Denon 2200 v Pioneer 757Ai

[d.waters]

I have heard that the Denon 2200 is supposed to be better than the Pioneer 668, and that the Pioneer 757Ai is also supposed to be better than the 668. Does anyone have any experience of the 757's performance against the 2200?

I am looking to upgrade my bedroom system and have decided I will probably get the Denon 3805 amp (I have an AVC A11SR downstairs, which I'm very pleased with), but have a dilema regarding the DVD player. I will probably get an LCD display for upstairs (possibly the JVC 26") and a projector for dowstairs (possibly the Screenplay 5700). I already have a Pioneer 757, but an early one, so it will need to be upgraded to PAL Progressive, if it stays with the projector. So I could get a Pioneer 868 for downstairs and move the 757 upstairs. Alternatively, I could leave the 757 where it is and get a player specifically for upstairs. I have always liked Pioneer players and so would instinctively go for a 668 or even another 757 (as they are now relatively cheep), but have seen good things said about the Denon, and wondered if that would be a better choice.

[Reano]

I have experience of both. The pioneer wins hands down... I have had a denon for a while and a few Pioneers and a sony DVD player. FIrst the Denon my Denon (but tried few more in shop with same) has a vibration problem when playing some disc's. Note this vibration was audible and worse than my sky boxes hard disk. So what I did was I put several different disc's into various players the disc's were Take 6 DVD-A, SACD 'Diana Krall' and friends double sided DVD series one and 2. Ok on the Denon it would skip for some minor imperfections on the discs and vibrate like bad. I'm not one for all this antibration stuff but I had to buy some vibrapads... That cured the noise and no vibration transmitted anywhere.
In the other DVD players they worked just fine..
I know what your thinking take it back to shop. That I did (after disconnecting all wires, etc,,,, grrrr) Took it back to Wolverhampton Sevenoaks, one of the assistants was very good (Not sales only driven). We did a comparison with another Denon 2200 and it had the same problem but because it doesn't skip for good discs nothing much I could do and got the usual sales speak of "This is normal" lol my ars*
Anyway sent request to denon repair centre and they said I could send to them to look at but if it has no direct problem then nothing I can do. So because it is good plays all the music discs well, etc I thought it's got two year guarantee will wait and see. I have receipt, etc.
The pioneer no problems, music replay can't really tell the difference but picture Pioneer definately better to me and finer adjustments IMAO.
The denon is heavier so feel more solid than Pioneer. So all in all I would stick with Pioneer BTW anyone out there wanna swap/buy my denon 2200 let me know. It's multi-region silver cost over £500 and reasonable offers accepted or will swap for multi-region pioneer 757ai or similar spec.

[Pugger]

Although I haven't had any experience with the Pioneer 757 I did test the 668 in a shop demonstration. I opted for the Denon 2200 because as I remember face to face with Kangaroo Jack (the film I took to the shop, don't ask) the 2200 did by a margin give the best picture quality and sound quality. I use the 2200 on my pani PD30 in both PAL and NTSC prog scan and have not had one problem. The machine can get noisy when loading disks and does indeed vibrate at this point. However as soon as a DVD menu is loaded the player is as smooth as the proverbial baby’s backside with no discernable background noise. I have never had problems whilst watching any movies with regard to noisy operation of the player. Why it vibrates and makes a noise when loading disks I have no idea.

[Reano]

Note it does not vibrate on all discs but according to the shop it 'appears' to have this problem on some discs which are slightly heavier.... yeah exactly but it is there

[Kazman]

i would say the 668 is better than the 757, so i'm not sure where you got the info that the 757 was a better machine?

If anything, they are probably equal in terms of features, (668 has hdmi and 757 has firewire). But the killer for me is that the 668 doesn't suffer from CUE problems and is a bit cleaner and smoother in progressive scan mode.

[Pugger]

As I said Reno it does make a noise and vibrate when laoding the menu's off films. After that there is no noise no vibration, I have tested it on probably 20 films plus. Once playing the movie I can hardly hear the machine and it most certainly doesn't vibrate.

[Reano]

lol Hi Guys......I gave you the name's of the disc's that vibrate. lol I have several DVD players scattered round the house (I have to stop) and tried them on various DVD players 3 or so and had no problem with them and also took to the shop and they had the problem too on two other seperate Denon 2200 statistically that is significant. I also spoke to Denon's UK repair company and they said yes they do sometimes get this vibration problem here's one of the emails

Thank you for your e-mail regarding Denon products.

With different DVD software there maybe different Mega bites of information on the disc, in certain cases this may cause the DVD player to read the information at different speeds (i.e SACD), this can cause a certain amount of vibration which is normal. However if this is getting in the way of your viewing or listening pleasure then we would suggest that you speak to your Denon dealer so he can inspect the unit.

Regards

Product Support

Note this vibration was on DVD too I didn't test too many CD's but will do when set up again in a few months.

Note this is the first time I've every brought any AV/Hifi product back to a shop never mind a DVD player so it took a bit for me to do it.
Anyway cause I was building a new room I need a new player and opted for a DVD 757ai (won on Ebay) anyway I did comparison's with Lord of rings (especially in fellowship where they are underground - Trolls, demons) this can really test the black, etc, out. Matrix and Terminator. I did adjust picture quality on both and from what I could see the Pioneer looked better. You can see my equipment list (not all on there). This is what I think is better. I have not tried pioneer 668 but have tried other brands of DVD players. Note this is RGB scart not progressive use yet (thats for the other room)

Here's the ones I've tried the discs I mentioned before on
various computer DVD to plasma connection
pioneer 757
sony davs 300
cyberhome
denon 2200
pioneer 727
micro
panasonic (cant remember model, sisters)

The vibration was only on the Denon 2200. What was ironic was my wife said to me whats that noise... I said must be the sky box, so looked at sky, vcr everything did not even look at Denon (as I thought can't be that then I touched it) and yes it was not minor vibration either. I had 5.1 connected round the back two channel audio, scart, digital, all kinds of wires I had to disconnect from back of AV amp to bring to shop lol.

I didn't even have to feel awkard when my wife saw me with the vibrapads she wanted them too! (I think my glass shelf didn't help) .

I have no worries if yours only vibrates at menu start up. Great I do like the Denon don't get me wrong I reckon if I pushed hard enough I could exchange (maybe with some cash for better model) but will stick with it for now.

Remember the original question was what experience we had with 757 vs denon 2200. I have given my direct experience of these.