[jaghouse]

Picked up a "refurbished" Denon DCM-370 for $113 at ubid to use as a source in second setup. I did a quick comparison with my nOrh CD-1.

The Denon has good tone and does not add any extra harshness to CDs. It has a laid-back top end that makes it easy to listen to without fatigue.

What the nOrh does better is most obvious in complex, loud passages. It is able to reproduce the layers of sound clearly and with definition. The Denon tends to loose some info., blurred, when things get complex. The nOrh drops piano notes like water whereas the Denon is slightly hard. The nOrh has crazy air and clearity with cymbals. No rolling off the highs on this tube player! Cymbals tend to die a little early with the Denon. The nOrh has such liquidity and zero noise that it draws you into the music. It also seems to be faster, dynamic swings are precise.

But the Denon is not bad for $100. A keeper for sure.

 

[dngl]

That's amazing that the Denon can even compare to the nOrh.

 

[dhwilkin]

That's an interesting comparison. Out of curiosity, is the Norh using the stock tubes? And how's the soundstaging between the two?

 

[jaghouse]

The tubes in the Norh are stock.
By soundstage do you mean the placement of musicians and the players ability to locate them in a 3D space?

 

[dhwilkin]

Well, I really mean soundstaging (width/depth/height of overall sound) and imaging (ability to specifically place sounds and tell relative locations to each other).

 

[Tim D]

I like my Denon/DIO combo because I can swap between two different sounding outputs. The Denon is much like how everyone has described before...pretty laid back, musical for the buck, and not big on details or handling complex passages. The D/IO is another thing alltogether and it is fun to be able to swap between both depending on the recording or equipment.

 

[jaghouse]

Soundstage/Imaging seem close. I get big differences when I tube roll the EL84s on the Cyber-20. But dont get these differences in soundstage between the 2 cd players.