Kiss DP-500 media/network player

[slinger]

Just been given this as a neighbour was about to throw it away.

Early 2000's Danish high-end DVD player with networking capabilities. Put it into use as a CD Transport for now and it sounds rather excellent.

[slinger]

A strange device this - a combination of being ahead of its time and now hopelessly outdated.

2002/3 and the world of music and film was changing due to the rise of internet. Movies could be downloaded, along with albums as MP3 files. New technology was required. Denmark-based Kiss were making market-leading DVD players and looked to the future, the DP-500 reads a large selection of video and audio discs with formats like DivX, MP3 and OGG, it also has an ethernet socket which allows it to pull movies off a Windows PC on the same network.



Looking at the back, there is something obvious and (nowadays) essential missing - a HDMI socket. Main video output is SCART, pretty well obsolete now. So, what is this any good for?

RD in his later years was an advocate of DVD drives for CD playback. The higher accuracy and read-speeds of DVD players made pulling the relatively low data-levels from a CD an easy task with a solid integrity to the bit-stream.

The Kiss DP-500 fits this mission to perfection, making for a superb CD transport with its digital coax and optical outputs. SQ is smoothly detailed with plenty of dynamic punch and deep, extended bass. I reckon this actually has the edge over my Cambridge CXC and will have a shoot-out one of these days to check.

It doesn't accept hybrid-SACD discs though, hardly surprising as these weren't introduced until the early 2000's. I suspect that it can decode the 20-bit resolution of HDCD's (of which I have a lot) as that was a popular format in the 90's. Certainly the HDCD of 'Hissing of Summer Lawns' sounds remarkably good here.

A nice addition to my eclectic Upstairs rig and thanks to neighbour Danny for the gift.

Music time!

[karatestu]

The image is not working for me Fretty

[Fretless]

The image is not working for me Fretty

Should work now, Stu. Thanks.

I copied it to Imgur.

[Fretless]

Funny, when you turn the player on the matrix display shows the message:

' Kiss DP-500 State of the Art DVD ethernet player'

Somewhat optimistic.

[karatestu]

What yer been playing then ?

[Fretless]

What yer been playing then ?

Steve Hackett, Taylor Swift, Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Eivind Aarset, Joni Mitchell.

Just getting started.

[karatestu]

Are you still going?

[Fretless]

Other things to do ...

More listening later


I have discovered that the Danish Kiss company were bought out by Cisco Systems in 2004, they wanted the developing network streaming technology.

And this player does have HDCD decoding built-in which is a big plus for me.

[Latteman]

Sunday morning playtime; just done a mini CD transport Shoot-Out with these 3 players:



Arcam Diva CD62T, Cambridge CXC and Kiss DP-500.

I thought, for fun, that I should directly compare these to see if what the differences in SQ are. All running into the Sabaj DAC with identical OCC coax cables.

Starting with the Arcam: a nice, polite, rounded sound. Very enjoyable if somewhat unexciting. Soundstage not so wide.

2nd up, CXC: a real audiophile experience with a vivacious and exquisitely detailed performance. Wide soundstage. Solid, controlled playback and sweetness at the top.

The Kiss DVD player: loads of detail but a drier presentation. Soundstage slightly wider than the CXC and far, far more extended bass. The bottom end is where to this player excels making up for the slight lack of refinement in the treble.

Swings and roundabouts, a matter of taste. I am leaving these transports in their respective systems for now - quite happy about how they fit in and now know what to expect from them.

Hybrid-layer SACD remains difficult for all of these players, the Kiss refusing point blank to read them, Arcam and CXC manage to play some discs with a little coaxing. The Kiss is the only one with HDCD capability.

Point of note, the CXC is physically surprisingly heavy which indicates the presence of a serious transformer and power supply inside.