Denon DCD-1600NE SACD/CD Player

[WOStantonCS100]

I have been needledropping to 24/192 for years now using Tascam master recorders. I have wanted a standalone disc player capable of playing these .wav files straight off a burned DVD data disc for quite some time. I finally bit the bullet and ordered one of these units. Hopefully, it will arrive early this coming week.

Does anyone here have and use this unit on the regular for CD playback, high res file playback from DVD-data discs or both? How do you like the sound? Has the unit been reliable?

Thanks.

[WOStantonCS100]

It arrived, yesterday. I stayed up 'til about 3 AM putting it through some preliminaries. Not meant to be a review...

Unlike normal, I decided to go at it hard with idea that if it "fell out" I would just pack it up and send it back. I started with a 24/192 needledrop of a 2 LP set on one DVD-R Dual Layer disc (Oliver Nelson - A Dream Deferred). It read and played the disc without issue. There was a little rotational noise (which after playing several other discs) I will attribute to a significantly enough, unbalanced DVD-R DL. Next I tried a DVD-R MDISC, a light-scribe DVD, a normal DVD+R and a normal DVD-R. No problems. Read them all. I have yet to try a re-writeable DVD. All the previous were loaded with 24/192 needledrops. The 1600NE did not care whether the files were at the root level or nested in a folder. It found them; played them ignoring text, image and other non "music" files. I then tried a CD, CD-R and CD-RW. No issues. It takes several seconds for the machine to recognize what type of disc has been loaded but it is not so long as to be annoying.

It was late and the unit has no headphone amp so my listening was done through the preamp to the master recorder which has a quite good headphone amp. The 24/192 needledrops were everything I expected them to be. Even with the AL32 Plus Processing and even though this is now probably the best CD playback I've had in house, the difference between a needledrop straight to 24/192 and one to 16/44.1 is easily detected. I am going to enjoy listening to CD's on this unit...more so the higher resolution recordings.

This is only day two, so, I have no idea how reliable this machine will be in the long run. Got an extended warranty with it and will be praying it does last because the flexibility and sound is worth it. This weekend, no cans. I will turn it loose and see how it sounds through the JBL's and/or EPI/Yamaha sub setup.

[brian2957]

I've had a couple of old Denon DVD players which I used as CD players. Both built like tanks and both sounded very good indeed. They played everything I threw at them without issue. I'm sure yours will give you long and trouble free service. Big Denon fan here. I look forward to your impressions of this player

[WOStantonCS100]

Another day's observations:

Spent almost all day yesterday listening. I started the day with CD (16/44.1) and I thought to myself, this is amazing. Its upsampling (or whatever AL32 Plus does) is actually viable. I have a Marantz VC-6001 which can be set to upsample CD to 88.2 or 176.4. I find it very lackluster and maybe typical of some other upsampling schemes of the time (focusing on sample rate but ignoring bit rate (dynamic expansion?? I'm no expert)). You get this sheen'd, glossed over, overly smooth top end. Analog records/tapes (the good ones) don't sound like that. It's not enjoyable to me. Less harshness but all the peaks, dynamics and insight seem to have been sanded down and rounded off. Not so with this unit. The 1600NE doesn't appear to do that. It just seems to do what it says and fleshes things out more. Bravo!

I have The Byrds - The Complete Columbia Album Collection CD box set. It's horrible. Absolutely, horrid. Foul stench, terrible. Hashy, brittle and insensitive to both canines and felines. Though I have tried several times I have not been able to sit and critically listen to an entire album. I've tried many times with Sweetheart of the Rodeo and Byrdmaniax. A few songs is all I can handle before "my mother calls and I have to get up and go do chores." Honestly, any excuse will do. HOWEVER...with the 1600NE I was able to sit all the way through Byrdmaniax. I actually enjoyed it. Don't get me wrong. It did not become awesome. I had no epiphany or revelation. I have no intention of tossing my vinyl of the same. But, that I could sit through an entire disc?? Kudos to Denon.

That would be the end of the story if I didn't then switch to 24/192 needle and/or tape-drops. Immediately noticeable is a soundstage that is much wider, deeper and taller and the ease that I'm so used to pouring off vinyl and tape is there. It's the same naturalness that in a good analog rig has you putting on record after record, reel after reel until you realize like I did that 4 in the morning is creeping up fast! With cans on it's like I am crawling into the recording. Are the HD Tracks this good? No idea. Does the source matter even if the resulting file is 24/192? Absolutely. But, if the 24/192 HD Tracks are straight off an analog master, transferred with care... ...I may have to get after that especially if my vinyl copy is not, at least, VG+ or better.

