Denon DCD A110 SACD Player

[maximus]

Has any one heard it? Supposedly a very good spinner, as good as a Marantz SA10.1, but at half the price. 

 

 

[mattd2308]

https://www.hifinews.com/content/denon-dcd-a110pma-a110-sacd-playeramplifier

 

Got a pretty good review here

[betty boop]

was a special anniversary player and a hotted up version of one of their players  

 

denon have always made nice disc spinners, usually their take on marantz one.... and macintosh for some years rebadged them too...

 

not sure id say its a sa10 at half the price ...

 

this is denon under hood,

 

 

will see marantz is quite differnt under hood  

if looking for a cheaper SA10 the marantz KI ruby SACD player is worth seeking out ... thats 

 

thats closer to the SA10 basically without the XLR/balanced output ... 

a gold one came up in the last month and was a bargain

 

 

on other hand if like the denon get it .. its a very swish piece  

[maximus]

Thanks for the detailed pics Al, the two Marantz's seem better built component wise, didn't realise the Denon used switching power supplies, maybe to keep costs down.

That aside and when time prevails, might just bring down some Sacd's and better cd recordings and have a listen.

[betty boop]

1 minute ago, maximus said:

Thanks for the detailed pics Al, the two Marantz's seem better built component wise, didn't realise the Denon used switching power supplies, maybe to keep costs down.

That aside and when time prevails, might just bring down some Sacd's and better cd recordings and have a listen.

 

theres stores will sell both eg carlton audio visual so can make mind up  personally i really like the richness of the marantz players . i have ruby player myself and its a lovely rich sound with a touch of warmth. the denons tend to be far leaner but that also might just be the preference and depending how matches up with the system ...

[Godot]

On 12/2/2024 at 9:18 PM, maximus said:

Has any one heard it? Supposedly a very good spinner, as good as a Marantz SA10.1, but at half the price. 

 

 

I haven’t, but I do have the Denon DCD-2500NE. I have had it for a few years now and really enjoy it. I haven’t heard the Marantz units, but did compare the Denon with a McIntosh player that cost about double the price, the Denon was easily my preference. I’m saying that as a McIntosh pre and power amp owner who would have loved to have had the McIntosh in the system for matchy matchy aesthetics, but the Denon simply sounded much better to me. 

My pre and power amps are both valve units, but I wouldn’t say they have a “tubey” sound, but the Denon does sound good with them. 
 

[betty boop]

1 minute ago, Godot said:

I haven’t, but I do have the Denon DCD-2500NE. I have had it for a few years now and really enjoy it. I haven’t heard the Marantz units, but did compare the Denon with a McIntosh player that cost about double the price, the Denon was easily my preference. I’m saying that as a McIntosh pre and power amp owner who would have loved to have had the McIntosh in the system for matchy matchy aesthetics, but the Denon simply sounded much better to me. 

While the a110 does have some choice bits on The 2500ne. I’d suspect the 2500ne would make more compelling value given it’s basically the same player without the gun metal finish and some cap upgrades and such 

[Bass13]

Sounds like an interesting player the "Denon", I do like, the SQ of the Marantz SA10 

 

[maximus]

Well, I sold my streamer and all its ancillary equipment a couple of weeks ago and purchased a 3-4 month old Denon DCD-A110 from Mcleans Audio.  Absolutely no regrets whatsoever.

This is one magnificent player, much more refined and grown up than my previous Marantz Ruby KI. In fact I prefer it to the costlier Marantz SA10.

It's very robust and energetic when it wants to be, but superbly nuanced and subtle when called for, in fact I cant find a frequency where it can be questioned. The timbre is spot on to my ears, midrange fleshed out wonderfully, top end with out being harsh or grainy, it's nothing like the Denon players of old, if it was, I would've sent it back.

 

I've already forked out $300-$400 on new SACD's and a couple of cd's, this is roughly the cost of a HI-RES QOBUZ and ROON account for a year, but there's no comparison, absolutely not.

I'm so infatuated with what I'm hearing, I can't wait to get home and start playing disks, it truly is a delight.

The only reason this player goes under the radar is due to the fact it lacks all the Digital ins and outs, so you can't use it as a DAC, not to mention balanced inputs.

It's made my system sound extraordinarily good and its not silly money, I'm confident it'd work in HI END setups.

 

Frank. 

Edited April 5, 2024 by maximus

[Guest]

An interesting journey Frank.  You were singing praises about the modified Lumin T2 and now moving  to the Denon A110.  For completeness, what is the rest of your music chain?

 

And how does the A110 perform as a CD player compared with the T2?

[maximus]

3 hours ago, Snoopy8 said:

An interesting journey Frank.  You were singing praises about the modified Lumin T2 and now moving  to the Denon A110.  For completeness, what is the rest of your music chain?

 

And how does the A110 perform as a CD player compared with the T2?

Yes, the T2 is a very good streamer, I had it for almost 3 years, but I seriously think the Denon might be very close to HI End. I picked it up delivered for under 3k, I've always had SACD and ECM recordings at hand, so I thought I'd give it a go, and here I am. 

Hard to believe how good this player is. I've heard streamers just recently up to 20k, in all honesty, I prefer the Denon. It has sense of realism (musical integrity) that streamers don't have.  

 

I've picked up some gorgeous sounding SACD's, music has a certain rightness to it now.

My system is fairly revealing, once you feed it a quality recording you are seriously rewarded.

I't sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm just happy.

 

Denon DCD-A110

Densen B-250 + DNRG Power supply

Bryston 4B3 Power amp

PMC Twenty5.24i

 

Acrolink power cable rhodium plugs.

Benchmark Power cables Rhodium plugs.

 

Tarslabs Caprice ii speaker cables

Tellerium Q ultra black interconnects

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[betty boop]

I am not suprised to hear maximus , I have had similar with my marantz ki ruby and just not been listening to streaming much since plugging the marantz in my system…

 

my streaming is only a lowly blue sound node and a kora valve dac doing a lot of heavy lifting …and I will, still at some stage look at some streamer upgrades … but enjoying the discs far too much for now 

[maximus]

You'll have to open your wallet up AL.  If you don't care for convenience, don't bother, keepl listening to disks.

[betty boop]

8 hours ago, maximus said:

You'll have to open your wallet up AL.  If you don't care for convenience, don't bother, keepl listening to disks.

Definitely seems. the case maximus …good streaming can get worse than vinyl …. Or leave what have for convenience and just keep listening to discs ….

 

anyways for your self great have found a solution that seems to have hit the spot, it’s always great to stumble upon that point

[JkSpinner]

Hi maximum, might sound like a dumb question, but are you referring to the Denon as a streamer or as a CD player,

streamer - streaming Tidal, or streaming FLAC (or similar) from internal sources

[maximus]

@JkSpinnerSACD/CD Player.