Onkyo Integra DX-5700 CD-player Review

The Onkyo Integra DX-5700 is a versatile compact disc player with a number of circuit features designed to minimize extraneous noise pickup and distortion at all signal levels. It has separate 18-bit digital-to-analog (D/A) converters for each channel and optical coupling between its digital and analog sections to eliminate noise from leakage of digital signals into the analog audio circuits. The D/A converters are hand-trimmed for greatest accuracy in the two most significant bits to reduce distortion, and the converters are preceded by eight-times-oversampling 18-bit digital filters.

A twenty-key track-selector panel provides single-touch access to any track of most CD’s and two-button access to tracks numbered from 21 to 99. As many as twenty tracks can be programmed for playback in any desired order, with a music-calendar display showing the remaining unplayed tracks. An edit feature enables you to modify a program sequence by adding or deleting tracks. The bright fluorescent display shows the current track and index numbers as well as the status of several controls and elapsed or remaining time for either the current track or the entire disc. A slide switch can dim the display or shut it off entirely. A button on the panel provides direct access to any numbered index point, although index numbers cannot be included in a program sequence.

There are four repeat modes: entire disc, programmed tracks, A-B (any user-defined segment of the disc), and shuffle play (reshuffled for each repeat). The intro feature, available only from the remote control, plays the first 7 seconds of each track. A time edit feature automatically selects the tracks that will fit on the A and B sides of a cassette (for tape durations up to 90 minutes). The DX-5700 goes into its pause mode after the tracks assigned to the A side of the tape have been played; when the tape has been turned over, pressing pause resumes playback of the tracks assigned to the B side.

The DX-5700 can be operated from an external timer. It has a front-panel headphone jack with a volume control, which also adjusts the output from the variable-level analog jacks on the rear apron. The rear apron also has fixed-level analog output jacks, coaxial and optical digital outputs, and remote-control jacks to connect the DX-5700 to a compatible Onkyo tape deck, amplifier, or receiver.

The DX-5700’s remote control duplicates all of the player’s front-panel controls except for the display dimmer and the power switch. During remote volume adjustment a motor rotates the player’s knob, which has no visible index marker or other visual indication of its setting. The remote control provides one other feature not present on the front panel: an auto space button that inserts 4 seconds of silence between tracks for taping.

The Onkyo DX-5700 is a fairly large and heavy unit that measures 17-1/8 inches wide, 14-1/2 inches deep, and 5-1/8 inches high and weighs just over 18 pounds. Price: $580.

Lab Tests

The Onkyo DX-5700’s frequency response was flat within ±0.03 dB from 20 to 20,000 Hz, with channel levels matched within 0.04 dB. Maximum interchannel phase shift was 0.42 degree, in the 8,000- to 12.000-Hz range. The output voltage from a 0-dB recorded track was 2.01 volts.

Channel separation was 110 to 120 dB at 100 Hz, 100 dB at 1,000 Hz, and 75 dB at 20,000 Hz. The 1.000-Hz total harmonic distortion (THD) plus noise was —86 to —88 dB (0.005 to 0.004 percent) from 0 to —60 dB. At a 0-dB level, the distortion was a nearly constant —88 dB (0.004 percent) from 20 to 20,000 Hz.

The linearity of the player’s response to low-level dithered test signals on the CBS CD-1 test disc was very good. The error (departure from the ideal signal level) was — 0.4dBat — 70 dB, — 0.3dBat —80 dB, —1.5 dB at —90 dB, and —2.5 dB at - 100 dB.

The DX-5700’s noise spectrum when playing an infinity-zero (unmodulated) test track was highly uniform with frequency, reading about — 120 dB or slightly better from 30 to 10,000 Hz and rising to — 102 dB at 20,000 Hz. The A-weighted wide-band noise was about —105 dB, and quantization noise was about —88.5 dB. Dynamic range (EIAJ) was —96.5 dB, and frequency (speed) error was — 0.0032 percent.

The player’s headphone volume was excellent, one of the best we have tested in that regard. Slew time of the linear-drive laser transport was relatively fast, requiring 2 seconds to go from Track 1 to Track 15 of the Philips TS4 test disc. Fairly strong impacts on the case did not produce audible mistracking (it took a hard blow directly over the disc transport to do that). The player tracked the 750-micrometer defect section of the Pierre Verany #2 test disc, but it totally mistracked on the 1,250-micrometer section.

Comments

The performance of the Onkyo Integra DX-5700 was very good compared with that of most other CD players using conventional d/a converters. Although some of the new 1-bit-conversion machines we have tested have produced lower noise or distortion readings than the DX-5700, the differences are minuscule and certainly not audible under normal listening conditions. In an informative brochure on CD-player technology, Onkyo expresses skepticism concerning the advantages of 1-bit converters. To their credit, the company’s engineers have done a first-rate job with their 18-bit ladder converters, and the DX-5700 delivers a level of performance that is usually found only in somewhat more expensive conventional players.

I feel that it makes more sense, however, to select products having this level of refinement by their operating conveniences rather than their circuit configurations or their performance measurements (which are all fantastic even by the CD standards of a couple of years ago). Any features that you have no intention of using should obviously be given little or no weight in the selection process. There is also the important matter of reliability, which unfortunately cannot be evaluated during a short-term test program. One can only infer the reliability of a product, to a limited degree, from its obvious physical ruggedness and the reputation of its manufacturer, and the DX-5700 earns excellent marks in both respects.

This player also has such desirable qualities as fast slewing and access times and very good impact resistance. Its ability to track through defects on a disc is satisfactory, though somewhat below the level of performance we have found with a number of players during the past few months. It is easy to operate, with an uncluttered and well-marked control panel. In fact, the only ergonomic feature that I found wanting was the lack of an index mark on the motor-driven volume-control knob. Certainly a white dot could be applied to it without difficulty. That quibble aside, however, the DX-5700 provides the feel, appearance, features, and quality of a high-price machine at a mid-price level.

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