Thread: SACD in car: my little experience with Sony MEX-DV2200

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Post by titius October 15, 2010 (1 of 15)
Hi everyone, I'm new of the forum, but I've read several posts
sometimes.

Since I now have about 30 sacd titles, I decided to buy a car
sacd player, the Sony MEX-DV2200, which now should be the only
one available, because the XAV-W1 has been discountinued.
I bought it on amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MEXDV2200-SACD-Receiver-Black/dp/B001S2R91W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1287137798&sr=8-1
at 180$

Previously I owned a Clarion DRX 960 RZ, which was a 24 bit
hi-end player. I had it for 7 years.

My experience with the Sony:
first impression is not very good, the finish of my previous
Clarion was way better, but also the price of it was way higher.
Clarion had motorized frontal panel, while the Sony has a "gravity"
flip-down panel. Also the Clarion had a color lcd panel, while
the Sony has white segment (not even dot matrix) display; also my
dashboard has red illumination, so white doesn't really match.

But when it starts to sound, well things are different.
I use stereo sacd setting on it.
The sound of the sacds I have, better the equivalent cd's in every
way: more dynamic, more open, more nuances, more details.
I hear details I never did in car.

For DVD-Audio: Sony declares in the manual that the unit does
NOT read DVD-Audios. Well my experience is that it will read
24 bit 96 KHz DVD-Audios. I tried Santana's Shamal, and worked
perfectly (sounds very good too).
My ultimate test was with Alan Parson's Project's Eye in the Sky.
This DVD-Audio comes in two faces: one face is 96 KHz, the other 192.
The 96 KHz works perfectly, but when I introduce the 192 face,
the disc is spit out immediately.
So my conclusion is that Sony excluded 192 KHz DVD-Audio from
reading, but couldn't exclude 96 KHz since they are part of the regular
DVD standard, and the unit is also a DVD player (if you add and external
display).
192 KHz DVD-Audio are rare, in my experience.

So in the end, given the modest price I would recommend this unit
to everybody wanting to enjoy sacd and 92 KHz DVD-adio in their
car.

My in-car gear: frontal speakers: woofers Focal 6K2P, tweeters TEC
SPL 25n; rear speakers: woofers Focal 6K2, tweeters TEC PL 27;
subwoofer Phonocar 32"; amplifiers: frontal Audison VR 209,
and a Sony 75W x4 for the rear speakers and (bridged) for the subwoofer.

Post by Shawshank November 3, 2010 (2 of 15)
I am considering installing this unit in my Acura TL since your post stated that the unit can play DVD-A at 96. I like the idea of having SACD and DVDA in one player and having Pro Logic II is a plus! How is the upscale of 2-channel sound to 5.1 surround?

Post by Kal Rubinson November 3, 2010 (3 of 15)
titius said:

For DVD-Audio: Sony declares in the manual that the unit does NOT read DVD-Audios. Well my experience is that it will read 24 bit 96 KHz DVD-Audios. I tried Santana's Shamal, and worked perfectly (sounds very good too).
My ultimate test was with Alan Parson's Project's Eye in the Sky. This DVD-Audio comes in two faces: one face is 96 KHz, the other 192. The 96 KHz works perfectly, but when I introduce the 192 face, the disc is spit out immediately.
So my conclusion is that Sony excluded 192 KHz DVD-Audio from reading, but couldn't exclude 96 KHz since they are part of the regular DVD standard, and the unit is also a DVD player (if you add and external display).
192 KHz DVD-Audio are rare, in my experience.

It really depends on whether the PCM data is MLP encoded or not. The 24/96 side does not require the compression but the 14/192 side does. In fact, the 24/96 is not really DVD-A but a DVD-V without video. Classic Records has been doing that for a long time. See: http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=detail&title_id=16514

So, Sony is accurate and consistent in saying that the player will not play DVD-A.

Kal

Post by ~~Phil~~ November 4, 2010 (4 of 15)
Kal Rubinson said:

It really depends on whether the PCM data is MLP encoded or not. The 24/96 side does not require the compression but the 14/192 side does. In fact, the 24/96 is not really DVD-A but a DVD-V without video. Classic Records has been doing that for a long time. See: http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=detail&title_id=16514

So, Sony is accurate and consistent in saying that the player will not play DVD-A.

