Psychic Cookie
17-02-2002, 02:59
Ok for starters I want to say something about Techtronics.
Some people are very quick to diss firms for NOT performing well (particually Techtronics!) but very rarely praise them when they come up trumps. Well I want to say WELL DONE TECHTRONICS and to heck with the doubters.
I bought my original machine (Pioneer 717) from them almost three years ago and it was a trouble free transaction so, despite what some people say about them, I had no hesitation in buying from again this time.
I wasn't let down... 8 days from placing my order I am now the proud owner of a shiny new 747a complete with the Multi-mod + upgrade.
So onto the machine itself:
First thing I wanted to do was try out the a few different regions and it's so starightforward - just stick the disc in and press play. Doesn't matter what region it is or whether it is RCE or whatever - just plug and play, sorted.
Next thing to do was to have a quick play about with the set-up options etc. Most of it was self-explanatory but for the few options that I didn't understand I consulted the (average) user manual and pretty much worked out what was what fairly quickly. Confusion did set in a couple of times but a bit of commonsence and a clear head help a lot!
First disc I watched was 'Unforgiven'. (R1) It's one of my favourite films of all time and one that I know well. The first thing that struck me was the sheer clarity of the picture. My Pioneer 717 was a trusty all-round machine but this was on different planet. The colours were very natural and the edges of everthing were so well defined. Colour bleed was non-existent. I've always fancied visiting one of these vast, rugged, deserted places that are common to Eastwood's westerns and now I'm more determined then ever. Breathtaking.
Sound was good too - very good.
Unfortunatly I'm having to compromise on this score in a way because I currently have my 'set-up' in a bedroom with elderly neighbours only a few feet away. This is only a short term thing though as I am shortly going to convert my garage into a little cinema / games room and then I can really blow the cobwebs away. All I can really say is that it's certainly as good as the 717. Ie. very crisp and accurate treble, great seperation and a nice weightly bass.
Must just point out that I'm decoding the sound via a Yamaha DSP-A1 amp through the digital Coaxial connection and NOT allowing the DVD player to do the work. This was always a far superior way of doing things with the 717 and so it was natural for me to do it again here. I DO have the analogue connections rigged up as well for DVD Audio purposes (I'll get to this later) but havn't actually tried them with a film yet. It's all a matter of time and I will do an analogue vs digital comparison at a later date - probably when I can do it properly (ie. when garage conversion finsihed)
Anyway next up was Ferris Bueller's Day Off (R1). This is another film I know well but this time, shockingly, it was a little dissapointing. Up until now I had always thought this was a fairly decent transfer but now I'm not so sure. It's difficult to describe what was wrong with it but 'Harsh' seems like a good word. The colours were bring and vibrant - TOO BRIGHT AND VIBRANT and it also looked a bit rough. It was as if someone had changed the film in the camera from Kodak Gold to Tesco's 'Buy 1, get 10 free' grade. OK, so maybe thats a slight exageration but overall it was quite hard on the eye and I don't remember it like that with the 717. Yeah, hard on the eye is a good description. I did compensate this a bit by lowering the Contrast, Brightness & Colour settings on my TV and it helped a bit but I havn't had to mess about like this before.
Finally it was time to give The Rage: Carrie 2 (R1) a spin. A dissapointing film by all accounts (ie. not a patch on the first one) but I quite fancy Emily Bergl so lets just say I have watched it several times! Now this was more like it! STUNNING. Beautifully clear and natural, no colour bleed, black really is black, the best I have ever seen!!!! The 717, as good as it is, could never compete with this.
So 24 hours with this machine and I have come to the following conclusion. It's a stunning machine but it don't suffer bad transfers easily.
It reminds me of when I bought my current CD player a couple of years ago - an Arcam Alpha 9.
Give it the right CD and it will blow your mind and make the hairs on your neck stand on end. Give it crap though and it will give you crap back!
However there is a slight twist in the tail here. The Alpha 9 needs serious running in. I would go as far as saying that it needs at least 100 CD's playing through it before it really starts to sing. Even now, two years on, it seems to sound better everytime I listen to it. Even those crap recording are listenable now. Don;t get me wrong, it can't make a bad recording sound good but before it used to make your ears bleed!
