Thread: Discussion: Celine Dion - All The Way SACD defect ?

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Post by listenup February 12, 2005 (1 of 13)
I'm having a problem that seems to be a pressing/mastering defect. I have the Celine Dion - All The Way... A Decade of Song SACD. The first SACD Multichannel song, the Power of Love stops at exactly 3:59 and skips to the next song. It only happens on the SACD multichannel version, not stereo. I have (2) copies of this SACD with the exact same problem. Has anyone else had this problem? I have a Pioneer DV-578A and haven't had the chance to test it elsewhere.

Post by Benny In Oz March 16, 2005 (2 of 13)
listenup said:

I'm having a problem that seems to be a pressing/mastering defect. I have the Celine Dion - All The Way... A Decade of Song SACD. The first SACD Multichannel song, the Power of Love stops at exactly 3:59 and skips to the next song. It only happens on the SACD multichannel version, not stereo. I have (2) copies of this SACD with the exact same problem. Has anyone else had this problem? I have a Pioneer DV-578A and haven't had the chance to test it elsewhere.

I just discovered I have the same problem with the Pioneer DV-676A (which I think is the Australian equivalent of the DV-578A). I too have tried two different All The Way SACD discs: same problem with both & only on the multi-channel version. I will contact Pioneer Australia about the matter & see what they have to say. Somehow I see this player being returned for a refund in the near future.

BTW. It doesn't appear to be a defect of the disc, I had a Pioneer DV-655A before the 676A & had no such problem playing that track (or any other tracks for that matter). I have also given the All The Way SACD a spin in the Yamaha DVD-C750 & had no problems with that either.

It's definately a Pioneer problem, perhaps it has something to do with the rumoured DSD to PCM conversion. There's a few other bugs in the 676A (& presumably 578A) as well - have you noticed that the bit-rate meter freezes after the layer change?

Post by listenup March 30, 2005 (3 of 13)
Benny In Oz said:

I just discovered I have the same problem with the Pioneer DV-676A (which I think is the Australian equivalent of the DV-578A). I too have tried two different All The Way SACD discs: same problem with both & only on the multi-channel version. I will contact Pioneer Australia about the matter & see what they have to say. Somehow I see this player being returned for a refund in the near future.

BTW. It doesn't appear to be a defect of the disc, I had a Pioneer DV-655A before the 676A & had no such problem playing that track (or any other tracks for that matter). I have also given the All The Way SACD a spin in the Yamaha DVD-C750 & had no problems with that either.

It's definately a Pioneer problem, perhaps it has something to do with the rumoured DSD to PCM conversion. There's a few other bugs in the 676A (& presumably 578A) as well - have you noticed that the bit-rate meter freezes after the layer change?

Thanks for your reply! This is definitely a Pioneer issue and they are (supposedly) researching within the firmware. The jury's still out on what they'll actually do about it!

Post by listenup September 8, 2005 (4 of 13)
Pioneer has resolved this issue via firmware upgrade!

Post by peteyspambucket September 8, 2005 (5 of 13)
listenup said:

Pioneer has resolved this issue via firmware upgrade!

That's very cool. Are you aware of exactly what other issues it may have solved with this firmware upgrade?

Post by viktor September 8, 2005 (6 of 13)
You can recieve this firmware update from the Pioneer site. I tried it but it didn´t help at all (my problem is that the pauses betwen tracks are minimized and that there is a sounding click. This occurs on almost every SACD).

Post by Benny In Oz October 22, 2005 (7 of 13)
listenup said:

Pioneer has resolved this issue via firmware upgrade!

No such luck in Australia. Pioneer still maintains there is no firmware upgrade available for the 676A. I wonder if the DV-686A, the latest model which replaced the 676A, has been fixed.

Here's some interesting news for you though. I just purchased a Yamaha DV-S5860, their new base model SACD/DVD-A player, & it has the same problem with the Power Of Love track on the Celine Dion SACD!!!!!!!!!!! :-(

I couldn't believe it - there's been a year separating the Pioneer 676A & the Yamaha S5860 model, you'd think problems like this could be ironed out in a year. Even stranger is the previous series from Yamaha SACD/DVD-A players did not exhibit this problem with this disc (as I noted above).

It looks like Yamaha have adopted the same SACD design as Pioneer now (DSD to PCM conversion) - they may have even purchased the whole circuit board from Pioneer, who knows. Well back to the shop it goes. I should never have sold my DV-655A. As far as I'm concerned Universal players have not dropped in price over the last few years because they're selling more, but because the components they're using to make them are cheaper & lower quality.

Post by Benny In Oz November 11, 2005 (8 of 13)
Benny In Oz said:

No such luck in Australia. Pioneer still maintains there is no firmware upgrade available for the 676A. I wonder if the DV-686A, the latest model which replaced the 676A, has been fixed.

Here's some interesting news for you though. I just purchased a Yamaha DV-S5860, their new base model SACD/DVD-A player, & it has the same problem with the Power Of Love track on the Celine Dion SACD!!!!!!!!!!! :-(

I couldn't believe it - there's been a year separating the Pioneer 676A & the Yamaha S5860 model, you'd think problems like this could be ironed out in a year. Even stranger is the previous series from Yamaha SACD/DVD-A players did not exhibit this problem with this disc (as I noted above).

It looks like Yamaha have adopted the same SACD design as Pioneer now (DSD to PCM conversion) - they may have even purchased the whole circuit board from Pioneer, who knows. Well back to the shop it goes. I should never have sold my DV-655A. As far as I'm concerned Universal players have not dropped in price over the last few years because they're selling more, but because the components they're using to make them are cheaper & lower quality.

Good news, the DV-686A works! No problems playing The Power Of Love.

Post by listenup December 24, 2005 (9 of 13)
Benny In Oz said:

Good news, the DV-686A works! No problems playing The Power Of Love.

Pioneer gave up on fixing the DV-578A. The firmware upgrade fixed the SACD problem but created DVD-Audio problems! They finally replaced the unit with the DV-588A. So far, so good with the new unit. No noticeable problems with playback of all formats. Overall, not happy with the experience of how long it took to resolve.

Post by etwu May 19, 2006 (10 of 13)
Benny In Oz said:

Good news, the DV-686A works! No problems playing The Power Of Love.

Hello Benny,
I am new to SACD scene. Contemplating buying the pioneer 686A as a universal dvd player. Noticed that you owned this player for a long time, can I ask your opinion about this player regarding picture and sound quality of this player and if there are any problems you encountered ?
When playing SACD, do you need "special" amp.(eg digital amp that has an extended high frequency output) and speakers with super tweeter ?
Cheers,

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