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Review 4 of 10
Price Paid:
$690.00
from Rome Summary:
I finally decided for this after having tried at home the Sony DVP-NS900 and the Pioneer 646a.
Initially I wanted the Sony 900 for compatibility with the TV set and for its attractive "QS" quality - however, although the image quality was rather good, I was annoyed with the difficult menu navigation and the assuming and increasingly intrusive "Sony style" (messages that instead of helping just tell you things like "you are too stupid to do this", very nice icons but very small and difficult to choose with the very "stilish" remote, etc.). On top of all, I was disappointed by the rather poor CD quality (especially on low frequencies), and found SACD playing not that exceptional (the two sample SACD inside the box are very low quality, and the one I bought with the player was... empty! no CD inside a sealed box! possibly they are not that diffused yet...). I also had a suspect: maybe Sony doesn't want to sell very good CD player now that they want to promote the new SACD format, which is so well protected against copiers in the interest of big majors such as Sony itself...
To make it short, I returned it in exchange for a Pioneer 646a, which featured the more open DVD Audio and even MP3 playing. CD playing was actually sensibly better than the Sony, but video quality was disappointing. Maybe it was also due to a problem of that specific machine (which on a Disney DVD showed a trembling in the image), however it was the last of the stock at the shop and therefore I finally opted for the older and more reliable 737.
I know it is probably going to be replaced (by the 747? at such a lighter weight? hmmm...), though the Pioneer representative swore these two models were going to co-exist for some time. Nevertheless I can ensure that all the good things which have been said on it are true. The image perfection is simply astounding, colours are solid and real, motion fluid, the only remark is that there are too many controls for the noise that it would take half a movie to try out all the possibilities. Some kind of artificial intelligence to match the settings to the movie needs would be warmly welcome (does any player have it?) - but all in all you don't need to change these controls at all for the majority of good DVDs.
Audio quality is very good too: it's not a Rega Jupiter CD player (which costs alone more than the double of the 737), but it gives a very honest and good performance, with robust low frequencies and high level of details, sometimes just a bit "harsh" on trebles.
The only thing which could have been improved is the remote, adding at least some basic multibrand TV/VCR functions. However I recognise it is already complex enough as it is, and I start to realize that the only way to make it through the mess of an AV set today is a programmable LCD remote.
Strengths:
perfect image quality, solid build, very good audio performance, plenty of video settings Weaknesses:
limited memory for custom DVD preferences Similar Products Used:
Sony DVP-NS900, Pioneer DV-646a
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