The Denon unit is still playing any disc I throw at it; however, when I threw a bought used, well-loved (read, it had plenty of visual scuffs/scratches) CD of Mozart Oboe Concertos (Sarah Francis, oboe, The London Mozart Players, Howard Shelley, conductor - Hyperion CDA66411) it did not skip but the rotational noise returned as if the machine was working extra hard and didn't really like doing so. There are easy remedies for that.

And yet, as good as CD playback is with this spinner, I doubt I will be letting go of my vintage spinners. It's like giving up a vintage conical Ortofon SPU just because you've got a van den Hul with a more extreme stylus profile...same as having more than one car in the garage (but only one spouse, let's not get into trouble). Happy to have it. Vintage spinners don't do higher res.

[WOStantonCS100]

The remote control

Yes. No "eject" button on the remote control.

I am grimacing on this. Considering the above, I will be using this player quite regularly if not daily which means many times, perhaps per day, pressing the eject button on the player. So, what is the duty cycle of the micro-switch? Once that gets flakey or stops working altogether, does that mean there is no option other than sending it in for a repair (most likely out of warranty)?

I could cut the usage of the Eject button roughly in half as pressing the Play button will automatically close the drawer. Nevertheless, as a fail safe, I feel like an Eject button on the remote control just makes sense; bewildering and disappointing as there is not one. Maybe, there is a universal or another Denon remote with this functionality that can be obtained. It's worth a search. If you know of one, let me know, please.

CD-TEXT and such

Nope... not on this unit (another disappointment). It's not a deal breaker, obviously; but, it would be on my list of revisions. I don't believe it will tell you the title of a data disc if you give it one. What it will tell you is the name of the file you are playing from a data disc.

DIGITAL OUTPUT

I have not tested to see if this player outputs higher res data streams (eg. 16/48, 24/96, 24/192) via it's optical and coax outputs but I intend to and will report my findings.

[hifinutt]

thanks for update . interesting in the rotational noise . nearly bought one s/h but the chap said it had some drive noise so i didnt
then new owner said it was as quiet as a mouse .

good to hear your point of view . they are pretty good value and a good alterantive to marantz [ which are deadly quiet ]

[WOStantonCS100]

So, I am barely two weeks in? I know all about burn-in but this player actually smells like insulation is burning off an internal wire. Not sure because I haven't opened it. It has one of those warranty/tamper stickers on it. Problem is it was put on badly folded over the side and bottom over a protruding screw (the screws aren't flush). Still affixed on the side, the bottom part popped off intact. (I took pictures to prove the "tamper guard" of the sticker has not been compromised; no residue left on the bottom.) And now it begins.

This unit was purchased from Accessories4less.com I also added a 5 year protection plan. I don't want a refund. I don't want store credit. I don't want a charge back on my account. I do want a unit that is not going to ignite itself. I will be contacting them on Monday. Some of you may be thinking "you get what you pay for". However, the unit was still 1K US (as opposed to 1.5K US). That's not chump change to me.

Our modern world sucks in a lot of ways. I am hoping for the best because this player is a very fine sounding machine, the finest sounding consumer disc spinner I have ever had in my system. I'm downplaying my praise because I have yet to own the likes of dCS, Metronome, EMM Labs, PS Audio and Esoteric to name a few who I assume better this player. But, can any of the aforementioned, besides PS Audio, play high-res files off a data disc??

[struth]

you can get smells like that off machines, especially new. is there any signs of smoke, or excess heat? a slight dampness of a new machine thats not been stored optimally for a while can cause that type of odour too. if in doubt alway switch it off when not present until you are sure one way or other

[WOStantonCS100]

you can get smells like that off machines, especially new. is there any signs of smoke, or excess heat? a slight dampness of a new machine thats not been stored optimally for a while can cause that type of odour too. if in doubt alway switch it off when not present until you are sure one way or other

Yes, indeed. Very late (early in the morning). Going to bed and it is unplugged. The site only sells b-stock and refurbs from what I understand so it's had a chance to go through QC twice. Tomorrow is my day to pretty much do nothing which means a lot of music. We'll see if sparks fly.

[Macca]

Another day's observations:

Spent almost all day yesterday listening. I started the day with CD (16/44.1) and I thought to myself, this is amazing. Its upsampling (or whatever AL32 Plus does) is actually viable. I have a Marantz VC-6001 which can be set to upsample CD to 88.2 or 176.4. I find it very lackluster and maybe typical of some other upsampling schemes of the time (focusing on sample rate but ignoring bit rate (dynamic expansion?? I'm no expert)). .

You can't upsample to a higher bit-rate. Sampling rate determines the highest frequency response possible, bit rate determines the highest amplitude possible. You'll struggle to find a recording that requires a bit rate higher than 16 and you would have to play it at very high levels in a very quiet room to have any chance of hearing the benefit.