from time to time on SACD and DVD-A disks. All failed to recognize several DVD-A titles. Reports are that APEX is trying to reinvent the unit with major changes, but is not giving out any credible information and is very poor at providing any customer support.
APEX Yes, Richard is right, there have a been a TON of problems with the APEX 7701. Apparantly, most of the shipment that J&R Music world got was defective. They wont give you a hassle if you need to return a unit tho, they are pretty good about that. too bad, tho....for 300 bucks, that APEX player could have been the biggest bargain in audio/video...if only it worked!!
The new Pioneer SACD/DVDA player will play SACD with a direct digital stream so it should be on everyones short list. Still awaiting its arrival in the NY area. Stay away from APEX players though. No where near the quality of Pioneer or Panasonic. Best DVDA player out there right now is the Panasonic RP91. It does everything but SACD, hence the interest in the new Pioneer. JohnG
