About Electronics

Akihabara News: Announced earlier this year in Europe and North America and widely available overseas since this summer, the DBP-1611UD, Denon latest 3D Universal Blu-Ray player will finally be available in Japan within this month (December).

Supporting BD, DVD, CD as well as DVD-Audio and SACD disks, the DBP-1611UD comes also with the support of DivX Plus HD, AVCHD, DLNA, YouTube, Netflix (for the USA), as well as the usual MP3 and WMA file support.

The DBP-1611UD will be sold in Japan at around 52,000 Yen MSRP.

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NewLaunches: Here’s a fresh product for all those who belong to the CD generation. Marantz presents the latest CD player, the SA-15S2.

Except looks, this one has nothing common from the original Series Two player. Tweaked with better features and components to dole out outstanding acoustic pleasure, this one takes cues from the flagship 5,000 GBP Sa-7S1.

This top-quality disc spinner comes with improved power supply for better sound quality. It is also fitted with a display off function which is meant to minimize high frequency noise interference. Inside the aluminum casing, you can find the newly developed SACD-M10 mechanism that serves a superb sound quality with faultless depth.

It is the first SACD player in the Marantz Premium series that can also play MP3 and WMA files in addition to conventional CDs and SACDs.

Furthermore to deliver superior sound quality, HDAM and HDAM-SA2 technologies are used in the analogue audio circuit. This along with the CS4398 D/A Converter from Cirrus Logic, promises exceptional dynamic and detailed acoustic indulgence.

It is also provided with a digital (optical) input. This means, users can connect a DVD player, Music server, PC or any other source appliance with a digital optical output. All this for just 1,700 GBP (€1,900).

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EngadgetHD: Sure, Blu-ray has its Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA formats to satisfy the audiophiles, but Onkyo has apparently decided that there are still enough US audiophiles to warrant the release of gear previously labeled “Japan-only.”

With Wolfson DACs and a thermally regulated data clock circuit (you know, to tame those nasty jitters), the $599 (€419) C-S5VL SACD deck is ready to tackle your small but irreplaceable library of discs.

Pair it up with the $699 (€489) A-5VL integrated amp and transport yourself back to a time when you didn’t worry about specs — 40-Watts across two channels, Burr-Brown DACs, and a low-noise preamplifier section should make for a killer small room/office system; and if you’re anything close to mainstream, a small room or office is exactly where music listening has been pushed to. Grab the “sweet spot” chair and indulge!

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CNet: How much difference can a single screw make? If you ask the golden-eared engineers at Air Studios, they’ll tell you a fascinating story about one in particular. The component in question is to be found on the back of Pioneer’s new SACD player, the PD-D9MK2, and its replacement was crucial in the D9MK2 getting its Air Studios certification.

The Pioneer-Air connection originally came about because Pioneer part-owned Air for several years — it sold it to another studio a few years ago, but the strong relationship remains — and used this connection to improve its audio equipment.

The two companies collaborated on making audio equipment that sounded great and was tweaked to perfection by the golden ears of Air’s engineers. This relationship involves Pioneer sending over every piece of hardware it wants to have the Air logo on, and having it potentially torn to bits in the quest for even better sound.

Even tiny things can make a difference, according to Air’s technical manager Tim Vine-Lott. Each new piece of hardware that comes in is tested thoroughly, and if anything sounds slightly off it gets taken to pieces to find out why.

In the past, bits of twisted cable have thrown the sound out of whack and had to be yanked out. In fact, talking to the audiophiles at Air can make you very self-conscious about your own audio equipment. After all, most hi-fi equipment seems to be made out of insubstantial scraps of metal and fairly unimpressive screws.

The single problem screw on the D9MK2 sat near the power supply and was apparently making the whole thing sound ‘wrong’. The solution? Take the screw out and replace it with one that had a serrated washer.

It might sound reasonably simple, but almost certainly wouldn’t occur to most of us — that’s if we even had ears good enough to hear the problem in the first place. Discovering the wrong screw was being used isn’t something that comes cheap.

