I have to say, this is perhaps one of the oddest DVD players I have ever owned...as inspiring as it is frustrating. Thinking of buying it, then read on.
AUDIO
First, lets take the audio performance. DVD / CD / DVD-A / SACD's sound absolutely breathtaking. Especially the CDs. I never knew a CD could sound this good. No background hiss and an amazing dynamic range. For its CD performance alone, this player is worth its price.
Now the bad news. It may have trouble with hybrid multichannel SACDs. Mine switched from the multichannel layer to the 2 channel layer at random when playing an SACD. All of the sudden, when it went to a new track the sound was gone from the center and surround speakers! Even though the player's setup menu stated that it was still set to the multichannel layer SACD mode, the front display only had the "L" and "R" speaker icons lit. I turned the player off, then back on again, and then all of the 5 speaker icons on the front panel were lit up again and the sound was back in the center and surround speakers.
FYI, this happened more than once when playing SACD's and there seemed to be no pattern as to when the player would decide to default back to the 2-channel SACD layer...even in the middle of playing a disc. If all of the sudden your SACD sounds rather thin, it may be because you lost 3 of the 5 speakers when you went to the next disc track.
VIDEO
Now on to the video performance. Honestly, I was less impressed with the video performance than that of the audio performance. (I didn't use the HDMI or DVI outputs, but used the component video outputs. So, I can't comment on these features or how the player upscales video) First of all, the component video's image quality was slightly less impressive than the $150 progressive scan Pioneer DVD player that I currently own! Not what one would expect given all the fuss about this player having this high tech 12 bit 216 MHz video DAC.
This player has tons of video adjustment options, and I was surprised that I actually needed every one of them... because the default settings were so lousy. For example, flesh tones had a strong greenish cast to them. I was finally able to achieve a pretty decent picture though, after spending 2 hours with a video calibration disc.
USE
For the most part (except for that SACD problem I mentioned) the player does all of the things the manual says it is suppose to do. However, It does a lot of things SLOWLY. It sometimes "freezes" when you input a command. My guess is that all of the features and adjustment options that this player has requires a considerable amount of working memory. Like a computer that is trying to run too many programs at once, it may momentarily pause disc playback if you are going though menus and making adjustments. However, I can live with this.
Actually, the player is rather slow to respond to most commands. For example, when you push the eject button on the front of a player you have to wait a little bit. If you are like me, you'll try pushing the eject button again because you figure it may not have gotten the message. No folks, it did... it's just slow. In a world that has grown accustomed to multidisc changers and nonstop playback abilities, this player will require a little patience.
OVERALL SUMMARY
My advice is to only buy this player if you are a patient person... Willing to take the time to a do a thorough setup and in no hurry to use this player. If you are an audiophile, like me, and want your CD's to sound as close to perfection as possible...than this is your player. (I spent the entire day going through my CD collection listening to music that I discovered anew). The fact that this machine can play movies adequately, in my opinion, is a bonus.
