Pioneer P-D70 CD-player Review

Pioneer’s P-D70 digital Compact Disc player provides a full complement of deluxe programming and operating features. To those commonly found in full-featured CD players (fast scan with audible program, disc, track, and phrase repeat functions, headphone output with volume control, and so on), the P-D70 adds a few of its own.

For example, in addition to allowing cueing by track number, the P-D70 has min/index search buttons. Depending on the setting of the display control (which also changes the time readouts), the min/ index controls permit cueing by prerecorded index points and the ability to go forward or back from index point to index point at the touch of a button. These controls also allow cueing by time, though not in the way many players do. Instead of providing direct entry of the time by means of a numerical keypad, the P-D70 advances or retards the playing point in increments of one minute. While this time cueing may seem less sophisticated than full keypad control, in actual use it can be quite useful, especially for cueing into long, uninterrupted, and unindexed classical works.

Perhaps the player’s most distinctive feature is its display panel. Large vacuum fluorescent numerals show the number of the track being played and a time indication in minutes and seconds. The time indication can be switched to show several different parameters. Above the time display are two horizontal rows (one per channel) of multisegment level displays driven directly by the digital data. In their peak mode, these displays respond to peak program levels against a calibrated scan extending from — 36 to + 12 dB with level markings every 6 dB. In binary mode the lights are supposed to represent the actual “2’s-complement” digital-audio “words” being decoded from the disc before they are converted to analog form. The scale for this function reads from + 54 to +18 dB.

The Pioneer P-D70 is finished in satin silver with gray and black sections for visual interest. It measures 16-9/16 x 11-13/16 x 3-7/8 inches and weighs 16 pounds, 9 ounces. Price: $629.95.

Lab Tests

Testing the Pioneer P-D70 presented no problems once we had read the manual and become familiar with the player’s somewhat unconventional programming and display features. Unlike some CD players, the P-D70 could access any track on our test discs (a limit of 99 is set by the standardized two-digit track-numbering system, but this is far more than will ever be found on a music CD).

It is characteristic of any properly functioning digital reproducing system that the ultimate playback quality will be either virtually flawless or totally useless. Thus, we can expect (and do, in fact, find) that all CD players will be quite closely matched in their frequency response, noise level, distortion, and other measured performance parameters. The P-D70 met these specifications quite handily.

The analog eleventh-order low-pass filtering (as distinguished from the digital or digital/analog types used in some CD players) produced a very smooth, flat frequency response with virtually none of the high-frequency response ripples that we find on many machines. Rat within ±0.1 dB from 20 to 9,000 Hz, the output was down a mere 0.8 dB at 20,000 Hz. The two channels were essentially identical (including their output levels, which were 1.98 and 1.99 volts at 0 dB). The reproduction of a 1,000-Hz square wave showed a characteristic “ringing” after the leading and trailing edges; this is actually the result of the low-pass filter removing the higher-order harmonics of the signal (unlike digital filtering systems, which produce a similar pattern both before and after the signal transitions). So far as we can tell this has nothing to do with the player’s sound quality; we use the test mainly to identify the type of filtering used.

The phase shift between channels reached 90 degrees at 20,000 Hz, indicating that a single D/A converter is switched, or multiplexed, between the left and right channels. Again, this has no audible significance that we are aware of. The flutter reading, as with all CD players, was the residual of our test equipment, about 0.001 percent.

Our measurements of harmonic distortion, intermodulation distortion, signal-to-noise ratio, and channel separation produced outstanding results. The maximum unclipped headphone output from a 0-dB recorded level (rated at 36 milliwatts into 32 ohms) was 7.7 volts into an open circuit, 6.1 volts into 600 ohms (62 mW), and 0.26 volts into 8 ohms (8.5 mW). The headphone volume was fairly good with phones in the 50- to 200-ohm range, but we would suggest using high-sensitivity phones with this player if you want the full effect of a CD’s wide dynamic range.

The analog eleventh-order low-pass filtering produced a very smooth, flat frequency response with almost none of the high-frequency response ripples that we usually see.

The Pioneer P-D70 had the excellent error-correction performance of the very best of today’s CD players, easily coping with all the calibrated defects on the Philips TS4A test record. It also had very good resistance to physical impact on its sides and better than average on top (over the disc-playing mechanism). The cueing transition from Track 17 to Track 18 of the Philips TS4 sampler record (these tracks have no silent interval between them) was perfect, showing no clipping of the opening syllable of the vocalist in Track 18.

Comments

The Pioneer P-D70 showed itself to be at least the equal of any of the latest CD players we have tested. Be forewarned, however, that mastering its unconventional programming system requires careful study of the manual plus some practice.

At first, we looked askance at the need to press a button twenty-five times for direct access to Track 25 (in contrast to simply keying in the digits of the track number). However, even though some of our test records have about forty tracks, they could be entered as rapidly as the button could be pressed, a matter of a few seconds at most.

Less easy to accept is the lack of a memory clearing button for the programming system. It should not be necessary to reprogram in order to play a second CD in the normal “1, 2, 3, . . . 10” playing sequence after programmed playback of the first in an unusual order. It is even more unreasonable that the easiest way to do this resetting is to switch off the power.

Our only other complaint concerns the level display, whose calibrations were so much in error as to be virtually useless. The maximum scale indication on the peak display, “+12 dB,” corresponded to a — 6-dB recorded level according to the CD standard. The indicated “0 dB” was actually —20 dB, and the lowest visible indication, “— 36 dB,” was really less than — 50 dB. The binary indications, even more active and colorful than the peak level readings, convey even less useful information.

It should be apparent that, having found nothing less than excellent in the actual performance of the Pioneer P-D70, we are reduced to criticizing very minor points of its control and cosmetic features. Would that this were the case for all the other products we test! The P-D70, which has a handsome, compact exterior, is neither the cheapest nor the most expensive CD player you can buy. Most of the substantive differences between the many CD players we have tested are in their control features, and here the P-D70 stands up well against any of its competitors. It does almost everything one could imagine wanting from a CD player and does it very well.

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