I agree with most of what people have said about this. I bought my set, with the little Mission speakers, for $10 at a yard sale. Once I removed a stuck CD from one drawer, it has worked flawlessly. The purpose of my writing to anyone out there using these, is that I simply added a subwoofer to the speaker mix, and this has made an ENORMOUS difference. The sub has variable output and crossover point, so it is tuneable. It keeps the low lows away from the Missions, and now the whole set makes one superb computer speaker set-up. Better than wearing headphones.

Great industrial design. Lots of inputs and outputs. Good sound. Ability to swap out 2 CDs while one CD still playing is a very cool feature.

Lousy engineering. CD player skips and sometimes doesn't play at all, even with grown-up careful use.

I bought my Denon UD M5 in 1998 and for a year or so it was awesome. Then the CDs started to skip, not track well, and finally stopped playing altogether. It still functions fine as a 30-watt receiver with lots of components plugged in. However, if I'd wanted a component setup that's what I would have purchased. 6 months after I bought my UD M5, a friend of mine went out and bought one also. His is in even worse shape than mine, since it's got a CD jammed in it so firmly that the drawer won't open. Naturally, readers will be thinking "Who are these cavemen beating up their stereos?" That's not it: my friend and I work too hard to be smashing up our semi-pricey stereos. These units are just really fragile and poorly engineered. (Yes, we know about cleaning etc, etc.) We've tried, but it doesn't help. Both of us are in our late 30's and have each had a lot of equipment, but none of it has been as frustrating and fragile as our UD M5s have been. You can bet that neither one of us will be buying anything else from Denon.

Easy to use. Averagely good sound. Independant CD trays. All the connectix at the back allows you to use it as a good relay for the rest of your equiquement

Without the remote control too many options are inacessible... shame

I found the unit in my building's garbage room... I tried to fix it but no luck... so i got it fix for 60€. Apparently it was the power generator at the back that was damaged... I tried it with 2 Kenwood Acoustic Speakers and the sound quality is pretty good... But it lacks of customizing sound functions to be qualified as a High standard stereo... but then again i haven't got the remote control with it so it might better than i can tell.

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Pionner Diva... Pretty much the same but the Diva is GORGEOUS!!

Sounds natural. Not to bright.

Way too boxy sounding.

M5 speakers are VERY boxy and shut-in sounding. Maybe it's the lack of high end. Harmonics are good. Bass is good. Overall timber of instruments is good. But I would NOT recommend this unit. Either try the Denon with the bigger M50 speakers or else Yamaha with the bigger polished black speakers (to many model number to remember them all). Also this Yamaha plays really loud for a minisystem and I wouldn't turn volume past 10:00-11:00 o'clock without annoying people in the store. Even the Yamaha with the smaller wood speakers ($399 at Best Buys) would be better than the Denon M5.

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Yamaha give best tradeoffs. Also 90 watt Panasonic for $149 at Circuit City worth auditioning. Onkyo with the bigger (10"??)speakers my third choice (sells for about $250 with the single CDP)

Excellent sound, great appearance, overall quality design

Lack of a few functions

I had to make a compromise - I wanted excellent sound; my wife wanted something small and attractive. The DM-5 fit the bill perfectly. After listening to everything from a Wave Radio/CD to the little JVC Boxes, I found that we could agree on all points with the Denon.

I like the clean, transparent sound of the mids and highs and the smooth response across the entire audible range. My wife likes the elegant look and easy-to-use remote.

The only drawbacks are 1) no cd pause on the remote and 2) no fine control of tone or access to the preset EQ from the remote. (Of course, the sound is so good I listen to it flat anyway...)

I would highly recommend this unit to anyone wanting an uncomplicated, compact, attractive system that sounds like the good stuff!

The sound is excellent, very crisp and clear.

The speakers come in a wood case and are a joy to look at.

The remote control is shared between a few Denon models. Not all the buttons on the remote can be used with this model and some buttons (like the "pause" button) are missing.

The CD changing/loading mechanism is quite loud.

The unit is 15 inches deep, an awkward size to find room for.

I am consistently amazed by the sounds that this system produces; it can just be so vivid. I don't have much experience with audio systems, but I love the music this machine produces.

My big complaint really is about the remote control. I believe that it is ill-suited for this system. Most of the buttons are hidden behind a panel that you slide open which I find annoying. I don't see why they can't design a remote for the D-M5 instead of having a D-M3-M5-M10 remote. You end up with a remote that has too many buttons, but not enough functions; it just doesn't make sense. The one good point is that it you don't have to aim directly at the central unit in order to use the remote.

