Pioneer BDP 450 - User Review

thought of starting this thread to share with everyone on my personal opinion of the above product after using it for 3 days as a cd transport (which was recommended by av2today blogger)...

in summary, this unit audio DSP is designed for movies where upon spinning a cd and compared to my marantz na7004, the sound is very open which indicates its surround sound effect capability is very good...it feels as though i'm watching a movie when listening to a cd...

however, it is not as dynamic as the 7004 as its open stage quality (ie. stereo widening effect) causes it to lose its musical ability...eg, not 'warm' and 'tight' enough..

similarly, the 7004 performs much better in audio streaming compared to the 450 with better details and dynamics..

but overall, i would say the 450 is way much better compared to my cambridge audio dvd99 in the audio dept...

as for video, the visuals are a bit better than the 99 as i only have dvd's to play with and not bd's...its Qdeo processor helps out a bit but i would say its performance is oklah when upscaling sq video..

finally, many forummers have complained about the 450 noisy tray but for me, there is no such issue when playing cd's and dvd's...mebbe it is encountered when playing bd's...

to sum up, for those whom are looking for a good cd transport, i think the marantz ud7007 or the denon 3313ud could be a better bet...

Hi Alamdamai1,

What made u choose this product? Does it have the capability to play USB music files randomly and yet able to stop after playing all tracks within the folder?

Also let us know its BD picture quality when you have the chance to try a BD.

Cheers

yeap bro, d 450 has shuffle mode when playing cd's n mp3/wav/flac files in usb n hdd drives...ie. it wld onli play once a song in random n then stop once all hv been completed...not like d marantz... :-(

chin66 wrote:Hi Alamdamai1,

What made u choose this product? Does it have the capability to play USB music files randomly and yet able to stop after playing all tracks within the folder?

Also let us know its BD picture quality when you have the chance to try a BD.

Cheers  

Hi,

FWIW.. my 450 plays bds well .. its not worse than my resident Oppo bd80 n Dune Prime.. N its a tad sharper/clearer [ but tat could be its brand new ]
Of course - ability to read is top notch still [ my bd80 is getting to be rather fussy - rejecting certain bds at random ; even those it has played before.. ]
BTW - it can play pirated bdr's too..


D