Denon DBP1610 Blu-ray/DVD/CD Player (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)One must wonder where the street price will land on these in a month or even weeks. In a competitive landscape where quality 7.1 analogues are below $300 (ie 320), lightning speed and quality upconversion are below $225 (JVC), and netflix and pandora streaming are available for $200, how a denon can justify a $500 MSRP player without a brand name chipset, mediocre speed, and only two channel out. It is a well-built, heavy player that looks awesome in a rack (not as masculine as a 2500/3800), but neither wins on performance nor wins on value.

The mid-range ($300 to $600) market segment is book-ended by the Pioneer 320 on one end and the Oppo 83 on the other. Players like the Denon 1610 struggle to stand out in regard to either performance or value, which is a dangerous proposition for the majority of us who are not brand-addicted. I know I have been probably a bit overly critical of higher branded players like the Onkyo 606 and 507 and the Harman Kardon BDP1, but I firmly believe in quality and value. This is probably why I have banged on about both the pioneer 320 and the JVC XV BP1. They put very high quality AV performance or lightning fast operation in the hands of normal folks in tough times.

The 1610 (and the 2010 for that matter) are a bit late to the party and too expensive. I would strongly recommend the 1610 were its street price just under $300 (and I suspect it will be come Halloween). The 2010 is one of the few direct competitors to the Oppo for pure BD/DVD performance. It has a better audio section, but worse video capabilities. It could be a real contender at $425-$450, but is comical at $600 or whatever they are going for.

With Denon DVD-2500BTCI's selling for under $300, I would be hard-pressed to recommend the 1610 for its current street price of $450.

With updated firmware, powered off eject time decreases from 17 seconds to 13 seconds (Same as 2010).

Dark Knight: to anti-piracy page
Denon 1610: 37
JVC: 17 seconds
Oppo: 16 seconds
Pio 320: 42 seconds
Pio 51: 45 seconds
Denon 1800: 42 seconds
Denon 2500: 48 seconds
Denon 2010: 36 seconds

Pirates of the Carribean 1: Medallion Coin / Disney Splash
Denon 1610: 41/57 seconds
JVC: 16 /27
Oppo: 21 / 31
Pio 320: 44 /1 min 13 seconds
Denon 1800: 44 /1 min 3 seconds
Denon 2500: 49 / 1 min 9 seconds
Denon 2010: 39 / 49

Synthetic Test Resutls:

Test Pio 320/ Oppo /JVC /denon 1800 /denon 2500 /denon 2010/ denon 1610
2:02 pass/ pass*/ pass/ fail/ fail /pass/ pass
2:2:2:4 fail /pass /pass /fail /fail /fail/ fail
2:3:2:3 (PF-T) Pass /pass /pass /pass* / pass / pass*/ pass*
2:3:2:3 pass /pass /pass/ pass/ pass* /pass/ pass
2:3:3:2 marg /pass /pass /fail/ fail /fail / fail
3:2:3:2:2 fail pass pass fail fail fail /fail
5:5 pass/ pass /pass /marginal /marginal /marginal / marginal
6:4 marginal /pass/ pass/ fail/ fail /marginal/ fail
8:7:8:7 marginal pass pass maginal marginal marginal /marginal
24p - Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass
Time-adjusted fail pass fail marginal fail fail fail

Video deinterlacing:
Moderate performance; excelled with scrolling text, but did have very mild jaggies on ship test.

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Product Description:
Combining superlative performance and high value, Denon's latest affordable Blu-ray/DVD/CD player includes features and technologies found on our higher end models, such as HDMI Source Direct and 12 bit video processing. Standard definition DVDs never looked better thanks to i/p scaling and upconversion up to 1080p, along with digital video noise reduction to eliminate compression artifacts. The precision drive mechanism is center-mounted, and the chassis incorporates Denon's Separated Unit Structure architecture, which separates key mechanical and electronic blocks into five separate sections to eliminate mutual interference. Equipped with an Ethernet port, the DBP-1610 features Blu-ray Profile 2.0 BD-Live web-enabled interactivity, as well as firmware upgrade capability. The latest specification HDMI output provides highest resolution Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD digital multi-channel audio compatibility, and the DBP-1610 is equipped with stereo analog outputs that feature high resolution Burr-Brown DACs for optimum audio purity. The DBP-1610 is able to handle a wide range of disc formats, including Blu-ray, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD, CD-R and CD-RW discs, and features WMA, MP3 and DivxHD playback along with Kodak and Fuji picture disc playback capability for increased system flexibility.

