Vector Research VCD-410R CD-player Review

Though priced near the bottom of the range for home compact disc players, the Vector Research VCD-410R features dual 18-bit digital-to-analog (D/A) converters and eight-times-oversampling (at 352.8 kHz) digital filters. Its operating features include a repeat function for one track, an entire disc, or any selected portion of a disc. The player is programmable to play as many as twenty tracks in any order.

The display window, with its highly legible bright-yellow characters, normally shows the track number and its elapsed time as well as the status of the play, pause, and repeat functions. The usual transport-control buttons, including track skip and fast scan in both directions, form a row at the bottom of the panel. The play/pause button toggles between those functions. Above the transport controls are several narrow buttons, including programming controls marked STORE, CALL, PLAY, and CLEAR, a REMAIN button that changes the display to show the remaining time on the disc, and an index button to replace the track number with the current index number where applicable.

The VCD-410R does not provide direct keypad access to numbered tracks, but they can be selected by multiple operations of the skip buttons. In programming, after a track number is selected, pressing STORE enters it into the memory. The CALL button displays the programmed sequence, and the program PLAY button starts playback of the sequence. The CLEAR button erases the current track from the program (in the stop mode, it erases the entire program).

The disc drawer opens and closes at the touch of a button and accommodates CD-3’s as well as normal-size CD’s. The front-panel headphone jack has no volume adjustment. The rear apron contains only the two audio line outputs. The player is furnished with a fifteen-key infrared remote control that duplicates all its front-panel controls except power switching and disc-drawer operation.

Dimensions of the Vector Research VCD-410R are 17 x 11 x 3-1/4 inches, and it weighs about 8-1/2 pounds. Price: $269.95.

Comments

The Vector Research VCD-410R is an impressive example of how rapidly advancing technology can bring last year's "state-of-the-art” performance to today’s modestly priced equipment. It was not long ago that only a few prestigious, and fairly expensive, CD players boasted of their "new" 18-bit D/A converters and four- or eight times-oversampling digital filters. And now we see those features in a truly budget-priced product. In such key categories as noise, distortion, and channel separation, this player met very high standards. And it outperformed all others in our experience in its error-correction ability

But the VCD-410R’s low price does impose some limitations. Although the player has a number of the convenience features common to most others, its operation can be a bit cumbersome. For most people, stepping to Track 11 by pressing a button eleven times will pose no great problem, but when we had to press that button fifty or sixty times to get to some of the tracks on our test discs, we really missed direct keypad access to any track. Also, while the headphone volume was very good, with no level control the headphone output was much less useful than it might have been.

Our major criticism of the VCD-410R concerns its sensitivity to physical impact. Even the act of placing an empty CD jewel box on top of it would often send a crackling noise through the speakers or jump the laser pickup to another part of the disc. We have no way of knowing how typical this is of the product, but it unquestionably marred its otherwise superb performance. On the other hand, once you are aware of the problem, it is not difficult to avoid jarring the player while it is operating. And then you have a $270 CD player that can hold its own against many others with higher prices.

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