Great features that puts it above the competition.
Written: Feb 08 '05
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Pros: Great features, smooth sound.
Cons: Reliability may not be the best.
The Bottom Line: You'll love it once you set it up properly. Make sure you get the extended warranty if available.
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| wyomr2's Full Review: Pioneer DV-45A DVD Player |
The Pioneer Elite DV-45a is really quite a remarkable machine. It not only plays video DVD’s, but also SACD’s in stereo and multi-channel, as well as DVD-Audio discs, as well as regular CD’s. Now there are numerous less expensive players that do the same thing, but Pioneer is the only player I found that has bass management and adjustable distance for speaker in all modes. Most other players lack bass management and adjustable distance on SACD and DVD-Audio. This is very important if you utilize small speakers all around, and use you subwoofer for bass, as is common in most home theatre setups. Without bass management, all frequencies, including bass will be directed to the all speakers, which may not be equipped to handle it. As far as distance adjustments for the speakers goes, unless every speaker is the same distance from the listening position, sound from the closest speakers will arrive before the sound from the farthest. This could make for some interesting sound, but it really isn’t pleasant.
As far as video goes, the Pioneer is pretty good. It’s not quite as smooth and detailed as the Denon DVD-2200, but is not noticeable unless comparing them side-to-side. One area where the Denon is significantly better is during layer changes. The Denon has a buffer built in, which makes the momentary pause between layers almost non-existent. The Pioneer still suffers the pause between layers. Also the Denon seems to built better. The Pioneer seems to have a bit too much plastic in it. This is especially noticeable when you compare the weight of them.
One feature that is really appreciated is the memory feature of the Pioneer. If you have to stop in the middle of a movie, and shut the system off or remove the disc, the Pioneer remembers where you were and picks up from that point. It also keeps the location for several dvds at a time, so even if you played several other discs before returning to your movie, the DV-45a will still pick up where you left off. Once you have used this feature, you’ll wonder why other companies don’t do the same thing with their players.
A very important thing for me is the sound. I purchased it more for SACD and DVD-Audio than for video. The Pioneer really shines with its high quality Burr-Brown digital to analog converters on all channels. Again, the Denon also has the same brand of D/A converters, it doesn’t have the distance adjustment or bass management. While the Denon sounds a little smoother, the lack of bass management and distance adjustment convinced me to purchase the Pioneer.
This is my second Pioneer DV-45a. Why am I on my second one you ask? Well the first one suffered from chip failure, where the center channel would not operate on SACD multi-channel, but worked fine on DVD-Audio, Dolby Digital and DTS. The technician who looked into it said only the SACD chip was at fault, but only in multi-channel mode. In stereo SACD mode, it still works fine. The price to replace the chip was going to cost about $250, or about $100 less than buying a new one. I figured the 2 year warranty was worth the extra money.
Please note that if you are on a budget, you can pick up a Pioneer DV-578as for about $130, which has almost all the features of the DV-45a, but lacks the higher quality D/A converters, on both audio and video. It’s even built on the same chassis. It has a much shorter warranty, but does have the speaker distance adjustment and bass management. If you have less than “audiophile” quality components you probably won’t notice the slight difference is sound and video that the DV-45a has over DV-578as.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 335.00
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Epinions.com ID:
wyomr2
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Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 0 members
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