Zweistein
Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 26, 2008
- Posts
- 66
- Likes
- 35
Disclaimers: The Pioneer D9 is the first SACD player I own or seriously listened to. This is my first review of sound equipment. I have no idea how to recognize or describe sound in terms of timing, jitter, analytical, whether the soundstage is "in front", and so many other terms I read. Better sound for me is the fact you can more clearly discern musical instruments, that they sound more real, and that you seem to be closer to the musicians.
Competitors
What I compare most with is my 16 year old Philips CD630, which I guess is not an audiophile grade player, though it does have a audiophile properties like dual analogue output (fixed and volume controlled ) and an off-switch on the digital output. Everything was heard through the same Beyerdynamic DT 880 over the same pair of ears. Amplifying both the Pioneer and previously the Philips is a stock Musical Fidelity X-CAN v2, connected through home-brew short cables (DIY from €15 parts from a musician's store).
I listened to a few other machines in shops. From Marantz I compared the CD6003 (€400), SA7003 (€650) and SA-15S2 (€1800), each using their builtin headphone amp, in two sessions. I didn't expect sound quality to increase so considerably with price, that's for sure. However two concerns held me back: I found the bass on all Marantz players disappointingly absent. A CD6003 hooked to a Beyerdynamic A1 sounded way better, But I wanted the SA-15S2 and it boasts a high quality builtin headphone amp. That's such a waste if I can't bear to listen to it. Secondly, the controls on both Marantz SACD players were lazy, compared to the CD6003 and to any other CD player I've touched: it takes a while to get to a track, and searching is slow with almost but not entirely muted sound (couldn't decide?), both for regular CDs and SACDs.
I also briefly heard a Linn universal player, unfortunately with way too much background noise. It sounded harsh to me, even before I heard its €6000 price tag, more than what I wanted to part with, so I didn't pursue this.
Pioneer's sound
After that, the minute I heard the Pioneer PD-D9MK2-K (€1000) a smile appeared. I heard the same wide soundstage, like the Marantz, but with a deep and balanced bass. I don't mean exaggerated, boomy bass (like the Bose headphone stand in the same shop had to offer) - but pure natural bass like you get from good large speakers. I'm not saying midrange and trebles are better or worse than the SA-15S2. Maybe if I listened again I could tell, but I doubt it. With the old Philips I can swap back and forth, and the difference is huge. Granted, I was listening over the X-CAN which the Marantz didn't get a chance to demonstrate. In the 5 years I had the X-CAN, I found the difference between the CD630's builtin headphone amp and the X-CAN welcome but somewhat subtle, depending on the recording, but it does in general enhance bass.
One thing Pioneer definitely does better that Marantz is track skipping and searching. One thing is does worse is its lack of buttons on the machine. Just enough to not turn it into scrap metal without the remote. The remote is more than fine itself - it has as strong a signal as a Logitech Harmony. And there is an advantage to using the remote and not sitting right next to the machine...
Whining
At times the spinning disc can whine. It's a light version of the kind of sound you also get briefly as the disc accelerates when you start playing. You don't notice while listening to music, but during quiet parts sometimes a tone becomes apparent that somehow I associate with the machinery of tape recorders. Until I realize that it is a real world sound seeping in through the headphone. It's not enough to annoy me, and obviously far less loud than a data CD spinning in a computer, and only happens 1 out of 10 times or less. Most of the times the machine is simply quiet and you have to move your ear close to the machine to hear anything, like an ordinary CD player, It can happen both with SACDs and CDs, which seem to spin at the same speed. The effect also seems to fade away after three weeks - the worst whine I noticed was on a 3 inch CD and I could not reproduce that lately.
MP3 afterthought
The Pioneer plays SACD (stereo only), Redbook, and MP3 and WMA files on data CDs (but not lossless WMA, it says) . The display can show the first 8 characters of a filename, Quality MP3's sound as good as CDs to me; for instance, lame preset insane, as well as studio, down to hifi as far as I can tell, while preset medium, standard and extreme all sound equally distorted to me. But... in MP3 mode all you can do is skip to the next or previous track. Even though the manual quotes a maximum number of files, in practice it doesn't seem to have any concept of how many tracks are on a data disc and which one you're on. You can't "go to" a track number, like you can in SACD or CD mode and even though in SACD or CD mode it accepts 3 digit track numbers, You can't go backwards from the first track to the last, You can only skip while playing and the drive head moves up and down to reread the directory each time. So it's a hopeless task to "go to" the 100th track of a full CD. Secondly quirk: it chops off the last 2 seconds of every MP3 file.
