Pioneer Elite DV-47A universal DVD/CD/SACD player:
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The DV-47A has a good signal-balancing system for use with the six analog-audio outputs. DVD-A and SACD players, of course, provide only analog multichannel outputs, because of the record companies' copyright paranoia. That means the signal can't be processed in the digital domain without the receiver or processor converting it to digital and then back to analog for transmission to the speakers. That can do real damage. As a result, the DV-47A lacks circuits for managing speaker level and bass. It lets you set speaker levels for music played through the player's analog output with an onboard test tone, and that worked well, but for bass management I had to use an Outlaw ICBM.

Performance
I auditioned the DV-47A's audio side first with CDs. I've learned the hard way that it's a mistake to listen to CDs soon after playing DVD-As or SACDs. Almost invariably, the CDs disappoint. But listening to the Pioneer as a CD player, from its analog outputs, I was most impressed by its bass, which was tight, deep, and well-articulated. I listened to Stanley Clarke's If This Bass Could Talk (Portrait RK 40923), and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No.2, with André Previn and the Royal Philharmonic (Telarc CD-80113). The midrange was not quite as tight as the bass; the sound was a bit loose. And upper-midrange strings had a pronounced stridency that is characteristic of CD but is a bit less pronounced through my reference, Sony's DVP-9000ES.

Next I played some SACDs, and here I was able to do direct A/B comparisons of the DV-47A and the DVP-9000ES, though using only 2-channel material (the Sony does not offer multichannel SACD playback). I have two copies of Yo-Yo Ma's Solo (Sony Classical SS14), an incredibly sweet-sounding disc that shows off SACD's ability to deliver a smooth midrange, which is where CD often stumbles. After setting up my Lexicon MC-12 preamp-processor to deliver analog audio output from two different stereo inputs, I switched back and forth and heard a subtle but clearly noticeable difference. The Sony's rendition was warmer, richer, and more involving. The Pioneer was leaner, but both were clean, with no stridency. I may have preferred the Sony just because it's what I'm used to. One unit was not inherently better than the other; which you might prefer will be the result of your own preferences or playback system.

I didn't have another DVD-Audio player with which to compare the DV-47A, but I can tell you that I'd never heard DVD-A sound better. I listened to Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily (Elektra 62570-9), and Nikolaus Harnoncourt playing Johann Strauss with the Berlin Philharmonic (Teldec 3984-24489-0). Both sounded warm and full, with no stridency. Merchant's voice rang with rich authority and authenticity. With these 5.1-channel recordings, the soundstage was wonderfully real, transparent, and involving.

Moving to video, I had no complaints; the Pioneer was impressive with the Superbit versions of Air Force One and The Fifth Element. I was able to compare the DV-47A with the Sony, also an excellent video performer, and the Pioneer more than held its own, with sharpness and resolution a tiny bit better than the Sony's. The DV-47A excelled on the Avia test DVD's 100- and 200-line resolution charts, and fully and clearly resolved all the charts offered; the Sony's color rendition was a bit better, with somewhat richer reds. But both of these parameters can be adjusted on both players, so it's hard to recommend the video performance of one over the other—both were outstanding. Like the Sony, the Pioneer provided a fully involving 3-dimensional picture, and its audio capabilities with movie soundtracks from its digital output were just as impressive: The bass was sharp, tight, and full-range, the mid-range was clear and strong, and the high end was clean and alluring.

I tried the Pioneer's progressive-scan output through the Mitsubishi WS-65909 Diamond HDTV and was impressed. Like many HDTVs, the Mitsubishi has an artifact-prone line-doubler. The opening scene of The Fifth Element, in which an Egyptian boy jumps off a donkey, then dashes across the sand and up a ramp into a temple, shows this well: on the Mitsubishi, the sand sparkles with interlace artifacts, and the ramp's diagonal boards—an interlace torture test—were a jagged mess. Switching the Pioneer's output to progressive scan, thus overriding the TV's line doubler, cleaned up these problems instantly. They weren't just made more tolerable—they were gone.

Conclusions
It's hard to know who would not like Pioneer's universal player. Its audio liabilities were subtle, and some issues will simply be matters of preference. Its video performance was first-rate. And with the DV-47A you have it all: a player that should handle everything that comes along for at least a couple of years—a long time in today's consumer-electronics industry. Someday we'll see players that offer digital outputs for SACD and DVD-Audio, and eventually we'll see high-definition DVD. But when they come along, something equally compelling and not yet anticipated will be waiting just over the horizon.

You can wait forever. The DV-47A is a great product now, and it will keep you up to date longer than anything else on the market.