As a newbie, I've been constructing a small budget setup for myself, and thought I'd post my impressions of two budget players.
Pioneer DV-563A ($149.99 @ Best Buy) vs Toshiba SD-3950 ($59.99 @ Best Buy)
I. SIZE
Pioneer
Depth: 11” + 1 1/2” from power cable ~= 12.5”*
Height: 2”
Length: 16 1/2”
*minimum shelf depth is 12.5”, but you may need even more space to accommodate your interconnects
Toshiba
Depth 8 1/2” + 3/4” from power cable = 9.25”*
Height: 2 3/8”
Length: 16 7/8”
*minimum shelf depth is 9.5”, but you may need more space to accommodate your interconnects
II. OUT OF BOX EXPERIENCE
Both came with a remote, 2 AAs, documentation, and AV cables.
Pioneer
The manual says to hook it up to a television to configure the player initially, which is consists of selecting if you have a regular (4:3) aspect or widescreen television.
Toshiba
There’s nothing special to do out of the box for the Toshiba.
III. BUILD QUALITY
Pioneer
The Pioneer is solid and substantial feeling, and there is little flex if you grab/poke the middle of the player. As you can see in the pictures, the Pioneer’s faceplate is peppered with buttons. The display first flashes the media type, and then shows the track number, time code, and a playing icon.
The Pioneer relies heavily on on-screen menus, and navigating through them with the remote is my preferred method. Unfortunately, to set a disc to repeat a track or the disc, you can only access this feature through the on-screen menus. I personally don’t like this design choice, however, I’m sure many people will have this player attached to a television. The remote itself is narrower than the Toshiba, and the battery bay cover is more substantial feeling than the Toshiba’s.
Toshiba
It’s decent—pretty much about what’d you expect for $60-$80. The unit doesn’t flex if you grab at one end, at least. The player’s display is lame, in all honesty. It only shows media type (CD or DVD) and either track number or the time code, as noted by Duff138.
For me, the Toshiba’s remote is slightly more comfortable to hold, due to it’s tapered shape and larger width, but if you have small hands, you might prefer the Pioneer’s remote. The Toshiba remote groups all the most commonly used buttons at the top.
Advantage: Pioneer. The useful display and solid build are superior to the Toshiba. While the Toshiba’s layout is cleaner, the Pioneer is more informative.
IV. Sound
Test Setup:
Player->Radio Shack Fusions->Headsave Elite HL (new, but I put 100 hours on it before testing)->Sennheiser 580s (stock cable)
Test Music:
I created a test CD which covered most of my musical tastes:
Paul Schwartz, Aria 2: New Horizon. “Addio”
Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. “The King of the Golden Hall”
Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. “The Bridge of Khazad Dum”
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue “So What”
Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Best of Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong. “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.”
Norah Jones, Feels Like Home. “Creepin’ In”
Emmylous Harris, Alison Krauss, and Gillian Welch, O Brother Where Art Thou. “Didn’t Leave Nobody But the Baby”
Loreena McKennit, The Book of Secrets. “The Mummer’s Dance”
Nirvana, Nevermind “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
3 Doors Down, Away from the Sun. “Here Without You”
Outkast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. “Hey Ya”
Eminem, 8 Mile. “Lose Yourself”
I spent the past few days of listening and changing the order of the songs and the players. As I looked over my notes while writing this up, several consistent observations cropped up. My actual notes are a bit more colorful, but I’m editing all that out. There could be children reading this.
Soundstage
The Toshiba’s sound stage is noticeably larger on everything from Creepin’ In to So What to Addio. In contrast, with the Pioneer, I more conscious of the fact that I was listening to headphones; the vocals and instruments felt like they were being place in an artificially close manner (to my ears).
Bass, Mids and Treble
I feel with the Toshiba, bass could be a weak point for some, which is highlighted in passages of the Bridge of Khazad Dum with the intro of the male chorus, and, actually, could be said about every rock and hip hop track I listened to :P However, it was fine for me. The Pioneer, on the other hand, seemed a little weaker on the bass (not terrible, but could use a bit more)
The Toshiba's strength lies in the delivery of the music, and in the mids and the treble, this is where it distinguishes itself from the Pioneer.
