[TheChairGuy]

She's not my cup o' tea, either....but the CD is one of those I use to assess things because it bugs me so much.  I think it mostly in the production/mastering, but it could be the performance and voice - fer sher'.

You gotta' say tho that the skinny chick does belt out a tune far beyond what her 97 lb frame would suggest.

[Dmason]

I appreciated her more when she was considered, "Quebec's own."

I could understand using those discs as a torture test, whose passing grade might mean really good stuff excels itself. Like Beethoven's 3rd through DarkStars with more attention paid to appropriate cerebral conditioning.

Yes, she has a serious set of pipes. Too bad she's a victim of the recording industry and LA based marketing/packaging/bullshit.

I'll consider Celine Dion music in lieu of pink noise and frequency sweeps this coming week when it Gets Serious in the land of product development.

[TheChairGuy]

Well, over the weekend I had additional opportunity to listen to the Coby and I still feel that this is a heckuva' budget deal.

Yesterday (Sunday) I chopped off the cigarette lighter plug to use it on the 7 aH SLA.  Incidentally, on mine at least, the wire lead WITH the writing on it is the negative lead, not positive.  I always thought they assembled these things so that the lead with writing is the positive one...not always, apparently  

No matter, plugging the wrong lead into the unit does not fry it...as many found with the Tripath amp boards.  Just reverse it if it doesn't power up (unless you have a voltage meter handy - I don't).

Anyhow, the SLA boosted this guy yet another half-notch to very respectable. It got a lot quieter - not eerily so - but quieter and more enjoyable.  It's starting to sound intimate...something I never would have expected for $76 delivered

To use as dedicated transport, you need to do an on-screen/TV set-up to enable the optical or coax outputs...something I'll do shortly and see how it fares.

For many, however, in the budget camp...you may find the Coby DVD-707 to be all you are wishing for without paying a whole lot more for a little bit more performance.

Perhaps not all switching powers supplies are created equally?

It tracks beautifully - no hiccups on any Red Book.  I have found top loaders to be superior to front loaders...they just sound more stable to my ears.   The manual is thin on much info, but it states that it has a 'unique laser-head over-current protection system...ensuring a constant laser current'.  Perhaps, this is yet another cheap advance eliminating one more source of digititis...because this unit suffers little of it for the price.

I say a 'little' only because more resolving systems, or ears, might hear some...but none of the hairs on my neck are in a nasty lather while listening to it - as they are on some CD playback systems.