Cheap Blu-ray player

Posted by: alainbil on 11 October 2012

I am thinking of getting a cheap Blu-ray player. I am mostly interested in music Blu-ray. My short list includes the Sony BDP- S790 and the Panasonic BDT 500. I am not interested in multi channel audio and would simply connect the optical out of the Blu-Ray to my NAIM DAC.

It is however not easy to have a demo since NAIM dealers usually do not sell consumer grade Blu-ray player. Can someone tell me how good such BR player sound with the NAIM DAC, and how does it compare to a more expensive player? Any advice on this matter would be great.

Posted on: 11 October 2012 by winkyincanada

We run blu-ray audio to the SN DAC (via HDMI through the TV so the sync with the picture is correct). It is very good indeed. Ours is a Sony.

Posted on: 11 October 2012 by Mr Underhill

I run an Oppo and a Sony.

The Sony was the cheapo a couple of years ago and has worked well & flawlessly.

Posted on: 13 October 2012 by tonaimbutafew

I have a Panasonic through the supernait dac an it sounds amazing. One thing I can't work out what to do is watch the hd channels through the supernait it makes a horrible noise through my speakers.

Posted on: 13 October 2012 by winkyincanada

Originally Posted by tonaimbutafew:

I have a Panasonic through the supernait dac an it sounds amazing. One thing I can't work out what to do is watch the hd channels through the supernait it makes a horrible noise through my speakers.

That's because it isn't PCM. The only option you have is to run analogue to another input on the SN. We do that with our cable box.

Posted on: 14 October 2012 by tonaimbutafew

Thanks winky so I'm not going mad then. I can set my tv to PCM yet the noise would still happen. I wonder if that's the same case as the dac on the Nds which is my next upgrade. Thanks, Clare

Posted on: 15 October 2012 by winkyincanada

Originally Posted by tonaimbutafew:

Thanks winky so I'm not going mad then. I can set my tv to PCM yet the noise would still happen. I wonder if that's the same case as the dac on the Nds which is my next upgrade. Thanks, Clare

Yeah, being able to set PCM out, doesn't mean you always get PCM out in my experience. It seems it be overridden by the source files. Our Bluray player will always give PCM from blurays, but some DVDs played using exactly the same settings will give a PCM signal (OK) and some will not (need to use analogue).

Our TV is set to PCM, and it seems it passes the PCM signal if it has a choice, but also passes a non-PCM signal if that is all that it receives.

Posted on: 21 October 2012 by Neill Ferguson

Panasoinc BDP 120 I think is selling for £99.99 the only difference between that player and the 220 is the 220 have built in wi-fi and thats selling for £149.99.

Posted on: 26 October 2012 by Fozz

I run a sat box into ndac and on some hd material the PCM is overridden with 5.1 and you get the usual noise. A workaround for most of the time is to select the alternative audio for the channel, this is PCM

but might have audio commentary from time to time. Many disks have more than one encoding on them so might be worth a try to switch audio. Fozz

Posted on: 31 October 2012 by thechain

Have you got a PS3? I run a PS3 into a Rega DAC/Nait 5i and it sounds fantastic for a 2 channel setup on Blu Ray.

Posted on: 01 November 2012 by Mr Underhill

I got VERY close to buying a PS3, but then they got rid of the SACD compatibility.

I finally plumped for the SONY as it streams BBC iPlayer and LoveFilm, both of which are useful for me.

I got the Oppo for my main system as I needed the onboard HD decoding.

That said I now stream iPlayer through the Oppo by running Serviio.