everything mentioned previously

none

THIS IS THE BEST CD PLAYER THAT I HAVE AUDITIONED! I FEEL THAT JD'S REVIEW IS INACCURATE DO TO THE LACK OF BURN-IN TIME. THIS CD PLAYER REQUIRES ABOUT 3 DAYS FOR THE SOUND TO SMOOTH OUT. I FOUND THE SAME RESULTS WHEN I BROUGHT THE CD PLAYER HOME THE FIRST DAY, THE TREBLE WAS TO BRIGHT AND DARK WITH NO DETAIL AND THE BASS WAS MUDDY AND CONFUSED SOUNDING. BUT 3DAYS OF SOLID BURN-IN IT WAS GREAT! MOST PEOPLE FORGET ABOUT LETTING EQUIPMENT BURN-IN AFTER PURCHASE BEFORE GETTING TO CRITICAL. IF YOU DEMO A PIECE OF EQUIPMENT FROM A HIFI STORE AND IT HAS BEEN ON THEIR DISPLAY FOR 8 MONTHS, THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT IT HAS BEEN BURNT IN. THE PIECE PROBABLY HAS ONLY HAD MUSIC RUN THROUGH IT ONLY WHEN SOMEONE WANTS TO HERE IT, WHICH IN MOST CASES IS ONLY FOR ABOUT 10-15 MINUTES. PLEASE ALLOW YOUR EQUIPMENT TO BURN-IN BEFORE LEAVING FALSE INFO ON THIS WEB-SITE. I HOPE THIS HELPS!

Similar Products Used:

denon dcd1560

Build Quality, Finish,Warm Sound,

Bass response

The Pioneer Elite PD-65 is the finest mid- priced Cd player on the market. It"s overall round warm tone is only surpassed by players costing much more. It has stupendous build quality. A quiet and very solid drawer (compare this aspect to any NAD Cd player-you"ll laugh) mechanism. Urishi finish. The player weighs 21 pounds. Very heavy for a Cd player. It features a Cd stable platter mechanism which supports the disc over it"s entire surface to eliminate disc resonance and sagging. It's dac is a 1-bit direct line conversion with high speed and high-density pulse flow D/A converter. This is augmented by Legato Link Conversion which extrapolates how the original sound sounded before it was recorded and reproduces it using a sophisticated digital processing system. The Legato Link is key of why this player is so warm. Before I bought this player I was at wits end. I essentially hate Digital. Its sound characteristics are shut in, dry, and sterile compared to analog. Digital does have some advantages -detail,tight bass,great seperation and no or very little noise. But the overall effect is it is less musical. The presentation is very clinical. My Cd player was an entry level Sony player which has very good build quality and ergonomics but a horrid dac. I would not listen to Cds. If somebody would say to me this tape is Cd quality I would just laugh. One day my wonderful girl freind invited me to help her with her pet-sitting duties. The client is a noted writer and music critic here in N.Y.city. His apartment holds the most extensive Cd collection I have ever seen. I was curious-whats his player? It turned out to be a (now discontinued) PD-95. Checked it out. Loved the sound and the build quality. At the time I was auditioning many different players-most turned me off(Yamaha,Onkyo,Sony was out of the question,Rotel-not bad, a little harsh. I was very curious about the Cambridge D 300 and 500 se (dual 24 bit Dacs). Both very good players especially for the money. The D 500 SE being noticeably better. I almost bit. I decided to go to sound by Singer -the most awesome stereo store I have ever been in anywhere. The salesman was totally cool. I told him my problem and my price parameters. He showed me the Nad- not bad sound- the build quality from Hell. And an Arcam 7se. This ultimately was the only competion to the Pioneer Elite PD-65. The detail on this machine is probably slightly better than the Pioneer but nowhere near as warm. I had another quandary. I am the owner of solid silver interconnects made by Stager Sound here in New York. They are expensive. I did not want to use other cables on my Cd player. Silvers tend to bring out more detail and yes brightness than other cables. (These are by the way excellent cables and I would highly recommend them.)They are the perfect match for a player that is on the warm side. That taken in to the equation the winner of the audition The Pioneer Elite Pd-65. I looked and looked and finally found one on e-bay for $400.00- a bargain. You may wonder why the seller was selling if it is so good. He upgraded to a Mark Levinson transport and a top of the line Cal-audio dac. He had to spend $3000.00 to improve on his Pioneer Elite PD-65. I wonder if it is worth it.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Cambridge

Smooth round sound, build and what you get for your money..A no nonsense single cd player unit that really performs

None found so far

Upgraded my setup to this Cd-player and WOW what a difference. I see now that not all players are created equal. In combination with my Magnepan 1.6qr's the music is so smooth and warm sounding that I could listen to it for hours. Big kudos to Pioneer for building a quality unit that blows away all of the units sold at the mass market stores !

