Anyone got the Pioneer 646A?

[GarethH]

Does anyone here have the Pioneer 646A DVD Player?

Whats the picture and sound Quality like?

What was your previous DVD Player and was the performance jump worth it?

Does anyone know if it will play SVCD's?

Whats the build quality like?

Just asking these questions cause i'm not sure if its worth upgrading my Pioneer 626D to a 646A!

Thanks

[GarethH]

Obviously not, but it was worth a try!

[Justin]

Originally posted by GarethH
Obviously not, but it was worth a try!

I don`t believe that for a minute, considering all the forum members that have ordered these recently! Come on, someone must have some views on this machine for Gareth!

[GarethH]

Thanks for encouraging people Justin.

Ok, I know this player is pretty damm good, but all I want is a review before I commit myself to buying it. Or just some feedback from a couple of people. This happened with my Pioneer 626.

I saw a What Video and TV review and they said it was pretty damm good, so I went ahead and bought the player. However, two months later HCC did a review and though it got DVD Player of the year in their awards, they only gave it 4/5 for picture. I was a little disappointed. I know my own eyes are the only decider for these things, but it always happens to me, everything I buy never gets an overly fantastic review from the magazine I really trust.

I'm off down the Sevenoaks shop today to have a look at the player to see its build quality and performance for my own eyes. Obviously not buying from Sevenoaks for a rip off £550, when I can get it from the fantastic Home Cinema Heaven for £400 :-)

According to www.vcdhelp.com and their compatibility list, it does play SVCD's, but they said that about other players that did'nt.

I am Burning an SVCD test disc to see if the player does support SVCD.

[AndyH]

Hi,

OK - I'll fling together a quick five min review here... I went for the 646A as an upgrade to my Panny A350.

I figured it was time to join the world of DTS playback and I was getting a bit fed up that the A350 couldn't play CD-Rs. Oh, and I thought I'd have a gamble with DVD-Audio. Quite glad I didn't wait for news of the new Pioneer 747 that plays both DVD-A and SACD - it's a bit out of my budget!

Anyway, you want to know how it compared to my 1st gen player I guess? Well... the funny thing is that it proved just how good my first player was (and it bloody should've been for the £700 I paid 3-4 years ago!!).

The overall requirement was "as good, but preferably better - just with more features". One of my main requirements was good CD playback, and I was determined to stay in the "one box" camp, as apposed to those who suggest putting a couple of hundred quid aside for a decent dedicated player. So I auditioned the 646A against the Pioneer 737, Marantz 4100OSE and Panasonic RA-71.

To cut a long story short the RA-71 was crap and there was so little to choose between the Marantz and the 646 (although the Marantz did have the edge) the Pioneer easily won the day due to it's DVD-A capability and the simple fact it's a newer player.

Getting it home and doing the inevitiable trawl through the CD/DVD collection and spending an eternity swapping cables between players revealed that either my A350 is extremely good at playing CDs, or my amp is now the limiting factor! The 646 is definately better, there just wasn't a huge leap. My amp is a Sony 930 btw, so I wasn't expecting the same "Arcam" type results they sell you with in the hi-fi shops.

Perhaps more interesting is that while I perceive the picture on the 646 to be better, I can't find any definitive A-B comparisons to prove this - but hey, I've only had it a couple of weeks now and typically it arrived when I'm spectacularly busy at work - so I'm still playing.

So to summarise it's definately better than what I had, but until I walk the upgrade path elsewhere around my system, for me the money was well spent on additional features (and no more faffing with the remote while in standby to change regions - hurrah!).

Suppose some niggles might be an idea, all minor though:

1. It doesn't power up when you press "open"on the remote - although it does if you push the button on the box itself

2. My mate's 626 let you select a "wallpaper" colour to display on the TV when it's idle. Can't seem to find this on the 646!

3. Layer flips seem a couple of tenths of a second SLOWER than my A350 - was quite surprised by this.

4. Again, comparing it to the A350 the Pioneer GUI looks crap.

So, not sure if that helps at all - but I'd be interested to hear how you got on with your demos.

Cheers,
Andy

PS Haven't got around to ordering any DVD-A's yet...