I had not considered the number of watts the amplifier put out when I was shopping around for a system. The D-M5 has 30 watts for each of its two channels. After I got my system, a friend of mine bought a JVC FS 7000 with 18 watts per channel and it just sounded underpowered. I live in a dorm and my bedroom is about 10 x 15 feet. The D-M5 more than fills my room with music. I am happy with the power of this system though I understand that it might not be right for someone with a bigger space.

Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase. Though it was a bit pricey, the sound quality has made it worth the cost. I encourage everyone to check this model out if they are looking for quality sound in a mini-system.

- Great sound
- Easily-adjusted volume control
- Adequate power to fill room
- Sleek looks

- Lound CD changer
- Awkward size (15" deep)

One day I had a revelation: I have a nice stereo and home theater system at home. Yet I spend the majority of my waking hours at work, where I have a small clock radio. I love listening to music, so I decided to resolve this problem by looking for a small system for at work.

When I was out looking for a stereo, I settled on this almost instantly. After listening to several JVC, Sony, Yamaha (and other) mini-systems, it was obvious that this was by far the best choice.

One of my primary concerns was playability at low volumes. Many systems don't offer much in the way of fine-tunability with the volume. Either the sound is off, barely audible or too loud. Of course turning it up farther doesn't give an acceptable volume level, either. :) The D-M5 has a good volume control.

The Mission speakers are great. Combined with the clean Denon amp, they make for a very nice music experience. I highly recommend this system.

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I auditioned a number of other systems before picking this one.

Excellent sound! 3 inputs.

No mute or pause button on remote, loud disk changer, no
MP3, can't rename inputs, preset graphical equalizer,
remote could be better

Bought this system new abt 3 months ago. Broke it
in gently for 40+ hours. Excellent sound and clarity
from speakers. Much better than other shelf
systems there. Plenty of power for a small living
room in townhouse.

Minuses:
- Biggest faults: No mute or pause button on remote.
This is annoying, esp when one has to answer the phone
and the stereo is on a bit loud :-)
- loud disk changer - minor fault, don't even notice it
now.
- no MP3 - also minor fault as one could hook up an MP3
player to the inputs
- can't rename inputs - this is really annoying as I am
using the system as a poor man's home theater system in
stereo and have connected to the system: a DVD player,
TV, VCR. However, the inputs read MD, AUX, Tape. Sigh.
- preset graphical equalizer has 4 or 5 settings - at
mininum, it would be nice to see a display on the LCD
of the settings (even though one uses the "ear" to
set the most "pleasing" sound output). Ideally, one
should be able to adjust gr eq settings.
- remote could be better - very tedious and layout is not
intuitive. 1st remote that I've had trouble with over
the years.

Don't get me wrong - it's an excellent system overall.
Just pointing out some of the shortcomings. Definitely
worth it at $350 (U.S.), but I wouldn't pay more than $400.

Looks, 3 CD trays, Quality

Long dimension, Poor Denon bundled speakers in Aus. Poor remote control

I've been researching mini system for almost a month and short-listed a few including at the DENON D-M5. I was expecting a lot out of this system as I had read the favourable reviews here. Unfortunately I was rather disappointed with the sound quality when I auditioned the unit myself.

It appears that every where else in the would Denon bundle this system with Mission speakers. In Aus they decided to bundle it with Denon's own brand speakers. This could be why I thought the sound not up to the standard expected.

Basically my complaints were:

Sound had too much base emphasis.
Mid range sounded 'claustrophobic'.
Hi freq's were over emphasised.

I honestly thought that the Sony unit (MD373) had better sound for AU$200 less. I really wanted it to sound better, if it had I would have purchased it then and there. I must admit that I was surprised that I thought the Sony unit sounded superior.

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JVC, Onkyo, Sharp, Sony

Build quality with excellent Mission speakers.

No mute on remote.

I needed a small high quality system for my kitchen as the wife was redoing it and wanted to eliminate JVC Receiver and JVC 5 disc changer(too bulky). She wanted small and I wanted good sound to live with. Previous system hooked up to ADC sub sattelite system so it sounded pretty good for a kitchen. I auditioned every small executive system I could find none that matched the sound quality of the Denon with the Mission speakers. I have added both a small powered sub crossing over at 75Htz and mid bass pasive sub crossing over at 130Htz to add a sold and fast bottom to the excellent imaging provided by the Missions. The sound quality is great and My Wife likes it. Thats what I call a daily double. It is not a cheap way to go but the quality of sound makes it worth every penny.

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JVC and Teac executive systems.