Yamaha DVD-S2300

One player for all?

By Michael Wong

May 2004

Yamaha DVD-S2300 universal disk player. $2499

From the outside the Yamaha looks like any other DVD player, finished in black with all the basic controls out front, compete with a display featuring garish DVD and SACD indicators that light up like the neon under a boyracer’s car. There’s a full set of multi-channel RCA audio outputs, as well as a dedicated set of two channel outputs, coaxial and optical digital output and a doubled up set of video outputs (composite, S-Video, component). The surprisingly weighty (9kg) Yamaha is accompanied by a nicely laid out remote control.

Mr Universal

The S2300 plays all manner of DVD-Audio/Video, SACD and CD disks, including MP3 formatted CDR/RW. Bass management is provided for fine-tuning multi-channel audio output. A notable omission is the lack of progressive scan output for video, found on US versions of this player and competitive universal players from Denon and Pioneer.

The aim of this review was to see/hear how well the Yamaha performed as a direct “drop-in” replacement for an existing CDP in a two channel music system so it’s multi-channel music capabilities weren’t auditioned.

Using the Yamaha as an audio disk player isn’t as easy as operating a normal CD player – but that’s the same with all universal players. First you must hook the player up to a monitor and set the defaults via an on screen display: language choice for the menus, TV aspect ratio, video settings, two or multi-channel output, output options for Dolby Digital/DTS. Auditioning showed no difference in sound quality through either set of analog ouputs so the two channel set was used.

Once the initial setup has been completed you can disconnect the monitor as all the settings are stored in a non-volatile memory and remain until adjusted.

DVD (encompassing DVD-Audio/Video and CD disks) or SACD operation can be selected through the remote or you can let the player sort out what disk had been loaded onto the tray. It’s a bit slow but will eventually read the disk then go into the appropriate mode.

Simple and hard

Playing CD and SACD is as simple as loading the player and hitting the play button. Switching between SACD stereo and multi-channel is easily done through the remote.

DVD-Audio on the other hand is a bit more involved as pressing play doesn’t always get the format you want. DVD-Audio tracks are divided into “Groups” for surround, stereo, Dolby Digital, DTS etc. Most DVD-A disks have standardized grouping, ie. Group 1 is surround, group 2 is stereo. But occasionally they throw you a curveball and mixup the grouping assignments.  

Normally this would mean having the player permanently hooked up to a monitor and navigating through the on-screen menu. The Yamaha cleverly avoids this by having a Group button on the remote, allowing easy selection of the group you want to listen to. In our two channel application this was very useful as the sound downmixed from multi-channel to stereo was often bordering on unlistenable.

Through my trusty Krell and Magnepans, CDs had a nice punchy sound with a fair level of detail and no sense of hardening up as things got busy. Bass and treble were reasonably extended with the midrange showing a bit of thinness and a general flattening of perspective making music sound a bit two dimensional and small scaled.

With DVD-Audio performance was raised a couple of notches. There was increased dimensionality and focus, the bass was a bit more tuneful, treble opened up and overall the sound flowed with greater ease. 

SACD performance remains the bête noire of affordable universal disk players, showing few gains over CD with a slightly lean, flat, airless sound. Contrast this with the Denon DVD-2900 also in house at the time. The Denon was rich and smooth, pleasant and easy to listen to but often too smooth, flattening dynamics and making music sound like it was under a layer of vaseline.

On screen

While the Yamaha was hooked up to a monitor, a few DVD-Video disks were tried. Picture quality was very good even without progressive scanning. Detail and colour was fine and overall video performance was not too far off the better DVD-Video players. However the Yamaha is lumbered with a clumsy menu structure to accomplish basic operations that other players do with a single button push. DVD-Video sound through the digital output was OK but got a bit abrasive when the sound mix got busy.

As a replacement disk player for our two channel music system the Yamaha does a competent job with good CD performance, better performance with DVD-Audio, but only okay with SACD and has a few ergonomic glitches.  This player would make a good substitute for the listener wanting versatility in a single box. For the more demanding listener, dedicated format players still hold the performance advantage.

For your nearest Yamaha dealer