Network Audio Players/Servers

Tested via its fixed, single-ended output, the DNP-2000NE offers a 2.22V maximum output (re. 0dBFs) from a moderate 96ohm source impedance. The 110dB A-wtd S/N ratio is very generous just as its low-level linearity is impressively precise, with errors of just ±0.1dB over a 100dB dynamic range and ±0.4dB over a 110dB range. This 'clean' performance is testament not only to Denon's analogue stage, but also to its choice of ES9018K2M DACs, a pair employed in differential fashion per channel. All ESS DACs include proprietary jitter suppression, realised here in figures of <30psec for all sample rates. In fact the ±50Hz, ±100Hz, etc, sidebands resolved in the jitter test [see Graph 2, below] are indistinguishable from a very low level PSU modulation. At higher levels (~500psec) this type of jitter typically has a warming or fattening influence over low bass detail, but is unlikely to exert any influence here.

Distortion is also as low as might be expected from pairs of ES9018 DACs – as low as 0.00025% over the top 30dB of its range through the midrange and 0.0005% at 20kHz [see Graph 1]. A regular feature of Denon's 'digital' products is its 'Ultra AL32 processing' which, not unlike Ed Meitner's MDAT2 adaptive filter algorithm [HFN Sep '21], switches coefficients depending on whether the music is transient-rich or inherently steady-state. In the latter case its response is flat to within ±0.1dB to 20kHz but with dynamic signals a slow roll-off linear filter type bites above ~17kHz to yield –2.6dB/20kHz (all 44.1/48kHz data). With 96kHz files it reaches –4.0dB/45kHz, and with 192kHz data it rolls away to –12.3dB/90kHz. As a result, the DNP-2000NE does not behave like a 'plain vanilla' ES9018 implementation. PM