Studio time at Air is pricey, and factoring in the time of Pioneer’s engineers, their flights over to the UK and all the other little extras, you can see how replacing one screw becomes a seriously expensive process. There is one obvious problem though. If the type of screw matters so much, what happens if one works its way loose over time, or if you take it in for repair and the screw gets swapped for a different one? Well, all anyone could advise was that you’re very careful about who fixes your Air-tuned kit, and that you check all the screws once you get your SACD player back.

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TechDigest: If you’ve got a spare £5,500 (€6,392) lying about then you can think about buying the Marantz’s UD9004 Blu-ray and SACD player. If you haven’t, well, join the club.

So what exactly can you expect from your £5,500? Well, the UD9004 is a fusion of the flagship SA-7S1 Super Audio CD player and the very best of the company’s Blu-ray technology. In other words, this is an absolute beast of a Blu-ray / SACD player.

It has a Silicon Optix Realta chip that offers the very finest broadcast quality video processing, including pixel-by-pixel conversion, 1080p upscaling by a 10bit process for standard definition images, detail enhancement, digital noise reduction and high-end analogue video output.

You can even run the audio and video via separate HDMI connections just for that extra bit of quality. For audiophiles there is 32-bit floating point type Analog Devices DSP for the purist audio imaginable with four separate circuit boards and a pure direct mode that shuts down the video playing elements to deliver exceptional, focused audio output.

The machine is built like a tank which will reduce mechanical distortion. The extensively braced chassis has a thick bottom plate with machine milled copper feet, sustaining mechanical stability and therefore sound quality.

It weighs an incredible 19.2kg. So, if you’ve read this post to its conclusion you’re obviously still interested. Go get yourself one from Marantz. If you’re feeling particularly flush – and let’s face it, you should be if you’re about to shell out over five grand for a Blu-ray player – order me one too.

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Akihabaranews: Pioneer Japan will start selling 3 new DVD and SACD player later this may and july with the :

DV-610AV, which feature an HDMI output, upscaling, SACD, DSD, USB port, and CD to USB recording. Our player also support the following media : WMV, WMA, MPEG-4 AAC, MP3, DivX, DivX Ultra and JPEG

FV-410AV, also feature an HDMI output with upscaling, no SACD an USB port and support the following media : WMV, WMA, MPEG-4 AAC, MP3, DivX and JPEG

DV-310 with no HDMI and no upscaling, no SACD, no CD to USB recording, but a simple USB port and support the following media : WMA, MPEG-4 AAC, MP3, JPEG, and DivX

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Electronista: Sony has made a surprise expansion of its Xplod head units through the XAV-W1 in the States.

Marking two firsts at once, the W1 is both the first in-dash SACD player from Sony as well as the company’s first large visual jukebox for cars.

Owners with both the special disc format and a compatible audio system can listen to music in 5.1 surround; stereo is also available for regular CDs as well as MP3/WMA tracks.

The same optical drive includes DVD support for movies (including DVD-R discs) viewed on the built-in 7-inch touchscreen, complete with either Dolby or DTS sound with surround audio systems. Optionally, owners can also attach and control an iPod or add tuners for HD Radio and satellite radio.

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AV zombie: Sony’s upcoming second generation Blu-ray player, due later this year, will offer CD playback but not hi-resolution audio. The lack of CD playback on the current BDP-S1 has led to some sharp criticism of the unit from reviewers, which Sony is keen to address. However, the model (pictured), currently known only by its Sapphire codename, will not be able to play Super Audio CDs. “It’s all down to the cost of implementing the functionality,” said a spokesman.

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Akihabara: TEAC offers an incredible product range! The Esoteric range has the UX-3 Pi, a universal DVD player supporting SACD, video and audio DVDs. It has an HDMI 1.3 output, a D4 and a Firewire port.

But it costs €5,375.

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AV Zombie: You may not be able to find them readily in stores, but the Super Audio CD (SACD) catalogue now boasts 4,000 titles.

Predictably, the biggest supplier of SACD’s is SonyBMG. Despite a failure to capture the public imagination, Sony says it is committed to popularizing the format.

“We continue to introduce an ever expanding range of players in a number of categories,” says Yushi Igarashi, General Manager, of Sony Audio’s Super Audio CD Project.

“We have integrated DSD audio processing within the Sony VAIO PC range and Super Audio CD will be a standard playback feature within PlayStation 3.”

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