December 2005 Reviewed by Anthony Di Marco	Vincent SDV-3 DVD Player

Description Model: SDV-3 Price: $1495 USD Dimensions: 16.9"W x 3.9"H x 13.6"D Weight: 13.7 pounds Warranty: One year parts and labor Features Audio and power-supply sections fully shielded from video section	Features (cont'd) Progressive-scan capability HDCD compatible Balanced stereo audio circuit with XLR connections Fully compatible with DVD-Video, SVCD, DVCD, CVD, VCD1.0, 1.1, and 2.0, CD-AD, HDCD, MP3, MPEG2 for DVD, MPEG1 for VCD, Dolby Digital, DTS True balanced operation Aluminum front panel Heavy-gauge chassis

Vincent seems to be a smart company. They don’t try to directly compete with larger Japanese and American rivals such as Denon, Harman Kardon, and Onkyo, which have a lock on the features-per-dollar end of the market. Co-owned by Switzerland’s Thorens and Germany's Sintron Corporation, Vincent spends its money on parts that contribute to sonic performance. Where some firms offer a gaggle of extra surround modes, Vincent counters with more robust power supplies and top-shelf parts.

Nor does Vincent rely on mass manufacturing. Each of their products is hand-assembled and thoroughly tested to guarantee proper operation before leaving the factory. Like many companies, Vincent takes advantage of China’s lower labor costs to stay competitive while employing a full-time quality-assurance engineer at the factory in the People’s Republic. Vincent hopes their approach will gain the attention of audiophiles who value musical performance over myriad features. Based on my experience with the SDV-3 DVD player ($1495), they may be on to something.

Well-built and imperfect

Vincent’s SDV-3 isn’t a heavyweight like the Esoteric DV-50S or Simaudio’s Moon Orbiter universal audio/video players -- it won’t break your back or make your component rack cry for mercy. At a hair under 14 pounds, the SDV-3’s build quality emphasizes a well-thought-out design that feels hand-made, not born of an assembly line. A thick aluminum front panel, moderately thick chassis cover, and high-quality connections place it above what’s typically found in retail stores.

The SDV-3’s overall appearance is all business. A fluorescent display sits below a center-mounted tray, with the Power button to the left and the transport buttons (Stop, Play, Forward, Reverse, Pause, Eject) to the right. These are all metal, while the fluorescent display is uncluttered and easy to read.

The rear of the SDV-3 has RCA outputs for six-channel unbalanced audio, component, composite, and S-video, a standard European SCART video connection, and coaxial and fiber-optic digital outputs. Less usual are the balanced XLR connectors, which, according to Brian Anderson of Q-USA, Vincent’s North American distributor, output true balanced sound. Balanced operation keeps the ground separate from the audio signal’s positive and negative leads, while in unbalanced operation the negative and ground share the same lead. The result, according to Vincent, is improved dynamic range because the circuit’s noise floor is lower. In my experience, a quieter circuit reveals more of a recording’s low-level detail.

Setup

Setup was easy. I connected the SDV-3’s six-channel outputs to my Linar Model 10 integrated multichannel power amplifier with Analysis Plus Oval One interconnects. Stereovox HDXV RGB cables made the connection from the SDV-3’s component-video output to my Mitsubishi monitor. The SDV-3 supports RGB and Y, R-Y, B-Y output. My system required the latter.

Negotiating the SDV-3’s front panel is a piece of cake, but the remote control drove me crazy -- even my slender fingers had a tough time navigating the myriad pencil-eraser-sized buttons, and the lack of backlighting made it impossible to choose the right function in the dark.

But once I’d located the remote’s navigation keys, moving through the menu tree was fast and simple. Setting speaker size and delay were straightforward, as were choosing analog or digital output and Smart video-processing modes. The SDV-3’s six-channel output is fixed, adjustable only via an external processor. My Linar 10’s rear-channel gain control allowed me to compensate for the distance of my listening position from the rear channels.

All my listening was done via the SDV-3’s unbalanced outputs, my watching via the progressive-scan outs.

Knowing your strengths

When you’ve sampled as many DVD players as I have, you think you know what to expect at a given price. While many sub-$2000 DVD players do a fantastic job with video, their audio sections come up short. Vincent’s sound-first philosophy flips this paradigm: the SDV-3 delivered better sound than even many similarly priced standalone CD players.

I found the SDV-3’s video playback to be average with video-based material and very good with film-based material. Brian Anderson revealed that the SDV-3 uses processing technology two years old -- a lifetime when companies such as Denon update their DVD players every three to six months. Still, most of the issues I experienced would be hard to pick out without direct comparisons and a properly adjusted display. (Every DVD player requires that the partnering display be at least slightly recalibrated with the proper test materials to ensure the correct black, white, and color levels.)

The first film I threw at the Vincent was the reference-caliber Sin City. This unique and incredibly entertaining film has everything you need to test a DVD player’s mettle. The SDV-3 reproduced Sin City’s copious blacks and oversaturated colors with ease. For instance, the brilliant sanguines and golds of chapter 8 popped off the screen as Marv and Goldie got to know each other better.