While listening to the Pioneer, the treble drove me nuts whenever I listened to the female vocal tracks (and also with Brad Arnold, the 3 Doors Down Lead). There was definite sibilance with the Pioneer (e.g. Alison Krauss & Co: “...go to SSSSSSleep little babe…”). The Toshiba managed to avoid this sibilance without killing the treble (and mids were also smoothly delivered).
“Musicality”
I’m not really sure how to put this, but the Toshiba is just the more exciting of the two when it comes to the music. When listening to the “Bridge of Khazad Dum” on the Toshiba, I feel like the urgency in the music. Vocals are more alive and more natural sounding (e.g. even with tracks like “Hey Ya!”). When comparing the Pioneer to the Toshiba, I felt that with the 2nd and 3rd parts of Didn’t Leave Nobody But the Baby, Norah Jones, and 3 Doors Down, all of them sounded thin (and Norah sounded even more muted especially since she’s paired with Dolly Parton’s soprano). And during the violin solo in The King of the Golden Hall, I just didn’t get an emotional response while listening. All in all, the Toshiba is the more "musical".
Advantage: Toshiba.
V. ISSUES
Pioneer
1. Faint clicking noise
Like the Toshiba, there is a faint noise that can be heard while it’s reading a CD (and a SACD. I don’t have a DVDA disc yet to try it out. I’ll get one tomorrow.) However, the noise is much quieter than the Toshiba (which isn’t all that loud to begin with)
2. On screen menu reliance.
I don’t like that I have to go attach this thing to a TV before I can select repeat all (not that I would do that particularly often, but I came across this issue since I want to let these players both burn in for about 100 hours or so)
Toshiba
1. Odd clicking noise
I think the noise comes from the transport. It’s a faint noise. In a quiet room, the noise is noticeable if you’ve got the player sitting in front of you. I actually exchanged units to see if it an isolated problem, but the 2nd one makes the same noise. After poking around on-line, it seems like this problem occurs on other DVD/CD players as well. The good news is, it’s a pretty faint sound to begin with, so not only does low volume music mask the clicking, but when I put it in my cabinet, it muffles the sound.
2. Heat
I wouldn’t put anything on top of this player while it’s playing; I put a small craptacular amp on the top corner for about 10 minutes, and when I went to move the amp off the player, I found the amp was noticeably warm—on its own, the amp doesn’t get warm that quickly. However, the surrounding area on the DVD player was cool to the touch.
3. Outputs
This is not an issue for me, but it may be for some people (especially those who want to use these units as DVD players): the Toshiba only has RCA and a Digital Coxial output for sound (in contrast, the Pioneer has digital optical and coax, as well as 2 channel and 5.1 audio outputs)
Advantage: Pioneer. The Pioneer’s clicking noise is really faint, and the on-screen menus are my own preference, whereas the Toshiba’s clicking is noticeably louder and the heat is really an issue if you can’t spare the space for the Toshiba to dissipate heat properly. And then there’s all the gee whiz outputs on the Pioneer too.
VI. Verdict & Final Thoughts
Verdict: The Toshiba wins my vote. It's all about the music.
If the Pioneer was a car, it’d be a Toyota Camry—a well engineered car that does everything well, but it lacks passion. On the other hand, the Toshiba would be a Rover Mini. It’s just more fun, but it has its limitations. I’m sure if you get the Pioneer, you can and will be satisfied, but it just doesn’t do with for me. The Toshiba presents the music in a much more exciting and engaging way. Of course, if you want an DVD-A/SACD/DVD/Redbook player, there’s no contest (at least, until this summer when Toshiba releases it’s DVD-A/SACD/DVD/Redbook player that will list at $180). But when it comes down to it, it’s the quality of the Redbook playback that leads me to keep the $60 Toshiba, and save $90 for something else (like maybe some Grados, or an upgrade cable for the Senns, or some better interconnects. . .)
Edits: Picture tweaking
Budget Source Showdown
Linear Mode
