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This Month's Featured Equipment Reviews |
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DVD-Audio/SACD Software Forum Topics: |
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Classic Audio Sources Reviews |
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DVD-Audio/SACD Players
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Wednesday, 21 October 2009
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Written by
Todd Whitesel
Although the compact disc is now 27 years old, Super-Audio CD (SACD) is still a relative youngster, celebrating its 10th birthday this year. Even as sales of redbook CDs have plummeted through the decade and digital downloads have skyrocketed, against the odds – somehow – SACD has clung to life and managed to survive an industry bent on fragmentation and division. The reason is simple: SACD is sonically superior to its redbook sibling, and certainly to any of the lossy (replace first “s” with “u” for more accurate description) digital formats. The discs contain more musical information and can deliver analog-like sound with all the real and perceived benefits of redbook CD. Throw in surround-sound capability and the SACD is a formidable foe in the format war; if it only had the proper support.And as the music industry continues to ...
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Friday, 01 June 2007
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Written by
Jerry Del Colliano
Introduction
I
have owned various Krell amplifiers in my reference systems over the
years, each providing hours upon hours of listening joy. Recently,
Krell has released a new top-of-the-line lineup of gear under the
Evolution moniker that speaks to those for a need for the best of the
best and a willingness to pay for it. The review system under
evaluation is comprised of a $10,000 Krell Evolution 505 SACD player
with 24-bit 192 DACs, a $15,000 Krell Evolution 202 two-chassis stereo
preamp and the monstrous Krell Evolution 900 monaural amplifiers at
$20,000 each, or $40,000 for the stereo pair as reviewed. My review
samples are done in Krell’s signature silver finish, which is
breathtakingly beautiful out of the rack and poised on a simple table
as it is installed in my reference system.
Set-up
To
start, it is important to note that the Krell Evolution 900 power amps
are nothing short of huge. With a travel ...
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Tuesday, 01 May 2007
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Written by
Ken Taraszka, MD
Introduction
The
format war for high-definition discs wages on, but for now, DVD is
still the reigning king of home video formats. We all have years of
back catalogue DVDs in our collections, and a solid player is of
paramount importance to any theater. High-resolution audio in the form
of SACD and DVD-Audio are still prominent and Denon makes several
levels of players capable of spinning CD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio and SACD
discs, with their top of the line spinner being the DVD-5910CI priced
at $3,800. The DVD-5910CI is designed to be the primary source for a
high-end home theater or whole home distribution system and, as such,
offers connectivity not often found on consumer level goods. The “CI”
stands for Custom Integration. This is Denon’s way of identifying their
products with connectivity and control features for home integration
and theaters using advance control systems.
This flagship DVD player in the Denon line offers a
vast array ...
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Friday, 01 September 2006
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Written by
Tim Hart
Introduction
With
so much media focus on the recent releases of HD DVD and Blu-ray, one
could possibly see the demise of the current DVD hardware set just on
the horizon. But early adopters beware: HD DVD is suffering from some
brutal (perhaps even fatal) growing pains to overcome maladies such as
painfully slow load times, frequent and amazingly frustrating reboots
and excruciating integration issues with existing home theater systems,
thanks to the fact that movie studios have forced HD DVD players to
constantly have an HDCP handshake, which is at the root of most of
people’s connectivity and switching issues. Blu-ray is better, but
still suffers from many problems, including a lack of RS232 control,
reported and admitted problems with the video output (even though it
looks pretty good) and the fact that HDMI 1.3 offers as much as twice
the video bandwidth going to your set. At this point, who could blame
anyone ...
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Saturday, 01 April 2006
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Written by
Ben Shyman
Introduction
When
Lexicon first introduced the RT-10 Universal Disc Player in 2003, it
was considered by many an ambitious project. Subsequently, the Proceed
Audio brand was discontinued and the Harman Specialty Group (HSG) was
formed. Harman International formed HSG on the cornerstone of three key
brands: Mark Levinson, Lexicon and Revel. The RT-10 would be
scrutinized by home theater industry experts and consumers alike, not
only because it was HSG’s first foray into source componentry – the
Mark Levinson brand did not and still does not manufacture a video
source component although the No. 51 will be available soon – but also
because it came on the heels of Proceed’s $6,000 PMDT universal
transport, which had a litany of reliability issues until it was
eventually discontinued. In addition, Lexicon would enter this
high-stakes reference-quality segment of the market by designing the
RT-10 as a hybrid player featuring two new technologies: Super Audio CD
(SACD) and DVD-Audio ...
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