DVD-A/SACD player questions

[jimsiff]

I'm in the market for a cheap universal player to sample the world of hirez multichannel audio. I'd like to spend $150 or less. I don't care about video quality as I use a Panasonic DVD-S97 for video. So far there are three that I'm considering:

Pioneer DV-563a
Pioneer DV-578a
Samsung HD-841

From what I've read, many people prefer the 563 to the 578 because it has better DACs and it doesn't downsample SACD to PCM for bass management. That said, if I went with the 563 I wouldn't use an Outlaw ICBM for analog bass management. I'd end up doing D>A in the 563, then A>D>A with my receiver doing bass management.

I wonder if I'd be better off using the 578 since it has better bass management (albeit downsampled to 88k PCM). SACD music would then go D(DCD>PCM)>A with the 578 handling bass management and the receiver doing direct mode output. I've heard both the 563 and 578 have had some trouble playing back certain DVD-A discs. There are reports that many of these glitches can be fixed with new firmware.

I've heard mixed reviews of the Samsung 841, with audio skips/dropouts in SACD playback.

All these compromises make me wonder if I would have been better off sinking a bit more money into a decent universal player. I'd love a 2900 but I needed/wanted HDMI upconversion. To get that in a decent universal player would have been $600 minimum for the Denon 2910, which is a step down from the 2900/3910.

[curtis]

Would you be using the MCACC circuitry in the 54TX?

[jimsiff]

Such a simple question, such a difficult answer. I can see using MCACC if the speaker setup in the player doesn't measure up. If I end up using MCACC, doesn't the 54tx do an A>D conversion before the tweaking? If it does, what would my best option be? I'm really swimming in the details since I'm pretty new to multichannel audio. At this point, I'm really not sure. It would be so simple if we could all afford an I-link player and receiver.

[curtis]

That is exactly why I was asking.

If you are going to do MCACC, you might as well use bass management on the 54TX. If you don't use it, the sound may be "off" to you since you are using it now.

[jimsiff]

Ok that clears it up a bit. For reference, how do you have your 2900 setup? Are you using the 950's auto setup and bass mgmt, or are you relying on the 2900? You mentioned in your dvd thread that you noticed a definite improvement when listening to multichannel due to the better dac in the 2900. Was it a significant upgrade or more subtle?

Also, would you mind giving me your thoughts on my related surround speaker setup thread?

[curtis]

for multichannel, I am using bass management on the P-965....and it is more so because of a quirk with the 965 that makes it inconvenient to use the bass management on a universal. But still, it still sounds better than my 563a. The big improvement was with two-channel. In two channel, the P-965 has a nice analog bass management feature.

[jimsiff]

Are you using the 950's auto setup and bass mgmt

I guess you don't have a "Sherwood 950" after all.
Outlaw, Sherwood, 950, 965... all the names and numbers get mixed up after awhile.