Sonic glory for the masses (rewritten 8/30/02)

Without much doubt, the Denon DCD-1650AR is truly a wondrous machine. With a list price of $1000, this CD player will simply astound any who listen to it. It embodies the classic Denon sonic characteristics: fluid, clear, precise sound without a hint of harshness, with imaging and depth that rarely gets any better. I've listened to CD players which one could argue that sound better than this Denon, but none of these other machines come close to this one's price point.

When I bought this player several years ago, I was in the market for an replacement upgrade from my last Denon, the DCD-1520. It's a solid performing device, with a sweet sonic aura itself, but the old player was showing signs of mechanical problems in the drawer assembly, where it would often be quite reluctant to release the disc it held in its tray (i.e., it enjoyed being stuck in the closed position). I could've easily sent the thing into the shop, but since it's a remnant of the late '80s, I thought it might be time for some new gear in the hi-fi stack. And I thought it would be a nice excuse to buy a Christmas gift for myself (sorry family, but the annual dose of sweaters and jeans and polo shirts just doesn’t satisfy this gearhead).

I decided early on that I wasn’t going to barge over the $1000 for the new player. Given the price point, I didn't seriously consider any other brand, since in my opinion there aren’t many viable choices given my budgetary constraint. Down at my favorite A/V toy store, I patiently listened to the spiel over the comparably priced single-disc player from Sony ES, and even auditioned the player. While it didn’t chase me away right off, I didn’t hear a sound that impelled me to whip out the plastic right away. The biggest novelty of the Sony was that it used a hefty spindle weight placed on the CD during playback. It was machined from a billet of brushed aluminum or bronze or titanium or some such nonsense, and it was as if Sony was trying to recapture some sort of misplaced nostalgia from the days of 12” LPs and Linn turntables.

Pass.

For kicks, I also auditioned another player, which also had a gimmick of its own associated with it, where the transport section was separate from the power and D/A converter electronics. Why this so-called ‘audiophile feature’ is considered important is really beyond me. I suppose it allows for the mixing and matching of transports and processing electronics, but that’s just a lot of unnecessary mash thrown into the mix in my opinion. I believe this particular player was a Meridian if I recall correctly; I’m aware they aren’t the only ones to create CD players that are selectable components within components (even Denon makes such a system, though officially it's not for North American consumption). It makes very little sense to me that you’d need to want the flexibility of separating the transport from the rest of the electronics; if the D/A converters sound great they’re probably well made, and I doubt a serious manufacturer would now skimp on the construction of the transport if they’ve already come this far. But I have to say I remember that I was quite impressed by its sound at the time. Yet alas, it was significantly over the $1000 threshold and dutifully was out of the running.

Another Pass.

When I turned my attention to the Denon demonstrator, I found myself attracted to the machine straight away. It was a big chassis, much like my old 1520, and noticeably devoid of the endless pimples of buttons that so many CD player behold. Its clean front panel reminded me of the industrial designs of Phase Linear components, or Bob Carver’s later equipment under his own name, only that the Denon was in black. Even the rounded corners of the metal face only served to accentuate the effect. It was the polar opposite to the 1520’s cluttered front panel. But then when the unit is switched on…then I knew it’s a Denon. The classic bluish hue of the LED characters came to life, organized in the manner that all Denon CD players before and since seem to always emulate. Excluding any applied decals of text, in all there are only eleven objects that muss up the clean brushed aluminum finish of the 1650AR’s faceplate; twelve if you count the raised lettering of the Denon logo. There’s the big power switch, off on it’s own on the left side of the panel. Centered in the middle is the low-profile, single-disc drawer. Directly below and on the same centerline is the LED display window. Immediately to the left of the window is a small round button that turns the LED display from normal, minimal, to completely off. On the right of and aligned with the drawer are four big buttons controlling Play, Stop, Skip Back and Skip Forward. On the right of the LED window is larger round button for the drawer open/close control. Move further to the right and you’ll find the 1/4” headphone jack. Further still to the right is the output level control knob for the jack.

That’s it. That’s all there is to the front of this machine. It’s a lesson in classic audiophile minimalism, where only the most important functions are found on the front. The pessimist would probably say that it’s an classic lesson in remote control decontent engineering, where as many functions as possible are removed to the remote. But the 1650AR goal is as a pure listening device, where there’s only one disc to concentrate on; all those nonsensical functions like random play or track programming aren’t needed to clutter up a machine’s face whose purpose is to serious listen to a CD in the manner that its creators intended, in the order that they laid each track as they envisioned. Of course, for those who don’t care for such lofty idealisms, there’s always the remote.

