Price Paid:  $0.00 from ebay

Summary:
This is a follow up review. I have now used this player for almost a year now and it sounds fantastic.I would also like to address one of the reviews that said this player does not have good CD sound.The opposite could not be more true.
In fact in the November 2000 issue of Sound and Vision magazine they stated that
the DVD A10's CD measurements were some of the best ever measured! I have a new
Audio Research amp coming-D300 and it will be interesting to see how the sound changes. But this player sounds very lifelike, very detailed, and not overly bright or trebly. I have not had one problem with this unit! I have aquired 2 pioneer DVD\CD players since I bought this unit and the DVD A10 still sounds better.And this player has a hidden volume control, so you can plug an amplifier straight into the player.Click the display button twice and toggle the joystick left and the volume menu will come on the player.

Strengths:
Sound,build quality,very reliable.

Weaknesses:
Does not read burned CD's,CD startup is slow.

Similar Products Used:
Various Sony,Denon, and Pioneer models.

Price Paid:  $0.00 from Ebay.

Summary:
I am using this as a CD player only and
I must say it sounds terrific.I am using
analog outs.It sounds very detailed and
presents the music in accurate form.I
immediately noticed pieces of the music
that I had never heard before.The sound
is not overly bright.And the bass is very
good.It is an excellant piece of equipment.I am using the DVD-A10 with
an Audio Research SP6-b pre-amp,Audio Research D52b power amp,and Canton Ergo 32
speakers with a mirage subwoofer.

Strengths:
Excellant detailed sound,build quality is
also excellant.Fit and finish are first rate.Outstanding 2 channel DVD audio sound.Good remote.

Weaknesses:
Tracking is a little slow.That's all!

Similar Products Used:
Various low end Sony DVD players.Old
denon CD players.

Price Paid:  $550.00 from Turkey

Summary:
It has been 2 years when I first bought this unit. This can be considered as the best DVD-A/V player at that price (not available any more! What about making protest emails to make Panasonic manufacture limited edition for that unit?). The first DVD-A player invented by Technics and sold around cheaply to make the format more popular. I think the price is a “lose money make the format popular” philosophy of Technics. How many CD players could you found weighting 8.5kg at this price? It is built to last! Built like a truck. Never skips due to extreme bass resonance of the room. It plays, plays and plays silently. Excellent built quality even some may call it a bit old fashioned. Hey just listen the sound when you load/unload CD’s man! This is not a plasticky piece of junk, this is a real precious metal, bullet proof CD/DVD player. This can be considered as a high-end built quality equipment. Never skipped any DVD for 2 years. Never made me disappointed with DVD’s.

Strengths:
PROS:
-Excellent DVD picture quality (especially with LCD projector since projectors have internal de-interlacers to remove the interlaced signal problems. You don’t need a PROGRESSIVE SCAN DVD player any more if you have a good LCD projector.)
-Very good CD sound quality especially when RE-MASTER is turned-ON.
-Lots of connections and internal DTS-DOLBY DIGITAL decoder.
-Very heavy build and very high quality construction. Very silent operation. Resonance proof construction (well look at the bottom and feets; this is not a pricy high-end player but it looks almost!)
-Good quality, fine looking remote unit, shining in the darkness (without light energy requirement). No zoom but joystic is very very good like playstation analog ones.
-By audio only, turn off DISPLAY features, you just see smaaaal triangular PLAY light in the dark and sound quality is impoved
-It was very cheap!

Weaknesses:
CONS:
-Doesn’t like most of the CD-R (in fact plays some of the bootleg CD’s but… not a machine to spin pirates man! This is a classy machine for the man using original CD’s!). Forget CD-RW’s.
-Doesn’t like COPY CONTROLLED CD’s at all. You hear hushes, pops, noises and turn of the unit. I think BMG and others are making CD’s causing troubles to anyone around. Future will be worse since lots of COPY CONTROLLED CD’s are getting around.
-No MP3, No MULTIREGION compatibility. Well this is not a cheap universal player. This is for a Hi-Fi purist at an affordable price who already buy original CD/DVD’s from his country.
-8.5kg (heavy if you wanna keep your back).
-Nothing more!!!! :))))

Similar Products Used:
Some other SONY, TECHNICS CD players but this is the first DVD player I own (I hope it will be the last one). I have seen many DVD players showing MPEG artifacts but this one doesn't show any MPEG artifacts on the screen at all!

Price Paid:  $350.00 from J&R

Summary:
I purchased one of these units to get into DVD- Audio just as the prices on the A10 sarted to fall. in over two years of using it as a DVD player it has never disappointed me. It is a bulletproof unit. As a netflix member since 2000 I have never had a disc it could not play.

I must respond to the reviews about its CD playback. Compared to my NAD 512 used as a transport and a PS Audio DAC, the Technics is dull and lifeless, remaster or no. I gave up trying to listen to CDs on this unit in a few days.

When listening in DVD-A you will immediately notice the difference in formats. I love to show off the difference between CD/DVD-A using the Buena Vista Social Club which I own in both formats. There is so much depth to the DVD sound its scary. It almost makes you angry at the purveors of "perfect sound forever" 20 years ago. If only recordings were more widely available in DVD-A.

Other than its less-than impressive CD playback (my wife also agrees the dedicated CD setup is much better) I notice that when I play I a DTS disc through the decoder I get terrible distortion through the center channel on loud passages or in action sequences. Since my receiver does not have a DTS decoder I am limited to Dolby Digital.

As I am moving to Japan in a year I will probably sell my unit or relegate it to bedroom duty and replace it with a Pioneer DV-656A because of its abilty to be hacked to play all-region discs.

Not saying that I have been disappoined in this unit. DVD playback is excellent and it has never hiccuped. If you can still find one, jump on it.

Strengths:
Rock solid, last forevever build quality.
Have yet to find a DVD that will give it problems

Weaknesses:
CD playback only so-so
Won't play CD-R's
DTS decoder wigs out on action films

Price Paid:  $169.00 from hhgregg

Summary:
What can I say,its been a year and it still works great.I have two other dvd players,more expensive,and for music/dvd a,I usually use the technics.It really is better than even I thought.No cd-r could be a killer for some but I have about 700 redbook cd's so its not an issue.DVD-A is almost as good as the new 1k players.Naturally this player is no longer worth 1k,but at 2 or 3 hundred its better than a cheapo,less, its a steal.

Strengths:
20lb's of good quality components,2 power supplies,great build,it was truly state of the art.reliable.

Weaknesses:
no cd-r,if thats important,no longer "state of the art"

Similar Products Used:
yamaha s2300,denon 3800,onkyo800