Pioneer DV-676A

If it’s silver we can play it

By Michael Wong

January 2005

Pioneer DV-676A universal disc player. $399

The 676 is the third iteration of Pioneer’s entry level universal disc player to be sold in New Zealand. Like it’s predecessors the 676 handles all the major audio and video formats currently available on 12cm discs: DVD-Audio/Video, DVD-R/RW, Compact Disc Audio/Video, CD-R/RW, MP3, VCD/S-VCD, Super Audio CD, Fujicolor and Kodak Picture CD plus a couple of new ones: Windows Media Audio files and DivX video playback.

Audio is processed through 192kHz/24-bit DACs with full bass management and on-board Dolby Digital and DTS decoders. DSD data from SACD is first converted to PCM before being converted to analogue. Video goes through a new 108MHz 12-bit DAC which now has PAL/NTSC progressive scan capability; the previous model was only NTSC progressive.

Amazingly the 676 does all the above for a mere $399 which is less than half the price of the model it replaced, the 667, when released.

A quick tour

From the outside the 676 looks just like any modern slimline DVD player; build is typically lightweight but well finished. As to be expected of a universal player the back has a full set of RCA audio outputs for stereo audio out and separate 5.1 audio outputs for high resolution audio or multi-channel movie sound when using on-board Dolby Digital or DTS decoding. Video outputs are equally comprehensive with component, s-video and composite connectors. A coax and optical connections handle digital outputs.

Initial setup, major adjustments and disc navigation are accomplished through an onscreen menu, so that means hookup to a monitor is essential. A nicely laid out remote control completes the package.

Let the music flow

It takes a few seconds for the player to wake up out of standby, then load the disc tray and wait about 10 seconds while the disc’s Table of Contents  (TOC) is read. The procedure is relatively speedy compared to some disc players.

Heard via my Krell/Magnepans, the 676 sounded shockingly good on CD. Music had a lucidity and vitality that can elude even expensive CD players. It’s lively with a clear midrange and good toe tapping bass. Spatial reproduction was pretty good with a soundstage just slightly smaller than my reference CD player. Focus, depth and transparency were only fair. Prime suspect here was the 676’s rather poor isolation. Sitting the player on isolation cones brought an instant improvement in focus and dimensionality.

Hi to hi-res

This is the first universal player I’ve encountered that doesn’t have any clear preference for SACD or DVD-A. Both formats take the good CD performance and expand upon it, lending an ease to the music and giving it a bit more dimensionality and naturalness. If pushed I would say the (minor) differences lay in the emphasis each format gives to music; SACD seems to concentrate on the upper reaches with extension and naturalness, DVD-A focuses more on the music’s lower frequencies and rhythmic structure.

Add pictures

Run in progressive scan mode into a Pioneer 504 plasma, the 676 produced clear pictures with fine detail, good colour and sharpness that exceeded my reference Sony 7000/7700 players.

The built-in de-interlacing was not quite on a par with the 504’s processing, leading to a bit of shimmying and other artifacts like jaggies. Slightly better pictures were obtained by using the 676 in interlaced mode and using the plasma’s electronics to do the de-interlacing.

Overall a fine picture, sharper and slightly cleaner than my Sony, marred by a bit of excess edge enhancement, giving everything a hi-def video look, whereas the Sony’s weren’t as pristine looking but smoother and a bit more film-like.

The Pioneer also suffers from a chroma bug (where the colour part of the picture is delayed from the brightness part giving rise to colour overlaps, especially where two solid colours are adjacent to each other). Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks were clear and punchy missing just a little of the openess and weight of the Sony duo.

A vintage year for the frugal audio/videophile

The past twelve months have proven to be a great year for high value for money components. First we had the NAD PP2 phono stage, then the Pro-ject 1Xpression turntable for analogue fans and now for digital listeners, Pioneer gives us a low cost universal disc player of exceptional, giant-killing performance. This player hits way beyond it’s weight and while it doesn’t out-perform everything, it is highly capable with all formats and a serious competitor for any CD/DVD player under the $1000 mark and could show many four-figure players a thing or two as well.

It represents superb value for money and gets my vote as digital disc player of 2004.