Where do I start, let's just stop and reflect on so called reviews, I fooled three so called experts Audiophiles call them whatever you want, they were fooled and fooled good. I hashed together 3 systems and played the same 6 tracks picked especially for their musical content. Afterwards I asked all of them to review what they had experienced. The cost they thought would be appropriate for the relevant system, the reproduction ability, the would like to own and likely to purchase. Guess what happened? They picked a 1977 Rotel rx1603 playing through Monitor Audio silver 9s with an entry level Denon 485 cd player. Makes a lot of nonsense with reviews don't you think. The other two sytems used Linn, Tannoy, Roksan Marantz, Kef, Sony oh and Rotel. The reviewers expressed their concerns about being revealed to any other Audiophiles. So as promised it will remain a secret.

I bought this player second-hand for 15 euros (!). This is a fine budget player (even cheap when it was new ;-).

Firts the technical part: I screwed it open to take a look inside. It has a decent mid-mounted sony KSS213C transport. The transport itself is completely silent during playback. It sports a Burr Brown PCM1716E deltasigma dac (you can't see it, it's at the bottom of the board, just google). No multibit DAC unfortunately, but a nice one anyway. Is has Toslink digital out.

The sound: I compared it to the Marantz CD53, a very fine budget player from the early nineties. Compared to the Marantz, it sounds a bit more restrained and less airy, but the difference is not that big, it's still a joy to listen to. Deep, (albeit somewhat sluggish) bass, enough detail to hear most things on your cd's and an overall pleasant sound that's not fatiguing during long listens. Also sounds great through headphones. Has volume control via the remote.

A fine player for people who just want to listen to their music without making a big fuss about theit audio-equipment. If you see one second hand and you're not an overly picky audiophile, buy one.

Tested on comparably priced audio equipment: Cambridge budget amp (A5), budget interconnect/speaker cable and the wonderful B&W DM560 speakers.

Sounds like a CD player. Heard one, heard 'em all.

More transport noise than is the norm in 2004

Contrary to the previous to reviews, I have to report that this player (the 485) sounds no different to any other CD player you might come across. In a side by side comparison with my Pioner PDR-609 the (A/B switched with the same cds duplicated and sync'd in both machines) the two machines are absolutely indistinguishable. The Pioneer has, at another point, proven to be identical in sound to a Marantz CD5400 OSE. I cannot recall there being any soudn quality difference to a Marantz CD7300 either, though I didn't conduct rigourous tests with that machine. It sounds like a CD player. They all do folks. The only downside to this machine is that it generates a bit of mechanical noise - nothing terrible, just more than most modern machines seem to have. As for the disc access speed, it is perfectly acceptable - The same as the CD5400 and faster than the PDR609 and the CD7300. It is also considerably less fussy about CDR/RWs than either Marantz machine.

Similar Products Used:

Philips CD162 Marantz CD5400OSE Maantz CD7300 Pioneer PDR609

Good display,looks solid but far from it.

Bad soundstage, muffled highs and exaggerated mids,Strains to read tracks.

A review for the DCD 485, not the 435.A very basic upgrade from DCD435 to read CDR's.This is a less than average player. Midrange is muddled and too forward, and sounds weird the more you open it up.The delta sigma DAC(in the tech specs) is a total sales trick. The cdp takes a long time just to read tracks, and sounds like its screaming for help. There are a lot of good entry level players that would take this player and leave it in the dust- nad 521i, marantz d4000,Rotel RCC 935.I strongly advise sound enthuhusiasts to stay away.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel RCC 935 Marantz cd4000 Marantz cd5000 Nad 521i Nad 350 amp Jamo X870 speakers

The cardboard box it came in

Everything you can imagine

My nad 521 was giving skipping problems so i needed a new cdp.This is actually a review for the Denon DCD 485.What a waste even for an entry level player.Sound was totally flat and no improvement on burning in.Fortunately the dealer exchanged it with a marantz cd4000-major improvement.

Similar Products Used:

Nad 521 cdp nad 370 amp