Fabulous sound quality.

The audio cables supplied in the box should be better. The headphone amplifier is not terrible, but it doesn't do justice to the sound of the player.

Excellent for $400, a steal at $300 or less. I've listened to all of my CDs, and the improved sound is evident except with the earliest CD recordings. My Telarc CDs and especially my Reference CDs sound better than I imagined they ever could. Yes, the DCM-370 sounds better than Harmon Kardon stuff. Two Harmon Kardon 8550 units quit working for me within the first month they were in use. But even if the HK units worked, this Denon is not only a better value, it is simply better.

Similar Products Used:

Harmon Kardon 8550 and a much older Denon player.

HDCD, remote volume control

nothing major

This is really a pretty impressive player, especially considering the price. I purchased this unit as a refurb, but it arrived like new- no scratches or scuffs. The carousel and transport seem to be functioning as they should, with no excessive noise.

The sound of this unit is phenomenal for the money. A big improvement over my old Nakamichi changer. I liked the sound of my old Nak, but it started having mechanical problems, forcing me to search for a new player. Plus I got to upgrade to HDCD. This feature really does make a difference. I mostly notice that it delivers a better sense of space and air around instruments, better microdynamics, and it picks out little details better. Paul Simon’s "You’re the One" is a good disc to demonstrate these properties, as is "Sailing to Philadelphia" by Mark Knopfler.

On non-HDCD encoded discs, the Denon still tops most other players I have heard, within a reasonable price comparison of course. Bass has more impact, and the midrange is full and rich. My old Nak was a little lighter in the bass, and tad less "lush." The Denon is also excellent at recreating the attack of percussion instruments. Overall presentation is lively, but not the least bit fatiguing. It does a good job of getting you involved in the music and is a fun player to listen to.

I do have a couple of minor quibbles- no display dimmer. The display on this thing is bright! I like being able to read it from across the room, but it’s just too much when listening late at night. Also, why do manufacturers put drawer open/close buttons on remotes? If your player is in a cabinet with a closed door and you (or your family pet) accidentally presses the button, this could be bothersome. Don’t you have to get your buttocks up and walk to the unit to change discs anyway? If anyone has a solution to this question that does not involve telekinesis, I would like to hear it! But like I said- these are minor quibbles considering the price. Oh, and speaking of price, just to clarify- that $135 I listed was a bid of $109 plus uBid’s $25 or so for s/h.

Associated equipment:
Bottlehead Corp. Foreplay preamp (www.bottlehead.com)
Cary Audio CAD-300M monoblocks (40 W/ch. push-pull class A)
Energy C-2 speakers- currently the limiting factor in my system, but they do okay for now in my medium-sized apartment.
Interconnects- all are DIY braided 30 ga. silver-coated copper
Speaker cable- Cat5 braided a la ChrisVH, full-blown version

Overall, the DCM-370 is an excellent player. I would buy it again without hesitation, and recommend it to anyone because I think it could integrate well into a variety of setups, from low-mid fi gear all the way up to some pretty serious hi-fi, with very favorable results.

Five stars for value (it’s a no-brainer!), and I’ll give it five overall due to its ability to compete with some of the more expensive gear.

Similar Products Used:

old Nak., Sony changers, and a variety of single-disc units from Sony all the way up to Accuphase, Levinson, and the like.

still sounds incredible!!!

static sensitive and build quality (read the review)

this is a followup to a previous posting from about three weeks ago.
just after i posted my first review, the player ground to a halt the next morning.
here's what happened;
i hit the open close button to open the drawer, the mechanism opened, i placed my disc in and pressed the open/close button. the drawer went about halfway in and then made a terrible grinding sound and jammed. all front panel controls became inoperative. i turned it off and back on again. at this point, the unit just displayed 'ERR'.
i had to take the unit in for service (thank goodness it was still under warranty!) after being at the shop for just over two weeks (head technician on vacation that week- figures), the repair tag said "bad solder joints- stripped mechanism". i got the player home, where it is now. it seems to be functioning fine with the exception below.
it still will not track the Metallica 'black album' CD, unless i turn the unit off, back on and then insert the disc! this disc has a very thin aluminum reflective layer,though. but my DVD player has no problem with it- and it won't read CD-R's!
ironically, the Denon WILL read the CD-R copy i made of it!
i have to downgrade my overall rating because of the mechanical uncertainty of this product.
again, i love the sound of this player, and thats what makes it so awkward to reccommend- do you take the sound over reliability, or reliability over sound?
i hope this player lasts a few more years. i can't afford to spend the kind of money on a player that has this kind of sound AND reliability- but the nest one WILL be a single disc player.
'nuff said!!

