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Category: CD  SACD DVD Players
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Title: Philips DVD612S 
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views:300
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 What do you think of this DVD player??
I won mine on the MacDonald's "Monsters Inc." competition btw!! 
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| Review submitted: 2003/12/10
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Category: CD SACD DVD Players
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Title: Rega Apollo CD player
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views:2335
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Within the relatively short period of its existence, Rega's Apollo player appears to have already gained hi-fi ‘Landmark' status. Give it a listen, and it's easy to hear why. It has improved in just about every conceivable way upon the outgoing Planet which in itself was a great machine. It does this by lowering the noise floor, so notes stop and start more clearly, and you get that inky black space in between performers – normally a preserve of much more expensive machines. It also has improved treble resolution out of all proportion with what you could reasonably expect within the price range. Finally, its rhythmic abilities have been tightened up, so it boogies more.
Comments have been made in the hi-fi press regarding the Apollo's superiority to the much more expensive, but outgoing Jupiter; I don't think it's quite as cut and dried as that. The Jupiter is still a very good machine with a more sophisticated, slightly larger soundstage and deeper bass, but it doesn't quite have the bold, forward attitude of the Apollo. Rather than one being better than the other, I’d say it was swings and roundabouts (Although the Jupiter does get a severe clouting by it's replacement, the Saturn - but that's another review!)
SUMMARY: The Apollo delivers like few other players in its price range. The fact that it IS able to compete with, and is by no means disgraced by another admittedly older but much more expensive Rega machine, is testament to what a spectacular bargain the Budget Rega really is. |
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| Review submitted: 2007/6/18
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Category: CD SACD DVD Players
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Title: Sugden Masterclass cd player
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Rating: 5.00 views:3266
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I am now the proud owner of a Sugden Masterclass cd player :)
We are talking small changes here and one thing that is clear to me is how good the Marantz cd 17mk11 ki is.
The Sugden has a little more detail is little more open. The soundstage is Deeper. Bass is bigger.
Overall sound is a little less digital.
In some repects alot of money for the small inprovements.
(such is hifi)
One of the best things about the Sugden is that it does not seem to favor any sort of music over another and does a very good job with those average pop cds (the wife seems to have so many off)
Moving to something like John Mayer - Continuum or Faithless - No Roots you get a very real sense of weight behind the player.
Build is good but so is the Marantz witch I think will replace the Arcam in the dinning room.
All in all this is a player I can and will live with for a very very long time. To my ears it all matches well with no system weak link. I really think I can not inprove things any more, the gains are just getting far to small for the outlay.
Balanced vs Unbalanced, balanced xlr gives me a fraction more detail and a fraction less warmth. I like unbalanced better in my system.
So comes my journeys end. |
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5.00 |
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| Review submitted: 2008/5/17
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Category: CD SACD DVD Players
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Title: Technics SL-PG490
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views:2019
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What are your opinions on the above single CD player? Please rate, and comment
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| Review submitted: 2003/11/24
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Category: CD SACD DVD Players
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Title: Yamaha CDR-HD1300
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views:491
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This takes the form of a medium-term review, as I have had this unit for over a year now.
First a description of just what this device is and does:
The CDR-HD1300 comprises, as its product code implies, a CD-RW drive and a hard disk drive, with the associated other control hardware required to make the two drives function.
In addition, being a digital recorder, it has both Digital-to-Analog and Analog-to-Digital Converters (DAC and ADC).
The units shipped by Yamaha to South Africa only come with a 40GB hard drive, while the UK enjoyedthe larger 80GB capacities - just why the difference, I don't know.
Anyway, when I unpacked this unit and fired it up, I discovered this 40GB HDD capacity, so, went to a local PC supplier and bought a 120GB drive to replace the 40GB unit.
The swap of the drives was painless - the rear of the unit has a small "door" which opens to reveal the HDD mounting tray, which slides out on rails. Remove the data cable by unplugging from the drive, remove the mounting screws, and take out the drive. Reverse the process to install the new drive - simple! The reason for limiting to 120GB is that the firmware on the CDR-HD1300 only supports drives of up ~135GB. Anyway, the firmware-driven disk formatter also works well - simple and quick. The drives supported and required by Yamaha are all 7200rpm SATA units, and I went with a Seagate Barracuda - a make I've come to trust.
So, with 120GB, the music storage capacity of the HDD is now around 180hrs - or just over a week of continuous play.
The unit can play back CD's via the CD-RW drive using the on-board DAC's, it can also play back music stored on the HDD via the same DAC's. There are also digital outputs (coaxial and optical) for using an off-board DAC (I use the coaxial output to play through the Theta GenVa DAC).
Copying a CD is a 2-stage process: one, "ripping" the CD to the HDD; and two, "burning" the CD from the data stored on the HDD. Ripping runs as 10x speed and buring can run at anything between 1x and 4x speed, depending on settings (more about these later).
To work around the SCMS (Serial Copy Management System) used for copyright protection, any material ripped from a digital source and burnt to CD while staying in the digital domain, is automatically deleted from the HDD after burning (the command used is "Move" not "Copy").
There are more features than there is space in this review - so will now concentrate on the sound quality and applications.
Used as CD player via the CD-RW drive and the on-board DAC's, the sound is pretty good, if a bit "bright". Used as a transport to the Theta GenVa, it is excellent.
Copies made and than played back (both on the Yamaha and on my Theta set-up) sound identical to the original 0 my old ears cannot detect a difference (except with certain audiophile CD's such as those from Sheffield Lab).
The ADC capability enables the Yamaha to be used for archiving vinyl. What needs to be understood right here is that this unit records what it gets - unlike a PC where you have the capability (with the appropriate software) to perform some surgery on the digital data before burning the CD-R. The result, is that any surface noise from the LP is also recorded. A quick look at a very useful feature when archiving vinyl: Automatic track separation using signal level/time parameters.
Overall impressions after more than a year:
a. Great for parties (just set it on random play and leave)
b. Great for archiving vinyl (except for surface noise)
c. Makes good CD copies and does it quickly
d. If I had to do it again, would I? YES!
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| Review submitted: 2005/6/6
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