Review: Pioneer DV-610

You´re about to read the seventh out of nine reviews. You don´t need to read them all, just pick the unit that seems to be the most interesting to you. In the weeks to follow I´ll review the following units: Kenwood DP-5090, Pioneer DV-610, Sony CDP-470, Pioneer BDP-140, iRiver IMP-550, Sony MZ-R 55, Sony MZ-R 37, Sony NW-A 1000 and the Sansa Clip+. Stay tuned and enjoy the new review: the Pioneer DV-610! I also implore you to read the article describing my rigorous testing methodology before you actually start reading this one.

Pioneer DV-610

The Pioneer DV-610 is the first SACD player I bought. I already had collected numerous SACDs beforehand for years without being able to play them back. I knew that I would own a SACD player the moment they became affordable - which finally happened in 2009 when I bought this one for 170,- Euros. But I wanted more and this player appeared to be the device best suited to my needs: I wished to replace my ageing JVC DVD player with a technologically more advanced machine, a player that would read every medium I´d throw at it with ease (including my SACDs). I also wanted to have an HDMI output for possible future use with a modern display. Last year in July we finally bought our first flat screen and for the first time I witnessed a digitally transmitted picture having a quality I didn´t expect coming from DVD. Responsible for upscaling to 1080p is a chip manufactured by Mediatek, this chip (MT1389) also does DSD decoding, mp3 decoding, MPEG 2 / MPEG 4 decoding and whatnot. D/A conversion is achieved by three Burr Brown PCM 1742KE (released in 2005 and still in production), an up-to-date delta-sigma converter incorporating functions into only one IC for which the Kenwood DP-5090 and the Sony CDP-470 needed up to five seperate ICs. It´s also quite expensive when I consider that the Pioneer DV-610 was only a budget model. For SACD its potential is partially unused since the Mediatek chip resamples DSD from 1/2.8224 down to 24/88.2. The huge amount of parts for D/A converter and output stage present in the CDP-470 and the DP-5090 is absent, the Pioneer achieves the goal of converting and amplifying with a much simpler layout.

Responsible for good picture quality at 1080p

Manufacturing quality is ok but nothing to get mad about. The DV-610 is lightweight, its front is made out of plastic and the drive mechanism (by Orion) doesn´t feel too robust (though it still works very well, reliably and fast). It´s certainly not manufactured as well as the Kenwood DP-5090 which probably is the reason that this player and its predecessors didn´t fare too well in reviews when used as a CD/SACD player. Several audio magazines here in Germany compared it against much more expensive players (heavier, more parts, etc.) and - surprise! - they fared much better. As we all know, weight, manufacturing quality and a high price tag are all important for audio, aren´t they? To find out if that´s the truth let´s have a look at my measurments which have been done seperately for CD and SACD:

Pioneer DV-610, CD

Pioneer DV-610, SACD

Pioneer DV-610, jitter, CD

Apart from the amount of jitter the measurments are excellent throughout, noise or distortions are absent. Jitter indicates a mixture of low frequency jitter (the "spread" around the 11.025 Hz sine) and periodic high frequency jitter. However, everything is well below -110 dB so it´s probably inaudible. Measurments are slightly better when the test signal is played back on SACD - this is exactly as it should be since it offers higher resolution. The SNR and Dynamic Range show the skill with which the engineers designed the PCB layout: the DACs are rated at -106 dB, I measured -104 dB which is a fantastic result. Still, I´m slightly disappointed because 20 Bit output quality theoretically allows for a SNR of -121 dB. I know, I know, I´m complaining on an extremely high level, furthermore if someone needs to be blamed it´s Burr Brown for constructing such 'noisy' DACs in the first place.

CD playback

CD material shows dynamic capabilities close to the reference files (transients seem a tad too timid), the stage is well represented albeit a bit too compact and not particularly stable; instruments tend to change their place. Furthermore, the timing is not very good for lower frequencies: bass sounds as if it "follows" the rest of the frequency spectrum where timing and snap are impeccable. Overall EQ displays a little fondness for bloated and too thick bass while treble is diminished a bit which hampers detail and resolution to be reproduced properly. But there are advantages as well: this player won´t ever sound strident, sibilant or shrill, it also won´t sound slow or boring because apart from the bass mids and treble show a lot of speed with a particularly enjoyable amount of snap. Yes, this player really grooves. Sonic colour is the area where the player clearly surpasses the reference; it adds a nice voluptous and engagingly wet yet precise euphonic sheen to the music. This sheen naturally is artificial and not the original but it´s still jolly good fun, therefore:

Sonic Balance:

Dynamics:

Resolution:

Stage / Ambiance:

Character:

SACD playback

When playing back SACDs the Pioneer DV-610 sounds... well, it doesn´t really sound. It was extremely difficult for me to hear any difference to my reference files at all. Dynamics are almost perfect, the timing problem audible with CD material vanished upon playing SACD. Staging sounded like a carbon copy of the reference, just like resolution, level of detail and colour. Still, stage and imaging on occasion show some tiny difference, sometimes instruments seem to be placed rather strange with the left channel sounding as if coming from behind (don´t know how else to describe it). But instead of creating a euphonic colour the player now sounds perfectly neutral and completely retains the character of the recording. Any deviation I´ve just described is tiny, but I have to mention it and I will therefore substract one point for dynamics & stage. The pristine sound with SACDs leaves me with only one possible rating, the highest I´ve ever given to a player:

Sonic Balance:

Dynamics:

Resolution:

Stage / Ambiance:

Character:

Pioneer DV-610 close-up