I am new at this stuff so please be patience with me as my question(s) may sound elementary to some.

I am currently having problems with my Denon SACD 2900 player and the installer of my HT system has baically told me SOL because it is 2 years young! As a result, I am in the market for a new one player. I have narrow my search to the Pioneer 59AVi unit. I would be using this unit with my AVM 20 amp / preamp and viewing on my Sony 60 inch LCD XBR HDTV. My system also has a Sony HD Tuner for viewing those very few HD stations which are awesome!

My question is twofold:

1: If the Pioneer has a HDMI connection, does this connection take place at the back of the TV or does it connect at the preamp? My reason for asking this question is because I believe the Sony HD Tuner is connected to what I further believe is the only HDMI connector on the back of the TV.

2: Is investing, this Pioneer is around $650, in a SACD worth it at this point? Especailly considering that major changes to this format could make these units obsolete. Lastly, I am told the lower the D/A Converter number the better the picture quality....Is this true?


thanks for any help and if you have recommendations on other players, I would be interested in knowing.

happy holidays!

Dave

I guess I'm a bit confused about why this is posted on the Outlaw forums. There isn't any Outlaw equipment listed in your signal path.

Also, for the money, you might consider the Denon 2910 rather than the Pioneer.

Cheers,

Hi Ritz thanks for the response.

I did not see under "Tips and Tricks" where it says only for those who own Outlaw Equipment, which by the way I do by the way, need apply.

I probably should have listed what Outlaw equipment I do own before I posted the question, perhaps that would have allowed me to pass go and collect my $200 bucks.

Sorry it took up your time.

It's true that Dave doesn't have any Outlaw gear listed in his post, but there's always the future... We have never made ownership of Outlaw gear a pre-requisite for hanging around the saloon.

The Pioneer 59AVi has an HDMI output, but it doesn't say what version of HDMI it is (although I suspect it may be v1.0 since the specs don't mention carrying DVD-Audio over HDMI, which v1.1 supports). That's not too big a deal in your case, actually, since the AVM-20 has not HDMI input - HDMI can carry audio as well as video, but in your case you're going to want to use it for video only. The benefit to using that HDMI output (connected straight to your HDTV, assuming it has an HDMI or DVI input) is that the player will upsample the video to an HD resolution. It's not true HD (still comes from a 480i source), but it can look real nice. You'll still run a coaxial or optical cable to the AVM-20 as well as the multichannel analog audio cables for DVD-Audio and SACD.

If you want to stay with a universal player (DVD-Audio and SACD) and are willing to go back to Denon, the 2910 that Ritz suggests is a good option - it is quite a bit less money and actually scored slightly higher than the 59AVi in the Secrets benchmarks. Do you have many DVD-Audio or SACD discs in your library? If you haven't started investing in either format heavily, you might consider going with a more basic player.

I have the Pioneer 79avi. I replaced a Denon 2910 because I had really bad macroblocking issues with it on my DLP. A lot of people really like the 2910 but it depends on your display as to whether or not the MB bug will bite you.
The Pioneer PQ so far is outstanding and the sound quality is superior to the 2910 IMO. BUT..if you can get the 2910 and find it works well with your set, you will be very happy with it. The worst that can happen is that you return it if you see any macroblocking. Good luck.

Hah. I didn't mean it like that. Usually a question like that prefaces a "how do I make this work with my Outlaw XYZ" question. 8-)

Hi Gonk, thanks for your insight with regards to my question. Can you tell me the difference between HDMI v1.1 and v1.2?

By the way, the LFM2 is working great in my system, thanks for the advice on setting this up.

dave

HDMI v1.1 is what is currently on most equipment - it supports Dolby Digital, DTS, multichannel PCM (which is how Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD, and Dolby TrueHD will be output from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players after being decoded from the original bitstream), and DVD-Audio digital transmission. HDMI v1.2 was announced several months ago and adds support for SACD digital transmission.

What Problems are you having with the 2900? When properly calibrated it is one of the best looking 480p pictures available.Unless there is something seriously wrong with it I would wait for true hd players to become available. my friend has an oppo and next to my 2900 the picture is negligable. the 2900 also is regarded as an outstanding dvd-audio sacd player.just my .02

Hi DNicely1, sorry for the rather long delay in replying to your post.

My 2900 has a "clicking" noise and it only happens when I am vewing DVD's. I contacted the company who installed and set up my HT system and basically they are taking the approach that the unit is about 2 years old so, SOL.

I do agree with you that I will wait for the arrival of HD DVD players and just learn to live with the clicking noise.

thanks for you input

Dave