You do not have a unit with glitches, you have a defective player. Considering the huge number of units a company the size of Yamaha produces, it doesn't suprise me that a few fail. What matters is how they and your dealer respond to your problem. I appreciate you taking the time to post such a lengthy review, but it is meaningless given the fact that your player is malfuctioning. With the problems you reported it is not unreasonable to think that even though they don't have a symptom as pronounced as the popping you report, that other parameters of the unit may be affected by whatever is causing these problems. I suggest getting it repaired or replaced with a properly functioning unit and reporting back. It is unfair to Yamaha to review a clearly defective component.
Review: Yamaha S1500 universal disc player CD Player
Category: Digital
I was attracted to this reasonably priced "universal" player on static display in the Yamaha room at the Stereophile show in NYC in May 2004. Impressed I was with its rather good build standard. It had an all metal cabinet with a real aluminum front panel. The rear apron sported a detachable power cord and all gold pins. Clearly, Yamaha was looking for the audiophile crowd with this one.
The unit was promised to be available in June but didn't appear until September 2004. My retailer told me I had one of the first built units.
I wish I could tell you that this is the answer to your affordable hi-rez dreams. It isn't. But it could be -- if the thing only worked right!
First up, allow me to extoll the absolutely terrific picture quality this player posseses. I expected a slightly improved image over my five year old Panasonic. What I got was immensely better color accuracy, edge sharpness, and shadow detail. What I didn't get was ergonomics. To fast forward you must press down on the chapter advance button for two seconds. Although Yamaha says in the owner's manual you can access slow motion by pressing on the directional arrow buttons, it did not work with my unit. The only way to go slo-mo is to go through the on-screen display mode. Not acceptable! Clearly, there is something amiss with my unit.
Now, on to the sound.
Another selling point is cd upsampling. I could detect no difference playing redbook cds with or without upsampling. There may be an improvement but I just did not listen at length. Perhaps long term comparitive tests would show a benefit. Still, a good feature to have.
Overall, cd sound is nice. Bass has good weight, treble is clean and extended, midrange is smooth and clear. It's quite OK but, in no way, does it beat my Denon DCD-1650AR cd player. In comparison, the Denon outperforms it handily in soundstaging, depth of field, with lots more air.
OK, on to hi-rez.
The unit I'm distressed to say does not work properly. On DVD-A, the S1500 makes huge popping sounds when normally advancing from track to track.. Any pause, stop, track advance will put some serious noise into your woofers. On SACD, there is no popping from track to track but it'll happen when you pause, track advance, or stop. Bummer!Sound quality in hi-rez formats is quite good but I think I still prefer my Denon. Playing the Rolling Stones hybrid sacds appealed more to me in Denon redbook than in S1500 hi-rez. Overall, I'm not convinced that DVD-A and SACD are better than a newly remastered "redbook" cd in a topnotch cd player. A minor irritant is automatic commencement of playback. As soon as a disc is read, it begins playback. I hate that!
So, soon to Yamaha this will go back. If they can get the glitches out, the S1500 offers superb video performance, credible (good enough for many) cd sound, and good hi-rez for a very reasonable price. My advice is to check it out. If you buy, check to see if these glitches plague your unit. Yamaha needs to ramp up their quality control, or get a Mk.II on the market pronto.
So, friends, I'll post a follow-up when Yamaha fixes it.
Associated gear
Denon DCD-1650AR cd player
Audible Illusions L1 linestage
Music Reference RM9 amp
Acoustat 1+1 speakers
Onyko T-9090 MkII tuner
Similar products
Old Panasonic A120U dvd player.
I was attracted to this reasonably priced "universal" player on static display in the Yamaha room at the Stereophile show in NYC in May 2004. Impressed I was with its rather good build standard. It had an all metal cabinet with a real aluminum front panel. The rear apron sported a detachable power cord and all gold pins. Clearly, Yamaha was looking for the audiophile crowd with this one.
The unit was promised to be available in June but didn't appear until September 2004. My retailer told me I had one of the first built units.
I wish I could tell you that this is the answer to your affordable hi-rez dreams. It isn't. But it could be -- if the thing only worked right!
First up, allow me to extoll the absolutely terrific picture quality this player posseses. I expected a slightly improved image over my five year old Panasonic. What I got was immensely better color accuracy, edge sharpness, and shadow detail. What I didn't get was ergonomics. To fast forward you must press down on the chapter advance button for two seconds. Although Yamaha says in the owner's manual you can access slow motion by pressing on the directional arrow buttons, it did not work with my unit. The only way to go slo-mo is to go through the on-screen display mode. Not acceptable! Clearly, there is something amiss with my unit.
Now, on to the sound.
Another selling point is cd upsampling. I could detect no difference playing redbook cds with or without upsampling. There may be an improvement but I just did not listen at length. Perhaps long term comparitive tests would show a benefit. Still, a good feature to have.
Overall, cd sound is nice. Bass has good weight, treble is clean and extended, midrange is smooth and clear. It's quite OK but, in no way, does it beat my Denon DCD-1650AR cd player. In comparison, the Denon outperforms it handily in soundstaging, depth of field, with lots more air.
OK, on to hi-rez.
The unit I'm distressed to say does not work properly. On DVD-A, the S1500 makes huge popping sounds when normally advancing from track to track.. Any pause, stop, track advance will put some serious noise into your woofers. On SACD, there is no popping from track to track but it'll happen when you pause, track advance, or stop. Bummer!Sound quality in hi-rez formats is quite good but I think I still prefer my Denon. Playing the Rolling Stones hybrid sacds appealed more to me in Denon redbook than in S1500 hi-rez. Overall, I'm not convinced that DVD-A and SACD are better than a newly remastered "redbook" cd in a topnotch cd player. A minor irritant is automatic commencement of playback. As soon as a disc is read, it begins playback. I hate that!
So, soon to Yamaha this will go back. If they can get the glitches out, the S1500 offers superb video performance, credible (good enough for many) cd sound, and good hi-rez for a very reasonable price. My advice is to check it out. If you buy, check to see if these glitches plague your unit. Yamaha needs to ramp up their quality control, or get a Mk.II on the market pronto.
So, friends, I'll post a follow-up when Yamaha fixes it.
Associated gear
Denon DCD-1650AR cd player
Audible Illusions L1 linestage
Music Reference RM9 amp
Acoustat 1+1 speakers
Onyko T-9090 MkII tuner
Similar products
Old Panasonic A120U dvd player.