DVD Player Upgrade !

[technojunkie]

I currently have a Sony DVP 735-D feeding an audio signal via a digtal coax connection to an Arcam AVR300 and video to a Sony 32" Widescreen CTV. The speakers are all Mission (Front/Rear/Centre).

I'm very happy with both the audio and video performance of the system but would like to know if upgrading the DVD player would have any significant effect on the audio/video performance of the system ?

Any helpful advice would be much appreciated.

Thankyou

 

[niceguy235uk]

Depends on how full your wallet is....

 

[technojunkie]

Thankyou for the post niceguy235uk.

The wallet is not that full but I wanted to know if there would be any benefit/point in upgrading the DVD player (taking into consideration the current set-up) and, if so, what I should be looking to upgrade to (budget and no budget) !

Thanks again.

 

[Crustyloafer]

Go and demo it and see for yourself. If you have a good rapport with your dealer then they are likely to let you take one away on a home loan.

What speakers exactly do you have? Your description of 'Mission speakers' does not give me a very good idea about how good they are although most recent ranges of speakers from Mission have been pretty poor.

 

[technojunkie]

Thankyou for the post Crustyloafer.

I have the following speakers :-

Mission 753 - front
Mission 731 - rear
Mission M3C2 - centre
Velodyne CHT-10R

It's certainly no "audiophile" set-up but sounds great (to my ears). I just wanted to know if upgrading the DVD would give any significant audio/video improvement to the system and, if so, which model DVD's I should be looking at.

Thanks again

 

[Crustyloafer]

Those are nice set of speakers you have there, although the centre speaker may warrant some attention/replacement. The 75 series were a great set of speakers and made before Mission went 'bad'. I definitely think the Arcam DV78 or DV79 would be a significant upgrade for you, especially if you use the player for CDs too.

Thankyou for the post Crustyloafer.

I have the following speakers :-

Mission 753 - front
Mission 731 - rear
Mission M3C2 - centre
Velodyne CHT-10R

It's certainly no "audiophile" set-up but sounds great (to my ears). I just wanted to know if upgrading the DVD would give any significant audio/video improvement to the system and, if so, which model DVD's I should be looking at.

Thanks again

 

[technojunkie]

Thankyou for the post Crustyloafer. Which centre speaker do you think would be the most appropriate for my current system ?

The DV78 would be at the very top of my budget ! How about the DV88 plus (or would that not be worth the investment) ?

Thanks again.

 

[technojunkie]

My current CD player is a Marantz CD6000 OSE, would the DV78 (or DV88) surpass the Marantz unit for CD performance ?

 

[Crustyloafer]

I would suggest picking up one of the 78 series centre speakers if you can still get one, ideally the 78CSE. I had one for sale recently but it has gone now. I also have an M5C for sale if you are interested, although it is quite big.

 

[technojunkie]

Can anyone please advise if the CD performance of the DV78 would be better than my Marantz CD6000 OSE limited edition ?

Thankyou

 

[Steve.EX]

I would not expect the Arcam to offer anything over the Marantz for cd replay. It may offer moderately improved dvd soundtrack improvements. On a 32" crt, i doubt that the better PQ offered by Arcam would be vastly noticable.
Just my opinion of course.

 

[SMCC]

I must second Crusty's opinion - you need a home demo. I had a Sony 735 and I must say it's a darn fine DVD player in terms of picture quality. I now have a DV27A sending a prog scan signal to my plasma which offers a better picture but not dramatically so. As far as sound goes, you really need to hear the difference at home to see if the improvements are worthwhile to you. Have fun deciding!

 

[technojunkie]

Thankyou for the additional posts.

It would seem that spending £ 700.- on a DV78, with my current 32" CTV, would not be a worthwhile upgrade until I could also afford a new TV. If the improvement in audio quality over my Sony 735 would also only be marginal, I guess a DVD upgrade, at this time, is not totally necessary.

I'll see if I can home demo a unit from my local shop.

