Vegasears and Sean,
The Apex was designed as a mid-lo end player, the Pioneer is not. The Pioneer, and the Apex too, use separate chips for DSD and DVD decoding , so there is no problem at all doing the digital decoding properly (verified this with Pioneer at their booth). Whether the d/a conversion, clocking circuitry and output paths are up to snuff for all source types remains to be seen. However, the Pioneer is clearly aimed at high end, since they have designed in a removable power cord and room correction EQ in the separate processor. Further, they have a full year's experience and feedback after their first universal player a year ago. Let's hope that this is the beginning of a new era in hi-rez.
The Apex was designed as a mid-lo end player, the Pioneer is not. The Pioneer, and the Apex too, use separate chips for DSD and DVD decoding , so there is no problem at all doing the digital decoding properly (verified this with Pioneer at their booth). Whether the d/a conversion, clocking circuitry and output paths are up to snuff for all source types remains to be seen. However, the Pioneer is clearly aimed at high end, since they have designed in a removable power cord and room correction EQ in the separate processor. Further, they have a full year's experience and feedback after their first universal player a year ago. Let's hope that this is the beginning of a new era in hi-rez.