Yamaha DVD-S1800BL 1080p Upconverting DVD SACD Player

Comment: The main reason i bought this was for the cd as my nad cd player was on it's last leg.And i didn't want to spend arm and leg for a new one. And i am very pleased with the sound quality of this it sounds much better than my old nad player.Oh yea the dvd is also good .So if your looking for a good quality player at a good price this is the one for you.

Comment: The Yamaha DVD-S1800 is an excellent player for the price here on Amazon. The set-up is a little confusing but if you take your time it is not that hard. Picture quality is at the upper end of up-conversion DVD's, not HD but much better than SD. The Faroudja DCDi processing is on of the best for deinterlacing and found in much more expensive players. Sound quality is very good and the player is over-all very user friendly. My only complaint is there is no button on the remote to open and close the door. Very pleased with this player.

Comment: I am not someone who understands every technical aspect of a DVD player. I do however understand good sound, and a good picture. Upon starting this player up, the picture and sound immediately impressed me, a lot. Definitely has wow factor there. I haven't had it too long, and hope it is reliable.

Comment: This unit orginally was priced at $450.00 in 2007. Not too many sellers have this player any more and at Amazon's price this is a real bargain. It upconverts DVD's on my Sony Bravia very well, at least comparable to what a Blu-ray player can do. Audio CD's sound quite good. Where this player really shines is as an SACD player -the music is clear, with good separation for all channels. Here's hoping that SACD is not on its death bed because this is a wonderful format. I do not own any DVD-Audio discs, but the Yamaha plays these too. 5.l channel connections to your receiver are via analog only, not through HDMI (it has an HDMI output, but you'll need RCA analog cables for SACD. The one thing this unit does not decode is HDCD for those discs that are recorded in this format. I wish it had this feature. All in all, this was money well spent for me. If you're looking for an upconvert DVD player that can play SACD and other formats, look no further.

Comment: First I want to give props to Amazon.com for their spectacular shipping!! I ordered this player and selected the free supersaver shipping option. I placed my order on a Sunday evening and the player was at my door when I got home from work on Tuesday, 2 days later. I was blown away! Free 2nd day shipping...

Anyway, as far as the Yamaha goes, I bought it for it's audio capabilities. I'm very impressed with the audio quality of both CDs and DVDs. I have used a lot of different players for CDs, and this is one of the better ones I've heard (unless you have really good external DACs in your receiver, use the analog outs!). I have very discerning ears when it comes to digital sound (I prefer Vinyl in most cases) and CDs sounded pretty good on this player. Now I want to disclaim that I have never heard DVD-Audio discs or SACDs on any other machine, but they both sound fantastic on this one!! I'm extremely happy with the sound quality of everything I have thrown at this thing (I haven't tried mp3s, though) I guess the only feature I'm really missing is decoding of HDCDs. I have a lot of them and DO hear a difference. But I guess for a $79.99 player, great CD sound, SACD, DVD-Audio--and an upscaling DVD player to boot, I really can't complain!

I suppose, since it is a DVD player, I should comment on the video. Using HDMI out to my 1080p Sharp LCD, I saw mixed results. First, I tried Aliens (special reissue from a few years ago) and it was blocking up a bit and ghosting, even on not-so-action-packed scenes. Maybe it's the actual disc, since the movie is from the 80s... Next, I tried Harry Potter 5. MUCH better! I didn't notice any digital artifacts, and all edges were smooth (thanks Faroujda) I guess the quality depends on the source, but as I mainly use this for audio playback, I'm more than OK with the video performance (much better than my old Pioneer 480i player)

In short, this is definitely the best $80 I've ever spent.