Pioneer DV-563A

The two supersounding audio formats, Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio, have been lurking under mainstream radar for four years. We can cite a few reasons for their slow takeoff: relatively little music is released on SACD or DVD-A; the discs were too expensive; and universal players--those that play both formats--can set you back $1,000 or more. But now the discs are priced at CD levels ($16 to $18 a pop), and Pioneer has blasted through the cost barrier with the DV-563A. Listing at $250 but costing much less than $200 in stores, this is the first universal player anywhere near the realm of affordability.The 2.2-inch-high, silver-plastic 563A looks like just about any bargain-priced DVD player we've seen recently. We do give extra credit for the front-mounted menu navigation controls, which let you get through a DVD even after you've misplaced the remote. But the 563A lacks SACD or DVD-A indicators on the front panel--that's important because DVD-A and SACD discs often have standard Dolby Digital or CD audio tracks in addition to their high-resolution tracks, so we were never really sure which we were hearing. We just kept our fingers crossed.

The upside: The 563A prompts you through an unusually logical setup routine, eliminating most of the typical hassles. To test the effectiveness of the 563's bass management, a.k.a. the bass redistribution system, we hooked up our tiny Energy Take 5.2 satellites and matching Energy Take S8.2 subwoofer. We achieved a smooth transition from sub to sats--a feat rarely matched by most more expensive universal players. Satisfied with 563A's speaker-matching capabilities, we switched over to our large Dynaudio Contour speakers and REL Storm III sub for the rest of our listening tests (see Performance for details).

The small, gray-plastic remote doesn't cram in too many buttons and doodads, so it's easy to use.

Aside from its ability to spin both SACD and DVD-Audio, the 563A can handle almost every other type of disc currently on the market, including every permutation of recordable DVD we tested. The 563A welcomes audio CDs, CD-R/RWs, and MP3-encoded CDs, and there's a JPEG viewer to display digital photos on the TV screen. The player also allows adjustment of contrast, brightness, and color, and it provides two memory slots for you to store those customized settings.

The 563A's rear end sports a full complement of the essential jacks: component, composite, and S-Video outputs, coaxial and optical digital audio connectors, and the 5.1 analog audio outputs.

To hear SACD and DVD-A surround sounds, make sure your receiver has 5.1/multichannel analog inputs--the 563A's digital audio connectors are for CD/Dolby/DTS signals only. The owner's manual isn't terribly clear on this point, but trust us, don't buy a 563A (or any SACD/DVD-A player) unless your receiver is equipped with 5.1 analog connections.

Janis Joplin's masterpiece, Cheap Thrills, is now a spectacular-sounding SACD, and the 563A brought her rawest blues back home. This disc's 5.1-surround mix puts you smack in the middle of the legendary Fillmore West as Joplin and her band lay the most delicious feedback-swirling climax on "Piece of My Heart" we've ever heard. If you want to get hooked on SACD sound, buy this disc.

We guess the bottom line for a lot of folks will be: How does the 563A sonically compare with the universal players that are four and five times more expensive? Unfortunately, we didn't have any on hand, but our two-year-old Integra DPS-7.2 DVD-Audio player ($799 list price) was a reasonable stand-in. Direct comparisons revealed the 563A didn't sound as rich or smooth as the 7.2. On Steely Dan's new DVD-A, Everything Must Go, the 563A shrank the surround field so that the sound seemed to "stick" to the speakers more--and the deep bass wasn't as punchy and deep. The same set of differences was noted on regular CDs.

We were, of course, evaluating the 563A over our very high-end Dynaudio Contour speakers. The relatively subtle differences between the two players will be far less obvious on speaker packages that cost $1,000 or less. On that basis, we wholeheartedly recommend the 563A; it's a great introduction to the new high-resolution formats. But if you want the very best sound, check out our favorite $1K universal player, the Denon DVD-2900.

The 563A turned in average score when we tested its progressive-scan video performance. In its favor it lacks the chroma bug, which can introduce lines in deeply saturated colors. The 3:2 pull-down function in its progressive-scan processor also did a fine job of compensating for the frame-rate difference between video and film, so we didn't see any additional jaggies or moving lines in the beginning of Star Trek: Insurrection. It wasn't as good at removing jagged lines from video material, such as the waving flag from Video Essentials, and overall, it didn't perform as well as the processor built into our reference Hitachi 57S500 television.

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