Those Cheap Chinese DVD Players: Real Hi-Fi?

Given that they managed to display exemplar sound quality despite of their cheapness, are those cheap Chinese made universal DVD players real hi-fi?


By: Vanessa Uy


For the DIY audiophile who cut his or her teeth on assembling AN214 amplifiers, bargain basement Chinese universal DVD / CD players may seem to be too good to ignore. Despite of their cheapness – some are no more expensive than a second-hand Kalashnikov – but do these 25 to 30 US dollar Chinese made universal DVD / CD players truly qualify as hi-fi? Bad news first – they won’t play the high-resolution audio layer of SACD discs, their DVD Audio performance can be crappy when you don’t use a good external 24-bit 96-Khz capable DAC – more on the Redbook CD performance later .

The DVD Video performance is a few notches below that of entry-level DVD players of leading brands like Pioneer, Sony, Philips, etc. But these el cheapo Chinese players make up for it by their capability to play uploaded Internet site videos without being converted first to Video CD or DVD Video. I mean it can play those despicable militant website rant videos and child porn videos that were hastily burned into CD-R or DVD-R that wont run major brand universal DVD / CD players.

Surprisingly, these cheap and cheerful Chinese universal DVD / CD players raison d’être is in playing your stockpiles of supposedly obsolete 16-bit 44.1-Khz Redbook speck music CDs – although you should avail yourself of a good external digital-to-analog converter in order to find out the magical properties that many have discovered with such players. The model we tested is a Hug DVD-H6757 DVD Video player whose primary raison d’être is to play those “pirated” compressed DVD videos – mostly illegal porn that supposedly illegal in my neck of the woods, some even has stars as young as me.

Sound quality wise, this particular lowly Hug DVD / CD player managed to play CDs like a thousand-US dollar CD player from 1995 – especially when hooked up to external DACs that were languishing unsold for years in our local second-hand hi-fi shop. But first select the digital SPDIF out mode to raw. It sounds so gorgeous at this setting when connected to an external DAC when playing Redbook spec CDs. It made the Orelle DA-88 DAC and the Audio Alchemy Digital Decoding Engine version 2.0 that were sitting idly by since 2003 sound as if their processor chips were upgraded so that the anti-aliasing filters of the analog output stages can be configured to a lower-ordered configuration. Making it sound as if the still-audible –to-me phase and group-delay distortion near the 20-Khz roll-off point had been magically removed. In short, the Hug DVD Audio Alchemy DAC combo or the Orelle DA-88 DAC combo sounds as if it was a thousand US dollar CD player from 1995 – considering the current price (2010 that is) of the set up is still a few dollars less than a brand new Kalashnikov.

Sadly, given my political views when it comes to fair compensation of ones labor, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend the Hug DVD-H6757 universal DVD / CD player that my older audio-buddies and I tested for a number of reasons. The company who manufactured the DVD player, probably based in Guangdong Province heavy industry district, has not reassured their buyers about their workers getting adequate 401-K plans, healthcare, and not being paid slave's wages. And also the company should be more forthcoming on the issue of using prison labor as often is the practice in the Chinese mainland – as in Free Tibet and Uyghur political detainees. Hard to recommend a product made by a company clueless about what happened in that notorious FOXCONN plant where the workers where defenestrating themselves just to end their suffering. If the American hi-fi loudspeaker manufacturer takes the time to remind prospective customers – and those fortunate enough to be invited in one of their plant tours – of their commitment to providing their workers a liveable wage and decent healthcare and dental plans.

Another thing that bugs me about initiating an audiophile equivalent of a carrot mob to promote the Hug DVD / CD player is that given the open business / close politics stance of the Beijing Communist Party functionaries, the company’s R n’ D budget might be siphoned off to develop a Green Dam Youth Escort-type electronic censorship device. One that could be installed in a latter generation of Chinese made universal DVD / CD players. Imagine you being unable to play your Tiananmen Square Massacre remembrance DVD documentary because your newly-bought Chinese made DVD player has now an automatic Green Dam Youth Escort-type electronic censorship device. Same goes with your Minzhu and Dalai Lama / Free Tibet DVDs or anything referring to that tragic June 4, 1989 massacre on Tiananmen Square.

Or given if the DVD’s e-censorship system is like the Green Dam Youth Escort internet censoring tool in capability, you can’t watch your Garfield DVDs anymore because this cat’s fur looks like the color scheme of the Dalai Lama’s tunic. Your Uyghur friends’ home movies will be censored because it will use the Green Dam color-based censorship excuse and classify it as hardcore pornography. Yes according to the Green dam Youth Escort color-based censorship scheme, it doesn’t discriminate between pink skinned farmed pigs and Uyghurs. Maybe Taylor Swift was fortunate enough not to be playing near Xingjian Province during the Uyghur riots because the Chinese authorities probably can’t tell her apart from the local Uyghur population.

Is the AN214 IC Amplifier Hi-Fi?

Given that it resides in the 12-volt world of car audio, does the AN214 IC amplifier fulfil the tenets of high-fidelity audio reproduction – namely a good to excellent sound quality?


By: Vanessa Uy


Today, we audiophiles – at least the sane ones anyway – judge an audio amplifier’s performance by its ability to realistically reproduce the sound of a recorded musical performance. As opposed to how many watts it can deliver or how low it’s overall total harmonic distortion – i.e. a good to excellent set of measurements, and even the amplifier’s circuit topology / technology.