Similar Products Used:

sony DVP-S260
computer with 32X CD-rom and Turtle Beach Fiji 20 bit sound card.

Analog sound, Musical, Quality Components (Pacific Microsonics HDCD chip, Burr-Brown DAC's), Price, Imaging and Soundstage, Excellent Dynamics, Remote (logic layout)

COnsidering the wonderful sound this unit produces. . .NONE.
But, no dimmer, power button on remote, no random button on CD Player. . . TRIVIAL.

If there ever was a true bargain in audio, this is it. A truly musical performer, the Denon's sound is warm, smooth and engaging, musical and never harsh, overbright or fatiguing. I was amazed by the imaging and soundstage that the Denon produces. Close your eyes and your walls disappear and you become part of the performance.

The HDCD feature is most amazing; I purchased 6 HDCD's from Reference Recordings and they just blow you away. My CD collection sounds SO MUCH BETTER now, as well. The noise floor is dramatically lower (no noise at all) than my last CD player that all you hear is sweet music, no jitter or digital artifacts to make the music sound manufactured (digital). Also, it renders the sound so completely accurately that room bass problems and harshness will disappear if you are now using a CD Player with an inferior DAC.

In an earlier review someone said that this Denon sounds like the first time you put vinyl on your turntable. I couldn't agree more - the sound is just that good. And that this Denon can be had for $216.00 (buyitnow.com) is another asset.

By the way, this unit does sound even better after it's warmed up about an hour.

The Denon does everything a CD should do - you can jump to a specific disc, you can change 4 CD's while one is still playing, etc. etc. etc. This Player has all the features you are used to in a 5 CD carousel model.

The Denon 370 deserves 10 stars in each catagory but since 5 is the best, 5 it is. Do yourself a tremendous favor and get this unit. You not only get a great CD Player for a bargain price, your CD collection will also be brand new, because you really don't know how good your collection can sound until it plays through the Denon.

Sounds much better than it should for the price.

Drawer mechanism, inability to recognize some discs.

I bought this player in the spring of 2000. I was very pleased with it due to the excellent sound quality detailed by others despite the occasional and seemingly random problem with reading some disc on the first try. However, a month ago the tray began making a severe grinding noise and it began moving more slowly. A week ago the changer pretty much stopped working and it now refuses to recognize any disc, even brand new ones. I opened the player and it looks as if the plastic gears that rotate and extend the tray are stripped.

Although I love the sound of this player I cannot recommend it as it seems a fair number of them need to be replaced in 1-1.5 years and that is unacceptable.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Rega, Naim

Quality of sound.

No remote off switch.

One of the best sounding players I've found in its price range and up to 2X. No troubles of any kind regarding the mechanical tray. For this price, its a no-brainer.

Am playing around with the cables now...

Similar Products Used:

HK, Rotel

HDCD, Sound

Lack of some function controls on unit (eg Random play), quirky handling of CD's

Overall this is a great CD player for the price. I purchased it for 250 at a local dealer. Can be had for cheaper ($230 NetMarket), but after reading some of the reviews for other Denon CD players (disk skipping etc) I thought the extra $20 bucks would be well spent on the piece of mind of buying from a local dealer.

The sound is excellent and the HDCD discs I have really do sound better. The sound is as good or better than all the other products I heard (SONY and Harman Kardon) even near the price range. The way the machine handles CD's is a little quirky though. When I load just one or two discs the player usually indicates that more discs are loaded. This hasnt effected the playing of the discs, just the indicator panel. so, this is really not a problem, yet. Sometimes when they load it does cycle through all the discs and accurately indicates the number of discs in the player. Oh well, regardless the sound is great.

Also, the player has very limited controls on the front panel. For example, to engage Random mode you need the remote control. It cannot be selected from the front panel. Not an excuse not to buy the machine, just odd and not well thought out.

Otherwise I really am pleased with my purchase. I think its a great value for the money. It sounds very smooth and clear without any harshness. With my previous CD player I had to play with the treble and bass, with this one I leave both in the neutral position.

As to HDCD, I'm no expert but there are more HDCD recorded discs out there than I thought. Seems to be many country/folk. I'm not big on country, but I have LUcinda Williams (Dirt wheels on a gravel road), Dixie Chicks and Keb Mo and they sound like there in the room with you!

4 stars for overall due to the small problems mentioned above and 5 for value.

