Best CD sound from a DVD player

Thedautch - ya.. I think the DV8300 uses the CS4392 DAC vs. the CS4397 (SA-1). However, I do not know what DAC Marantz uses in the SA14 - it might be the CS4392.

The 8300 is definately a tier two product in the Marantz linup but then again, people have had good results modifying Sony's lower end SACD players and DVP9000ES units.

In this regard, Sony SCD-1, 777ES, and XA777ES absolutely kill the 9000ES but we don't read about many 9000ES owners complaining.

So - maybe the DV8300 is a good candidate for mod. While its SACD / CD performance might not be up to the level of the top tier SACD units, it has capabilities that these players can only dream about.

BWhite--I agree with your comments about modding the unit, and I look forward to the ability to purchase a DV-8300 for myself. (The next question would be which receiver to buy, since separates will be out of my league, but I'll need a level of fidelity high enough to take advantage of the 8300's hi-rez formats in the first place). All this inspite of the fact that I've seen the 8300's little brother, the Pioneer DV-47Ai, on sale for just $730. Tempting, but I think I'd rather have the 8300.

McIntosh has a nice CD/DVD player if you have a dealer nearby.

I would have to concur - the MVP851 is a superb CD player and DVD player as well. It has dual discrete pickups, separate DACs for Redbook CD, and DVD, and it also plays DVD-Audio discs including multi-channel titles. For $3500 it's really hard to argue with.

Goldmund was also supposed to release a multiformat player in late august. This has been a little bit postponed, and the new release date would be in November this year.

what I don't know is : will this multiformat player include 24/192 chips for dvd-audio ? will it also include a pure DSD chip (that means no conversion DSD > PCM) ? how will be the quality of video ?

according to what i've seen with their current cd-dvd player (the easy dvd), the CD quality is outstanding, warm, powerful, precise and natural (but you have to use an externel DAC, the easy dvd is only a drive). The video quality is processed using a Silicon Image chip, workin at 14bits/108mHz and is also outstanding. It contains three power supplies and eight regulations (I don't know if this is the exact term), meaning that they have one power supply per type of data processing, etc, etc....

its price in France is about 3.500 euros (but you have to add an external DAC), and the new multiformat player should be around 4.000 euros. This gives to this machine a lot of arguments to be a killer, especially knowing the reputation of Goldmund.