Κώστας Φ.
Truth hurts. Here's a teddy bear.
- Μηνύματα
- 8.978
- Reaction score
- 894
Price: $599
"The DX-7555 matches the size and styling of Onkyo's A-9555 integrated amplifier, which I reviewed in the September 2007 Stereophile, and shares with it several design features. Like the A-9555, the DX-7555's front panel is brushed aluminum; it has a fairly heavy, antiresonant chassis, a power transformer of substantial size and weight, and features Onkyo's proprietary Vector Linear Shaping Circuitry (VLSC), which is claimed to remove digital noise from the analog signal by using a comparator/feedback method. The digital-to-analog conversion is handled by a Wolfson Microelectronics WMA8740 24-bit/192kHz DAC. The digital clock is said to be highly precise (±1.5ppm) and to produce very low jitter.
The DX-7555's Setup mode permits selection of analog output polarity and digital filter slope: Sharp (flat to 20kHz, with a steep cutoff after that) or Slow (gradual high-frequency rolloff, to better maintain audio-band phase accuracy). An unusual feature of the player is that the frequency of its digital clock can be adjusted by the user to match specific CDs. I assume that this feature is included for the type of audiophile who feels compelled to adjust the cartridge VTA for every LP and writes down the optimal setting on the record jacket. After a bit of fiddling, with inconclusive results, I left the clock frequency alone. The DX-7555 has optical and coaxial digital outputs, the digital signal having a "direct" path to the output through shielded cables, to protect the signal from noise and interference.
The DX-7555 has a full set of convenience features: headphone output with volume control, 25-step memory playback, four repeat modes, four-mode display dimmer, and Remote Interactive (RI) input/output jacks for integration with other Onkyo RI-enabled devices. The remote control has the same sort of logical layout that I praised in the A-9555's remote, with a large, distinctively shaped Play button, but doesn't include controls for polarity and filter slope, which would have made these features more convenient to use.
...
The end of the road
A few days before it was time to pack up the Onkyo DX-7555 and send it off to John Atkinson to be measured, I hooked it up to the Onkyo A-9555 integrated amplifier. The combination worked beautifully—not surprising, given that they have many of the same technical design features, and were launched at the same time. And both components seem cut from the same sonic cloth, sounding smooth, laid-back, and slightly soft (the A-9555 perhaps a bit more than the DX-7555), and neither is particularly strong in dynamics. The combo of the Ayre CX-7e CD player and the PS Audio GCC-100 integrated is capable of producing sound that's more transparent to the source, and better at communicating the excitement of music. If you told me you had $6000 to spend on a CD player and integrated amplifier, I'd recommend the Ayre and the PSA. Still, the Onkyo pairing at just over one fifth the price produced a very comfortable sound that was simply very pleasant to listen to, and is likely to be more tolerant of excessive brightness and treble roughness in speakers. The DX-7555 at $599 and the A-9555 at $699 represent excellent value and are highly recommended." -- Robert Deutsch
"How does the Onkyo DX-7555 stack up against the Oppo DV970HD? The Oppo is one-third the price, reads hi-rez discs, makes a pretty darn good digital transport feeding hi-rez DACs, and offers surprisingly crisp DVD-Video performance. I'd still call it a bargain. However, at the end of the day, I preferred the Onkyo as a CD player. It may be a one-trick pony, but it does that trick awfully well—and it's a trick I like a lot." -- Wes Phillips
"Overall, this is excellent measured performance." -- John Atkinson
Full Review: Stereophile.com
