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Review 3 of 3
Price Paid:
$68.00
from ebay Summary:
I bought this on ebay because it was advertised to have a broken video stage but a perfectly good audio stage. Took a risk: I was planning on using it as a 5 cd transport - it plays sacds, and I'm a big sacd guy so I thought I'd sell my sony 5 disc sacd player if this one played sacds as well as my philips 963sa, which is fantastic Well, I get the thing out, hook it up - video too, just for fun - and everything works. All the settings were for a projection set, so someone just didn't know how to work the menu. But I bought this for audio: I'm interested in the upsampling and the sacd playback. Though it definitely leans towards the 'sweeter' side of things in its presentation of the high frequencies, this player is shockingly good. I'm conservative big-time with the one-liners, but this is giant killer stuff, no question. Now, I didn't pay the full retail; maybe that's why I get this impression. But I don't think so. I've seen it online brand new in the big shops for 129.99 (J&R) and I'd pay the 299 retail for this thing, no sweat. I mean, on redbook, it throws a wonderful stage, very wide and tall, has beautiful frequency range, great midrange, and the analogue outs put a better signal in my preamp than the eitheir digital out hooked to the preamp's internal dac, hands down. Good bass extentsion too. And the video job it does is quite good, though not as good as the 963sa, if you're wondering. However, if I'm reading Moby Dick and want to listen to 2-channel redbook, there's no way I'd want to single disk-it in the 963sa. I'm not going to be "missing out". I'd load five into the 795sa and enjoy. Really, I've always laughed at philips gear, but I'm working full time now, on my own and wanting the best for the least, right, and this player has totally stunned me.
Negatives are itty, and all on the video side, though if you want a good dvd player that will let you load up all five disks of your extended LOTRs extended set, this would be my sweet pick. One audio neg: the bass management is not as good as the 963sa, no question. You have to choose between a sub or large fronts, you can't have both, and there's no bass management in two channel. That's cool for those of you with big-gunner avrs, like what I've got, but if you're running some 60hz bookshelves on stands, they may rattle if you've a preamp without bass management. Strengths:
Seriously, a sweet machine, excellent redbook, excellent sacd playback, great video. Giant-killer price. Very comparable to the 963sa's performance, so check reviews on that player. Kills scd ce775's redbook. I think it's much better in sacd as well. Weaknesses:
bass management, but it's not such a big deal. Similar Products Used:
sony scd ce775
philips dvd963sa
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