A Legendary Classic; the DENON DCD-1500 CD Player

[Tasuke]

hello,

i'm creating this thread to share with you all
one of the formative experiences in my life
that led me to Audiophilia.

that experience, about three/four years back,
concerned a SALVATION ARMY and the classic
DENON DCD-1500 CD player.

i had never had or heard a high-performance CDP
before, my only digital source at the time being
a bottom-rung PANASONIC DVD player
that saw more use as a CDP than a DVDP.

routinely staying up at my grandmother's for medical appointments,
in my hometown of PORTLAND OR; a major city,
i had access to FAR better thrifts than anything
in my current backwater area.

i had went through several permutations at the time,
from a sixty-disc TECHNICS changer, to a low-end
KENWOOD single-disc that DID NOT like CD-R,
i finally settled for a while on a fairly decent-sounding
PHILIPS/MAGNAVOX six-disc that had no qualms with
CD-R.

that remained my primary digital source until i happened
across a PIONEER PD-M50 six-disc, and replaced the
PHILIPS/MAGNAVOX with that.

the M50 remained my main for a good stretch,
until another appointment came along.

me and my grandma were going about town,
looking for a good set of floorstanders for me,
as i had been convincingly demonstrated
of a quality floorstander's superiority
over the decent JENSEN surround-sound
suite that i had at the time.

we stopped at the SALVATION ARMY very close to
my grandma's house, and i immediately found
the pair of PIONEER CS-G503 4-ways that
i currently use to this day (SUPERB speaker system!)

i had also at that same moment caught eye of this rather
nice looking (to me, at least) and well built (though cosmetically
rough) CD player.

it was a DENON, a brand i never took particularly seriously.
me and my grandma co-paid for the CS-G503s, so we could
get the senior discount, and skidaddled.
i passed on the DENON, rigidly interested in PIONEER brand ONLY.

that would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my life,
if not for the fact that, about two weeks later, heading out,
my grandma inexplicably decided to hit that SALLY-ANN again,
out of the blue. i always enjoy scouting thrifts, so i basically
scoured the place once more, despite doing that just recently before.

getting bored, i was drawn back that swanky DENON.
not being busy with those speakers, i gave it a more
careful evaluation. i plugged it in and put it through the basic motions.

though i was unable to give it a listen,
i was nonetheless BLOWN AWAY. the smoothness and certainty
in which the disc tray actuated, the SPEED in which the tracks
skipped, it was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT, and i just had to have it,
PIONEER or no.

me and my grandma got it for $13.00 (!!) with the usual
old-people discount. i'll tell you, once i got it back home
and gave it a listen, i knew it was the best $13 i had ever
spent in my life.

now THIS was a digital source component!!
while the PIONEER PD-M50 remained in my system,
as i've always had a love and fascination for
PIONEER's magazine changers,
the DCD-1500 was my primary CD playback source.

this was one of the first pictures i took of that
cosmetically weatherbeaten, yet angelically beautiful
sounding player;





a year or two later, i happened across what became the only 1500 of it's kind
in the world (to my knowledge) when i happened across a CRAIGSLIST ad
for a NEAR MINT 1500 with remote and OPTIONAL WOOD PANELS in place
for $80.00!!

i secured it just as fast as i could, i was ecstatic!!
it was my new baby, perfect in most every way.


still, there was room for improvement.
that is what led to the series of mods
that i personally performed on this shining example,
to make it perfect to my eye in every conceivable fashion...

[Tasuke]

here is the finished product.

i'll describe it as i go along;





the first difference you may notice is the isolator feet.
DENON never adopted large, late-80's style isolators
until 1987, over a year after the 1500 hit the street.

these were my innovation, culled from a 1988 DCD-910
that i found at a thrift.
further, the thick pads on the isolators were taken
from a SONY SLV-R5UC S-VHS VCR (1990)





interior view. as you can see, i placed foam rubber in places
that i felt needed it. i also used some to dampen the action
of the POWER switch.

though you cannot really see it in this shot,
i replaced the thin power cord with a hefty,
shielded power cable culled from an IEC.

a large ferrite bead was slipped on, just inside
the chassis enclosure, and movement was damped
with more of the foam.

finally, i thoroughly lubed the transport mechanism
so operation is now even smoother than before!







in the meantime, i have managed to track down most of the
accessories for this exceptional player,
though i'm still actively searching for both the original packing carton,
first edition brochure (featuring the 1500 on the cover)
and any other effects of this player;

[Tasuke]

i will be also getting this 1983 sampler disc
to go along with my baby;






****UPDATE****




and, in case anyone is curious,
DENON made a successor machine to this model,
the DCD-1500 II;







it was available in limited quantities in a silver/champagne
variant, as was it's ancestor;

[aquapiranha]

Fantastic story there Tasuke, such dedication!

[DSJR]

That was a good machine as was the 1700 as I remember. So many of these didn't survive the failure of their first laser and were junked, sadly.

I'd suggest a high-current mains filter (6A) which will stop two-way rf flying around the mains and also, cable ferrites on the audio outputs, which are very cheap, far more subtle in action, but beneficial I think to these players.

[Tasuke]

That was a good machine as was the 1700 as I remember. So many of these didn't survive the failure of their first laser and were junked, sadly.

I'd suggest a high-current mains filter (6A) which will stop two-way rf flying around the mains and also, cable ferrites on the audio outputs, which are very cheap, far more subtle in action, but beneficial I think to these players.

interesting idea, thank you!

as good as the DCD-1700 is, it is merely a stripped-down
variant of the incredible DCD-3300;


-DCD-3300-










-DCD-1700-