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Denon DVD-3800BDCI Blu-ray Disc DVD/CD Player Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I got this player a week ago and I am totally blown away, and my TV is only capable of 1080i! (I won't be able to replace my TV until next year.) Two things struck me immediately, aside from the incredible detail, which beats the 1080i broadcasts that I am getting. The first was the colors. They are just dazzling! But it isn't because they're over-saturated or anything like that. It's like I'm seeing a variety of pastels that I've never seen before from my TV. So far I've looked mainly at nature films (like the complete Planet Earth) and I seem to be seeing a wider gamut of colors than I've ever seen before from my TV. I watched a regular DVD on it and the colors are "back to normal". So it is the high definition processing of the Denon that seems to be capturing the richness of the colors.

The second thing I noticed is the quality of the sound. I've never heard such magnificent sound from my system. I thought it sounded great before (and others have remarked how wonderful my system sounds), but there is a noticeable improvement with this Denon, and that improvement is also noticeable on regular DVD's.

This unit has already ruined it for me for watching regular DVD's and 480i broadcasts, and I OWN about 250 DVDs! I used to think that regular DVD's looked pretty good, but it is in reality the difference between night and day. I don't know how I'm going to be able to tolerate regular DVDs anymore. I can't imagine that when I get 1080p next year it is going to make much of an improvement over what I currently have, but I've read that there is a noticeable difference that I'll see that has nothing to do with this particular Denon.

Then there's the manual...sigh... This is a manual seemingly written BY engineers FOR engineers. There are so many undefined acroynms and buzz words that it will make you dizzy. Better have Wikipedia handy, that's all I can say. I looked through the entire manual and could not figure out how to set it up from the default 4:3 aspect ratio at 480i to what I wanted, 16:10 aspect ratio at 1080i (the best my TV will give me). I had to call the dealer and HE had to consult with his tech department! Once he explained it, it was obvious how I'd have to change it the next time I wanted to (if ever -- since the unit automatically upsamples), and then when the excitement was beginning to wear off, I looked through the manual more carefully and saw where it was documented, in the middle of the 30 page or so manual! Something so obvious, so deeply buried, because that's how the engineers that designed this thing thought about it! God help me if there's other things I need to adjust. That's mainly why I paid full price for this thing from a local dealer so I'd be able to get phone help anytime I wanted it. At current prices you don't pay that much more for it now full price anyhow. We'll see where the prices are six months from now.

Fortunately, the above was the only adjustment I had to make. There are tons of things that can be adjusted with this unit, but one thing that appealed to me about it was reports I've read: normally you won't have to adjust anything aside from the aspect ratio and scan rate, as I had to. Default color adjustments, brightness, and contrast are just faultless.

Speaking of the manual, it warns you (relatively up-front) about setting up the 3800 in a confined place. My dealer told me (incorrectly, it turns out)that was nonsense, so I installed it inside my hi fi cabinet, which is closed at the back and has a glass door on the front. Below it was a tuner and a pre-amp, below them was one of those ancient Laser Disk players (that still works -- a Marantz), and below that a truly ancient transistor 105 watt/ch Crown power amplifier (39 years old and going as strong as ever). Anyhow, I played one disk and felt the chasis and it was so hot I could barely touch it so I immediately took it out of its confined space and placed it on an open shelf just above the TV and it has been running at a much more comfortable temperature ever since. So believe the manual! It needs plenty of ventilization. These high frequency electronic devices really burn the calories, just like those old 3 GHz PCs (before the multi-core jobs came out that run at a much cooler 2.4 GHz but still allow you to get tons of work done much faster).

Why did I spend so much for a Blu-ray player? Insanity maybe, but the build quality is far beyond the $500 units and this thing is not about to wear out or deteriorate with age. It also has superb built-in isolation from vibrations and magnetic fields. Even though it is sitting about 6" above my TV, it is completely free from visible noise that might be caused by stray magnetic fields from the TV tube (a 36" CRT Panasonic) and the picture is rock steady. I also noticed in the shop where I auditioned it that other Blu-Ray players take forever to load a disk. This takes about 15 seconds. So you get quite a bit for what you pay for. If you've got the money, spring for it. There's satisfaction in knowing that you've got something that is uncompromising in image, sound, and build quality.

