Arcam DV27A vs Denon A11

[sticker]

Hi,
Heard the Denon A11 recently and must say that I'm pretty impressed with it. My observations were that it had excellent picture quality, excellent movie sound/SACD/DVDA and was pretty good in CD. I didn't think it was up to the same level of CD replay as my Arcam DV27A but I didn't do a back to back blind test.
As I'm looking at getting a SACD player I was toying with the idea of replacing the Arcam with the Denon (its only a very slight pos at the mo). My question is has anyone heardthem back to back, not over different days but in the same room one after the other? From my demo of the AV8/G68 processors I learn't that these things have to be tested blind to truely evaluate them, anyone done this?

Regards
John

 

[General Skanky]

You 'know' not to change.

 

[BackBeat]

Hi,

I auditioned both back to back and was very impressed with both but eventually opted for an A11. Both had excellent picture quality with the Arcam offering marginally more natural but cooler colour than the Denon. Both excelled with DVD Audio and were good, by DVD standards, on CD replay, but well short of the quality I'm used to from my dedicated Meridian CD player. In the end the deciding factor was SACD replay, D.link and better discount on the Denon.

Backbeat.

 

[sticker]

Guy, its only a very slight chance I'll change I'm really looking at the SACD area, so if I can get a reasonable SACD I'll add it to the Dv27. Wish it could be enabled for SACD, but I know that's not possible as John Dawson has already said so

Thanks BackBeat for your thoughts, SACD is certainly a plus point

Regards
John

 

[MR2Harvey]

You're looking at very expensive players here. The video side is sorted with the Arcam, DVDA too. Why not get the Denon 2900 just for SACD, cheap option, maybe the SACD play back is not good enough?

 

[Stereo Steve]

Cuz then you need 2 5.1 inputs which few people have.

 

[sticker]

Steve, thats the big problem and I can't see any 5.1 swtich boxes out there