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Toshiba CDDVD player and old technics unit

I receintly needed to upgrade my cd player. I have Klipsch Cornwall loudspeakers and a Bryston B-60 integrated amp. I auditioned both the Theta Miles and a Krell KAV 300cd players. The Krell sounded dry until I used the $500 Purist Audio power cord with it. The Theta sounded much better in transparancy but sounded a bit top end heavy with piano and strings. Then I tried the Pioneer PD-65. Whatever Pioneer does to this player really works. I feel it sounded much much better in terms of smoothness, bass, soundstsge, focus, and like music. They have an algorithm called the Legato Link which is designed to make the sound mor smoother and transparant. These other players at even far higher cost couldn't come close. Piano and strings sound wonderful. Don't spend more for marquee. For an $800 cd player that sounded more like music than a $2700 and $3600 player. you will enjoy the music. The money saved can go into upgrading cables.

I receintly needed to upgrade my cd player. I have Klipsch Cornwall loudspeakers and a Bryston B-60 integrated amp. I auditioned both the Theta Miles and a Krell KAV 300cd players. The Krell sounded dry until I used the $500 Purist Audio power cord with it. The Theta sounded much better in transparancy but sounded a bit top end heavy with piano and strings. Then I tried the Pioneer PD-65. Whatever Pioneer does to this player really works. I feel it sounded much much better in terms of smoothness, bass, soundstsge, focus, and like music. They have an algorithm called the Legato Link which is designed to make the sound mor smoother and transparant. These other players at even far higher cost couldn't come close. Piano and strings sound wonderful. Don't spend more for marquee. For an $800 cd player that sounded more like music than a $2700 and $3600 player. you will enjoy the music. The money saved can go into upgrading cables.

This Pioneer blow me away. I tried the Theta Miles and The Krell KAV-300cdand the PD-65 is much smoother than either of them. Soundstage is wonderful.
Focus is very accurate, and base well defined. I could have bought the $3500 Krell or the $2700 Theta but I don't care about marqee. The pioneer ($800) sounded more like live music. I paired it up with the Bryston B-60 integrated amp.

The PD-65 is an excellent player that has a natural and smooth sound while maintaining clarity and detail (sounds impossible, huh?). Pioneer makes oneof the only CD players I've heard that is able to accurately reproduce cymbals, bells, etc. without them sounding shrill or artificial. The music sounds "live" and analog.

I am in the process of putting together "my very much loved", (but until now, elusive), dream system titled "My Actual $10K Audio System (Unrevised)", upgrading from an "entry-level separates based system" that I started putting together back in either late 1989 or early 1990 (description will be shown in a moment). Up to this point, I have acquired the preamp, amp, and most of the cables of this system, with the speakers, tuner (well, I do like the Magnum Dynalab FT-101A FM Tuner, but it's not something I just got to have right now, my old NAD 4225 is still pretty good and seviceable: hence--The FT-101A will be purchased eventually, but for right now, it is pretty low on the priorty list), and the subject of this review--the cd player.
I stated in my $10K system post-up that I was seeking a separate cd transport and dac combination, and as for the moment, that remains so. I know that I picked the Pioneer PD-65 cd player as the front-end of my new system. But just for curiosity, I have since listened to an California Audio Labs Delta Transport/Alpha DAC combination, the Mark Levinson 30.5/31.5 combination, the Rotel RCD-990 (I even wrote a review about this player, my opinion stands as is), and a Sony CDP-XA7ES. That is in addition to the Pioneer PD-65. In the final analysis, it came down to this:

(1). I (wanted to have) liked the CAL Labs combo, it was as someone else told me last summer: sweet, three-dimensional, and analog sounding. I was even attractively priced for a two box cd player, but the fact that the DAC has tubes in it eliminated from consideration (I want my gear to start playing music when I switch it on, and if one or more the tube go out on a tube component that I would ever own, then I am going to be without music until I replace those tubes).

(2). I definitely loved the Mark Levinson combination (extended highs; clear midrange; deep, powerful, and tuneful bass response, and also a three-dimensional soundstage and (I'll be quick to admit), not as analog sounding (more like the upper eschilon of digital, a no-no). It was obvious that it too, was eliminated from consideration. The reason: THE PRICE (Yes, it that was obvious).

(3). For what I had to say about the Rotel RCD-990, see my review pretaining to that particular player.

