Panasonic DVD-A7 (c. 2000)
Little is documented about the Panasonic DVD-A7 beyond its place at the front of the DVD-Audio launch. Matsushita announced in 1999 that it would be the first company to bring DVD-Audio to market. The DVD-A7 was the lower-priced half of that first wave, at $995. The $1,195 Technics DVD-A10, its higher-end branded sibling, sat alongside it (Audio, January 2000, p.47).
In a January 2000 Beta Report, Audio's Corey Greenberg covered the pair as the first DVD-Audio players to hit the market, reiterating that Matsushita had been first to plant the DVD-A flag and noting the price split between the Panasonic and Technics versions (Audio, January 2000, p.47). Beyond that, the record thins out quickly: no spec sheet, manual, or confirmed production dates have surfaced in the sources we work from, so this page can't tell you about the converter, outputs, or measured performance. An honest stub — but a real one: a first-generation DVD-Audio player, Panasonic's $995 opening move in the format's launch.
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