DVD-A Through a Toshiba SD4800, is it worth bothering with??

I have a Toshiba SD-4800 DVD player that is capable of playback of DVD-A audio. I have it hooked up to my preamp for the two channel playback of the audio portion of movie DVDs and was wondering if a unit of that level would provide reasonable stereo DVD-A playback. Anyone have experience with a unit like this for audio? I don't want to waste money on DVD-A discs just to be frustrated and disappointed because the playback unit wasn't good enough.

 

Are you one of the guys that believe something can´t be good if it wasn´t expensive?

Buy the titles that you are interested in, and listen to them! I´m sure you won´t be disappointed. Unless of course you expect to be.

You can be sure that any two pairs of speakers make a bigger difference than any two DVD-A players.

 

Pick up a cheap DVDA like Neil Young's Harvest and enjoy the Hi-Rez Stereo playback on your 2 speakers.

 

Future Shop is now advertising this unit and I am getting interested in hearing what my Rumours DVD-A has to offer.

This may sound like a dumb question, but can I simply hook something like the SD-4800 up to my stereo (no TV) and use it simply to play back CD and DVD-A? Or do I need a screen to see what I am doing?

 

If you're hooked up for regular playback you'll need the TV screen to access the menu so you can play back the stereo track. Unless I'm mistaken, when you put a DVD-A into your machine, it will automatically default to 5.1 if you don't work the menu. You certainly don't need a TV screen to play redbook stuff; in that instance, the player works like any other CD player.
While you may not get all the benefits of playback without the more elaborate system, you should get something decent enough with just
the setup you have.

ED

 

I also have that unit. I bought "Hotel California" to start and was so happy with the sound, I have about 10 DVD-A's now. However, I have heard that the DD or DTS tracks on the disks are just as good as the DVD-A, but this has been highly debated. I feel like there is a substantial difference between DVD-A and the digital tracks

 

There is, sometimes. The DD 5.1 will work fine if you don't have the hi-rez equipment. If you just have a stereo setup, that layer should work for you, too. As long as you don't go into a showroom and hear hi-rez in all its potential, you'll be fine. As for DTS, I still think it's the closest to DVD-A in terms of sound quality. I like HOTEL CALIFORNIA a lot; fine album anyway, and intelligently remixed.

ED

 

I was just wondering why there would not be something on the front panel of the unit that would tell you what you can select using the remote. With my Sony SACD player, the front panel indicates CD, SACD, 2 or 4 channel etc. Seems like a simple thing, no?

 

It's hooked up using a 35' run of component to my RPTV. For the audio output its connected to my pre-amp but I'm only using Cardas Twinlink for interconnects with this unit. I've got so much invested in SACD at this point I think that I'll stick to that for music as it gives me what I want in the way that I want it and leave DVDs for video as I had originally intended.
Thanks to those who provided some input.

 

That's a great healthy approach. Go for It. I'm to audiophoolishly warped and beyond redemption! Woa Is Me!

 

Very punny!

 

Go for the panny, why, 'cause it seems as if everybody else has a Toshiba thats why. Does it have to make sense???

 

Yes. It's fine.

Of course, if you have a HT receiver, you can use the DAC in that instead, for comparison, and use the Toshiba as a transport. I find my Yamaha's DAC boosts the signal, so it's hard to compare them directly.

One thing about the Tosh -- it's fussy about DVD-A authoring (thoguh I've never had a problem with a DVD-V). For example, mine simply won't acknowledge the existence of non-DVD-A tracks on the Harvest disc . Attempting to access them causes the player to lock up and sdisplay a 'green screen'.

Most DVD-As play in all modes just fine on it, though.

You can also disable the HDCD 'make it louder' effect (HDCD's spec makes encoded/HDCD decoded material play ~6 dB louder than it would without HDCD decoding, whic is *cheating*, psychoacoustically speaking), which is nice. I forget where it is in the menu --I think it's called 'CD attenuation' or somesuch. NB too that to get HDCD decoding, you have to use the analog outputs. Using the digital will bypass the HDCD decoder, from what Toshiba tells me.

 

Because SACD players were--until recently--audio-only units, they operated like any CD player, with a panel setup where you could pick everything. But DVD-A, unfortunately, is like DVD itself, meaning you have to visually cue up, down or back and forth to access what you want. But then it was intended to also have some visual elements like lyrics, photos, extra features, etc., SACD wasn't designed to have(though that may well change if the SACD/DVD player becomes more commonplace).

ED

 

I have several DVD players. 2 Panasonic (one first generation and one is a DVD recorder), 2 Sony SACD/DVD, and a Toshiba DVD player that I got for the HDCD decoding.

The Panasonics look the best while the Toshiba looks the worst. The Toshiba doesn't sound as good as the other and also skips video frames every minute or so. It'll just skip ahead a frame or two which is quite a noticeable jump. It's sitting in my closet and probably won't be used anymore.

 

None of them are DVD-A players and I can't comment on the sound quality since I have them going digitally into my receiver.

Those were all just comments about the video side.