Using Blu-ray players as audio transports

[KidKomet]

Got around £100 to use on a transport (Don't currently own a seperate DAC), I'm happy to go second hand but I was wondering if going down the Blu ray route would yield noticeably lower results, sonically? My thinking is that the manufacturers would have been spent on making features that have nothing to do with audio quality (i.e smart features, 3D, video processing etc). Although this does open up audio BR's to me which I have been tempted to try.

Thoughts?

 

[BigH]

Yes some people do but the cheap BD players canbe a bit noisy and slow in loading. I would try one out first.

 

[drummerman]

Not sure if I understand you question correctly but it your enquiry is about using a BR player and then feed it through an external DAC (or internal DAC's of an amplifier/AV receiver) then there's no problem and it will utilize the quality of the DAC used.

It may be worth mentioning that certain BR players use quite decent audio DAC's. Both Sony and Samsung to name just two are paying more attention to the audio output stages of their players than they did a few years ago. Certain CA BR players (and other brands) measure as well as some of the better dedicated CD players.

I can't make a suggestion as to which BluRay player to choose but it may be worth trying DAC's out on a buy or return basis if you don't need the added functionality and connecivity of one.

regards

 

[KidKomet]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Drummerman, just to clear up. I don't currently own a DAC and I probably won't be getting one any time in the immediate future. I do, however, need a transport and I was looking at CD players but I wondered if buying a blu ray player (Thus opening up the use of SACD's and BD audio) would be a good idea or would they be sonically inferior as they're not dedicated audio machines?

 

[cannibal_ox77]

I've been using a Marantz UD5007 for music (80%) for about a year and it is a very competent performer with CDs. Being a truly universal disc player comes with a high price tag though. The one thing I would say is it's very slow to respond, load etc. normally have to press buttons twice or hold them down to get the damn thing to respond. For this reason alone I can't wait to get a dedicated CD player