blu ray player that sings with cd

[john1000000boy]

Hi everyone just bought my new home cinema amp and speakers to replace my outdated system.

Bought the rx6av12(black gloss- nightmare for the dust!!, but awesome!!)

Pioneer sc lx 82 amp

My denon dvd 1920 has died- The power light does not even come on!!

Anyway just means i will have to go to a new player Want something that will sing with cds and give me a great cinema experience also(like everyone i guess) Love the pioneer players that are outgoing anyone got any views on their sonic abilities?? Do the outgoing models have the quartz link in them for the jitter free playback?? Could add a dac if that helps Roughly £400-£600 to spend, but would be good if last years model for the deals!!

Also my pioneer pdp 4280xd has hdmi control is this the same as the kuro link on my amp??

Would seriously consider a dac as my macbook is being used like a jukebox with the front row remote. Such a cool interface!! Macbook hooked up via optical and hdmi to amp. Is this the best audio or should i switch to a headphone/phono lead for better sound??

Lots of Qs please give lots of As!!!

Must post some pics on the your system forums!!

Thanks

J

 

[bigboss]

Check these out. All of them have been rated to play CDs well:

1) Cambridge Audio Azur 650BD

2) The new Denons

3) Arcam FMJ-BDP100

 

[john1000000boy]

Look great however any ideas about the pioneer range?? Not really sure i can stretch to the

£1000 Arcam!! Historically they have been good movie/music machines.

 

[Anonymous]

id get a sony bdp-s370 , only £100 ..

and a stereo integrated amplifier , perhaps a marantz pm 6003 / 7003..

and a dedicated cd player , maybe a marantz cd 6003 ..

it will cost a little bit more , but stereo music will sound much better , connect the front rx6s to the stereo amp , and the amp to the pioneers pre-outs ..

 

[dave_k]

I'd go for the CA650BD, or the Sony S370 and DAC. Both options less than £400, leaves change to buy beer and blu rays!

 

[john1000000boy]

So the consensus is to go with a dedicated cd player and amp through the pre outs on the av receiver. This will get me a great stereo performer but will it not be a trade off in terms of cinema performance going for a budget blu ray deck??

Anyone got any suggestions about the hooking up of the macbook?? If i went for a better blu ray a dac may help the stereo performance using the blu ray player for cds with the dac and then i can play my macbook through the dac also?? Will i get any enefit in performance running the blu ray through a dac??

 

[Dave_]

john1000000boy:

So the consensus is to go with a dedicated cd player and amp through the pre outs on the av receiver.Generally speaking, yes. However i wouldn't write off using your LX-82 for stereo playback. It's certainly no slouch in that department and will give many a budget stereo amp a run for its money.

This will get me a great stereo performer but will it not be a trade off in terms of cinema performance going for a budget blu ray deck?? If you allow your amp to do the decoding, their shouldn't be any trade off in performance when using a budget BDP.

Anyone got any suggestions about the hooking up of the macbook?? If i went for a better blu ray a dac may help the stereo performance using the blu ray player for cds with the dac and then i can play my macbook through the dac also?? Will i get any enefit in performance running the blu ray through a dac??
Most, if not all Macs, headphone outputs double as an optical output. So i would try hooking it up to your LX-82 via optical to see if you're happy with the performance first. If not then its worth investigating adding a DAC.
My own experience with Mac/PC and even budget DAC(around £200) combo's. is they can compete with CD players upto around the £700- £800 mark.

 

[john1000000boy]

What format is that they are downloaded on Lossless??

 

[Gerrardasnails]

john1000000boy:
So the consensus is to go with a dedicated cd player and amp through the pre outs on the av receiver. This will get me a great stereo performer but will it not be a trade off in terms of cinema performance going for a budget blu ray deck??

Anyone got any suggestions about the hooking up of the macbook?? If i went for a better blu ray a dac may help the stereo performance using the blu ray player for cds with the dac and then i can play my macbook through the dac also?? Will i get any enefit in performance running the blu ray through a dac??

Your speakers deserve a stereo amp, especially if you get a DAC and use lossless files with your Mac. I would also suggest the £100 Sony. Add a DAC like the Dacmagic. That's £325 spent. I would then look at getting something like the Creek Evo (check their website for ex demo deals).