It's mellowed with time and it will be interesting to see if this new DVD player does too. Ferris Bueller will be re-visited again in a few weeks time.
So thats it so far - or is it? Of course not!
Don't forget that this machine can also play DVD Audio & also SACD discs. Unfortunatly up until now I didn't own any discs of either format but there was no way I was going to have this machine sitting here without at least getting a taste of it's sonic talents so in anticipation of it's arrival I bought the DVD Audio of Bjork's latest album, 'Vespertine'. Now the first thing to say is that I'm not the biggest Bjork fan in the world but I had heard good thngs about this album and presumed that, being very recent, would be as state-of-the-art recording - I wasn't wrong!
For the purposes of listening to this album (for the third time now!) I put it into Stereo mode, connected the analogue outs' to the analogue in's on my amp (via QED Silver Spiral interconnects) and donned my Sennheiser HD-600 headphones. Like I said earlier, I cannot really do the sound justice in this room at the moment hence doing it this way. Besides it's what I'm used to - all my serious CD listening has been done through the phones this way in the last six months.
And the verdict is...... WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The first thing I noted was the staggering clarity (we have been here before I think!) then it was the tonal balance, then it was the tight and meaty bass (although it must be ponted out that there isn't a huge amount of big bass on this album - it's just when it does make an apperance it's beautifully controlled) then it was the detail, so much detail and these headphones are very good at the detail thing.
As a reference I then had to boot up one of my favourite CD's on the Alpha 9 that I have been listening too quite a lot just recently - 'Floating into the night' by Julee Cruise. A day ago I would of sworn that this CD was the essence of musical clarity. Now I've changed my mind. For me it's still a benchmark of musical brilliance but when it comes to clarity it's a bit like listening to music with cotton wool in yours ears and then taking it out again.
Ok, it's a bit unfair to compare two totally different formats on the basis of a ten year old CD by one artist against a brand new album by another but initial results are very encouraging indeed.
The proper way to compare this though would be to get hold of the regular CD of Bjork's Vespertine and do a proper back-2-back comparison and thats exactly what I shall be doing over the coming few days.
Final overall verdict of the 747a? A £730 bargain.
Some people are very quick to diss firms for NOT performing well (particually Techtronics!) but very rarely praise them when they come up trumps. Well I want to say WELL DONE TECHTRONICS and to heck with the doubters.
I bought my original machine (Pioneer 717) from them almost three years ago and it was a trouble free transaction so, despite what some people say about them, I had no hesitation in buying from again this time.
I wasn't let down... 8 days from placing my order I am now the proud owner of a shiny new 747a complete with the Multi-mod + upgrade.
So onto the machine itself:
First thing I wanted to do was try out the a few different regions and it's so starightforward - just stick the disc in and press play. Doesn't matter what region it is or whether it is RCE or whatever - just plug and play, sorted.
Next thing to do was to have a quick play about with the set-up options etc. Most of it was self-explanatory but for the few options that I didn't understand I consulted the (average) user manual and pretty much worked out what was what fairly quickly. Confusion did set in a couple of times but a bit of commonsence and a clear head help a lot!
First disc I watched was 'Unforgiven'. (R1) It's one of my favourite films of all time and one that I know well. The first thing that struck me was the sheer clarity of the picture. My Pioneer 717 was a trusty all-round machine but this was on different planet. The colours were very natural and the edges of everthing were so well defined. Colour bleed was non-existent. I've always fancied visiting one of these vast, rugged, deserted places that are common to Eastwood's westerns and now I'm more determined then ever. Breathtaking.
Sound was good too - very good.
Unfortunatly I'm having to compromise on this score in a way because I currently have my 'set-up' in a bedroom with elderly neighbours only a few feet away. This is only a short term thing though as I am shortly going to convert my garage into a little cinema / games room and then I can really blow the cobwebs away. All I can really say is that it's certainly as good as the 717. Ie. very crisp and accurate treble, great seperation and a nice weightly bass.