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Product Description:
Experience high definition the way only Denon can deliver it. This advanced Blu-ray/DVD/CD player features the Realta sxT2 HQV processor and HDMI v1.3a for exceptional video quality and Deep Color support, and the Denon D.D.S.C.-HD circuitry for the highest level of audio decoding so you get master-quality sound with exceptional dynamic range.

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Denon DNC615 Pro Rack Mount CD Player with Digital Output Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)A review on Amazon of another CD player, the Teac CD-P1250, said that it was the only single-disc CD player on the market.Nope, there's two.Well, one and a half anyway.

The Denon DN-C615 isn't exactly consumer gear, but it isn't exactly pro gear, either.It's got rack ears and pitch adjustment, and it's set up for a wired remote and output cascading, but the outputs are unbalanced RCA plus SPDIF. It has auto cuing and audible manual cuing within a track, but doesn't allow you to save cue points. So I think "semi-pro" is a pretty good description.

It's aimed at DJs, community radio stations, and sound reinforcement applications, and it wouldn't be out of place in a small studio for applications like sampling. And, what matters to my family, it drops right in to a home stereo system, so long as your cabinet can manage the rack ears (which don't look like they're removable except with a hacksaw).

The sound (even before break-in) is typical Denon: clear and airy, with both good definition and satisfactory thump in the bass, free of noticeable spurious harmonics. The controls and displays are easy to use and understand and don't have any immediately obvious ergonomic problems or bugs. It plays CD-Rs fine, both audio CD-Rs and MP3 CDs, and it allegedly plays CD-RWs, but I probably won't find out because CD-RWs and my computers don't get along.

MP3 files sound as good on the DN-C615 as I've ever heard them. You don't need to burn a special MP3 CD: it'll take plain data CDs with MP3 files on them and even lets you navigate through folders. But if you do give it a disc that's been burned as an MP3 CD, it'll run the playlist in order, which is a big improvement over my DVD player which plays MP3 files in some strange order I have yet to figure out. And I have to admit, seeing the song titles change as it plays is positively decadent.

The price is a little higher than I'd have liked, and unless you want to build a wired remote or have your chair real close to the player, you'll need a special remote (another US$40). But I do like the player so far.

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Product Description:
The Denon DN-C615 is a professional CD player housed in a single 2RU rack-mount chassis. The successor to the popular DN-600F, it includes CD-RW playback, shock memory, instant start and CD text support. Auto Cue to music ensures there are no blank spots at the beginning of the track to be played. A user adjustable menu has also been added so the unit can be custom tailored to a particular application. Designed for use in a wide range of applications such as schools, restaurants, aerobic studios and backup systems, the DN-C615 provides solid performance when quality sound is required. For background music applications, the DN-C615 supports MP3 decoding for hours of music playback.


A professional CD player housed in a single 2RU rack-mount chassis.Click to enlarge.
Digital/analog audio outs
Compatible with the Denon RC-620 remote.
Full CD Playback
The DN-C615 plays back CDs, as well as CD-R/RWs discs. Select from several playback modes--single, continuous, random, or various repeat modes (single track/all tracks/program & random repeat).
Other playback features include Instant Start, display of CD TEXT data, and an auto cue feature that avoids those blank spots before tracks.
MP3 Playback
Access hours of music on a single disc with MP3 playback, complete with folder and title search.
Direct Track Select Buttons
Direct track access is provided through the 11-key keypad.
Program Play
Enter up to 99 tracks for programmed playback.
Pitch Control
Adjust playback speed +/- 12% with the variable pitch control.
Coaxial RCA Digital Output (SPDIF)
A digital SPDIF port is located on the back panel for connecting to digital systems along with sync and cascade connectors for use with multiple DN-C615 units.
Shock-Proof Memory
Avoid skips with approximately 10 seconds of shock-proof memory.
Analog Outputs
The DN-C615 features a front-panel headphone out and a rear-panel RCA out.
Remote Port
The external remote control port, mounted on the rear panel, is compatible with the optional Denon RC-620 wired remote control unit.
What's in the Box
Denon DNC615, User's Manual

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