However, I will definetly look at Crustyloafer's suggestion of upgrading the centre speaker as I am not happy with the M3C2's performance. Does anyone have a Mission 78CSE for sale ?

 

[LFCRules]

Stick a Wanted ad in the forums here and you may get lucky plus have a look in the for sale forum here also.

 

[technojunkie]

Thankyou LFCRules. I've taken your advice and posted a Wanted ad.

 

[technojunkie]

Does anyone know how much I should expect to pay for a Mission 78CSE either used or new ?

Thankyou

 

[per-Sony-fied]

It would seem that spending £ 700.- on a DV78, with my current 32" CTV, would not be a worthwhile upgrade until I could also afford a new TV. If the improvement in audio quality over my Sony 735 would also only be marginal, I guess a DVD upgrade, at this time, is not totally necessary.

The Arcam while no great shakes in picture performance improvement over a Sony 735 (actually perported to be worse than the previous incarnation the 725 which differs ever so so slightly to a Sony 7700 of which both I have experience with) once customised you'll find you'll be watching the Arcam instead!. Given comparison of DV89 and DVP-S7700 the Arcam was preferable it is possible that the Arcam DV78 will see more improvement over the 735 than the others especially if HDMI is utilised.

Comparing a DV89 to a Sony DVP-S7700 using RGB out gives much more vibrant and fruity colours with less hard edges and finer colour differentation giving some scenes greater detail.... Star wars, attack of the clones, chapter for the *vehicle* race shows this well.

The difference isn't startling, the Sony having richer bolder colours (which tends to hide finer details), however it makes for a more interesting relaxed watch.

The Arcam sound has better kick and attack with greater bass resolution but the Sony has more and deeper bass.... but again due to this losing finer parts of the audio signal.

The Arcam works best through component utilising it's progressive scan capabilities where it is a step up from RGB. Naturally the DV78 does HDMI which should even be a further improvement. Judging by the clarity of HDMI as seen recently on a Plasma set things should be a good step forward over component.

So basically if you are thinking of upgrading you do need a TV with these i/p's to bring out the best. An old Sony may well just convert RGB to S-Video before it gets processed as I have a feeling my 5 year old Sony does as the difference between the two are negligable.

 

[technojunkie]

Thankyou for the informative response per-Sony-fied.
Unless I can get a particularly good details on a new/SH DVD player, I'll think I will wait until I can afford a new TV as well.

Thanks again for the post.

 

[Nic Rhodes]

I am another one who recommend people think twice about swapping great old players like Sony 7700, Toshiba 9000, Pioneer 717 if they carry on using the same interfaces. New players really only come to the for if you are using new connections like component and HDMI / DVI and progressive scan capabilities. If you are using the same interfaces these old 'heavy weights' were pretty good quality then and now.

I do like the Arcams if you fancy a change however

 

[technojunkie]

Thankyou for the post Nic. I currently connect via RGB scart. Would there any benefit in using the S-VHS connection instead ?

 

[Nic Rhodes]

Once upon a time there used to be very mixed results with RGB SCART, which in theory should be better. The reason they weren't always better was the TV down converted RGB to svideo!! Nowdays the chips used handle RGB and component signals directly so things are much better. To find out which is better you have to try both I am afraid. Toshiba and Tag did particularly good SVideo outputs.

 

[technojunkie]

Thanks Nic. I'll give them both a try.

 

[SMCC]

I've gone all nostalgic for my Sony 735 now! I wouldn't go back to it from my DV27A but on a CRT instead of a plasma the two were close in terms of picture performance. The Arcam has better sound reproduction but the Sony remote is superb and RGB pass-through via the Sony's scarts was a boon for hooking up a TV with only one RGB input to DVD and digibox.

I can confirm the Sony 735 has a true RGB out, it seemed to offer greater colour saturation and more shadow detail than it's S-video output to me but I think it will depend very much on the TV you plug it into.

 

[technojunkie]

Thankyou for the additional posts. I bit the bullet and bought a DV78 and a Mission 78C SE. I've not received either yet but I hope its worth it !

All I need now is a decent TV.