Sony Blue Ray Player as CD transport

[Asit]

Hi folks,

A few weeks ago I decided to get a cheap Blue Ray Disk player (BDP) as we somehow had a few Blue Ray discs at home, so I got the Sony BDP-S380 for a little under 9k.

I set up the HDMI connection between the BDP and our Sony Bravia LCD TV. The audio was down-mixed to 2-channel and then fed to my CDP/DAC through a coaxial cable. Of course, the CDP/DAC is already connected to my stereo amp and speakers in the usual way.

We watched a Blue Ray movie (Lion King). Both pictures and audio were very satisfying.

Then I wanted to experiment with a red book audio CD, with BDP used as a CD-transport. I was very pleasantly surprised with the result, which was quite good.

About 3 years ago, I did the same experiment with our Sony upscaling DVD player (costs about 5k). The DVDP as a CD-transport did not produce encouraging result at all. The sound was thin, lacking body and generally not musical. It was really much worse than the transport of my CDP. But now with the BDP used as CD-transport, the result was really very encouraging.

Hence I was itching to ask somebody the question: Is the BDP transport basically a lot better than the DVDP transport? Or a similar but not the same question: Does a BDP act as a better CD-transport than a DVDP used for the same purpose?

Just last night I happened to talk to a very very experienced audiophile over the phone for a long time. He mentioned that he himself has the earlier entry level BDP from Sony (BDP-S370) and he has made the same observation that it can act as a decent CD-transport. According to him, he actually opened up the BDP and observed that although the BDP was ultimately manufactured somewhere else, the transport was actually made in Japan.

Any way, I just wanted to share my experience with you. The only problem with this unit being used as transport I see is that it is extremely light. Right now I have put the BDP on 4 Magic Hexa isolating/damping feet, although I am not sure if this makes any difference to the sound with this BDP. But somehow, if I could put some weight on it, it would have been much better, but unfortunately that's not a great idea because the enclosure is made of very light material.

Regards.

 

[jai1611]

Thanks Asit. I have the same BDP. Will try it out as a transport.

 

[umeshdhingra]

Thanks to you,Asit,for the observations,I will also check by playing few diff CD's on my Sony BDP 370. Cheers

 

[vraned]

Asit,

I have the same BDP and use it as a CD transport (connected to Onkyo 609 via HDMI, and Kef Q300 speakers) and it works really well. Music (CDs) sounds much better than anything I've heard and clarity is very good. Of course, you will have the usual comparison/debate with dedicated stereo amp/CDP, but unless I can hear a significant difference in sound quality, I'm staying with this.

Check out another similar thread - http://www.hifivision.com/cd-players/22517-puerile-questions-cdp-quality.html

Vishnu

Hi folks,

A few weeks ago I decided to get a cheap Blue Ray Disk player (BDP) as we somehow had a few Blue Ray discs at home, so I got the Sony BDP-S380 for a little under 9k.

I set up the HDMI connection between the BDP and our Sony Bravia LCD TV. The audio was down-mixed to 2-channel and then fed to my CDP/DAC through a coaxial cable. Of course, the CDP/DAC is already connected to my stereo amp and speakers in the usual way.

We watched a Blue Ray movie (Lion King). Both pictures and audio were very satisfying.

Then I wanted to experiment with a red book audio CD, with BDP used as a CD-transport. I was very pleasantly surprised with the result, which was quite good.

About 3 years ago, I did the same experiment with our Sony upscaling DVD player (costs about 5k). The DVDP as a CD-transport did not produce encouraging result at all. The sound was thin, lacking body and generally not musical. It was really much worse than the transport of my CDP. But now with the BDP used as CD-transport, the result was really very encouraging.

Hence I was itching to ask somebody the question: Is the BDP transport basically a lot better than the DVDP transport? Or a similar but not the same question: Does a BDP act as a better CD-transport than a DVDP used for the same purpose?

Just last night I happened to talk to a very very experienced audiophile over the phone for a long time. He mentioned that he himself has the earlier entry level BDP from Sony (BDP-S370) and he has made the same observation that it can act as a decent CD-transport. According to him, he actually opened up the BDP and observed that although the BDP was ultimately manufactured somewhere else, the transport was actually made in Japan.

Any way, I just wanted to share my experience with you. The only problem with this unit being used as transport I see is that it is extremely light. Right now I have put the BDP on 4 Magic Hexa isolating/damping feet, although I am not sure if this makes any difference to the sound with this BDP. But somehow, if I could put some weight on it, it would have been much better, but unfortunately that's not a great idea because the enclosure is made of very light material.

Regards.

