[music_man]

philips dvp-642 dvd player.

i got this per the recomendation of mrarroyo. it is $49.99 at circuit city. it is the best(current usa) philips dvd player for playing cd's by far in my opinion. much better than the new toshibas which are not as good as the old ones. put it this way. this is $50, my pioneer dv-45a is $400. it should be the other way around! but it is not, and therefore i love this! thank you for the heads up mrarroyo.

this unit spins up fast. it is quiet when it is running. it has a heavy drawer reminiscent of the high end philips transport found in $1,000 players.
it has almost no jitter. the remote is simple and well built. it actually displays all cd functions on the front led(like repeat)! no other $50 player i am aware of does this. it even had very high quality isolation feet(the pioneer looks like it has big feet but they are hard plastic). as long as you are using a dac this should rival any dvd transport. i would not use the built in dac. it locks to any of my dacs better than any dvd player i have. of course $1,000 cd players will still beat it, but what do you want for $50? the only thing i miss on the pioneer is that it does not load a disc to stop, it loads only to play. only pioneer loads to stop. even the high end denon and sonys if i remember load to play(correct me if i am wrong). the only other small drawback is it skips on scratched or dirty cd's where some other players will play through. just take care of your cd's and this will work great.

this is a serious bargain so i wanted to get the word out.

music_man

 

[hciman77]

Old News old chum ! - but this is a fine player and replaced my NADC542 as my everyday player - try as I might I cannot really tell a difference and given the price differential - well golly !. However before we get carried away it is known to have some serious long term reliability issues but hey at that price you could buy one a year

Mine is very quiet - and I sit 2 feet away from it - but several comments on Amazon refer to very noisy transports - perhaps we were just lucky.

 

[mrarroyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hciman77 Old News old chum ! - but this is a fine player and replaced my NADC542 as my everyday player - try as I might I cannot really tell a difference and given the price differential - well golly !. However before we get carried away it is known to have some serious long term reliability issues but hey at that price you could buy one a year Mine is very quiet - and I sit 2 feet away from it - but several comments on Amazon refer to very noisy transports - perhaps we were just lucky.

And I learned about the DVP642 from you! Hey we closed the circle.

 

[skullguise]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo And I learned about the DVP642 from you! Hey we closed the circle.

Does that mean no one else can get one now??!!

Thanks for the info. I SLIGHTLY remembered this, but forgot the exact model......

 

[jpelg]

Pros:
- Dirt cheap
- region-free DVD play
- optical output (getting rarer in home units these days)
- fast disc spinup
- upsamples thru component-video, S-video, or standard composite-video outputs (also rare in home units these days)
- way cheap (did I already mention that?

)

Cons:
- remote sucks, very counter intuitive
- no play controls on unit
- video quality is just so-so despite all supposed video features (*shrug*).

Overall construction is pretty cheap. I don't think the drawer is anywhere near what the classic Pioneer units were. But I don't expect much at this pricepoint. It's a decent, cheap transport for a good DAC with high jitter control (Benchmark DAC1, Apogee Mini-DAC, etc). Works well connected optically to my HT receiver, but the sound from the analog outputs doesn't come close to my headphone-system source.

Pick up an extra one just for backup

!

 

[fewtch]

I got one plugged into my TV set as a (second) DVD player. Seems a crime to waste its myriad features on "just" CD playback. However I've never been impressed at all by its video quality, which is incredibly ho-hum IMO (in fact slightly on the crappy side if you ask me). The drawer is only conceivably "heavy" when compared to the paper-thin ones on certain other cheap DVD players... it's only about 1/3 to 1/4 as sturdy as the Philips transports of yore (I should know, I own a Rotel RCD-855). Overall, I think it's a very mediocre DVD player, saved only by its many features. Maybe the CD playback is better, I dunno... sure is ugly though looks-wise.

 

[music_man]

i do not care what it does as a dvd player. mine will never see a tv.

i stayed up all night modding it. lol.

i replaced all power caps with bigger better spec. i replaced the xformer with a larger copper unit. i replaced the clock chip and covered it in blue tack. i replaced the fuse with ceramic. i replaced the power resistors with vishay's. i replaced the spdif jack with a gold one and point to point wired it to the pcb with silver wire. i added a iec jack. i replaced the transport grommets with sorbothane ones(which required drilling larger holes in the bracket).
i added dynamat to the interior top and sides. closed up the unit and installed vibrapods.

total investment $$300(including the player), not including shunyata power cable.

here we have a $2,000 redbook transport for $300! this should be no surprise, as many folks did this to the toshiba. my problem is i did not see the quality in the toshiba so i used this as a platform for modification.

