Denon were very good with their disc players, I started off with a DVD-2500 and quite quickly upgraded to a DVD-5000.
When I could no longer get replacement lasers for the 5000, I bought a DVD-3930 which would play SACD and DVD-A but I never bought any discs.
A Cambridge Audio 752 BD Bluray Player replaced the 3930 in my Main System and that would also play SACD and DVD-A but I then got into the Pure Audio Bluray Discs for Hi-Res when they came out in 2013 and have continued to buy them ever since, I have about 90 now and any Bluray Player will play them, rather than just Hi-End Players for SACD and DVD-A.
Shame Denon left the Bluray Player market, I was always very impressed with Denon Players as I am with their AV Amps, which Im now on my third since the mid 90s.
Now running the Panasonic UB9000 in my Main System and the CA 752 BD in my Second System.
Hi Mark. How is the X800 just as a CD player/transport. Is the transport portion good enough to equal a good CD player if you use something like an NDS is a DAC? Do you know if it has a buffer for pre-reading the disc, correcting, and then playing it?
I was going to purchase the audio Lab cdt9000 at some point, but playing SACDs would be a nice option.
Thank you for any info you have on this.
Dave
Never heard an NDS, unfortunately, nor tried running my Sony into another DAC.
I run two separate systems: my Naim is for 2.0 redbook CD listening, my 5.1 system is Sony/Denon. Apart from the FL and FR speakers, thereās no physical overlap and Iāve never tried a straight A/B comparison with, say, a CD simply because, well, just never bothered! What I can say is that, both for music and movies, the 5.1 (including the Sony BDP) is excellent and enjoyable, just as the Naim is for 2.0. When a mate, who runs his own Naim 2.0 system, heard Money for Nothing on SACD through my 5.1, he was amazed when I told him the Naim system wasnāt being used.
All of that said, Iād be amazed - almost horrified - if a Ā£200 Sony could match the performance of a Naim player that was ten times the price.
Mark
Yes, agreed. I was just curious as to running the Sony, purely as a good quality transport, thru a similarly priced Dac to the Dac in a Naim CDP. A good transport makes a big difference to the sound of course, and I thought, possibly, the X800 was a good quality transport. The chassis has been designed for anti-vibration.
Absolutely - it was (is) a very good question, just not one I can give you many insights into, Iām afraid!
I probably ought to try A/B-ing a redbook CD in 2.0 on both players through various means - I can use the DAC in the older Denon amp and compare it to the younger DAC in the Sony and then against the much older (but, one would hope, better) CDX2. Since neither system leaves me feeling underwhelmed or disappointed - quite the opposite - I suppose Iāve just never felt the desire to fiddle around with it.
Mark
Ive run a Denon DVD-3930 DVD player and a Cambridge Audio Azur 752 BD BluRay Player in CD transport mode and compared them both against a Roksan Caspian M2 CD dedicated CD player in transport mode into initally a NAD C658 Streamer/DAC and later a Lumin P1 Streamer/DAC and the dedicated CD transport was better playing CDās than either the DVD or BluRay players.
If you want the best sound quality from your CDās best to get a dedicated CD transport, there are loads available at many different price points/performance levels to suit your budget/sound quality preference.
To improve my CD sound quality, 6 months ago I upgraded from the Roksan Caspian M2 CD to a Moon 260DT dedicated CD transport and got a good sound quality improvement using the new transport plus its AES/EBU digital output where-as before I was using a coaxial digital output from the Roksan into my Lumin P1 Streamer/DAC.
Yes I guess thatās best. Iāll probably eventually get an Audiolab 9000 CDT if it goes on sale. Iām assuming it could be easily repaired if it broke down.
I have a CDX2.2 i.e digital out put only and it is what I would buy
Certainly BluRay comfortably outperforms my streaming from Sky both in picture and sound
I am lucky in that I bought a good quality Pioneer BluRay machine when they were still available , I think itās only Panasonic that make a higher end product .
Reavon do high end BR players. As do McIntosh.
Dune Part 2 arrived today. I donāt use a player anymore but only because I borrowed aome high end units from my dealer but streaming local 4K to my nVidia shield was better. Itās the only video streaming box that is though. I have some other 4K streaming boxes in other rooms but theyāre nothing to write home about.
The Technics tuned and badged Panasonic player piqued my interest but local streaming was poor.
Anyway, Iāll get the kids tucked in and then fire up Dune pt2.
Iām not sure about Reasonās distribution in the UK , one large chain did offer them but seemingly no longer - and I wasnāt aware that McIntosh did one
Enjoy Dune pt2 , I must admit to wishing that had done it as a trilogy
Well apparently Dune Messiah is in pre pro. That was the shortest (by far) of all the Frank Herbert books and also the best in my opinion. It was the one he churned out when his wife passed away and is significantly darker, more existential and the first book you realise Duncan Idaho is the main character of the series, not Paul. But itās also the one where Paul makes his exit so would be a natural stopping point for a trilogy that ends there.
Maybe it will include the Spacing Guild ā¦ and it will indeed be a trilogy
Or finally the missing lines, āThe sleeper must awaken,ā and, āI see plans within plans.ā Of mention of the Butlerian Jihad (especially since we might be headed for one).
I have a Sony UPB X800M2 4K player modded to be multi-region. I find this excellent and it works well, not surprisingly, with our Sony 4K TV. Not sure if I would notice any improvements going for a more costly player.
I think whether one relies on streaming or discs is partly down to oneās viewing habits. I like a lot of old movies and TV stuff. Most of this isnāt available to stream, even if I wanted to. So it has to be DVD or Blu ray.
If one only usually watches a film or TV series once then buying these on disc is a very costly way of watching and youāll end up with a pile of discs that youāll never watch again. So a bit of a waste.
With modern TV stuff and films I rarely want to watch it more than once. So itās streaming via our Apple TV box. Occaisonally if we see something that we think is really excellent that we will want to watch again some time then weāll buy it on Blu ray. All I can think of is the three seasons of āCobraā and āQuizā - a one off drama about the TV game show āWho Wantās to be a Millionaireā hosted by Chris Tarrant where someone was convicted of cheating to win. Iāve watched these several times already and still find them entertaining. Most modern stuff though is of no interest to me after one viewing.
With vintage films and TV itās different I have a good collection that I watch over and over. For example I love 1970ās US made for TV movies like āDonāt Be Afraid of the Darkā or āDuelā. Great fun and nothing at all like them on TV now.
From the thread title I was expecting this thread to be a revival of analog video disks, maybe modern technology improving on RCAās early 1960s CED player!
LaserDisc is analogue video, FM stereo audio. Only digital audio was added later but even then an FM mono track remained.
I had about 60 LDs. Great format. Back then, getting an LD out made movie night quite an event.