 

[v1c]

I think you should stick with your initial instinct and get yourself a Pioneer BDP LX53 or even a Reduced LX52. You are after a Blu-ray player anyway and you will get pioneer synergy PQLS etc. You may well find that you are perfectly happy with the CD performance from this set up and if your not then you can look at the other options of dedicated CD player , Stereo amp or DAC/MAC. Ultimately if truth be told you should have a dedicated stereo system if you want the best music reproduction, anything you do with your AV receiver is regarded as a compromise , you may as well start by trying the option with the least outlay which is a blu-ray player that you can use to play CD's. This was your first thought was it not ?.

 

[john1000000boy]

Thanks V1c that is a good point. I have an old technics sl pg 580a in its box in storage may drag that out and hook it up. It was a good spinner back before the turn of the millenium!! How do you find stereo playback through your 71?? Pure direct sound is variable and sems a little "muted?"

 

[v1c]

I'll be honest with you john i think i would be regarded as a heretic as i listen to music via ipod/arcam rdoc using extended stereo on the LX-71 (so i think my credibility would be questioned). I am fully aware that this is not how you should listen to music however i find it more emotionally engaging , punchy , energetic and dynamic listen. When i've tried stereo / direct / pure direct i find myself switching back to ext stereo i just prefer it and i think it sounds great so even if it's not kosher i don't really care. If i play a cd i use my 51FD using stereo as it engages PQLS which if fine but i tend to use the ipod/rdoc most of the time.This maybe down to the speakers i'm using. At one stage i was absolutely going to get an apollo rega but when it finally came down to the crunch i just didn't see the point as i am perfectly happy with the sound i'm hearing. I also know that if i really wanted the "best music sound" i need a separate music system and as much as i would like one i haven't got the room. I have listened to some really high end stuff at Bristol shows and various dealers and to me i have not heard anything to make me think it's that much better than what i listen to now so to me i'm happy. I am still considering getting a dedicated cd player but as i use the ipod/rdoc 95% of the time it doesn't seem worth it and i don't want to buy one and find i don't use it. This is why i suggested you start with the blu-ray first as it seems like you wanted to get one anyway if it's not enough you can always explore the other options to get the sound you desire.One last point i found this very useful when setting the amp up and did make a difference.

1) Set Reciever to MCAAC preset 1 (M1). Now Run Auto MCAAC with
mic in you listening position (I taped the mic to the top of a two foot
long shoe horn, and stuck the shoe horn inbetween the couch cushions,
so the mic is right where my ears are during listening).

2) Go into Manual Sp Setup and change the SP settings if neccessary(crossover to 100hz for me and speakers to small)

3) Now re-run Auto MCAAC but select custom, and then select Keep SP settings.

4) Now you have an Auto MCAAC calibration saved to M1 (....note: you
must select which preset you want Auto MCAAC to save calibration data to
before you enter the audio setup menu.) Now go into Data Management--------> Data Copy and copy M1's data to M2 and also to M3. Now you have carbon copies of this calibration in M1-M3.

5) Now go into Manual MCAAC--->EQ Professional------>Reverb Measurement and get a reading on the the frequency response characteristics of your room. Be sure to select EQ OFF(standing waves not controlled for via MCAAC fliters) in the Reverb Measurement menu because
you don't want the standing wave adjustements (EQ on) to be factored in
to the room reverb measurments. Also make sure you haven't moved the
mic.

6) After test tones are done, go into Manual MCAAC--->EQ Professional------>Reverb View ,
and you can analyze the frequency response of individual channels at
various frequencies. Based upon that data, you would select the
appropriate capture delay time for MCAAC to capture data during for the
upcoming EQ calibration.

Change that time frame under Manual MCAAC--->EQ Professional------>Advanced EQ Setup to whatever you decide is the appropriate capture delay time ....(Pioneer recommends 30-50 ms,
but they encourage you to analyze the data under reverb view first and
refer to the advanced MCAAc software manual for analysis purposes).
Note: the default capture delay time is than 80-160 ms.

