Pioneer Elite BDP53FD Discussion thread. Review will follow soon.

mantis

leroyjr1 wrote: »

How old was the unit?

About a week old.

mantis

leroyjr1 wrote: »

I'll be getting the 4311 shortly.

Are you not happy with the SC-57? Maybe going with the Denon isn't a bad thing , maybe it will work more then a week. Maybe Denon is making a comeback and should be reconsidered. I did one of their Universal Blu ray players and it was really nice , it actually worked out of the box , discrete power codes worked , it played everything I put in it and it was built very nice.

leroyjr1

mantis wrote: »

Are you not happy with the SC-57? Maybe going with the Denon isn't a bad thing , maybe it will work more then a week. Maybe Denon is making a comeback and should be reconsidered. I did one of their Universal Blu ray players and it was really nice , it actually worked out of the box , discrete power codes worked , it played everything I put in it and it was built very nice.

I'm very happy with the 57, but wanting more features (XT32) and possibly wanting to try out the pro cablibration kit down the road.

tonyb

More features ?
The receiver that cuts the lawn for you while you sit inside drinking cold ones watching a movie is still a few years down the road.:cheesygrin:

mantis

leroyjr1 wrote: »

I'm very happy with the 57, but wanting more features (XT32) and possibly wanting to try out the pro cablibration kit down the road.

The only bad thing about going from Elite to Denon is going to be dynamic range and razor sharp clarity. Quite also comes to mind when you listen side by side. The Denon sounds like a receiver and does a very good doing so but it doesn't have that Separates like sound quality or quiet between the notes.
I know the desire to own XT32 is huge right now and getting a lot of buzz but I'm not sure it's going to be enough to beat the SC. If you do decide to go this route , please post a full review and hopefully you have both so you can do a side by side like I have done. It's an eye opener.

cnh

tonyb wrote: »

More features ?
The receiver that cuts the lawn for you while you sit inside drinking cold ones watching a movie is still a few years down the road.:cheesygrin:

Exactly what I was thinking!

XT32? Just get a film audio-engineer to bring all his equipment to your house and you won't have to worry about upgrades in calibration from an "automatic" system! He'll bring 10s of thousands of dollars of equipment and meters and perfectly "balance" all your sound once and for all!

You and I will probably be dead before we might need a further upgrade. lol

cnh

Hellenback

I realize this is an old thread but Pioneer has released only one other BD universal player since the 53fd (the 63fd with no analog out, period).

The 53fd is still current and has the highest MSRP on the Pioneer site. Although the player is rare, likely due to it's false start and subsequent bad rep, it can still be found and usually for far below list.

I'm resurrecting this thread because I managed to snag a 53fd for a song and think that though it might not have the flash of the older Elites, it's finally a solid player.

I'm sorry Mantis ended up with a lemon but they don't all die after a week (very few models ever do). I'm sure his experiment with his 53fd cost him nothing but some frustration so it was a learning experience. It's too bad he wasn't able to own it long enough to end up getting the final firmware update as it has fixed nearly all the bugs he complained about.

I am honestly very happy with this player except for the lack of 5.1 analog outs. The thing is though, no companies, or very few and only at their very high end, is producing AVRs with external inputs. If Pioneer had included the 5.1 or 7.1 outputs it would have increased the cost of the player significantly. I think Pioneer realized that they had to sacrifice something to compete and the surround analog outputs were the victim. It plays surround over HDMI very well.

It's 2 channel analog output is no slouch either as it uses a great AKM DAC chip and sounds very, very good with CD, and 2 channel DVD-a. I will report back on 2 channel SACD analog as I didn't get a remote with my "like new but used" unit and the remote is required to switch between layers on hybrid SACDs. My player is stuck on surround mode until my remote arrives in the next couple of days.

I'm pretty sure it will play 2 channel SACD over analog as well as it does DVD-A. Since purchasing the unit the HDMI into my Elite receiver has sounded just fine and has played every SACD I've tried. It has refused to play only one BluRay disc, but from what I've read and heard that's not unusual for any BD player.

I use it primarily so far to play FLAC files up to 24/192 from a 2TB NTFS HDD over USB -> optical or HDMI. It is the only player I've tried that adds folders to a playlist instead of just songs. This makes adding 10 to 15 albums to a playlist of 100 songs a breeze. I tried the Oppo 95 with no success at this. Maybe others can do this but I haven't run across one yet.

If I want to make a FLAC image of an album I can add 100 albums to a playlist....not bad for convenience.

If this is all this player did, to me it would be worth half of it's retail price... no kidding.

It's getting late and I don't know if anyone is even following this thread. I'll continue this "review" when I find a bit more time and can report on the analog SACD function. I will also go into how well this player does several things.

There was a snarky comment from an early review somewhere that the 53fd was a "Jack of few trades and master of less". I'm here to state that for me, up until now it really has been a "jack of all trades and master of some"....to be continued

Toolfan66

OPPO for the win!!!

I have owned the 53 and I don't miss it, For the most part Pioneer has sold out!! Sad news for me as I am a fan of a lot of their gear..