Integrated Amplifiers

Denon's claim of an 'ongoing commitment to physical music formats' is no idle boast. Right back in the earliest days of CD, Denon was not only in the vanguard of hardware development but was also heavily involved in digital recording technology and supporting software with its (largely) classical-based silver disc repertoire. Its first CD player, the DCD-2000, was based on Hitachi's much-cloned DA-1000 [HFN Sep '16] and was swiftly followed up by the in-house, draw-loading DCD-1800 which also saw the introduction of its nascent 'Super Linear Converter'. The marque was first in line with a universal CD/SACD/DVD-A player, the DVD-2900 [HFN Sep '04], subsequently boosted with multichannel 192kHz/24-bit DACs, beefier power supplies and a raft of additional DSP in the champagne-gold DVD-A11 [pictured, HFN Feb '04].

Once Blu-ray had won out over HD-DVD, Denon was again in the front row with its fully-fledged BD/DVD-A/CD/SACD player, the DVD-A1UD [HFN Oct '09]. The player even included a front-mounted SD card slot (up to 8GB) for playback of LPCM, AAC, WMA and MP3 audio files plus JPEG and DivX picture/video media. This was about as 'universal' as disc/media players ever got, and with the withdrawal of OPPO from the hi-fi market – its UDP-205 [HFN Jul '17] being the last of the true heavyweight universal players – Denon is one of very few longterm specialist hi-fi brands to bring fresh CD/SACD players to market. PM