7) Change to MCAAC preset 2 (M2) before you run the new advanced EQ calibration with the new capture time. Go under Manual MCAAC--->EQ Professional------>Advanced EQ Setup to
start the advanced EQ calibration, and MCAAC should make a more
accurate calibration since it will now capture sonic information sooner
after the speakers output sound, and get a read on what the frequency
response is of the speakers themselves, and not the speakers and all the
reverb which accumulates as time passes. (Default capture time is
80-160 ms and thus collects more reverb and less true speaker reading)

Now you should have an accurate calibration. Also, now you can easily
compare the Auto MCAAC EQ effects that are stored in M1 with the
advanced EQ effects in M2 while listening to content with a simple
button press on the remote. You could also juice the base a few db in
M3, and also compare running the base a bit hot to a flat calibration
that you have in M1 and M2.

 

[john1000000boy]

Hey v1c that is incredible will definetely try that tonight when i can get some quality tinkering time with the amp!! 1 question: Is that an acoustically dampened shoe horn?!! (joke)

I guess i just want the purest sound without having to go to a dedicated amp/cd just yet. When i auditioned the ma rx6 they were plumbed upto a Cyrus cd amp combo which would have probably cost around about £1800!! Not the best when i couldnt get an '82 to demo with them with!!

I think you understand when you say that you prefer the extended stereo setting. Will the pure direct function settings change with running mcacc??

Seems that there are not a lot of threads on getting the best out of the pio' range. I think your answer there was the most in depth i have seen!!

J

 

[v1c]

Acoustically dampened shoe horn i wonder ? LOL. I don't want to take credit for the amp set up it's not mine i came across it in an av forum but it was very useful.I don't expect mcacc will change pure direct my understanding is pure direct will only use the speaker distances you can check the audio parameter on the amp to compare what is being used by what sound mode ,there are less options on pure direct for example there is no EQ , S-WAVE or EFFECT on pure direct.

 

[Anonymous]

Your amp has quite good DACs. Another alternative would be to get a Samsung Blu Ray player and use it as a transport as their players have very low jitter - as low as many dedicated CD players. Given that Samsung players are well within your budget, you could use a dedicated DAC (e.g. Cambridge Audio DACMagic) or even a dedicated stereo amplifier.

 

[john1000000boy]

Never got the chance to try your settings last night will get to them today and post back!! Toying with the idea of going through to Edinburgh to look at the pioneers and see if i can sniff out the denon 2500!!

 

[john1000000boy]

Hey Bigboss just had a look a your setup looks sweet!! Where did you get your ambilight strips from?? quite like the effect. Is it tricky to post pics on the forums?? Not too hot ton the computers!!

 

[bigboss]

Thanks, john 'million' boy!

The lighting strips are from Ikea (Dioder).

It's not difficult to post pics on the forum. Upload your pics on flickr or picasa (make sure you select the privacy settings to 'public'). Then, right click on an image you want to upload and copy the address (url), which usually ends with .jpg.

Now, click that 'tree' you can see when you compose a message on the forum (it's next to the 'smiley') & paste the url there in 'image url'.

 

[john1000000boy]

Hey Thanks bigboss may look into that for the panel on my wall hopefully it will look quite subtle!!

 

[john1000000boy]

Hey v1c ran through the calibration set up on my '82. For the reverb view the lines on the graph had certainly got a lot "closer together". Is this correct?? Desperate to get a blu ray player to try out on!! Sky hd will have to do for now!! Local av shop has quoted me over thephone more than double what sevenoaks are quoting for an lx 52!!

 

[v1c]

The reverb view will be room specific. Are you referring to the lines on the graph comparing to before and after calibration ?. What i notice on my reverb graph is before calibration L , R channels have different graphs but after calibration they have similar graphs the same with SR and SL channels which go from different graphs to more or less identical graphs. This is what the EQ effect is achieving on the frequency's in the room , so in my case the front channels and rear channels are giving a closer to equal sound reaching the listening point. That's my understanding of it anyway.I have a small room so reducing the time capture to 30-50ms made quite a difference for me in a bigger room this may not be the case i'm also using a sub/sat system which again will make a difference. You will be better getting the LX52 from sevenoaks then if they won't price match (why wouldn't they want to price match ? LOL).