Article by Dick Tan
One of the most prolific manufacturers of hi-fi and home theatre components in the world, Pioneer has established an enviable reputation among its peers for its important technological contribution in the field of digital audio and visual disc reproduction.
With an expertise that stretches back to the 1980s when it led the industry in the design and manufacture of the Laserdisc player, Pioneer’s digital disc players, be it CD, DVD and now the Blu-ray disc player, have at most times been the AV enthusiast’s player of choice.
Drawing from this rich heritage in digital technologies Pioneer’s latest two flagship BD players, the BDP-LX88 and the BDP-LX58 will cause any self respecting AV enthusiast to drool uncontrollably.
Here’s why.
The larger of the two, the BDP-LX88 is built like the proverbial ‘battleship’. Solidly constructed and superbly finished the BDP-LX88 weighs in at 13.5kg. It is heavier than a lot of integrated amplifiers. Weight, everything being equal, is often indicative of a quality design.
According to Pioneer a solid structure and rigid chassis is essential in ensuring all critical component stages are free of any form of mechanical vibrations to allow them to perform optimally. Underscoring the importance of a solid chassis the BDP-LX88 feature a 1.6mm iron chassis that is further reinforced by a hefty 3mm thick iron plate at the bottom.
In addition to its super solid construction the BDP-LX88 also feature a ‘one of a kind’ three chamber design to separately house the power supply section, the digital circuits and the analogue section. This triple chamber design, says Pioneer, significantly eliminates unwanted electrical interference.
Expectedly, the BDP-LX88 comes ‘armed to the teeth’ with all manners of high end custom made components that include a proprietary 4K, 60p video upscaler that is said to achieve flawless 1080p to 4K up conversions via its 4K Reference Converter and a Precise Pixel Driver.
To ensure uninterrupted, high instantaneous current supply a truly large capacity transformer is used. Also, audiophiles will be thrilled to note that the BDP-LX88 is equipped with the much vaunted SABRE 32 Reference ES9011 DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter) to give its analogue outputs an unprecedented level of performance.
Important feature include dual HDMI outputs for driving the amplifier and display separately, dual USB connectivity, balanced and unbalanced analogue outputs, optical and coaxial audio outputs and DNLA certified connectors for home network content sharing. The BDP-LX 88 retails for RM6, 999.
Pocket not deep enough for the BDP-LX88? Consider then the slightly smaller but still considerably hefty (10kg) BDP-LX58 at RM3, 999.
For further details contact:
Pioneer Technology (M) Sdn Bhd.
Tel: 03 26972920
Article by Dick Tan
