What Hi Fi Sound and Vision
19 FEB 2008
Pioneer DV-LX50
This Pioneer is the best DVD player we've seen in a while, and well worth the money
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What with all the buzz surrounding high-definition disc formats, Pioneer’s performance-orientated DVD player might seem almost wilful.
However, this DV-LX50 is far from the digital dinosaur it might at first appear to be: this exceptional design is one of the finest players to pass through our testing rooms in many a year (and at any price). If this really does prove to be the final DVD player Pioneer makes, it’s one hell of a last hurrah.
The DV-LX50 is the ultimate Pioneer DVD
Essentially, the DV-LX50 incorporates everything Pioneer has ever learned about DVD performance into one player. It builds on the spec of the outstanding DV-989AVi – long one of our favourites – by adding video upscaling to 1080p quality (the older model was limited to 1080i).
A universal disc player, able to spin DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, SACD and CD discs, it’s built to sumptuous standards, including a dual-layer chassis and a glossy black finish that perfectly complements Pioneer’s plasma range.
Of course, despite all these disc-spinning options, what the Pioneer won’t play – and there’s no getting away from this – is Blu-ray. But you know what? We’re not sure it matters, not when the picture quality on offer is as good as this.
Music performance can’t quite match movies
The DV-LX50’s colour accuracy, its black-level insight and its sheer vibrancy are just remarkable. Fed into our reference PDP-LX508D plasma, the picture quality is good enough to make several reviewers question the need for high-definition discs at all.
Of course, in the final analysis Blu-ray does look cleaner, no doubt about it – but when DVD, such a cheap and widely available format, can look this good, it’s enticing.
Sound performance, meanwhile, is typical of our experience with Pioneer kit over the years. Movie sound has heft and drive, while CDs can be rather leaden and one-paced next to a musical over-achiever such as Marantz’s DV7001. But that’s the only disappointment in an otherwise supremely effective performance.
But can you justify the price?
Does that mean you should buy one? It’s not as straightforward a question as you’d imagine. Most consumers regard DVD players as nigh-on disposable goods these days; when you can buy a player for just £20 in some supermarkets, that’s scarcely a surprise.
Yet, despite costing more than 20 times as much as kit of that ‘quality’, the Pioneer still offers great value for money, simply because it’s such a finely honed, thoroughly developed tool. You get the sense that it’s squeezing every last drop possible from the format, and in our book, that makes it well worth every penny that Pioneer asks for it.
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