Absolute Sound

S T A R T M E U P
Meeting High-End Expectations on a Modest Budget
Jerry Sommers
Acrucial and exciting part of
choosing gear is the search for
synergy among components
within your allotted budget. I
recently had the chance to audition a
system that included the Philips
DVD963SA DVD/SACD player, a
Portal Panache integrated amplifier, and
Definitive Technology’s BP7004 loudspeakers.
The system met all of my
expectations and then some, giving me
everything from deep satisfying bass to a
tonally accurate rendering of midrange
and treble instruments, complete with
the spine-tingling sound of air and space
around those instruments. In short, this
system put the fun back in listening—
and at a reasonable price. The system’s
components had an uncanny complementary
quality—each element playing
off the strengths of the others.
The Philips DVD963SA offers
almost everything I would ever want in
a digital player, including progressive-
scan DVD playback, multichannel
SACD playback, 96kHz and 192kHz
CD upsampling, MP3 decoding, and
CDR/RW playback. I first read about
this post-modernistic-looking player in
Wayne Garcia’s short review in the
SACD, DVD-A, and Universal Players
Special Feature in TAS 145. There,
Wayne characterized the 963SA as
“warm and sloppy,” but he tempered his
comments with the observation that his
interconnect cables cost more than the
entire DVD963SA. My findings were
considerably more positive, as I was
using this player in a much more moderately
priced system.
The most notable, exciting, and useful
feature in the DVD963SA is its
upsampling circuitry. Audio CDs can be
upsampled to either 96kHz or 192kHz,
and I found the fun factor went up a
notch as I heard subtle nuances that
brought new life to my huge catalog of
CDs. “The 3 rd Planet” from Modest
Mouse’s The Moon and Antarctica [Sony],
starts with a lightly plucked acoustic
guitar that quickly shifts to full-on
acoustic rage—a transition the Philips
accomplished with ease, without sacrificing
momentum or focus. As the
rhythms became more complex, instruments
didn’t bleed into one another;
instead, I was able to discern each easily,
without losing track of the rhythm of
the piece. The acoustic guitars in the
song’s introduction sounded full-bodied
yet retained such subtle nuances as the
pick scrapes and finger screeches you
often hear when moving your hand from
different neck positions on the guitar.
These brilliantly reproduced details gave
the illusion of musicians playing in a
real space, and made the system so transparent
it seemed to disappear.
If you want to step up to a higher
level of full-bodiedness and resolution,
SACD on the 963SA certainly delivers.
Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon
[Capitol] in stereo SACD was
more three dimensional and
revealing than its CD layer. On
“Breathe,” the bass drums and
cymbals sounded more robust;
electric guitar, bass guitar, and
synths were more open. If
you’ve been wanting to get
into SACD, the DVD963SA
will make your transition to
the new format quite satisfying.
Indeed, with CD upsampling,
SACD playback, popular
format playability, and a
progressive-scan DVD player,
the DVD963SA has even more
of what I want in a player than
some respected high-end players
I’ve auditioned in the past.
The Portal Panache is a
22 THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ■ JUNE/JULY 2004