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Format: All DVD-Audio SACD DualDisc


azur 540D & DV-565A tips and notes
By Lars Børme	2004-06-30

	Sony DVP-NS700V Cambridge azur 540D Pioneer DVD-565A
From top: Sony DVP-NS700V SACD player, Cambridge azur 540D DVD-Audio player & Pioneer DV-565A SACD/DVD-Audio player.

Is big $ players necessary for DVD-Audio and SACD?
Do you really need a $2000 player to be able to benefit from the new high-resolution formats? Well, after having a few so-called low budget high-resolution players in for a very thorough test, the answer has to be a resounding “No!”
I really think that these players have reached a level where a claim that a $2000 player is better could be very hard to prove. It could be discussed if the deciding factor for preferring a “high-end” player over one of these low budget players could be more due to better looks and “feel” than actually improved sound quality.

But good looks and good build quality are values worth paying extra for, and will help raise the overall impression. It’s like when you have two strawberries with the same taste, one looking bruised and dark red, another looking shiny and fresh. Even though they have the same taste, I’m sure that 99.9% would swear that the latter tasted the best.
The question is: how much more money are you willing to pay for these qualities? .

The players
In this low budget shootout we have representatives from three high-resolution disciplines: The Sony DVP-NS700V SACD player, the Cambridge azur 540D DVD-Audio player and the Pioneer DV-565A universal player which plays both SACD and DVD-Audio.

The Sony is a bit older than the relatively new Pioneer and Cambridge players and originally carried a price tag at around $700 (in Denmark), but the price have recently been cut in half and is now in the same price range as the Cambridge and Pioneer.

Sony DVP-NS700V Cambridge azur 540D Pioneer DV-565A

SACD playback yes no yes

DVD-Audio playback no yes yes

DVD-Audio through digital ouput no stereo up to 192 kHz(*) stereo up to 96 kHz (**)

Bass management SACD DVD-Audio SACD and DVD-Audio

NTSC progressive scan no yes yes

PAL progressive scan no not really (***) not really (***)

Region free by default yes yes no

Internal DTS decoder yes no yes

Scart connectors 2 1 2

Component output no yes yes

(*) Needs to be verified, but it does at least 96 kHz.
(**) The player must be setup for stereo playback.
(***) PAL is converted to NTSC before line doubling.

Sound quality
As mentioned before sound quality of these units are surprisingly good. If there is such a thing as “British sound” then the Cambridge would fit in this category. It shares many of the same qualities as the much more expensive Rotel RDV-1080 DVD-Audio player, mainly a very natural decay of ambience.

A very surprising thing about the Cambridge is how well it delivers the digital signal using a normal digital connection. I have not been able to verify it, but I have good reason to believe that the Cambridge sends the original resolution from DVD-Audio to the digital output, even 192 kHz. Even most automatic downmix from 5.1 to 96 kHz stereo sounded absolutely wonderful. On the few discs where the downmix sounded strange, I was able to regain the high quality by switching to the stereo mix of the DVD-Audio disc.

The Pioneer shares the tight sound of the previously tested Denon DVD-2900, but while the Cambridge lacks a tiny bit in general “surround feel” compared to the Rotel, I feel that the Pioneer, at least when it comes to DVD-Audio playback, is a serious contender to the DVD-2900. From what I have been told, and from what I can deduce from diagrams, the 565A doesn’t convert DSD to PCM before outputting to the analogue outputs, but even so I feel that the SACD playback is not reaching quite the same level.
The Sony and the Pioneer seems to have very similar SACD sound, which in retrospect is not bad, it’s just that the Pioneer handles DVD-Audio so well.

Video quality
All the players were tested first using a normal TV, then using a Panasonic PT-AE100 native 16:9 projector. I can’t really remember when I tried a DVD player that didn’t deliver a great picture when connected to a normal TV…the TV is just such a forgiving display unit when fed by a DVD player. DVD player prices in Denmark are now as low as $60 and even those units deliver what seems a great picture.
But when a projector is displaying a 70” widescreen picture, then all the artefacts suddenly becomes clearer, and the need for a high quality video source becomes more immediate.

Sony DVP-NS700V PAL interlaced (625i) Cambridge azur 540D PAL interlaced (625i) Pioneer DV-565A PAL interlaced (625i)

There's not much between the players when it comes to non-progressive video quality, but the Sony seems to have the edge by a small margin.

The Sony was able to deliver the best non-progressive picture, but the Cambridge was able to match the Sony when enabling the progressive scan feature. Unfortunately I couldn’t test the NTSC progressive scan on the Pioneer since it was a region 2 player only (European PAL).
This effectively renders the progressive scan feature of the Pioneer useless since both the Pioneer and the Cambridge will convert a PAL signal to NTSC before outputting the progressive signal. Without some kind of correction this will (and does) result in very jerky movement, enough to make most people dizzy.

Cambridge seem to have made some effort towards smoothing things up and progressive PAL in some cases resulted in slightly improved picture quality, but it also resulted in a worse picture a few times. This was not the case with the Pioneer. The picture quality was consistently worse when activating progressive scan on PAL material.

Conclusion
All three players are winners in specialized categories: The Cambridge excels in DVD-Audio playback of classical material and is the most well-built unit, the Sony delivers the best non-progressive picture and the Pioneer delivers the best overall DVD-Audio playback.

But the ability to play both DVD-Audio and SACD gives the Pioneer a head start, and when it doesn't even do worse than the Sony on SACD playback and the Cambridge on DVD-Audio playback, then the only thing that could knock it off the throne, is a considerable worse picture quality, and this just isn't the case. The differences in picture quality between the units are simply too small to take into account, so the Pioneer DV-656A has to be the rightful winner of this low budget shootout.

The Pioneer is not as well-built as e.g. the Denon DVD-2900 universal player, but it is good looking and there's a certain quality to it which makes one feel good about it. Its just a real nice player with great DVD-Audio playback capabilities... great value for money.

However, if you're a videophile and want the best PAL picture possible, you still need to take a step up the money ladder, and purchase something like the Denon DVD-2900, which features true PAL progressive scan.

Sony DVP-NS700V Cambridge azur 540D Pioneer DV-565A

SACD playback -

DVD-Audio playback -

Video (*)

Build quality

Price in Denmark kr. 2000 ($310) kr. 2800 ($430) kr. 2700 ($415)

(*) The marks are for the best video that each unit could output. This means that Sony and Pioneer's interlaced picture competes with the Cambridge progressive NTSC picture. The Pioneers NTSC progressive scan feature could not be tested since the unit was not region free, and was limited to playing PAL material.