My system:

Nakamachi AV7 receiver
Wharfedale Valdus 500 speakers
Denon DCM 370

Similar Products Used:

None

Price, silky-smooth, warm, sound, large display

warmth at the expense of fine detail, compressed soundstage

My system:
Rotel RB-980BX amp (120 W per)
Rotel RC-972 pre-amp
B&W 601 series 2 "bookshelves" (bi-wired)
Lovan speaker stands
Homemade TNT-Audio X 1.5 IC's
(RS gold RCA's, 12 strands 30 GA silver coated copper "magnet wire" w/ Kynar insulation, 1/4" teflon tubing w/ polyfolein heat-shrink)

Homemade Chris Venhaus CAT 5 speaker cables
(Lucent teflon insulated 24 GA copper, 27 twisted pair braid per polarity for low freq's, 9 pair per polarity for high freq's)

I picked up the 370 as a replacement for the 360 a month ago because 1) the 360 had terrible disc advance. It would slow to a sluglike pace while changing discs., 2) Highs seemed annoyingly "bright" on some recordings resulting in ear fatigue at higher volumes. In fact I had to swap in a pair of cheap Radio Shack "Goldseries" IC's between my amp and pre-amp to tame the glare slightly.

When compared A/B style throuhg my pre-amp using the same discs, same track, the difference between the two players is night and day. Initially, I was blown away. Gone were the abrasive highs, replaced with a silky-smooth or velvet-like sound. Music throught the 370's Burr Brown's became extremely warm compared to the more analytical sound of the 360's Alpha DAC. Not to mention that that Denon cured all of the 360's mechanical shortcomings (small display, extremely sluggish tray advance).

But after extended listening I began to realize that the 370 lacked the fine detail of the 360 across the entire frequency range. Diana Krall's vocals no longer gave me goosebumps, background sounds seemed muted, and bass lacked the snap of the 360. A strange benefit/detriment is that bass drums (foot pedal) gained "thump", but lost definition. So that I could clearly feel each "thump" where I couldn't before, although it also gained a boominess. Stand up bass gained a certain "bloom" while still being able to hear the strings being plucked. At the same time, the overall sound lost it's "spaciouness" and "air". The soundstage receded much further back, sounding removed and distant in comparison to the 360..

This isn't to say the 370 doesn't sound great, obviously the overwhelming high rating it gets from users on the site attests to it's merits. The point is that it's sound is completely different and bears no resemblance to it's immediate predecessor. It's just a simple matter of the warmth and bloom of the 370's Burr Brown DAC's versus the crisp, analytical, more forward and engaging sound of the 360's Alpha DAC. Personally, I prefer the 360's detail and greater soundstage to the 370's warmth, although I can easily see why everyone has fallen in love with it.

If only Denon could merge the two for a beautiful warmth accented by fine detail and "snap".

Similar Products Used:

Denon DCM 360

Warm, analog yet analytical sound (no detected 'digital nasties'); excellent D/A converter; best 'bang per buck' appeal; HDCD decoding DOES sound better than most other CD's!

As mentioned previously, you cannot turn the unit on/off with supplied remote, but this is minor stuff, all things considered.

What more positive things can I say that were not previously mentioned here? None, really. This player shines in every respect.

In short, I was looking for an affordable, well-built, carousel type CD source unit with 'high-end' sound that could 'hold its own' against CD players costing several times this unit. A very tall order, but in short, I feel strongly that I have succeeded. I listened to several of the above mentioned marques extensively and carefully, and walked away honestly feeling that the DCM-370 sounded just as good as the more expensive others for the most part! This was truly a shocking revelation to me, being that the Denon can be had for under $300! As a single-mom, working jazz vocalist with 2 kids and an aging mom to support, I needed to assemble a great sounding system with as little spent as possible. Your reviews prompted me to seek out the 370, and I have no regrets whatsoever. HDCD does make an audible difference, considering how badly recorded and mastered many 'conventional' CD's are, and this player's D/A converter is apparently so good that you can go with direct, analog connections, as many previous posts suggested. Denon has done us budget-conscious audiophiles well!!!

My audio rack contains:

Denon DCM-370
AE-3 Tube Preamp (I built from a kit)
AudioSource Amp Three
Magnepan MMG speakers
Straightwire Chorus interconnects
AudioQuest CV-4 speaker cabling

Total cost of 'high-end' system: $1710
My maximum budget was $2000.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel, HK, Adcom, Arcam.

HDCD Decoding

Can't turn off power via remote

Excellent sound. I _was_ using this CD simply as transport to my Denon AVR3300. What a mistake. After reading the reviews here, I switched to the analog outputs...and the sound is amazingly warm thanks to the onboard DAC. Excellent player.