Must just point out that I'm decoding the sound via a Yamaha DSP-A1 amp through the digital Coaxial connection and NOT allowing the DVD player to do the work. This was always a far superior way of doing things with the 717 and so it was natural for me to do it again here. I DO have the analogue connections rigged up as well for DVD Audio purposes (I'll get to this later) but havn't actually tried them with a film yet. It's all a matter of time and I will do an analogue vs digital comparison at a later date - probably when I can do it properly (ie. when garage conversion finsihed)
Anyway next up was Ferris Bueller's Day Off (R1). This is another film I know well but this time, shockingly, it was a little dissapointing. Up until now I had always thought this was a fairly decent transfer but now I'm not so sure. It's difficult to describe what was wrong with it but 'Harsh' seems like a good word. The colours were bring and vibrant - TOO BRIGHT AND VIBRANT and it also looked a bit rough. It was as if someone had changed the film in the camera from Kodak Gold to Tesco's 'Buy 1, get 10 free' grade. OK, so maybe thats a slight exageration but overall it was quite hard on the eye and I don't remember it like that with the 717. Yeah, hard on the eye is a good description. I did compensate this a bit by lowering the Contrast, Brightness & Colour settings on my TV and it helped a bit but I havn't had to mess about like this before.
Finally it was time to give The Rage: Carrie 2 (R1) a spin. A dissapointing film by all accounts (ie. not a patch on the first one) but I quite fancy Emily Bergl so lets just say I have watched it several times! Now this was more like it! STUNNING. Beautifully clear and natural, no colour bleed, black really is black, the best I have ever seen!!!! The 717, as good as it is, could never compete with this.
So 24 hours with this machine and I have come to the following conclusion. It's a stunning machine but it don't suffer bad transfers easily.
It reminds me of when I bought my current CD player a couple of years ago - an Arcam Alpha 9.
Give it the right CD and it will blow your mind and make the hairs on your neck stand on end. Give it crap though and it will give you crap back!
However there is a slight twist in the tail here. The Alpha 9 needs serious running in. I would go as far as saying that it needs at least 100 CD's playing through it before it really starts to sing. Even now, two years on, it seems to sound better everytime I listen to it. Even those crap recording are listenable now. Don;t get me wrong, it can't make a bad recording sound good but before it used to make your ears bleed!
It's mellowed with time and it will be interesting to see if this new DVD player does too. Ferris Bueller will be re-visited again in a few weeks time.
So thats it so far - or is it? Of course not!
Don't forget that this machine can also play DVD Audio & also SACD discs. Unfortunatly up until now I didn't own any discs of either format but there was no way I was going to have this machine sitting here without at least getting a taste of it's sonic talents so in anticipation of it's arrival I bought the DVD Audio of Bjork's latest album, 'Vespertine'. Now the first thing to say is that I'm not the biggest Bjork fan in the world but I had heard good thngs about this album and presumed that, being very recent, would be as state-of-the-art recording - I wasn't wrong!
For the purposes of listening to this album (for the third time now!) I put it into Stereo mode, connected the analogue outs' to the analogue in's on my amp (via QED Silver Spiral interconnects) and donned my Sennheiser HD-600 headphones. Like I said earlier, I cannot really do the sound justice in this room at the moment hence doing it this way. Besides it's what I'm used to - all my serious CD listening has been done through the phones this way in the last six months.
And the verdict is...... WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The first thing I noted was the staggering clarity (we have been here before I think!) then it was the tonal balance, then it was the tight and meaty bass (although it must be ponted out that there isn't a huge amount of big bass on this album - it's just when it does make an apperance it's beautifully controlled) then it was the detail, so much detail and these headphones are very good at the detail thing.
As a reference I then had to boot up one of my favourite CD's on the Alpha 9 that I have been listening too quite a lot just recently - 'Floating into the night' by Julee Cruise. A day ago I would of sworn that this CD was the essence of musical clarity. Now I've changed my mind. For me it's still a benchmark of musical brilliance but when it comes to clarity it's a bit like listening to music with cotton wool in yours ears and then taking it out again.
Ok, it's a bit unfair to compare two totally different formats on the basis of a ten year old CD by one artist against a brand new album by another but initial results are very encouraging indeed.
The proper way to compare this though would be to get hold of the regular CD of Bjork's Vespertine and do a proper back-2-back comparison and thats exactly what I shall be doing over the coming few days.
Final overall verdict of the 747a? A £730 bargain.