SACD versus CD
I had never heard SACD or DVD-Audio until a month ago. Reading made me rather sceptical about what the SACD format would have to add. I gathered that what SACD really buys you is properly mastered recordings, and some frequencies only pets can here. But the difference with Redbook is substantial enough to convince me. Another nice side of SACD is that I discovered Eleanor McEvoy purely by searching for music by format.
Pure Audio
Like others, the Pioneer has this mode in which the digital outputs and the display is switched off, in order to improve analogue output quality. I was rather sceptical about that too. But the first tests it seemed to work. It's easy to do a blind test, since you switch it on and off with the same button, and when you fire it rapidly the machine obviously doesn't try to follow. Don't peek and you really don't know if Pure Audio is on or off. Often I have a hard time to hear a difference. I stranded at 15 "correct" guesses out of 30 on the "it sounds better so it must be Pure Audio" scale, and I'm back to scepticism. In its defence, when I thought the difference was significant, I was "correct" often but also "wrong" twice.
Legato Link Pro
Another toggle to improve sound of Redbook and MP3. It's supposed to "restore missing frequencies". I found one track it seemed to improve, and many where it just seems to gently trim higher frequencies and add a slight amount of distortion. But it's there for the taking.
Quantifying Quality
I can to some degree quantify the differences preceived from these equipment upgrades.
1 = upgrade from the CD630's builtin headphone out (which has no volume control) to the X-CAN amp
3 = upgrade from a basic hifi amplifier headphone out to the X-CAN amp
2 = upgrade from Marantz CD6003 to SA7003 on builtin headphone out
3 = upgrade from Marantz SA7003 to SA-15S2 on builtin headphone out
1 = upgrade from CD layer to SACD layer
10 = upgrade from the CD630 source to the Pioneer source
0 or 0.1 = upgrade from stock analogue signal cable to my own
0 or 0.1 = switch on Pioneer's Pure Audio
Competitors
What I compare most with is my 16 year old Philips CD630, which I guess is not an audiophile grade player, though it does have a audiophile properties like dual analogue output (fixed and volume controlled ) and an off-switch on the digital output. Everything was heard through the same Beyerdynamic DT 880 over the same pair of ears. Amplifying both the Pioneer and previously the Philips is a stock Musical Fidelity X-CAN v2, connected through home-brew short cables (DIY from €15 parts from a musician's store).
I listened to a few other machines in shops. From Marantz I compared the CD6003 (€400), SA7003 (€650) and SA-15S2 (€1800), each using their builtin headphone amp, in two sessions. I didn't expect sound quality to increase so considerably with price, that's for sure. However two concerns held me back: I found the bass on all Marantz players disappointingly absent. A CD6003 hooked to a Beyerdynamic A1 sounded way better, But I wanted the SA-15S2 and it boasts a high quality builtin headphone amp. That's such a waste if I can't bear to listen to it. Secondly, the controls on both Marantz SACD players were lazy, compared to the CD6003 and to any other CD player I've touched: it takes a while to get to a track, and searching is slow with almost but not entirely muted sound (couldn't decide?), both for regular CDs and SACDs.
I also briefly heard a Linn universal player, unfortunately with way too much background noise. It sounded harsh to me, even before I heard its €6000 price tag, more than what I wanted to part with, so I didn't pursue this.
Pioneer's sound
After that, the minute I heard the Pioneer PD-D9MK2-K (€1000) a smile appeared. I heard the same wide soundstage, like the Marantz, but with a deep and balanced bass. I don't mean exaggerated, boomy bass (like the Bose headphone stand in the same shop had to offer) - but pure natural bass like you get from good large speakers. I'm not saying midrange and trebles are better or worse than the SA-15S2. Maybe if I listened again I could tell, but I doubt it. With the old Philips I can swap back and forth, and the difference is huge. Granted, I was listening over the X-CAN which the Marantz didn't get a chance to demonstrate. In the 5 years I had the X-CAN, I found the difference between the CD630's builtin headphone amp and the X-CAN welcome but somewhat subtle, depending on the recording, but it does in general enhance bass.