 

[Asit]

jai1611,

It will be nice if you can try it out as transport and share your impression. So far I have tried only one CD of average quality. Experience with more CDs required.

umeshdhingra and vraned,

I meant the BDP only as a CD-transport (that is, only for the CD spinning and reading the digital data). I did not try out the analog output of the BDP for CD playing or even for BD/DVD playing, because I do not expect its audio DAC section to be of good quality. I hope there is no misunderstanding.

Regards.

 

[umeshdhingra]

Thanks for the clarification......point understood

 

[sgajjala]

Hi Asit and all,
Could someone explain what is CD-transport and how does it work??
I have BDP-S380 player and I haven't tried audio CD yet. I just played some Mp3s from USB and the result is not satisfactory.

Really appreciate if someone explain how to get the max out of this BDP.

I have a second thought that I will sell this player and buy a media player instead.

 

[haisaikat]

Hi folks,

A few weeks ago I decided to get a cheap Blue Ray Disk player (BDP) as we somehow had a few Blue Ray discs at home, so I got the Sony BDP-S380 for a little under 9k.

I set up the HDMI connection between the BDP and our Sony Bravia LCD TV. The audio was down-mixed to 2-channel and then fed to my CDP/DAC through a coaxial cable. Of course, the CDP/DAC is already connected to my stereo amp and speakers in the usual way.

We watched a Blue Ray movie (Lion King). Both pictures and audio were very satisfying.

Then I wanted to experiment with a red book audio CD, with BDP used as a CD-transport. I was very pleasantly surprised with the result, which was quite good.

About 3 years ago, I did the same experiment with our Sony upscaling DVD player (costs about 5k). The DVDP as a CD-transport did not produce encouraging result at all. The sound was thin, lacking body and generally not musical. It was really much worse than the transport of my CDP. But now with the BDP used as CD-transport, the result was really very encouraging.

Hence I was itching to ask somebody the question: Is the BDP transport basically a lot better than the DVDP transport? Or a similar but not the same question: Does a BDP act as a better CD-transport than a DVDP used for the same purpose?

Just last night I happened to talk to a very very experienced audiophile over the phone for a long time. He mentioned that he himself has the earlier entry level BDP from Sony (BDP-S370) and he has made the same observation that it can act as a decent CD-transport. According to him, he actually opened up the BDP and observed that although the BDP was ultimately manufactured somewhere else, the transport was actually made in Japan.

Any way, I just wanted to share my experience with you. The only problem with this unit being used as transport I see is that it is extremely light. Right now I have put the BDP on 4 Magic Hexa isolating/damping feet, although I am not sure if this makes any difference to the sound with this BDP. But somehow, if I could put some weight on it, it would have been much better, but unfortunately that's not a great idea because the enclosure is made of very light material.

Regards.

In will try the same with my PS3 as compared to my earlier Sony DVD player and inform.

 

[TaureanBull]

In will try the same with my PS3 as compared to my earlier Sony DVD player and inform.

Would be looking forward to your experience. I have my PS3 lying unused due to lack to time. I was considering buying a CDP but now I think I will wait and use PS3 as a CDP for the time being. Only problem I envisage is that my plasma and stereo system are in two separate rooms.

Waiting for a review from you!

 

[sgajjala]

I still didn't get answer to my question

 

[EthenHunt]

can some one please explain what's cd transport?

 

[jls001]

can some one please explain what's cd transport?

This is nothing but using the CD player as CD spinner and getting digital output from it (normally marked S/PDIF or Coax or Digital Audio when output is electrical, OR Optical output). You will need to feed either electrical or optical digital output to a digital to analog (DAC) converter which will eventually convert it to analog audio which needs to be fed to your audio amplifier.

Why take all this trouble? The inherent assumption here is that the inbuilt DAC of the CD player is inferior to the outboard (independent) DAC that one uses.

Is it true? Depends, as it really depends on which CDP you use as transport and which outboard DAC you use.

So any DVP player, CD player, and I guess most BD players can be used as transport as long as they have digital out.

Do note that there are dedicated CD transports costing megabucks while you can also find cheaper variants.

Another variation is to use a computer to play songs stored as files and feed the digital output of the computer's soundcard to an outboard DAC, OR from the computer's USB port to outboard DAC provided your DAC supports USB input.

Does this answer your query?

 

[tirthankar]

Hi Asit and all,
Could someone explain what is CD-transport and how does it work??
I have BDP-S380 player and I haven't tried audio CD yet. I just played some Mp3s from USB and the result is not satisfactory.

Really appreciate if someone explain how to get the max out of this BDP.

I have a second thought that I will sell this player and buy a media player instead.

