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Review 2 of 4 Summary:
Well, I had a little too much time on my hands this weekend so I did an extensive comparison of the two DVD changers listed above. I was mostly concerned with the audio and video performance comparisons, and less with the features comparisons (such as shuffle modes, etc.). Let me start by saying I am far from a audiophille, but I am a normal Joe who can hear what sounds and see what looks better with me. And I figured, it is better to listen for myself and make up my own mind rather than read reviews of what others think only.
I had both systems hooked up to my system via monster cable, S-Video direct to my 36" Sony Trinitron, and CoAxial to my Yamaha RXV-595. I have Def Tech speakers. Listened to DVD's in both Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Enhanced. For CD's, I used straight 2 channel stereo, and passed the info Digitally and let my Yammy DAC's convert it. I also wanted to compare analog, but ran out of time.
DVD's compared were The Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, Starship Troopers, Terminator 2, and Deep Blue Sea. CD's were too numerous to list, but ran the gamut from Country music, Metallica, Beastie Boys, Classical, Jewel, Celine Dion, etc. I would say I compared 25 CD's.
I found there to be much more of a difference in music CD play than I thought there would be. What I didn't expect is that one player would sound better than the other on one CD, while the other player would sound better with certain CD's. Overall, I would say the Integra sounded more detailed, clearer, brighter. Lead vocals, acoustic guitars, and pianos sounded extremely detailed and clear. The Sony on the other hand, I would describe as more smooth and less detailed. Vocals were a little more muted, but background instruments seemed to be easier to hear clearly, and bass response was very smooth. To us, a song like Jewel's "Foolish Games" sounded absolutely awesome on the Intergra, while some older country CD's sounded better on the Sony to us. Overall though, we preferred the awesome detail and clarity of the Integra on about 75-80% of the discs.
As for DVD, we found there to be some differences, but less pronounced than in audio CD's. For Video, there were basically 2 differences we noticed. On Starship Troopers, Saving Private Ryan, and Deep Blue Sea, colors seemed to be more vivid and intense on the Integra. This was true no matter what we set the video EQ settings to on the Sony. The Integra also seemed to be a slighty more I guess 3D looking image in many scenes than the Sony. However, the Sony was superior in resloution of fine details. For instance, in the desert landscape scenes in Troopers, details of rocky hills in the distance were more clearly and cleany displayed, as was the rubble in the desroyed city at the end of SPR. Our overall impresions were, though, that both of these players offered outstanding overall pictures that were likely limited far more by the quality of our TV than the DVD players.
Soundtracks of DVD's sounded excellent from both players, with only minor differences noticed, and neither could be ranked as better or worse by us.
So basically, in the end, we decided to go with the Integra. DVD performance was pretty even, and we preferred the audio CD play of the Integra. It is also cheaper, and as a 3 year warranty. I do not think you could go wrong, though, we either of these players. I think if you do a comparison like this yourself, you will find that they are very comparable players, and that people who post messages like "the Sony is by far superior", or "Sony sucks" are really just brand loyalists, and like to make themselves feel good about their purchase.
Strengths:
Audio and Visual reproduction, music playback, nice remote Similar Products Used:
Sony DVP-C650D
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