neutral,accurate,and faithful sound reproduction(extremely low harmonic and IM distortion;better than 0.0018% ,20hz-20k
hz@0dB,a 1khz distortion spectrum displaying a test tone at 0dB driving a 600ohm load shows that nearly all spuriae are at or below the noise level,the 20 3d plots of sweep frequency Vs output frequency Vs level of both undithered and dithered full range tones from 0dB all the way down to -90dB show no significant requantitation noise or any consequential harmonic products, most of which are presumably obscured by the already very low noise floor,nor were there any stopband images or any other digital artifacts that are high enough in level or wide enough in frequency to cause audible consequences;a 19+20 khz I.M graph reveals that the only significant harmonic products present are at or below -95dB,these being the 1khz difference product and two inconsequential sidebands around the two test tones.S/n ratio of 118dB,A-weighted.Channel separation of greater than 110dB throughout most of the frequency range. It's absolute jitter is measured at 250ps when driven by its own transport;however,when driven by the excellent Denon DP-S1 reference transport,its jitter performance is measured at 135ps,with most of the jitter components being benign in nature, and the absolute noise is low.A pure transient signal that has not been processed through the decimation and anti-aliasing filter shows up on the graph with nere a ringing to be seen;thus,theoretically,the DAC circuitry is able to pass a 1khz squarewave with minimum overshoot and negligible ripple, though that all PCM data in one way or the other pass through some process of decimation and anti-aliasing makes this very critical performance attribute rather moot;however,even with a PCM encoded impulse blip, the impuse graph appears to be cleanner than usual,having a tad less ringing along the X-time axis.And much to my surprise, when fed a transient impulse signal, the response at 20khz does not drop as much as that of a few other designs such as Wadia CD plyers which use a transient optimized filter similar to the IIR filter used in the Museatex Bidat DAC converter--both of these filters cause a drop of 3dB at 20khz when passing a transient signal,the Wadia being the inferior of the two simliar design approaches since the Bidat does not compromise steady state frequency response. But the Denon Alpha 24 Processing seems to do a better job in handling transient signal than both while maintaing a flat steady state frequency response much alike that of the Bidat,but it does not impair the transient frequency response as much as either of the two aforementioned design approaches.

I can't intepret from the thorough and comprehensive measurments any performance deficiencies that would make this player,when used as a DAC linked to a reference class transport, inferior to any other current state of the art 16-bit PCM DAC circuitries.

If any piece of sound reproducing equipment is subjected to a complete set of measurments that establish sufficient and necessary conditions for faithful and linear reproduction of a musical signal, and provided these measurments are valid and intepreted correctly with their relevance to an acoustic wave, then this set of measurments will be able to tell whether a component can reproduce music as it is. And most importantly, it comes to a threshold where one can not perceive qualitative differences between any two components
that have different but low enough non-linearities and noise that would nullify any statistically significant audible differences.If it is not scientifically provable,then it may or may not exist;however, if it is scientifically explainable,then it follows that whatever phenomenon is put to test must exist, at least to our current understanding of all things around us. The bottom line? The Denon DVD-5000 DAC is as good as any other 16-bit DACs at this time. CAVEAT EMPTOR.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DA-S1,Museatex super Bidat,Wadia 850,Goldmund Mimesis 39,Phillips CD-80,CAL ICON II,Sony 707ESD,Sony XA7ES, Sony SCD-1,

I've owned my DVD-5000 for a few weeks now. At this point, I am very pleased. It has excellent picture quality and sound quality compared to other units I've used, and is a *very* sturdy unit. (Weighing around 40 pounds!) It has composite, s-video, and component video outputs. As far as audio, it's got the requisite digital outs, as well as stereo analog outs. (Keep in mind that this unit does not have an AC3 decoder built-in; so, of course, you'll need an out-board decoder of some sort.)
Another nice feature is the digital input. (coax and optical) This allows you to use the DVD-5000's very nice DACs with some other digital source. (I use the optical outs on my Yamaha cd player to connect to the Denon's optical input, allowing me to use Denon's DAC rather than the Yamaha's.)

About the "click" noise:
Like others have said in other reviews about this unit, it does indeed make a "click" sound when doing certain functions. When you hit stop, play, rewind/fast-forward, and so forth, there is a single small click inside the unit. However, this clicking is a very small sound, and contrary to what others might say, it is not a big deal at all. The unit does *not* make this clicking constantly, like some might have suggested. While simply watching a movie or listening to a cd, there is no clicking. There is only a single, small click internally when you hit a button, and that is all. I'm personally amazed that anybody even mentioned it.

There is no other mechanical noise to speak of. I have read in a couple other reviews that the motor which spins the disc is loud, but I have found this to be untrue. I have put in a DVD and hit play, and put my head right next to the player, and the motor noise is negligable.

Another review on this web site mentioned excessive heat after watching a DVD. I have not yet personally experienced this. My player is always cool to the touch, and the discs are only occasionally warm when I remove them, but nothing more.

Overall, I can highly recommend this player to anyone. The only *real* draw-back is that it is definitely a very expensive player (listing for over $2000). But, it can sometimes be found for cheaper. (I found mine for $1600.) I would highly recommend visiting your nearest high-end audio/video shop and getting a demonstration. You can then see for yourself what a wonderful piece of equipment this is, as well as disspelling any worries you might have about the (non-existant) clicking issue.

Actually I do hear the clicking noise, but only when the player is on top of my head when watching a movie. Gimme a break. How much credibility can someone have when they can't even leave their name and e-mail address?
In all seriousness, this is a great machine. I just wanted to respond on the so called "audio-enthusiast's" comment. I couldn't be happier and I've had it for almost a year now. No glitches to speak of when playing movies as other players have had. My only complaint is that you cannot turn off the display on the player(an option I couldn't understand why DENON forgot).

Construction, THX-Ultra Certification, Denon name

Cost, Slow Read Times, NO TIME FUNCTIONS (i.e. remaining time on disc, remaining time in chapter...)

Just One Question: Do you mean to tell me that I spent $2500 on a DVD player and it can't even tell me how much time is left in the movie? If I'm grossly mistaken here, please contact me by all means.

Otherwise...great sound and even better picture (especially with the S-video). It will look even more beautiful (as well as perform better) when sitting next to my new AVR-5800...what a killer combo!

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVD-7000