Kal

Thanks for the info. Kal - it makes perfect sense that Sony would not (as they never have..) have added DVD-A to there player - but having it play DVD-V without the video is a nice feature - If I am understanding that correctly, if will play the audio at a higher bit rate (i.e. - 24bit 96k that is encoded on some dvd's..? - and if did DTS, that would be even better..!?!)... Now if they could start including Audyssey MultEq (w/ dynamic EQ..!!) with every unit - then i'd buy it in a heartbeat..!!!

Phil

Post by titius November 4, 2010 (5 of 15)
Hi,
I actually use the 2 channel SACD reproduction.
I'm not sure 5.1 works well in the car, because
the seats are blocking the back speakers.
I was interested in the resolution upgrade, and
I'm totally satisfied for that.
I can also add that regular cd sounds pretty well
too, better than my old hi-end Clarion.

Post by dobyblue November 5, 2010 (6 of 15)
$180 is definitely a nice price. I can always create 24/96 DVD-V dts discs of my DVD-A titles if I want to listen to them.

Does this unit power a 5.1 configuration (with the exception of the .1 which I would probably use active tubes for)?

Post by Varanus November 6, 2010 (7 of 15)
Actually in 5.1 DVD-Audio is not supported by Sony. DTS and Dolby digital are both lossy codecs. DTS 24/96 does not have the sound quality of 24/96 DVD-audio. In fact they are actually lower quality than cd. 24/96 in stereo can be in dvd format because even DVD_audio 24/96 stereo does not need MLP or even 24/192 in stereo. Multi channel however is different. It does need MLP to fit on the disc. If you have any DVD-Audio listen to the DTS or Dolby digital tracks and then compare them to the DVD-Audio tracks. Dolby is inferior to DTS which are both noticeably inferior to DVD-Audio

Post by titius November 6, 2010 (8 of 15)
Kal Rubinson said:

It really depends on whether the PCM data is MLP encoded or not. The 24/96 side does not require the compression but the 14/192 side does. In fact, the 24/96 is not really DVD-A but a DVD-V without video. Classic Records has been doing that for a long time. See: http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=detail&title_id=16514

So, Sony is accurate and consistent in saying that the player will not play DVD-A.

Kal

Well I agree on a technical point of view, but not on a marketing one. The Santana's Shaman disc is clearly labeled DVD-Audio. Even if in the end it's a DVD-Video with no video, still the label says DVD-Audio, and the unit plays it.

Post by The Seventh Taylor November 6, 2010 (9 of 15)
titius said:

Well I agree on a technical point of view, but not on a marketing one. The Santana's Shaman disc is clearly labeled DVD-Audio. Even if in the end it's a DVD-Video with no video, still the label says DVD-Audio, and the unit plays it.

That's because the DVD Forum chose to make *some* DVD-Audio playback on DVD-Video players mandatory, either in a nod to hybrid SACD's compatibility with RBCD players or in a common sense way to prevent a lot of consumer frustration. (Whether they also prevented confusion is debatable)

So similarly a CD or DVD player's manual may state it does not play SACD yet it plays the CD layer of hybrids SACDs. That's comparable to your DVD-V unit playing certain tracks of DVD-A discs.

To further clarify the above: what's outside of the DVD-V spec and part of DVD-A only:
- 192 kHz tracks (stereo)
- 24-bit 96kHz 5.1-channel tracks
- MLP losslessly compressed tracks

24-bit 96kHz stereo tracks can be handled within DVD-Video.

Post by Mugs November 18, 2012 (10 of 15)
Just to be clear on this...The DVD-A you are playing has 2 folders on for DVD-A and one for DVD-V. It appears what you are playing is the DVD-V portion of this disc. So it would be DTS and can be 24/96. It IS lossy however and much lower quality than MLP which is what the DVD-a folder (or TS_Audio)has in it. So yes you are playing the video portion of this disc but with no actuall video.

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