(4). Next up: The Sony CDP-XA7ES. Ideally, this would have been the ideal player for my new system. This player exhibits about 95% of what I was looking for in a cd player in 1998. Extended and airy highs, a clear and transparent midrange (perhaps, more so than the Rotel), a deep, tight, and rich sounding bass response. Soundstaging and depth was beyond reproach. There was also a level of material and craftsmanship that I would expect from a cd player costing $3,000.00 and up. I see why a lot of people in this forum is so awestruck with this player. I am in complete agreement with all who have praised this player so highly. If I was putting together an system costing more than $10K that has all of the components that that system has, then this would be my player hands down. But for the system that I now have, and the one I am progressing toward, this player would be out of line (hence--I consider it overkill for this system).

(4). So that leave the Pioneer PD-65. The PD-65 is Pioneer's top-of-the-line "single play" cd player (Hence--Part of their "Elite" series). Most of the things that I loved so much from the Sony CDP-XA7ES also comes from this player. It produces a clean, extended, and airy top-end, a clear and transparent midrange with resolution (there was a slight touch of forwardness however, not a bad thing, just try different interconnects, or adjust the midrange control on the Vandersteens when they are acquired and broken in--Me), and the bass was extended, but to a lesser extent than with the Sony. The stage was also three-dimensional (but, on a smaller scale, again, compared to the Sony). But unlike the Mark Levinson combo and to a lesser extent, the Rotel, the PD-65 was also more analog sounding, which in a totally solid-state system, that was very important. To improve the bass response, I eventually, am going to acquire an external DAC like the Theta Chroma or one of the discontinued Parasounds. I would like one to extend and tighten the bass response, but keep the analog sounding midrange and top-end intact. It is also my ideal player by the fact that I would like to see the cd spinning when I am not listening critically (I know that crazy sounding), but I was fascinated by something like that. But like the Sony, it also has a high level of construction, the drawer moves in and out smoothly, and with its "rosewood" side panels, this player is as sexy to look at as it is to listen to. And lastly, the price is just too. Just $800.00. It is the perfect match for my new system. It will be purchased in exactly one month. So there, this player is my final choice.

My System (In its current state):

Speaker System: KEF Reference 102 Bookshelf Speaker System/ w KUBE Equalizer
Power Amplifier: McCormack Power-Drive DNA-0.5 (Standard)
Preamplifier: McCormack TLC-1 (Standard)
Tuner: NAD 4225
CD Player: NAD 514 (Will be replaced by the PD-65 next month)
CD Changer: JVC XL-M509TN
Cassette Deck: Nakamichi BX-300
Cables: MITerminator 2 Interconnects and Speaker Cables (Standard)
Accessory 1: Brickwall Surge Supressor/Power Line Filter
Accessory 2: Speaker Stands filled with a mixture of lead shot and sand
Accessory 3: Stereo Stand (from old system)

Overall Rating: The PD-65 rates in my book, four-out-of-five stars (Hey, nothing's perfect)

****

Approximate Price: $800.00

The Pioneer Elite PD-65 is an excellent CD player. I have it mated with anAragon 2004 MKII amp, Anthem Pre1L pre-amp, and B&W Matrix 803 series II speakers.

The player has not dissappointed me yet. I am still amazed at just how much more musical CDs sound through this unit. The player uses an algorithm they call the Legato Link to compensate for the brick wall effect. I don't know if this is the key to this player's success, but it certainly generates a sweet (non-harsh) sound. Another plus is the stabile turntable like black platter the cd sets and spins on (upside down). Seating the cd in this manner helps to minimize tracking errors (it is a built in tweak - like the AudioPrism Blacklit).

I was a little hesitant about buying Pioneer, but trust me the Elite series is an entirely different animal. This company knows how to make great gear. They just to concentrate in mass-market because that is where the money is at.

I also sampled the Rega Planet and Rotel RCD-975 (I think). The Pioneer Elite is superior. Rega Planet is lifeless and soft and the Rotel is harsh in the highs.

The Pioneer Elite PD-65 has been in production for at least 6 years. This is the sign of a quality product. If your in the market for a CD player under a grand, do yourself favor and sample this player.

I hate to repeat what everyone else has said, but what a surprise! I was hesitant about buying a pioneer product, but the local high-end rip-off joint was having a demo sale. Initially I liked the platter and the bit-stream D/A conversion, so I bought it for $300. I have had it 2 years now and trully believe it was the best audio purchase I ever made. I have compared it side-by-side with some pretty fancy stuff and still find that the PD-65 sounds better. I don't mean "better for the money." I mean "better!" I will never forget the look on a stereo buddie's face when he brought over his new Cal Audio CD transport/ D/A. We listened to his first. "This sounds pretty good," I said admiring the uncovered tube output stage. Then we listened to the same track on the PD-65. I closed my eyes basking in the analog-like sound. My friend said nothing. When the track ended he got up gathered his various boxes and wires and left muttering something about his wife and an early dinner.