I found little to fault in the SDV-3’s playback of films, as long as I chose the Smart mode. Issues occurred when I moved to certain video-based computer-animated movies, such as the mediocre Robots. Images that were crystal-clear on other players turned soft no matter which processing mode I chose. Transitions between colors bled, due to a video-processing upsampling error commonly known as the chroma bug. But other CG-animated features, such as The Incredibles, looked excellent. This led me to believe the issue was related to the SDV-3’s older processing technology being incompatible with certain DVDs.

The Vincent’s strengths were more apparent to my ears than to my eyes. I can only imagine how much better the SDV-3’s balanced outputs might be than its unbalanced outs. Playback of DTS and Dolby Digital soundtracks was excellent, and the atmospheric Foley and sound effects in Batman Begins were smooth and consistent while retaining a startling degree of impact. The "Winged Backup" the Dark Knight summons in chapter 27 makes its entrance with a dramatic surge of energy. Through the SDV-3, the flaps of the bats’ wings were well delineated from the subtle ship sonar as the flock of bats keeps Gotham’s SWAT team busy. Chapter 28 turned into a demonstration of the Vincent’s stout power supply, which reproduced every crash and boom of the Batman "Tumbler" Batmobile’s destructive journey over Gotham’s rooftops.

Multiple channels can fool the ear into believing a DVD player’s output sounds better that it is; two-channel playback is a truer indicator of a player’s sonic abilities. The SDV-3 did not disappoint in stereo. Music flowed from it with a control and a harmonic texture that embarrassed the anemic outputs of other similarly priced DVD players. Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love [CD, Columbia CK 40999] can sound painfully brittle and bare through inexpensive output stages; Springsteen’s gravelly voice can turn strident, his guitar steely and abrasive. But the Boss’s every strum on his guitar sounded natural and in tight control through the SDV-3, which also added just a touch of warmth to the timbre of his voice.

Bass, midrange, and treble sounds had excellent pace and rhythm, motivating my foot to tap to "Mario Takes a Walk," from Jesse Cooke’s Gravity [CD, Narada 63037], and Leonard Cohen’s live version of his wonderfully romantic "Dance With Me to the End of Love," from More Best of Leonard Cohen [CD, Columbia 68636].

DVD players at the SDV-3’s price typically demonstrate compressed dynamics and uninspired soundstages. The SDV-3 refused to follow this trend, instead showing what a healthy power supply and noise-free circuits can do. It delivered orchestras, such as John Williams’s from his score for War of the Worlds [CD, Decca 00456802], with power and poise.

Comparing strengths

I was lucky to have on hand during the Vincent’s stay the Cary Audio DVD6 ($2000), Marantz DV-9500 ($2099), and the long-discontinued Denon DVD-2900 ($999) DVD players. In terms of build quality, the Vincent SDV-3 is similar to the built-from-a-billet-of-steel Cary. Although the Vincent weighs only half as much, it’s as well finished and screwed together as the DVD6. This imbued the Cary and Vincent machines with less of the Marantz’s and Denon’s feel of mass manufacture.

The Vincent’s solid-metal remote control was the least user-friendly of the group. The Denon’s backlit remote makes good use of well-shaped and -placed buttons, while the Marantz and Cary remotes have excellent ergonomics without backlighting.

Film-based material looked good through all four players. Electronic noise was more evident on the Vincent and Cary, while computer-based material revealed the greatest differences. With Robots, the Cary and Vincent could not match the clean, vibrant pictures of the Denon or Marantz. Of the four players, the Vincent exhibited a soft picture with apparent edge crawl; the Cary’s lower-resolution processing showed mosquito noise in the picture. The Marantz’s cutting-edge processor bettered the others in terms of absolute detail and sharpness, set against a visually nonexistent noise floor.

Audio is where the Cary and Vincent pulled ahead of the Denon and Marantz. Both the DVD6 and the SDV-3 produced full-bodied and involving sound without a hint of harshness or compression. The Marantz, however, turned in better-than-expected definition across the frequencies. Its bass was tight in support of a supple, slightly sweet midrange, though the Marantz did fall short in terms of impact -- orchestras sounded compressed in comparison with the Vincent’s and Cary’s bold personalities. The Denon’s uninvolving, anemic sonic performance came in a distant fourth.

Choosing strengths

Choosing the Vincent SDV-3 over its competitors will come down to what you expect from a home-theater system. The SDV-3’s video section is the victim of obsolete processing technology: even a three-year-old Denon could clean its clock. The Vincent will produce decent pictures, but won’t support digital video protocols such as HDMI, or upconvert standard definition to high definition. It’s definitely possible to find a player that will deliver fantastic picture and sound; the question is whether you can afford, much less need, such features.

Vincent’s marketing strategy indicates that they’re not looking to be everything to everyone. What they hope to be is a viable alternative for the audiophile who would like the convenience of playing video but for whom the top priority is sound. If this describes you, then it will be worth your while to get to know the Vincent SDV-3.

Manufacturer contact information:

Sintron Vertriebs GmbH Electronic Import & Export
Südring 14
D-76473 Iffezheim, Germany
Phone: (49) 7229-18-29-98
Fax: (49) 7229-18-29-99

E-mail: sintron.vertriebs@t-online.de
Website: www.vincent-tac.de

US distributor:
Q-USA
462 N. Baldwin St.
Madison, WI 53703
Phone: (608) 237-1726
Fax: (608) 237-1728

Website: www.q-usa.com

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