Review and Measurements of Trend DV-821A universal DVD player

[pma]

Trend DV-821A

This is a review and measurements of a cheap DVD player, Trend DV-821A. It costed about $35 in 2009. It plays DVD/MP4/SVCD/VCD/CD/HD-CD/WMA/MP3/JPEG files.

Parameters as per user manual:

Frequency response … 20Hz – 20kHz / +/-1dB / Fs = 192kHz
Audio S/N … >= 90dB
Dynamic range … >= 90dB
Distortion … <0.01%
DAC … 192kHz/24bit
Audio output … 2.0V

So I started with my usual set of measurements
THD at 1kHz and 0dBFS

THD is about 0.03% and SINAD (A weighted) is 69.6dB. THD gets a bit better for lower amplitude, THD at -3dBFS is 0.02%. Noise floor is quite clean, “digital rubbish” starts above 10kHz. See noise shaping above 24kHz. Output voltage is 2.11V.

THD at 1kHz and -60dBFS

Quite clean plot with higher noise level, noise shaping above 24kHz.

THD at 5kHz and 0dBFS

Distortion keeps same value as for 1kHz.

THD at 5kHz and -60dBFS

Nice clean plot in audio band, higher noise.

CCIF IMD 19+20kHz

H2 difference tone is about 70dB below fundamental, H3 skirts only about 60dB below fundamental. HF linearity is quite poor and we can also see 1 mirror image near Fs/2.

Digital zero

Not so bad and referred to full output noise is about -96dB(A).

Multitone

Dynamic range is about 85dB.

HF noise spectrum to 10MHz

This is bad. We can see usual 60kHz line + its multiples, probably from SMPS power supply. We can also see 4 high peaks above 1MHz. This may make troubles to following amplifier or preamplifier.

HF noise in time domain

Same shown in time domain, sharp edges of spikes indicate to very high frequencies in output spectrum.

Conclusion

The results are not that bad taking into account the cost $35 and age of the unit (10 years). I appreciate clean noise floor and absence of digital rubbish in the audio band, both better than for Technics SL-PG100 and ONKYO DV-SP503E that I tested here. I would be careful because of not very nice HF spectrum at the output, proper LPF filtering should be present at the input of the following component of the audio chain. The sound is acceptable.

 

[Degru]

Interesting that it has HDCD decoding. I'd be interested in hearing/measuring a hardware implementation of HDCD, because the software decoders available right now do not have some of the smaller features implemented (only the main peak expansion/gain adjustment features that actually affect the track significantly). That said, finding a CD that actually utilizes those features is another matter. Plus this DVD player obviously does not measure nearly good enough to reveal those differences. Perhaps there are HDCD players that have digital output?

Still, it's a dead tech these days, but quite interesting as a sort of precursor to stuff like MQA.

 

[pma]

Interesting that it has HDCD decoding. I'd be interested in hearing/measuring a hardware implementation of HDCD, because the software decoders available right now do not have some of the smaller features implemented (only the main peak expansion/gain adjustment features that actually affect the track significantly). That said, finding a CD that actually utilizes those features is another matter. Plus this DVD player obviously does not measure nearly good enough to reveal those differences. Perhaps there are HDCD players that have digital output?

Still, it's a dead tech these days, but quite interesting as a sort of precursor to stuff like MQA.

I have Vincent CD-S3 player which also decodes HDCD discs and I have some HDCD's of classical music from Linn records. From those, my cordial recommendation is Linn CKD 308, Mozart Symphonies 38-41.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7961986--mozart-symphonies-nos-38-41

Vincent uses PCM 1732
https://datasheetspdf.com/datasheet/PCM1732.html
Nice feature of this DAC is that it handles intersample overs in standard CDs very well, because of headroom for additional bits of HDCD.

 

[Degru]

I have Vincent CD-S3 player which also decodes HDCD discs and I have some HDCD's of classical music from Linn records. From those, my cordial recommendation is Linn CKD 308, Mozart Symphonies 38-41.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7961986--mozart-symphonies-nos-38-41

Vincent uses PCM 1732
https://datasheetspdf.com/datasheet/PCM1732.html
Nice feature of this DAC is that it handles intersample overs in standard CDs very well, because of headroom for additional bits of HDCD.

Is this able to output decoded HDCD over a digital output?

 

[pma]

Is this able to output decoded HDCD over a digital output?

I am not sure, but it is a good hint to try it. I normally take the output signal from balanced analog XLR output of the CD-S3, when playing HDCD discs. This XLR output of this player is excellent and my audio chain has analog all-balanced I/O. However, I may try to decode the digital output. Unfortunately, I have no special HDCD test disc, so I may try from music data.

 

[Degru]

I am not sure, but it is a good hint to try it. I normally take the output signal from balanced analog XLR output of the CD-S3, when playing HDCD discs. This XLR output of this player is excellent and my audio chain has analog all-balanced I/O. However, I may try to decode the digital output. Unfortunately, I have no special HDCD test disc, so I may try from music data.

It should be rather obvious to determine when peak expansion is going on by comparing to the non-decoded data on the CD.

Second image shows HDCD decoded then amplified to the same level as the original audio to demonstrate what exactly is being "expanded" (the clipped area)