Philips 963SA, Marantz DV8300, Ayre CX-7 Comparisons
Mar 16, 2003 at 1:30 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 6

john_jcb

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We tested the following 3 players today with some surprising results.

The setup we will be using is as follows:

Players: Philips DVD-963SA Redbook & SACD
Marantz DV8300 Redbook, SACD, DVD-A
Ayre CX-7 Redbook

Interconnects: Audio Quest copperheads to a

Krell Showcase Processor

Interconnect: Audio Quest Corals (balanced) to a

Amp: Theta Dreadnought

Speaker connections: Bi-wire oxygen free copper 10ga

Speakers: Martin Logan Requests

Velodyne Subwoofer

Philips 963SA ($400) and Ayre CX-7 ($3000)

We started out listening to the Norah Jones CD Come away with me. This is an excellent CD and very well recorded. With the Ayre he voice seemed to float between the two speakers with instruments on either side. Every nuance in the performance was accurately reproduced. I think this contributed to the tremendous soundstage.

We then switched to the Philips. There was a small decrease in detail and the soundstage was a little less defined. I did find that the CD was more pleasant to listen to. I felt that the detail took away from the musicality of the CD. We listened to the CD several times and I came away preferring the Philips.

We repeated the same tests using a Chesky recording Sara K, No Cover. On this CD the highs and low were more defined with the Ayre. On track 7 there is a string bass section at the end and the Ayre was more accurate. You could hear his fingers slip from each string. Here I gave the Ayre the nod.

Next we put in Led Zeppelin BBC sessions. This was probably the poorest recording of all we listened too. With this recording the Philips was overly bright especially during the guitar riffs. We switched to the Ayre and the harshness disappeared. It was a pleasure to listen to.

I would say the Ayre was the winner here but not by as much as I would of thought. I want to spend some time with the Cosmic and the 963SA with headphones listening to Led Zeppelin.

We repeated the tests with the Marantz ($1400) against the 963SA.

These 2 were far closer. He uses the Marantz for SACD and DVD-A and DVD. The SACD we tried was from the Indigo Girls. To my ears it was very close. The Philips does not play DVD-A. The redbook was also too close to call with the time we had.

Well I came away quite pleased with the Philips player. I need to do some more listening with rock music. His system is fantastic one of the best I have ever heard. To top it off he has a HD projector onto a 100" screen. Better than anything I have seen in the stores. We watched some hockey and I have never seen the puck so clearly.
 
Mar 16, 2003 at 6:51 AM Post #2 of 6
John,

Don't you just hate it when a $500 player gives the much more expensive players a run for the money? It's almost too difficult to explain to most folks and sometimes is hard to comprehend yourself.Philips has clearly hit a homerun with the 963SA.I really do like it a lot and feel it is far and away the best value in digital right now.I hav a chance to audition the Yamaha 2300 a few weeks ago and I'll post some thoughts on it when I get home.I don't want to spoil the read,but the Philips remains the best value.

How were the Martin Logans? Was the sweetspot large or small?
I had a pair before I had acoustic treatments in my room and they were pure torture.After I rebuilt the room with extensive treatments(you'll see at the meet) I borrowed a set of Innersound Electrostats and they sounded great.Did your friend have have acoustic treatments at all?
Where did he place the Subwoofer in relation to the transducer panels on the loudspeakers?My experience directs me to place the woofer somewhere in front of the panels.A rear placement tends to force strange soundstage dynamics due to the bass arriving to your ears really late.

How did you like the Theta amp?I am strongly considering doing a multi-channel DVD-A /SACD system and the Dreadnought is one of the amps I want to try.
 
Mar 18, 2003 at 9:55 PM Post #3 of 6
Sorry for the delay in my reply, I am in Florida (working). THe Dreadnaught is a great amp. He has far more experience than me and after many an audition and owning several others he settled on it.

He has the room set up for surround sound and TV viewing. He has a couch right in the prime listening and viewing spot. I listened sitting perfectly centered and really didn't move around. He did tell me a while back that if he did not have such a large screen he would move the speakers a little closer together.

The subwoffer is located in the center in line between the speakers. The centerchannel speaker is above it. For surround he also has side and back speakers.

See you soon and take care.
 
Mar 20, 2003 at 3:26 PM Post #4 of 6
Fred
About the acoustic treatments, I talked to him about it and he does not have any. What he did find is that the the speakers are best when away from the walls. He has them about 4 feet from the nearest wall. He also said that if the screen wasn't over 100 inches he would move them a little closer together.
 
Mar 20, 2003 at 5:35 PM Post #6 of 6
Quote:

Originally posted by aeberbach
Fred, I'm sure you know the Arcam FMJ CD23. In your opinion does the 963sa come close to or surpass this unit?


I sold two FMJCD23s and no the 963SA does not appraoch the killer bass of the Arcam but the trebel detail and midrange are actually better with the 963SA.I'm sure John can elaborate about the outstanding treble on the Philips.This is the strongest performance of the 963 when stacked against the top redbook and SACD players.

I have found that when CDs sound harsh when playing on the 963,it is advantagous to turn off the upsampling.The Arcams are still the best sounding non-upsampling redbook players I have personally heard.
 

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