Digital Drive: REVIEW: Toshiba SD-3960 DVD Players by jonbee

Model:	SD-3960
Category:	DVD Players
Suggested Retail Price:	$129
Description:	DVD Player
Manufacturer URL:	Toshiba
Model Picture:	View

Review by jonbee ( A ) on April 19, 2004 at 20:19:14
IP Address: 24.19.55.0

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for the SD-3960

All, right, I couldn't resist this. My trusty Sony 7000 DVD is getting long in the tooth, and the thought of getting a replacement for way under $100 intrigued me. So off to Good Guys I go, returning $75 (inc. tax) poorer with this very light weight box. First, this thing is tiny, and being all made of plastic, weighs almost nothing. My first raction is that this is a throw-away player, not built for any knid of heavy sustained use. But it is for my bedroom system, which gets very little use anyway, so that might be ok. Be forewarned, however. I plugged it in, and compared it as a player (no break-in) to my Sony7000-> Monarchy Dip/upsampler-> Bolder modded ART-DI/0 (with Bolder PS). It sounded pretty acceptable, with no really bad points- fairly smooth and detailed, but rolled off at the extremes, with a soft bass line. My existing rig had sharper, faster transients, tighter bass, and more definition and separation between instruments. So the Tosh was not really 100% competitive (more like 80%), but acquitted itself respectably as a nice sounding little unit(and it's not broken in).
I then compared the Tosh as a transport to the Sony into the Monarchy/ART, and the picture brightened. To my wife, the sound of the two transports was indistinguishable, and to me the differences were at the very threshold of my ability to perceive them. I ended up deciding that the Sony was a tiny bit better defined, with slightly tighter bass, but that's about all I could detect. Pretty impressive, soundwise.
Of course, the Sony is a well built machine, and did duty for 6 years as the transport in my main rig, turned on 24/7, spinning probably 3 hours per day. I'd be surprised if the Tosh could do that, but it's a fun piece for what it is. Tomorrow, I get a Panny 25 receiver to plug it into.

Product Weakness: Cheaply made! There are people offering mods online up to $1k or so for this thing. It might sound really good then, but how long will it last?
Product Strengths: Smooth, pretty musical. Nice mids, no really bad points. Nice sounding transport(used w/ DIP). Cheap!

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Audio Refinement Complete
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	none
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	see review
Speakers:	Merlin TSM-M (don't laugh!)
Cables/Interconnects:	Mapleshade Golden Helix
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	lots
Room Size (LxWxH):	16 x 12 x 8
Time Period/Length of Audition:	2 days
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Adcom 515
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	Cheaply made! There are people offering mods online up to $1k or so for this thing. It might sound really good then, but how long will it last?
Product Strengths:	Smooth, pretty musical. Nice mids, no really bad points. Nice sounding transport(used w/ DIP). Cheap!