i am going to trade my music hall maverick at the stereo store today for gs1000's. i no longer need it now! seriously. i have much better transports anyway. the music hall was average considering it's price.

obviously this must be hooked up to an outboard dac. my new clock feeds 24/192 to the spdif even though the firmware still says 96. i now have clean power and low jitter straight to the dac.

today i will go buy two more of these players as backups. since i hear the transport does not last. after i spent 11 hours on this (i like to take my time- mr. rogers). i need some spare parts in case of failure since with these cheap transports the design gets changed every six months and the same parts are no longer available. if you take the time and money to mod any $50 player i suggest you do the same(get backups).

i don't have to do a whole review of how it sounds(?). let's just say stock it sounded better than $50, modded it sounds better than $300. oh heck, it sounds better than $2,000. i do not know why reference audio mods does not offer this unit for folks that do not know which end of a soldering station is which. this is a much better platform than the toshiba or pioneer imho.
this thing was made for redbook, hence the repeat function actually displays on the led! it spins up faster than the krell sacd player too.

of course, the drawer is not the weight of the classic philips transport. since i mentioned the krell, it is as heavy as that one and there is just a little bit of a price difference. so go figure. i would be more concerned about the motor anyways. all the drawer does it suck in and spit out the cd. at least it is not the paper thin one found every where else these days.

about the remote: just replace it with a good $30 universal. problem solved.

i am a happy camper now (unusual for me). see the presonus central station thread if you wish. these two components, a shunyata powr cord(the cheap one of course) a monster spdif cable(the good one, still cheap), and the k701's. total investment: 1 grand. for a reference quality system!

music_man

 

[mrarroyo]

I think some of you are being over critical of this unit. I personally am very happy with the rca outputs feeding my headphone amp. It so happens I got me a DAC and now the DVP642 is functioning as a transport only, however the sound is very good. At +/-$52 delivered it is a major bargain.

 

[Sovkiller]

And for 9.99 extra you extend the warranty for two years, not bad at all....if it has some reliability issues as we ahve heard at least we get our money back...

 

[music_man]

i was just going to ask you how you extend the warranty. then i realised i won't be able to do that after i just completely reengineered mine lol.

there is absolutely nothing to be critical of after i modded mine for a total of $300. like i said it was good enough to favor it over a mh maverick. for redbook to a dac, upsampled to 24/192 i cannot tell a difference between this and the krell either. the mark levinson.... well it is mark levinson so i won't even go there. either way, modded or stock you really don't need to go much further than this unit if at all. everyone buys the pioneer elite for redbook. actually with a dac the philips is going to be better than the pioneer for redbook beleive it or not completely stock. the pioneer excells at video. it will kill the philips in that area. but we here are audiophiles not videophiles so in that respect the philips can really haul it's weight(4.4 pounds to be exact). don't let that fool you either, their is probably a brick in that pioneer haha.

the sony 9000es, that is also a different story. that is more worth the money than the krell and on clearance right now for $1,500(half price). it is also a bargain in it's own respect(at half price of course). that one is a legitimate 36 pounds if weight speaks of quality(it does not nescesarily however).

music_man

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by music_man i was just going to ask you how you extend the warranty. then i realised i won't be able to do that after i just completely reengineered mine lol. there is absolutely nothing to be critical of after i modded mine for a total of $300. like i said it was good enough to favor it over a mh maverick. for redbook to a dac, upsampled to 24/192 i cannot tell a difference between this and the krell either. the mark levinson.... well it is mark levinson so i won't even go there. either way, modded or stock you really don't need to go much further than this unit if at all. everyone buys the pioneer elite for redbook. actually with a dac the philips is going to be better than the pioneer for redbook beleive it or not completely stock. the pioneer excells at video. it will kill the philips in that area. but we here are audiophiles not videophiles so in that respect the philips can really haul it's weight(4.4 pounds to be exact). don't let that fool you either, their is probably a brick in that pioneer haha. the sony 9000es, that is also a different story. that is more worth the money than the krell and on clearance right now for $1,500(half price). it is also a bargain in it's own respect(at half price of course). that one is a legitimate 36 pounds if weight speaks of quality(it does not nescesarily however). music_man

I think that you may find a better base player to mod than this 49.00 one if you want to go that route, IMO this player is good for what it is, a cheap one, a player to have in the bedroom, office etc... but not in my main rig modded or not....BTW you cna get the 555ES that is exactly the same player electronically talking than the 9000ES for a fraction of that cost...I got one and absolutelly love it....even thinking in getting another as spare, as it was discontnued, every time Sony has something good, the next thing they do is discontinue it, what's wrong with those guys???

