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Ayre DX-7 DVD-V/CD player Test & Comments
Tests: On the Faroudja test DVD, in progressive component, the Ayre DX-7 performed well on both the swinging pendulum and ice-rink motion tests, but did exhibit some slight jagged-edge artifacts on each. On the waving flag it wasn't as artifact-free as the Denon DVD-5900, which uses Faroudja's DCDi deinterlacer, or the Pioneer DV-59AVi Elite, which uses Pioneer's own Pure-Cinema progressive scan. On the (unflagged) 3:2 pulldown test, the DX-7 never completely captured the cadence, but switched to film mode without a problem on other test material, such as the "Montage of Images" and the Snell & Wilcox Zone Plate on Video Essentials.
The Ayre's luminance response in component interlaced mode rolled off smoothly from 1MHz to 5.0MHz; at 5MHz was down by just 0.72dB. Above that it fell off more rapidly—as do all DVD players measured with VE and DVE—but by only 1.9dB at 5.5MHz. In progressive component, it was down by about 1.5dB at 5MHz and 3.3dB at 5.5MHz. In both progressive and interlaced it still responded up to the 6.75MHz response limit of DVD-Video, as observed on the resolution pattern from Avia Pro.
Continuing with Avia Pro, in progressive component the Ayre's blue chroma response fell off rapidly above 2.5MHz and was largely gone by 3.38MHz. (DVD's maximum chroma response is 3.38MHz, the upper limit of the chroma sweep pattern.) The red chroma response, however, was still clearly visible at the limit, though definitely down in level from the response at lower frequencies. It's not unusual for deinterlacers to deliberately roll off the chroma response to improve the deinterlacing process. We've rarely found that this has an obvious effect on the color of real video images, and it didn't on the Ayre.
At 1.1 seconds the Ayre was the fastest of the three players I have so far timed with Avia Pro's layer-change test. I also observed a three-frame video delay (about 100ms) in the player's video processing—the same as all three of the players we've tested to date using Avia Pro (including the Pioneer and Denon also reviewed in this issue).
Comments: Despite a few middling results in the scaling tests—due largely, I feel, to the lack of a manual film or video setting for those discs on which the player's auto selection guesses wrong —the Ayre DX-7's video performance on both component Y-Pb-Pr and DVI was outstanding. But in comparison with the new Pioneer DV59AVi Elite, also reviewed in this issue, the picture differences were subtle using the best video projector I had on hand, the Marantz VP-12S3. I went back and forth with interlaced component without seeing much more than a slightly smoother, slightly creamier-textured image from the Ayre. The same differences were visible with progressive component, and while still small by any objective measure, were slightly greater subjectively. The Ayre's measured luminance response—noted above—was slightly more rolled-off than the Pioneer's in both interlaced and progressive modes (slightly more so in progressive). But with a difference of –0.4dB at 5MHz (and about –1.4dB at 5.5MHz), the slightly greater falloff in the Ayre's progressive response should be, arguably, inconsequential to its observed performance.
But was it? It's certainly consistent with the creamier, slightly smoother and cleaner-looking images I saw from the DX-7. Ayre would likely argue that this difference is due to lower noise—an aspect of the player's performance that the company has spent a lot of effort to minimize. They might be right. While I was never conscious of clearly visible noise from either player, these sort of small yet important distinctions are what high-end audio and video are all about.
We are not presently equipped to perform response tests on a player's DVI output. Still, my viewing tests convinced me that the Ayre looked better than the Pioneer—once more, by a nose at best, but in a way that was subtly more analog-like. Audiophiles will follow that analogy; others should substitute "more filmlike." No, a thousand veils were not lifted for me, nor did I experience any involuntary "Wow!" reactions. But after using the DX-7 to watch Miracle on the last night of my viewing tests (see my review in this issue's "What's On"), I wondered if I could manage to buy the review sample.
Other priorities will prevent that, and might for you as well, including a possible desire for a universal player, or to save up for the winner of the inevitable Blu-ray/HD DVD battle brewing on the horizon. But if you can afford the Ayre DX-7, and you have a display and system capable of doing it justice, you owe it to yourself to at least take it for a spin.—Thomas J. Norton
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Ayre DX-7 is really outstanding in terms of attracting people and allowing them to enjoy its useful features. Your pizza tower analysis includes a number of diverse and intriguing sources. Keep updating the other products. It is definitely consistent with the creamier, slightly smoother, and cleaner-looking photos.
Particularly for people who are picky about video quality, these types of variances may really affect the watching experience slope 2. If you want the highest possible performance in progressive scan, you might want to investigate choices using more sophisticated deinterlacing methods such as Pioneer's Pure-Cinema or Faroudja's DCDi.