Arcam DV88 Plus DVD Player
 They say, "You
can't go home again." They say, "Better late than never." They say,
"All things come to those who wait." Conventional wisdom -- you've got to love
it. Dr. Milton Greene added to the CW immeasurably with, "The chief enemy of good is
better."
This is nowhere more evident than in consumer electronics,
where any number of "new, improved" versions of perfectly fine components
replace the classic -- and, frequently, justly beloved -- originals. You probably have
your own list of components that were ruined when they were replaced with improved
versions; I certainly have mine.
So when Arcam offered to send me the DV88 Plus after I had raved over
the DV88, I was intrigued -- and worried. I foresaw two difficulties -- if the DV88
Plus wasn't significantly better than the DV88, it was not going to be a fun review
for anybody (except those sick souls who rubberneck at wrecks on the highway), but if it
was a lot better than the '88, where was I going to find new adjectives to describe
it?
Apparently I was not giving nearly enough credit where
credit was due -- to either Arcam or myself.
Too much of anything is bad, but too much of good
whiskey is barely enough
Like the DV88 before it, the Plus was designed and
manufactured by Arcam in its Cambridge (the one in the UK, not Massachusetts) plant. Lots
of audio manufacturers have their own in-house R&D and assembly operations, but DVD
players are a different kettle of fish entirely. There are only a handful of specialty
manufacturers that build their own video products. (Arcam does outsource its transport
mechanism because the company doesn't feel that the spinner mechanism is an area where
they can offer quantifiable improvement.)
The heart of the Plus is its navigator software and its
system on a chip (SOC), which is the Zoran Vaddis 5 DVD processor. The chip was a
collaboration between Arcam and Zoran. The Vaddis 5 allows the Plus to offer better audio
performance and far better video performance than the original '88, including progressive
scan, as part of the $1599 base price (it was a $600 option on the DV88).
The Vaddis chip also allows the Plus to offer DVD-Audio, as
an add-on option via a board which piggybacks onto the Plus's PCB (there's a blank space
on the rear panel to facilitate connections). I haven't auditioned it, but it has a few
options that seem intriguing, such as individual volume control for all channels. The
board is a $599 option (for some older models featuring an earlier board, $699).
In terms of video performance, the Plus is definitely a
full-feature player, offering high-performance per-pixel motion-adaptive progressive scan
with 2:3 and 2:2 pulldown for film sources. It outputs both 525p and 625p progressive scan
(Macrovision copy-protection certified, natch). It also features six 10-bit/54MHz video
DACs (their internal processing is 12-bit).
Another nice touch is its high-quality zoom, which has 1.25
and 1.5 magnification so that widescreen movies fill 4:3 TV screens.
When it comes to connections, the Plus accepts component,
RGB, S-video, and composite interlaced video outputs. It also has SCART output for RGB and
composite video, for our European readers -- as well as NTSC-to-PAL and PAL-to-NTSC
conversion.
But Arcam is first and foremost an audio company, so it
paid particular attention to the audio circuitry in the Plus. The unit incorporates twin
24-bit/192kHz Wolfson audio DACs, operating in dual-differential mode for the best noise
rejection. On the appropriate DVD software, it outputs 24-bit/96Hz data -- through a
transformer-coupled coaxial digital output, no less. The transformer provides a much more
stable impedance, and this should mean lower jitter levels.
The Plus also boasts HDCD decoding with gain management.
Unlike some DVD players -- both from mass-market and other specialty manufacturers -- the
Plus will play just about any kind of 5" disc out there, ranging from CD-R/CD-RW
discs to most DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW discs. And it'll play MP3 CDs at all kinds
of bit-rates, including VBR (variable bit rate) files.
One thing that Arcam -- and the Plus --- does quite
differently from everybody else is use separate audio and video master clocks, which means
that the sampling frequency of the audio and video synch clocks can be set independently.
This could lead to drift between the two, so Arcam developed a software fix that checks
the synch level and adjusts the video speed to match that of the audio. Why adjust
the video clock and not the audio clock? Because the ear/brain relationship is less
forgiving than the eye/brain link and Arcam doesn't want to muck up the sound.
Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in
trouble
The DV88 Plus is good. Really good. Really, really
good.
Dang! It's that adjective thing again. I guess I'll have to
use a few.
