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Excellent product with a nasty bug
Pros
Excellent picture quality, very good sound quality, good price
Cons
Noisy transport
Recommended it?
No
Prior reviews sum up the good features of this player very well.
I, too, found picture quality to be outstanding, and the unit
simple to hook up and operate. In addition, the unit I bought
had no trouble with CD-R discs, unlike Denon's older models
(e.g. DVD-3000). Reliability and quality of construction of
Denon equipment is said to be better than average.
There is a catch, though, that made me return the player after
less than a week of use. I am an audiophile with a two-channel
audio setup far surpassing the quality of most home theater
equipment. I bought this player in part to replace my aging
16/44.1 CD transport. I found it inadequate for this purpose
for four reasons, in order of increasing importance:
- It can't decode DVD-Audio discs. Few people care about this.
- The volume control pot for the headphone output is so-so.
- Sound quality from the built-in DAC is good, but not quite
up to audiophile standards. In particular, the highs are
pretty ruthless, almost harsh with most music I listen to.
I imagine this won't matter to most people, as the weakest
link in you audio chain is likely to be elsewhere.
- The transport, the little motor that spins the discs, is
exceedingly noisy! It emits a high-pitched whine that gets
drowned in background noise most of the time, but if you tend
to listen to music at low levels, or watch movies while
family is asleep, it *will* drive you nuts after a few days.
This one's a killer, and ultimately what made me return the
unit. I suppose it won't matter to most people either, but
if you have silken ears beware. Note that this may vary
among units; mine was built in China in late 1999. Other
DVD transports I spent some time with (Sony, Pioneer) had
varying levels of noise coming from the motor, but none were
nearly as annoying as DVD-1500.
In summary: great product, but there's a fly in the ointment.
I, too, found picture quality to be outstanding, and the unit
simple to hook up and operate. In addition, the unit I bought
had no trouble with CD-R discs, unlike Denon's older models
(e.g. DVD-3000). Reliability and quality of construction of
Denon equipment is said to be better than average.
There is a catch, though, that made me return the player after
less than a week of use. I am an audiophile with a two-channel
audio setup far surpassing the quality of most home theater
equipment. I bought this player in part to replace my aging
16/44.1 CD transport. I found it inadequate for this purpose
for four reasons, in order of increasing importance:
- It can't decode DVD-Audio discs. Few people care about this.
- The volume control pot for the headphone output is so-so.
- Sound quality from the built-in DAC is good, but not quite
up to audiophile standards. In particular, the highs are
pretty ruthless, almost harsh with most music I listen to.
I imagine this won't matter to most people, as the weakest
link in you audio chain is likely to be elsewhere.
- The transport, the little motor that spins the discs, is
exceedingly noisy! It emits a high-pitched whine that gets
drowned in background noise most of the time, but if you tend
to listen to music at low levels, or watch movies while
family is asleep, it *will* drive you nuts after a few days.
This one's a killer, and ultimately what made me return the
unit. I suppose it won't matter to most people either, but
if you have silken ears beware. Note that this may vary
among units; mine was built in China in late 1999. Other
DVD transports I spent some time with (Sony, Pioneer) had
varying levels of noise coming from the motor, but none were
nearly as annoying as DVD-1500.
In summary: great product, but there's a fly in the ointment.