Sonically, the 1650AR stood apart from the earlier Sony, and held its own to the Meridian. No question that for the money, this was the player for me. Terms like lush and entrancing roll easily off your lips when listening to this machine. It has the power to cause the cliché chills down one’s spine. Sonically, this two-channel monster truly has no peers in its price range. Even players equipped to handle HDCD discs have a tough time going against this machine; it’s that smooth and this good. My Denon CDR-W1500 CD burner uses HDCD decoding and has 24-bit D/A converters (the 1650AR uses 20-bit circuitry), but the 1650AR still puts it to shame. I suppose all the additional extras in the 1650AR is really the difference (separate power supplies for digital and audio circuitry, quad D/A converters, advanced tray isolation, etc., etc.), but regardless of all the electro-babble wizardry, the 1650AR simply sounds delicious.

Happy Christmas to me…

The DCD-1650AR, however stupendous it sounds, is not without its faults. The first flaw has to be with the remote control. Cheap is too lofty a word to describe this widget. Another lasting Denon character flaw is the maximum 20-track display that their processors can handle. Put in a disc with more that 20 selections (happens a lot with CDs of early baroque music); when the player hits track 21, the display goes to sleep, whether you want it to or not. You can count up the time for this track (and all others above track 20), but not down. If you do program in a playlist, the processor again can only handle 20 tracks, and if the disc you’re using has more than that and you program any of those last songs in, the 1650AR will have problems displaying those programmed selections as well (but the audio playback itself is its usual superb self).
The Denon comes with both optical and coaxial outputs in addition to the standard analog RCA jacks. It has a variety of functions from auto spacing to peak level signal search to auto fade controls, as wells as the standard random play and programmable playback. All are accessed only from the remote; while I truly appreciate the simplicity of the front panel, over the years I’ve often cursed the lack of some of these controls on the player itself.

There’s also another downfall to this machine: the single-disc design. The 1650AR sacrifices convenience for the purism of engineering for premium playback, focused on one lone CD at a time. While I approve of the approach in general, I also tend to miss the convenience factor as well. I’ll forego use of the 1650AR when company’s over, instead opting for my Nakamichi multi-disc MusicBank player. Frankly, it would be more fun to show off the Denon’s prowess, but I also don’t want to be manually changing discs every so often when I should be doing other more important things.

There’s also drawback of not having all the latest advancements in the CD format included on the 1650AR as well; the Denon has been around for some time, and newer technologies like HDCD aren’t included with this player. Other features that some may appreciate, like text displaying off CDs, is also non-existent, though this is something I know I won’t miss.

The DCD-1650AR can be purchased online from various parties for significantly less than the $999 typically asked for by an authorized Denon dealer, but the catch is that the factory warranty is null and void, and managing repairs can be a hassle when the need arises. Denons do break on occasional; my 1520 did…that’s the reason why I bought the 1650AR. Plus, CD players could really use a tuneup every so often if only to verify that the unit's still in spec. Unless you buy an non-factory warranty that's honored and accepted by local electronic repair shops, it's not worth the hassle and expense of having to save the packing material to ship the thing back to the e-seller (assuming they're still around and doing business if the need arises) or their authorized repair shop, and then back out to you when the works done, assuming (once again) that the work was done right. The price of having to buy the non-factory warranty and the shipping back and forth of the player will probably eat up most of your initial savings. Moreover, unlike most factory warranties, outside warranties have been known for what they DON’T cover rather than what they do. There are indeed advantages to buying from the authorized outlet, even if the upfront costs are a little higher.

How an e-tailer hundreds or even thousands of miles away handles this has always been hazy to me, especially when there's no factory backup to rely on; to me, paying for the piece of mind by buying through a trusted local authorized brick and mortar dealer is worth the ouch to the wallet. I've been forced to use service warrantees in the past, and have saved plenty on shop fee dollars as a result. For a machine that's north of $600 even through grey-market dealers, it's definitely not a throwaway for everyday folk; having to deal w/ a cross-country seller for service and repairs may make you WISH it was, however.

Conclusions

Well, the Denon DCD-1650AR is a joy to listen to, especially through the Levinsons and the Martin-Logans. I re-titled this review as a player for the masses; granted even $1000 is a lot for a single-disc, stereo CD player these days but if you truly appreciate fine listening and have the means to afford it, this player will not disappoint you. I have no problem giving this one a strong RECOMMENDED rating, even if it did take me a re-write to finally spell it out clearly.