One thing Pioneer definitely does better that Marantz is track skipping and searching. One thing is does worse is its lack of buttons on the machine. Just enough to not turn it into scrap metal without the remote. The remote is more than fine itself - it has as strong a signal as a Logitech Harmony. And there is an advantage to using the remote and not sitting right next to the machine...
Whining
At times the spinning disc can whine. It's a light version of the kind of sound you also get briefly as the disc accelerates when you start playing. You don't notice while listening to music, but during quiet parts sometimes a tone becomes apparent that somehow I associate with the machinery of tape recorders. Until I realize that it is a real world sound seeping in through the headphone. It's not enough to annoy me, and obviously far less loud than a data CD spinning in a computer, and only happens 1 out of 10 times or less. Most of the times the machine is simply quiet and you have to move your ear close to the machine to hear anything, like an ordinary CD player, It can happen both with SACDs and CDs, which seem to spin at the same speed. The effect also seems to fade away after three weeks - the worst whine I noticed was on a 3 inch CD and I could not reproduce that lately.
MP3 afterthought
The Pioneer plays SACD (stereo only), Redbook, and MP3 and WMA files on data CDs (but not lossless WMA, it says) . The display can show the first 8 characters of a filename, Quality MP3's sound as good as CDs to me; for instance, lame preset insane, as well as studio, down to hifi as far as I can tell, while preset medium, standard and extreme all sound equally distorted to me. But... in MP3 mode all you can do is skip to the next or previous track. Even though the manual quotes a maximum number of files, in practice it doesn't seem to have any concept of how many tracks are on a data disc and which one you're on. You can't "go to" a track number, like you can in SACD or CD mode and even though in SACD or CD mode it accepts 3 digit track numbers, You can't go backwards from the first track to the last, You can only skip while playing and the drive head moves up and down to reread the directory each time. So it's a hopeless task to "go to" the 100th track of a full CD. Secondly quirk: it chops off the last 2 seconds of every MP3 file.
SACD versus CD
I had never heard SACD or DVD-Audio until a month ago. Reading made me rather sceptical about what the SACD format would have to add. I gathered that what SACD really buys you is properly mastered recordings, and some frequencies only pets can here. But the difference with Redbook is substantial enough to convince me. Another nice side of SACD is that I discovered Eleanor McEvoy purely by searching for music by format.
Pure Audio
Like others, the Pioneer has this mode in which the digital outputs and the display is switched off, in order to improve analogue output quality. I was rather sceptical about that too. But the first tests it seemed to work. It's easy to do a blind test, since you switch it on and off with the same button, and when you fire it rapidly the machine obviously doesn't try to follow. Don't peek and you really don't know if Pure Audio is on or off. Often I have a hard time to hear a difference. I stranded at 15 "correct" guesses out of 30 on the "it sounds better so it must be Pure Audio" scale, and I'm back to scepticism. In its defence, when I thought the difference was significant, I was "correct" often but also "wrong" twice.
Legato Link Pro
Another toggle to improve sound of Redbook and MP3. It's supposed to "restore missing frequencies". I found one track it seemed to improve, and many where it just seems to gently trim higher frequencies and add a slight amount of distortion. But it's there for the taking.
Quantifying Quality
I can to some degree quantify the differences preceived from these equipment upgrades.
1 = upgrade from the CD630's builtin headphone out (which has no volume control) to the X-CAN amp
3 = upgrade from a basic hifi amplifier headphone out to the X-CAN amp
2 = upgrade from Marantz CD6003 to SA7003 on builtin headphone out
3 = upgrade from Marantz SA7003 to SA-15S2 on builtin headphone out
1 = upgrade from CD layer to SACD layer
10 = upgrade from the CD630 source to the Pioneer source
0 or 0.1 = upgrade from stock analogue signal cable to my own
0 or 0.1 = switch on Pioneer's Pure Audio
