ReDFoX
Member
Hello! This is a quick review/measurements set of a Pioneer DV-717 CD/DVD player, tested in CD mode.
I was loaned this unit just for a few days, so I took an opportunity to measure such a high-end (for early 2000s) device.
Well, at least it looks cool. Released in 1998 it had a price of ~1550$ in 1999 (adjusted to inflation). Unfortunately, looking at the back of the unit:
we see a disappointingly small variety of outputs: no YPbPr and HDMI (only CVBS and Y/C), no multichannel output and no SACD support (released in 1999). Sooo, what do we have?
Multichannel DVD-A? NO
SACD? NO
24/192? NO
Balanced out? NO
Breakfast in bed? NO (at least mine unit doesn't)
Quite a disappointment, though I'm more interested in CD mode quality, since no one will use DVDs with an analog output in 2025. At least it has dual mono dedicated audio path, though SMPS (
) can possibly degrade warm analog sound of your spinning disks. This was the moment I felt scammed with this unit for the first time: most of the weight is concluded in the base, not in PCBs/drive unit(
All signals were generated with REW.
DV-717 was fed into line input of my E-MU1616 at 192kHz (E-MU has ultrasonic noise, so I wouldn't show anything above 48k).
Analysis settings, unless said otherwise, are:
Starting with single tone THD measurement at 1kHz:
Uh-oh... My initial reaction was:
WHAT THE HELL?? I mean, I was so impressed (in a bad way), that I loopbacked my 1616 just to check that my interface works correctly. Look at that mess! That's not a compact-cassette deck, what's up with those sidebands that are almost as high as an initial harmonic distortion signal? I can't even smell 16 bits of resolution, but, yeah, 24/96 DAC!
Btw, note that DV-717 was outputting less then standard -10dBu.
I tried capturing PSU noise, but I'm not shure whether it's a Pioneer problem, or non-existent ground in my flat...
Next up is multitone (FFT length - 512K):
Not terrible, not great either( Note the high noise floor (compared to my Marantz CD-67) and strange bell-shaped noise at ~3kHz (we'll see some anomalies there later).
What about frequency response, the first and most important (unless broken) aspect of any digital device?
It's so bad I had to change vertical graph scale! I think I found the reason people praise DV-717 for its sound.
100% this is audible, since FR drops almost 4dB from 4 to 20kHz. At this point it's an e-waste (at least by my standards), but lets dig deeper!
I combined CCIF IMD test with filter response (255 averages):
Just look at this thing! It's already NOS-like and just needs a few tubes on the output to make it 1% THD for extreme warmth.
Almost no attenuation, thus terrible image problems. With every new measurement I'm uncovering a new low .
I'm glad that Pioneer cares about foxes and bats and allows them to listen to hidden details in your Patricia Barber CDs
I'm gonna speedrun the rest of the measurements, since the aren't as entertaining...
SMPTE IMD test at 256k FFT
shows same strange behaviour around 3kHz, though not awful in general.
J-Test (256k FFT)
is messy, with a lot of PSU noise and sidebands...
Finally, a THD vs frequency measurement! I specifically enabled 2nd&3rd harmonics on the graph
Just as expected, but now we got a 1.7kHz peak for some weird reason.
Manufacturer claims 0.002% THD, but I measured 0.008!
Needless to say, this is a disaster in almost every aspect, from IO to performance... At leas it won an EISA award!
I think a need my own Panther-like ratings... As a canine and fox enjoyer, I'll rate this luxurious garbage can a surprised fox. This fox perfectly recreates my face during entire measurement process.
Not a traumatized fox (yet), because that's not my unit
I was loaned this unit just for a few days, so I took an opportunity to measure such a high-end (for early 2000s) device.
Well, at least it looks cool. Released in 1998 it had a price of ~1550$ in 1999 (adjusted to inflation). Unfortunately, looking at the back of the unit:
we see a disappointingly small variety of outputs: no YPbPr and HDMI (only CVBS and Y/C), no multichannel output and no SACD support (released in 1999). Sooo, what do we have?
Multichannel DVD-A? NO
SACD? NO
24/192? NO
Balanced out? NO
Breakfast in bed? NO (at least mine unit doesn't)
Quite a disappointment, though I'm more interested in CD mode quality, since no one will use DVDs with an analog output in 2025. At least it has dual mono dedicated audio path, though SMPS (
All signals were generated with REW.
DV-717 was fed into line input of my E-MU1616 at 192kHz (E-MU has ultrasonic noise, so I wouldn't show anything above 48k).
Analysis settings, unless said otherwise, are:
- 32k FFT
- 8 averages
- Dolph-Chebyshev 200 window
- 0% overlap
Starting with single tone THD measurement at 1kHz:
Uh-oh... My initial reaction was:
WHAT THE HELL?? I mean, I was so impressed (in a bad way), that I loopbacked my 1616 just to check that my interface works correctly. Look at that mess! That's not a compact-cassette deck, what's up with those sidebands that are almost as high as an initial harmonic distortion signal? I can't even smell 16 bits of resolution, but, yeah, 24/96 DAC!
Btw, note that DV-717 was outputting less then standard -10dBu.
I tried capturing PSU noise, but I'm not shure whether it's a Pioneer problem, or non-existent ground in my flat...
Next up is multitone (FFT length - 512K):
Not terrible, not great either( Note the high noise floor (compared to my Marantz CD-67) and strange bell-shaped noise at ~3kHz (we'll see some anomalies there later).
What about frequency response, the first and most important (unless broken) aspect of any digital device?
It's so bad I had to change vertical graph scale! I think I found the reason people praise DV-717 for its sound.
100% this is audible, since FR drops almost 4dB from 4 to 20kHz. At this point it's an e-waste (at least by my standards), but lets dig deeper!
I combined CCIF IMD test with filter response (255 averages):
Just look at this thing! It's already NOS-like and just needs a few tubes on the output to make it 1% THD for extreme warmth.
Almost no attenuation, thus terrible image problems. With every new measurement I'm uncovering a new low .
I'm glad that Pioneer cares about foxes and bats and allows them to listen to hidden details in your Patricia Barber CDs
I'm gonna speedrun the rest of the measurements, since the aren't as entertaining...
SMPTE IMD test at 256k FFT
shows same strange behaviour around 3kHz, though not awful in general.
J-Test (256k FFT)
is messy, with a lot of PSU noise and sidebands...
Finally, a THD vs frequency measurement! I specifically enabled 2nd&3rd harmonics on the graph
Just as expected, but now we got a 1.7kHz peak for some weird reason.
Manufacturer claims 0.002% THD, but I measured 0.008!
Needless to say, this is a disaster in almost every aspect, from IO to performance... At leas it won an EISA award!
I think a need my own Panther-like ratings... As a canine and fox enjoyer, I'll rate this luxurious garbage can a surprised fox. This fox perfectly recreates my face during entire measurement process.
Not a traumatized fox (yet), because that's not my unit
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