In contrast to my experience with most DVD players, I
really enjoyed listening to music through the Plus -- whether we're talking about music on
CD or on either stereo or multichannel DVD. The Classic Records 24-bit/96kHz Muddy
Waters: Folksinger [Classic DAD 1021] was almost scary in its realism. Waters' slide
work on "The Same Thing" had a sparkle and zing that I'd never heard from any
disc -- silver, black, or otherwise tinted. And Muddy's voice had body, throat, and a
jowl-ey quaver that channeled the great man's spirit right into my room.
CD sound was liquid and dynamic. Old favorites like Miles
Davis' Sketches of Spain [Sony Legacy 65142] possessed a three-dimensionality that
even high-priced dedicated CD players would have trouble matching. Davis' muted trumpet
had a dark, burnished tone that leapt out from Gil Evans' hushed arrangements like a
jackrabbit cannonballing out of the darkness through oncoming headlights.
Yes, the very best dedicated CD players do have a bit more
texture and depth than the Plus, but when you consider that most DVD players sound
quite hideous when playing CDs, this is performance at an extremely high level. I truly
enjoyed listening to CDs through the Plus -- so much so that I would sometimes have a hard
time deciding whether to listen through my dedicated audio system or through the A/V
system containing the Plus. Now that's what I call a win/win situation.
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance
of a good example
However, the DV88 Plus is a DVD player, and its
performance as a videodisc player is where it grew even more special -- I mean special-er,
or, ummm, special-ist. Oh bother -- darn adjectives!
To start with, there's the whole question of black-level.
The Plus, quite simply, captured details within the overall blackness of dark, moody films
(say, Red Dragon or La Femme Nikita) like no other DVD player I have
auditioned.
There are two ways that most mainstream DVD players deal
with this kind of detail. Some of them just can't reproduce any dark-on-black
details and everything just blends into one great mass of darkness. If it weren't for the
specificity of the soundtrack, you'd never guess what was going on. Other DVD players deal
with dark scenes through graying-out all blacks. You get detail, but precious
little "dark." It all looks fake, like those movies that signify night by
filming everything under bright daylight through a blue filter.
But the Plus gives you about as much black as you can
handle and still have any contrast. I'd never seen anything quite like it (perhaps
a poor choice of words, but you get my drift).
Overall, the '88 Plus's video performance was without a
flaw. Colors were rich, deeply pigmented, and I spotted about as few jaggies and digital
over-enhancement as I have ever seen (or should that be not seen?).
I was quite excited about the Plus's inclusion of
progressive scan, but, much to my surprise, its component-video performance was so fine
that I couldn't discern any consistent and meaningful difference between it and the
progressive output. If you don't have a video display with a progressive input, that
should be welcome news indeed.
The sound of video DVDs was precise, specific, and
extremely full of dynamic contrast. I was halfway through Minority Report before I
realized that a substantial part of my suspension of disbelief was due to the soundtrack's
subtle effectiveness. I completely bought the film's future despite all of the logical
holes in its structure, simply because its sonic depiction was so convincing. Now that's
entertainment!
The Plus did a stellar job on big, splashy soundtracks as
well. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was, as always, immense,
deep, detailed, and awe-inspiring through the Arcam. As you'd expect from such a superb
player, but nice to find out, even so.
Too much of a good thing is wonderful
Arcam deserves a lot of credit for all of the ways it
managed to improve the already superlative video and audio performance of its DV88. The
DV88 Plus is better in every way (except cosmetically, where it is merely the same). If
you count its inclusion of progressive-scan output as standard, the Plus is even cheaper
than the model it replaced. Ain't that good news.
If you're looking for an improvement in video performance
or a DVD player that also plays all manner of CDs with refined, musical sound, the Arcam
DV88 Plus is one player you really must audition.
It's really that good. And all those other adjectives, too.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
Arcam DV88 Plus DVD Player
Price: $1599 USD.
Warranty: Two years parts and labor.
Arcam
Pembroke Avenue
Cambridge CB5 9PB, England
Phone: (01223) 203203
E-mail: custserv@arcam.co.uk
Website: www.arcam.co.uk
North American distributors:
Audiophile Systems, Ltd. (USA)
8709 Castle Park Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46256
Phone: (888) 272-2658
Fax: (317) 841-4107
E-mail: aslinfo@aslgroup.com
Website: www.aslgroup.com
Emerald Audio Resources (Canada)
R.R. 1
Palgrave, ON
L0N 1P0
Phone: (905) 880-7170
Fax: (905) 880-7171
E-mail: emerald@pathcom.com
Website: www.emerald-audio.com
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