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`Sony unleashes first DVD/SACD combi
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`DVD and music fans with Ј1,200 to spare listen up now: in October this year Sony will be launching the DVP-S9000ES, the UK's first DVD player to offer SACD and DVD playback in one gorgeously designed package. But that's by no means all the deck offers. The ES at the end of its name - as well as its looks - pitches it into the high-end audiophile range of Sony components, meaning Sony has spared no expense in building only the very highest quality components into the (exceptionally large) chassis, and gone to extreme lengths to ensure that every possible source of potential electronic and mechanical disruption of the audio circuitry is eliminated. You can, for instance, switch off the video circuitry, fluorescent panel, digital outputs and more besides when listening to CDs.
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`This is certainly not to say that the video performance has been forgotten, though. As well as an advanced 10-bit, 54MHz D/A converter, the deck's image processor integrates motion adaptive Field Noise Reduction (specifically developed for MPEG-compressed pictures) and Block Noise Reduction, which attempts to alleviate the problems caused by blocky digital coding artefacts. There's also progressive scan from NTSC source material (though you'll need a progressive scan NTSC-capable TV to enjoy it), and adjustable brightness, colour, hue, sharpness, chroma delay, and gamma correction, along with a bit-rate meter and a 300-disc flash memory on top of the all the other finery I've already mentioned.
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`I've just seen a demo of this player in action and can confirm that it really does promise to be something special. Look out for a review in HCC soon.
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