Sony DVD 7700 or Denon 5000 ??

I did quite a bit of research into DVD as audio and the reviews concensus seemed to be that the Denon 5000 was the best sounding of the top shelf DVD players followed by the Pioneer then the Sony. This was last January. I did purchase a DVD 5000 intending to use it as a DVD and CD player. At the time, I also had a Wadia 830(a 3500 U.S made player) and a Sony XA7ES (Sonys old $3000 reference player). I found that the DVD player was not even close to the two CD players in sonics. The Denon's sonics were excellent, but more along the lines of a 500-1000 mass market CD player. The Denon 1650 is a good example of this sound. The DVD5000 is a little better than the 1650. I ended up selling the Denon because I never used it. For video, I just used my S-VHS VCR and my 400 line digital satellite dish. You can find some review research on these players at www.audioreview.com, and off of the yahoo shopping page. The yahoo shopping page is a good way to price shop for a new one.

I bought the Denon on ebay a couple weeks ago after doing significant research on the Sony and the Pioneer, and also Meridian's product. I came to the same conclusions that you did, John. However, I have not had the opportunity of comparing the Denon with better CD only players since my system has been and is analogue based. John, do you think the difference between the Denon 5000 and say the Sony XA7ES is merely digital to analogue converters? Did you also tried the Denon, or any other CD transport with an out board converter, such as those from MSB?

Bookner, I believe that the major difference in the analogue output. I suspect that the Sony has a better drive mechanism too. The Sony XA7ES is one of the best built CD player's I've ever seen - heavy, 1mm thick copper case, all metal with a weight that you put on the CD to help it spin true. Since my last post I had an opportunity to compare it to the Adcom GCD-750, and thought it bettered that too. The Adcom's not bad though. I recently purchased a Sony DVP-S7700 (they're getting cheap now), and I think it's sonics are just ok for music. Great for movies though. It's interesting that my 12 year old 14 bit sonographe sd-1 cd player eats it for lunch. I plan to try an old DAC with the 7700 it to see how it sounds with that. I have heard that these 7700's make great transports. It has coax digital out.

I use Sony DVP-S7700 for movies. For 2 channel listening It does not even come close to my Low line Classe CDP.3. Not enough weight, lacks midrange clarity. It seems there is always some kind of veil no matter I use internal DAC or outboard DAC. I have not heard the Denon, but atleast I wanted to tell you the opinion on the Sony.

Just to ans a previous question re outboard dac from bookner,or any one interested:I admit to owning the middle player:Pioneer dv-09.Using Theata 5a/24/96/dac w/ Ill d60/in&out: For cds,-lacks everything the other players lack/but compared to data3- really lacks bass/dynamics;but awesome on dvds/picture&sound.Glad to hear(read on my screen) the truth I always understood about dvd players as cd transports. Maybe the Ayre dv1, or some of the over 5grand dvd players, are great as both.