The practice of using our ears – as opposed to a 10,000 US dollar multi-function audio analyzer – probably gained fashion (again?) back in January 1994. When Stereophile magazine released a correspondingly dated magazine with a riddle posted on the cover that goes “If either of these amplifiers is RIGHT…the other must be WRONG”. An idea probably influenced by James Carville’s book titled “We’re Right, They’re Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives” – a reactionary idea born out of chronic bullying by Rush Limbaugh and his global warming / climate change denying ilk directed at us liberals. It looks like our too liberal postmodern dictum of everyone’s opinion is right is our own downfall - at least according to Mr. Carville.

Returning to the world of hi-fi, it does seem like sound quality has indeed gained vogue in assessing the pride of ownership potential of audio components, especially audio amplifiers. The circuit topology and technology used seems no longer relevant, probably due to the single-ended triode “revolution” in Japan during the 1970s which made audiophiles around the world reexamine their views about what’s important about their hobby.

Given that the AN214 IC amplifier might be cheap, its hi-fi credentials easily manifest by the overall improvement in sound quality every time you over-engineer one. Use larger than necessary output transformers and the bass quality improves, just like its single-ended triode counterparts. Use larger than necessary heat sinks and the AN214 amplifier rewards you with a more agile pace, rhythm, and timing. In fact if you tweak the AN214 amplifier’s power supply with Rubicon Black Gate capacitors, it could even sound better – from a musical perspective – than a standard Pioneer A400 amplifier. The only way a Pioneer A400 can be more musical than a tricked-out AN214 amplifier is by doing a T. Evans Audio Design-style modification to its power supply.

During the AN214 amplifier’s heyday, many audiophiles – especially absolute beginners – have never been told about the wisdom of trusting their own two ears as the ultimate arbiter of sound quality. This is why back then solid-state high-powered full-complementary output stage direct-coupled power amplifiers were touted as the ultimate in sound quality. Even though most of them sound sluggish in the pace, rhythm, and timing department because their power supply capacitors have not been designed to take advantage of time-constants. Ad given that solid-state full-complementary amplifiers are relatively complex in terms of component count, tweaking one – especially if you are an audiophile on a budget – seldom makes fiscal sense. It is even cheaper – time and labor wise – to buy very expensive solid-state amplifiers from Mark Levinson, Krell, and Spectral.

So, is the AN214 IC-based amplifier hi-fi? If you trust your own two ears, then the answer is a resounding yes. If the music matter’s more to you than the circuit complexity of your audio amplifier, then maybe it is about time you should check out the AN214 amplifier - especially if you can’t afford exotic single-ended triode tube-based amplifiers, or if you live in a place where the 50 caliber Browning Machine-Gun cartridge is way more plentiful than 300B vacuum tubes. During the AN214 IC amplifier’s heyday, it might have the requisite resolution to play out the full beauty of Larry Carlton’s guitar playing on Michael Jackson’s Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough.

What in the World is an AN214 IC?

In spite of it’s age – and apparent manufacturing extinction – are AN214 IC-based audio power amplifiers still “noteworthy” in our 21^st Century hi-fi world?

By: Vanessa Uy

If you asked me – or any of my older audio-buddies – about AN214 IC-based audio amplifiers, they do admit – albeit reluctantly – to have “once upon a time” taken this integrated circuit route to audio nirvana. Given that this low powered audio-amplifier-on-a-chip is about as technologically advanced as a cassette tape when viewed from our 21^st Century perspective, does it still deserve serious discussion? Though the short answer by audiophile die-hards lucky enough to stock significant quantities of the AN214 IC is: “you betcha!”

Part of the allure and mystique of the AN214 integrated circuit-based audio power amplifier is that manufacturer authorized and approved – i.e. reliable – spec sheets and application notes are few and far between. In my opinion, it is safe to say that anyone who has seen first hand “proper” AN214 IC spec sheets – especially the device’s slew rate and power output rating – are either: a) had forgotten about it due to illicit drug use during the past 25 years. b) Have gallantly gave their lives during Operation Desert Storm, or more likely c) had joined a technology-rejecting / technology-abhorring religious cult.

But what everyone lucky enough to remember the virtues of the AN214 power amplifier during it’s heyday is that it has always been inexplicably linked with the ubiquitous back in the 1970s and 1980s Pioneer in-car stereo cassette tape deck and FM tuner combo. Which from an electronic engineer’s standpoint is inevitable given that both live in the 12-volt world of car audio. Although I’m lucky enough to have heard first hand Pioneer’s 8-track version of this in-car tape and FM tuner combo that sounds as if it was designed by famed recording engineer Bill Laswell due to it’s legendary ability to reproduce recorded music with tons of electric bass. I f you’re an unabashed reggae music and dub fan lucky enough to demo this legendary Pioneer in-car 8-track tape and FM stereo combo. Buying it would be the next best thing to hanging out with Bill Laswell in the recording studio capturing your favorite bass-based musician on analogue tape.

Although the AN214 IC audio amplifier was famed in its heyday for “heroically” bringing out the musicality of the cassette tape medium despite of it’s “engineering” limitations. This 5 watt (according to bench test measurements, although it sounds apparently more powerful in real life use) integrated circuit-based power amplifier has still so much to give in our wide bandwidth wide dynamic ranged hi-fi world. Even in the era of DVD Audio and SACD whose bandwidth could easily stretch to 100,000 Hz. Compared to CD’s 22,050 Hz Nyquist Frequency criterion limitation – never mind cassette tapes, which have a hard time reaching past 15,000 Hz.

Given that the first decade of the 21^st Century is almost over, I find it real surprising than an integrated circuit-based low-power amplifier whose heyday pre-dates the discovery of the AIDS virus can still hold its own in 2009. If any of you out there has something extra to add to my woefully inadequate knowledge to the electronic engineering aspects of the AN214 IC-based power amplifier, please drop me a line. Your help is greatly appreciated. Especially the slew rate part of this venerable device.