 

[music_man]

why don't you think it is worth modding? i guess that does not matter to me now anyways.

i found the toshiba 3990 to be junk. i can no longer get the 3950,60,80.

did you actually open it and look? all these cheap players are either zoran or ess. this one is ess. the transport in this one is made by philips and is better than any of the $50 players i have seen. so it seemed to me to be a great base for modding. it was good to start and modded like i said it is comparable to the krell for redbook only when used with a high quality jitter reduction dac. as i also mentioned if drawers mean anything to you, the krells is not any more robust than the philips. look at the price of the krell. sure, it is better built all the way around and will obviously outlast the philips by 20 years. but if the philips is about as good only as a redbook transport and i can buy 50 of them for the price of the krell it does not matter to me. the krell is also on discount here. it seems that cheap audio is creeping in and the expensive stuff many retailers are now having to clearance to compete. with moderen advances in technology diminishing returns is hurting retailers. at least arounfd here from what i see. i would have this in my reference rig even unmodded understanding i use it with a good dac. ess and zoran do not make good dacs regardless of what player they show up in. the current toshiba is junk and the old ones were not any better than this philips. this is really the only $50 redbook game in town right now. after i modded it i measured the jitter and it is below what the human ear can hear now. add to that the jitter reducing dac and i am all set.

sovkiller, we are starting to disagree all of the sudden

i am sure you are aware by now that i am listening to k701's yet again lol. with this philips player yet. don't worry i did not unload the prolines and don't plan to, but they are in the closet at the moment.

music_man

 

[music_man]

i forgot to mention that wes philips feels pretty much exactly the way i do about this. i usually go with what he says and he does not steer me wrong. i just happened to find out about this at head-fi rather than from mr. philips.

music_man

 

[Sovkiller]

Honestly I do not think that any player is worth modding, unless you do it by yourself, or for really cheap, but not the case most of the times, and what mostly those guys do is replace a few caps, a couple of OPamps, and some BS inside, but the basic working principle and topology is most of the times still the same. IMHO for the price that those guys charge for modding them, I could get another more reliable and better sounding player instead...

OTOH for sad experience I know that those cheap transports tend to fail miserably after some time using them....I'm a cheap sake looking guy myself, and I hate to waste money, and honestly and I have buried several players, just because of mechanical issues, and I have treated them very well....

I don't know what to think but if you are comparing a 50.00 player, with a Krell, not sure if you are serious or not, sorry but I will not buy that.....and sorry we will not begin to disagree, in this case we will disagree till the day I die...those transports can't be even similar, unless Krell is ripping people off by a good margin...the plastic may be similar but nothing else inside...

 

[music_man]

well you are right sovkiller. i pretty much said that. the krell is better all the way around. a lot. however, the krells drawer is a joke for a player of that caliber. a drawer is actually of little importance but in that catagory i would expect better. yes, it is a whole different world of build quality in the krell but now that i modded the philips and use a dac, side by side they sound nearly the same. i am not going by memory either. i had the philips right on top of the krell. i will admit the philips looks like a pebble on top of a boulder when it is sitting on the krell. granted, the philips may not last 6 months. i did mod it myself. i value my time also. that is why i bought two more philips' for backup parts today. the modding makes a huge difference on these cheap players. have you heard one before and after? it cost me $300($250 in parts, $50 for the player). the pioneer is more than $300 stock and has an equally crummy transport. the pioneer has the video quality. i am not using this for video. it spins up faster and is more geared towards cd's than the pioneer. it is also small enough for a night stand. you can forget about the krell on a night stand that's for sure.

modded at $300 i know there is not another stock $300 player currently made that can beat it's sound performance and probably not best it's initial build quality either. the $300 player should last longer i'd assume.

reference audio mods sells many modded machines for a reason. it is a cottage industry just like the cmoy and pimeta, etc. you cannot do better for $300 sound wise. video wise, yes $300 will do a lot better(in the pioneer).
most important though do not forget i am not using the players dac, it is garbage indeed. i have ran the spdif point to point directly to the ic. bypassing the video trash. and beleive me the video is trash, there we can agree.

on the sad note as you mentioned this replaced a dmtech(generic) player that looked to be of even better quality than the philips and lasted no less than 2 whole cd's lol.

alright, these $50 players are cheaply built. they can sound impressive stock and we do disagree that modded they can sound outstanding. where we do agree once again is that having someone else doing it with no knowledge of electronics yourself and having no spare units spells disaster when your $300 goes down the drain after 15 hours on the machine. yes, in that case spend your $300 on the pioneer. btw, they also mod the pioneer. that is a waste i'd say. now you are talking too expensive because $600 players start to get good.

music_man