There are lots of more qualified people over here, but I will try and explain in my simple terms as best as I can. Abler people please correct my mistakes

For any digital audio system there are multiple stages. first there is reading of the digital data off mp3 files or cd s, then converting that digital data (0s and 1s) to analog using a digital to analog converter, then passing that analog signal to a preamp, from there to a power amp, and finally to the speakers whose mechanical drivers vibrate with the amplified electrical signal for which you hear the sound.
All of these stages are very critical to the accurate reproduction of sound, including the cables to transport it, though different people will have different opinions to the order of importance.

A cd transport is merely a disc spinner, which will read the data off the disc and transmit that digital data to a dac which will perform the conversion to analog.
Most mainstream optical disc players and media players have a built in dac and analog rca connectors to pass that analog signal to an amplifier. If there is also an optical/coaxial output which can transmit digital signals, one can use the player to just read the digital data from the disc and pass it through the optical/coaxial output to an external dac. in that case, the player becomes a transport.
If the player is connected to an AVR with hdmi, then also it is a transport, as hdmi passes digital signal and the dac in the avr performs the conversion.
the external dac is almost always better for stereo than the onboard dac of the normal off the shelf cd/dvd/blu ray players found in the stores.

Now the reason you found the sound quality as unacceptable is most probably due the fact that you were listening to mp3 files, which themselves are compressed to reduce size and lose most of the details and dynamic range of the original cd audio. played from hd media players also, there wont be any appreciable increase in quality.
In fact, my panasonic bdt110 has a much better on board dac than my ac ryan playon hd.

how is your player connected to the rest of your system? and what are the rest of your components?

@Asit da, I apologize if you feel I am going OT.

edit: jls001 beat me to the reply..

 

[santhosh]

Hi Asit,
Good to hear about your experiment and the results. Thanks for sharing here.

Since the BDP is light, you may want to try this simple DIY tip:

The TNT CDP Press

 

[praveeng]

I have the Sony BDP, which I have tried using as a transport. The sound is not as good as from the PC. In fact now I never listen to CD's through the BDP and is lying idle with me.

Using Sony BDP without the DAC was 'horrible' which only showed slight improvement in output when used with DAC. My another observation is that this BDP makes music quite dull and gets you unengaged. In other words I did not find Sony BDP 'musical' at all.

Just my observation with my set-up..

 

[sgajjala]

Hi tirthankar,

very good explanation . Thanks very much for taking time to explain.
Could some one tell me how do I make the Sony BDP as CD transport? Is there a setting in player??

 

[haisaikat]

in my case the PS3 and Media Player are both connected to AVR via HDMI, so what I will need to do is make use of the built in DACs in the PS3 or Media Player. Also my DVD Player is connected via coaxial which I guess is again Digital.

 

[tirthankar]

in my case the PS3 and Media Player are both connected to AVR via HDMI, so what I will need to do is make use of the built in DACs in the PS3 or Media Player. Also my DVD Player is connected via coaxial which I guess is again Digital.

I am sorry, but this post in this thread made me think that you were looking to use your ps3 as a transport.
I may have misunderstood your intentions, but if you are looking to use the ps3 as a transport then you need to connect through hdmi only.
But if you are looking to compare the onboard dacs of the media player and ps3, then what you are doing will be the right thing.

Could some one tell me how do I make the Sony BDP as CD transport? Is there a setting in player??

Can you tell us how your bdp is connected to the rest of the system? are you using an avr? if you are connected by hdmi, then while playing a cd you are already using it as a transport. if it is connected using rca, then you will have to get hold of an hdmi or optical/coax cable (what the player supports, look in the specifications) and change the output option in the settings menu of the bdp to the correct output.

 

[haisaikat]

I am sorry, but this post in this thread made me think that you were looking to use your ps3 as a transport.
I may have misunderstood your intentions, but if you are looking to use the ps3 as a transport then you need to connect through hdmi only.
But if you are looking to compare the onboard dacs of the media player and ps3, then what you are doing will be the right thing.

HDMI option is in response to the first post and the one you quoted was in response to the DAC comparison.

 

[sgajjala]

Can you tell us how your bdp is connected to the rest of the system? are you using an avr? if you are connected by hdmi, then while playing a cd you are already using it as a transport. if it is connected using rca, then you will have to get hold of an hdmi or optical/coax cable (what the player supports, look in the specifications) and change the output option in the settings menu of the bdp to the correct output.

Hello tirthankar,

I ahve connected the bdp using an HDMI to AVR ( Onkyo 3400 ) and Coaxial out from bdp to the Coaxial In of AVR ( Of course I am using normal RCA cable as I don't have a dedicated cable )

You mean to say , when I play the mp3 file from bdp, it should be acting as a CD transport right?? Thanks for the info.

I have one more question

When playing 320kbps downloaded mp3 file from usb of BDP, why don't I get 5.1 Dolby in AVR??
AVR doesn't show the symbol of DolbyD if though the source is 5.1 Audio.

Could someone clarify this??