Pioneer DVD Players

Pioneering excellence in DVD player features and quality

Pioneer, with respect to DVD Players, is divided into two camps. There is the regular Pioneer equipment that appears as silver faced equipment and is aimed at a more mainstream market with more affordable offerings. Then there is the Pioneer Elite gear ranging from slightly more expensive to downright exorbitant, aimed at hi-fi enthusiasts with various levels of commitment to the hobby of fine audio. Pioneer Elite is usually identified with its black faced hardware. These days when it comes to DVD Players this is a great time to shop for standard old Pioneer and save some money on good quality that is comparable to Pioneer Elite.
Pioneer has been a respected name in digital and optical playback technologies since their early CD players. An innovative company that invests time and energy into research and development, Pioneer is a true world leader. Back in 2003 the DV-563A made history as the first affordable universal DVD player, meaning it was a DVD player that could play back both high resolution audio standards, SACD and DVD-Audio. For years before the DV-563A, most high end DVD players offered the ability to play either SACD or DVD Audio, then came a brand of DVD player that was capable of both (referred to as Universal), but you couldnt touch one for under $500.

Then in about 2003, just as DVD players started getting very cheap, plumbing depths in the sub $100 range, Pioneer released the famous 563A. Not only was it high-res audio ready but it could do other tricks that only the modern (recently mass produced) chipsets could perform, like MP3/WMA playback as well as featuring a Jpeg photo viewer. The DACs featured on the new econo-universal DVD player by Pioneer were highly regarded among audiophiles and videophiles alike. The DVD player was praised for a high picture quality and surprisingly good audio quality from an inexpensive playback, especially from its DVD-Audio and SACD features.

With mass production of ever more sophisticated chipsets the future will always bring about innovations in quality, raising the bar on digital to analogue conversion with every generation of chip. Its no wonder that it reached critical mass at the 563A. Something suspicious happened where the $200 563 was actually outperforming Pioneers more expensive Elite model that in all fairness was a few years older than the 563. In the context of integrated circuits a few years is a very long time, enough for critical points of evolution to have occurred that expressed themselves in an interesting manner for consumers around 2003.

The 563A had been criticized by audiophiles for cheating in how it performs Direct Stream Digital, Sonys proprietary modulation coding for SACD. So perhaps its not true SACD from an audiophile standpoint and simply fudges it to make it more like DVD-Audio. If true SACD is what you need youll definitely need to spend considerably more on a true SACD player. The fact that you could pop in an SACD disc and get sound (and very good sound at that) is the real strength of this new breed of affordable DVD player.

The predecessor to the 563 today is the 588A, minor improvements for 06 are sure to bring audiophile quality to many homes. Why spend under $50 on the cheapest budget model DVD player when for a little more you can get into a serious DVD player that isnt simply a toy with DVD features. Pioneer has packed high end features into surprisingly affordable prices and you can take one of these home for under $200.

The Slim Line is Pioneers line of DVD players that go after the budget shopper. For just under $100 they sell a DVD player that has the Pioneer name, but dont expect hi-fi performance. For the average user not looking for any advanced features, itll fill the bill.