Pioneer’s DV-47A Elite universal DVD-Audio/SACD player was on show at CES 2002 and High Fidelity Review writers were able to learn more about the machine.
The Elite DV-47A will become available in February priced at $1,200 and as we reported in late November when we first broke news of the machine, is based on Pioneer’s DV-747 player which is only available outside the US market. The machine demonstrated in Las Vegas took only 8 seconds to load an SACD, compared to up to 40 seconds for the Apex AD-7701, the only current competing product.
The DV-47A offers a six-channel SACD output using a Sony native DSD decoder chip (no conversion to PCM), in addition to both DVD-Audio and standard DVD-Video playback. Other formats supported include MP3 (burnt on CD-R and CD-RW), CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R and DVD-RW (full compatibility including the VR format extension) discs.
Contrary to previous reports the DV-47A does not have any onboard bass management for its 5.1 analogue outputs for either DVD-Audio or SACD playback.
Speaking to High Fidelity Review, Gary Bauhard, Marketing Manager for Pioneer’s Consumer DVD products noted his dissatisfaction with player-based bass management in the analogue domain, suggesting that Pioneer is holding out for a digital domain implementation in its next generation players.
Pioneer Elite DV-47A ©SMR Group 2002