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REVIEW: Pioneer DV59avi vs. Denon 2900

Posted by mschlack (A) on January 30, 2004 at 19:05:38

REVIEW: Pioneer Elite DV59AVi vs. Denon 2900

In November, I purchased a Denon 2900. I had been looking for a universal player that had bass management features to fit my system, which uses two-way minimonitors (B&W CDM1s) for the front speakers. I use a B&W ASW 1000 sub with them for stereo music. The Denon was the first player in the under $1500 range that I was aware of that did all the formats and had digital bass management. I bought it without really auditioning it against anything else and was pleased with the results. Although I had read a lot that universal players were poor at CD, it completely squashed my Marantz DR700, which I had been using as a transport for a few years.

However, I began to have second thoughts about the 2900’s lack of digital video capabilities. I bought the player largely for music. With my analog Sony XBR TV, I can’t do progressive scan and certainly not digital video inputs. I’m not planning on buying into HDTV for at least another year, maybe two. Originally, I passed up the Denon 5900, which has DVI and Firewire, because at 2.5x times the price I paid for the 2900, it seemed like a better bet to buy another $800 player in two years. At that point, it would almost certainly include digital video outs at that price. But when I read that Pioneer had shipped a new player with the next gen HDMI outputs and Firewire for $1300, the economics seemed more ambiguous. I had bought the Denon at Tweeter, which has a 120 day upgrade policy, so I was able to bring home the Pioneer and listen face to face, after about 4 days of playing the Stereophile break-in track. This review covers that.

As transport

I’ve never had a CD player that does D/A as well as my B&K Ref 30 pre/pro, including the Denon 2900. So I began auditioning the Pioneer as a transport.

The differences between the 59AVi and the 2900 are subtle but fairly consistent. The 2900 seems to resolve persistent detail a little better, but is a little flatter. The 59AVi is definitely better at the attack and decay of notes and has a somewhat warmer tone, although certainly not tubey.

The Denon’s strength shows on the opening bass runs of “So What” from Kind of Blue. You can hear Jimmy Garrison work the notes with his left hand much better on the Denon. In fact, I’d say the Denon resolves bass somewhat better and more accurately, but not completely. Whenever a bass player is using the right hand to give the note pluck or attack, the Pioneer definitely has more slam.

The Pioneer seemed to pick up the edges and overtones of notes better for all instruments. On “Dorotea’s Waltz” on Charles Lloyd’s fine “Voice in the Night” on ECM, there’s a section where Billy Higgins is playing a precise cymbal pattern, John Abercrombie is playing a tremulous minor guitar part, and Lloyd is playing a horn part. The Denon gives them each a slight amount more detail, but tonally they all sound more similar. With the Pioneer, the cymbals are more aggressive (in a good way; the tap, tap of the stick on them is vivid), the guitar sounds achier and the horm slightly gruff, while on the Denon it has a smoothness that probably is not right, having heard Lloyd play this live.

Similarly, on Los Lonely Boys’ joyous “Heaven,” the DV 59avi simultaneously gets the rhythmic attack on the Fender guitars while capturing that sweet blown sound they’re so famous for, all the while conveying the gorgeous three-part harmonies of the vocals with a tad more warmth than the 2900.

On Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android,” the guitar (I think) that comes out of the left speaker while Thom Yorke is singing the first chorus in the center has a more distinctive tone on the Pioneer than on the Denon, even if the Denon parses the individual instruments slightly better across the soundstage. In other words, you can hear each instrument better on the Denon, but they sound more similar, less tonally unique. So depending on how you listen to music, you’ll prefer one over the other. Me, I decided I like the Pioneer version because it conveys more of the emotional content of the players.

Having said all that, I could live with either one as a transport. Through another preamp and different speakers, who knows? Bottom line: I like the tone and oomph of the Pioneer, but I’m a bit disappointed that I have to give up a little detail to get it. I’d also be very interested to hear this player through a Firewire link, doing the digital bass management in my preamp. Hopefully, B&K will upgrade the Ref 30 with that.

As CD player

As I mentioned earlier, I had no intentions of using the 2900 as more than a transport for redbook CD after trying it briefly as a player. The Pioneer, on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise. The secret sauce is hi-bit conversion, which upsamples (is that the right word?) to 24-bit (but not to 96KHz). No doubt about it, that improves the sound. And using one or another of the digital filters they supply seemed to as well, although not as much.

The net effect is that I may well settle into using the 59AVi as a CD player. On “So What,” for example, Garrison’s fingering is more apparent, yet the rest of the player’s good qualities are still there. That sort of change was evident with all of the music I listened to. Anyone need a really good digital coax cable (Kimber Illuminiations DV-60)?

As SACD player

I didn’t do extensive A/B comparisons here, as I couldn’t bring myself to switch 6 analog outs repeatedly. My steady impression was that the Pioneer does a better job at 2ch SACD. It’s attention to transients plays exactly to the strengths of SACD, where the notes simply have more information in them. For example, the SACD version of “So What” has all the detail you’d want in Garrison’s lead in on the Pioneer. And warming up the Denon’s sound helps, too.

On Bob Dylan’s “Bringing it all back home,” the Denon’s detail did show through on Dylan’s voice slightly better, but there was less difference between the two players in hi-res, IMO, than with CD. I generally find that the biggest thing with hi-res is the recording itself; garbage in, garbage out.

I did a cursory test of DVD-A and multichannel SACD, as these aren’t big items for me. Similarly, the Pioneer seems to do fine with movies. I can’t really exercise it on my 32” analog TV.

Features

The Denon will appeal to you if you like massive, solidly built equipment: it’s 17 pounds and has a very serious looking brushed metal front. The Pioneer is a little gaudy with it’s shiny black plastic and gold lettering. Okay, two sentences is more than enough on cosmetics.

On more substantive features, each has some lacks. Neither has a way to return to a place in a movie after you’ve removed the DVD. The Denon has an easy way to select CD, SACD 2ch or SACD Mch with a button on the front panel; the Pioneer makes you go to a setup screen on your TV. If you connect your Pioneer to your preamp or receiver just through the 6 channel analog outs, you can still get bass management on the analog outs with CDs. For small speaker dudes and dudettes, that’s a nice option and I don’t think I could make the Denon do that. The Pioneer has a much weaker manual that’s lacking in some technical info, although good enough on basic procedures. I thought the Pioneer’s onscreen setup was a bit convoluted, with some things under “Initial Setup” and others under “Audio” or “Video” without too much rhyme or reason that I could grok.

The Denon has already drawn some criticism for poor setup of the subwoofer; it’s hard to get the volume balanced. This doesn’t seem to be a problem with the Pioneer.

Both have reasonable if not earth-shattering remotes.

Conclusion

The Denon is a great buy at under $1000, especially if digital video is not your thing. If you want a slightly more musical player and some future proofing, you may find the Pioneer worth the extra $300+. I did; the Denon goes back to Tweeter this weekend.

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