【SACD Player ONKYO C-S5VL Detailed Review】
Announcement｜Purchase｜Part 1｜Part 2｜Part 3｜Part 4｜Part 5｜Part 6｜Part 7
This time, we look at the widely rumoured weaknesses of the ONKYO C-S5VL and how to get the best out of it.
The Drive Mechanism Is Supposedly Unbelievably Sluggish…
A complaint you see written up in virtually every review. The tray itself has a slim, rather smart-looking profile. As for how it actually performs — the tray operation is perfectly fine, nothing out of the ordinary, at least on a par with imported players. There are plenty of other machines with slower loading, frankly.
Where it does take its time is in reading the disc after the tray has closed. Once the tray shuts, it sits and thinks for about 7 to 9 seconds before recognising the disc. Ejecting is fine most of the time, though occasionally it hesitates for a beat. And switching between the SACD layer and the CD layer is slow — you’re waiting a good 15 seconds or so before any sound appears. Whether you can live with that probably comes down to how impatient a person you are. I’m not the type to be in a hurry, so my honest reaction was more along the lines of: hang on, people are actually complaining about this level of sluggishness? …Honestly, isn’t it rather beside the point?
Incidentally, the sound quality from the C-S5VL’s digital output is rather good. The sense of weight is on the restrained side, but there is a richness of fine nuance and a considerable amount of information in the reverberant texture. Comparing the same source material through the same DAC (
DAC-1000) — USB from a PC (ripped data) versus the digital output of the C-S5VL — the difference to the ear is roughly on the scale of CD versus SACD. The better one is, of course, the C-S5VL.
The Remote Is Apparently Dreadful…
Cheap-feeling, awkward to use, and so on. Looking at it, though, it’s perfectly ordinary. Operability is ordinary too. The reception angle is narrow — that’s my one personal gripe, more than any sense of cheapness. For those who want something with a more premium feel, there is actually a trick: you can order a remote from another model as a spare part. Strangely enough, the remote for the lower-tier C-7030 (model number RC-822C) is actually more impressive-looking — though you do lose the ability to switch the digital filter. Come to think of it, the C-7030 and C-773, both cheaper than the C-S5VL, actually look more premium than it does… Particularly the C-773, which I personally rather like — its design has a certain A-1VL quality about it. The power cable is also detachable, which is a plus… whereas the successor model, the C-7030, inexplicably has a captive power cable.
ポチップ
ポチップ
That said, spending needlessly on the remote while compromising the innards would be getting things the wrong way round, and for an entry-level model this seems about right. Still, it would be rather fun if ONKYO DIRECT were to offer an exclusive black premium remote as a direct-sales limited item… just a thought.
Slow to Wake Up
As a countermeasure, the manufacturer has fitted the unit with a clock heating circuit. So if you leave it powered on continuously it sounds very good indeed, but starting from cold, the sound quality for the first little while (several tens of minutes or so) feels somehow not quite there. In the current climate, though, recommending that people leave equipment on all the time would no doubt invite all sorts of criticism, so I’ll leave it at that…
As usual this is getting rather long, so we continue in Getting the Best from ONKYO C-S5VL.
【SACD Player ONKYO C-S5VL Detailed Review】
Announcement｜Purchase｜Part 1｜Part 2｜Part 3｜Part 4｜Part 5｜Part 6｜Part 7
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List of comments （2）
レスポンス遅くてすいません。SACDプレーヤーやはりオンキョーでしたね。。わたしもオンキョーの音質が好きなので嬉しいです。今回の評価は楽しみにしております。SACDの将来を考えると、投資は躊躇しますが、されど高音質のまま聴きたい・・。本当はSACD入りのC1ｖｌの後継機出ないかと思ったりしてるんですが。。５はコスパからいっても、イイ落とし所。。でもって出てくる音がCDを圧倒してくれるとのことを読んで、PS3再生から卒業しようかなあと、考えたりしてます。
もぐさんこんばんは～♪
>SACDの将来
そこそこ大丈夫じゃないでしょうか？細々とは云え持ちこたえている間に気付いたらどうも1万を超える凄いタイトル数になってますし、世界中の中小レコードレーベルとオーディオマニアが「音質」への執着を捨てない限り･･･。将来CDが駆逐されるような時はSACDも消えるでしょうけれど。DSD録音は高音質ですし、ハイブリッド盤という逃げ道がある事でSACDを救ったと思います、SACD-HybridのCDレイヤーが何故か普通のCD-DAより大概高音質ですし。
実はこの件について色々と以前は憂慮していましたが、ネット音楽配信とかMP3での併売が、流行のジャンクミュージックを除くと思っていた以上に伸び悩みなので、今は結構楽観視してます。
>CDを圧倒してくれる
これはプレーヤー側ではなくSACD盤の内容次第だと思うです。PS3も結局DAC次第ですよね。でもあれDSDをPCMに一端エンコードしてるんでしたっけ･･･そうなると、それはもうたぶんSACDじゃないと･･･思います。