Scored DCD-1500

8 days ago by DickHertz to c/music

Scored a Denon DCD-1500 straight out of 1986. From what I could find these originally sold for about $700 in '86 money. Sounds warm, fantastic. Now to go dig the rest of my CD's out of the basement.

9point6 11 points 7 days ago

I'm no connoisseur, but I love me some AV gear with a VFD display

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DickHertz 7 points 7 days ago

It does have a certain kind of glow, doesn't it?

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bridgeenjoyer 6 points 7 days ago

Oo v nice, digital output? You could use a much better DAC now and get far better sound than an 80s DAC.

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DickHertz 7 points 7 days ago

No... Its got dual Burr-Brown DACs with variable and fixed outputs. I wish it had digital output but for $50 i'm not complaining. Sounds good on my little Edifier R1280T speakers, works for now. 😅

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nightwatch_admin 4 points 7 days ago

I don’t think 1986 had digital outputs on consumer, probably not even on professional devices.

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DickHertz 5 points 7 days ago

I had to look it up. It wasn't till the Denon DCD-1500 II that they added the coax output.

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DickHertz 4 points 7 days ago

Denon DCD-1500AE (2005) for a Toslink optical jack.

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bridgeenjoyer 3 points 7 days ago

Doh shit nice

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daggermoon 4 points 7 days ago

Toslink was a rarity back then. Related, I have a CD changer from 2001 I think. I connected it to my modern DAC and it sounded worse than the analog output. I still don't know why to this day. Shouldn't it always be better?

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bridgeenjoyer 1 point 7 days ago

Nah not always ! Look at the ps1 DAC. Highly regarded as sounding great on CDs despite being "old".

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daggermoon 2 points 7 days ago

I just wouldn't expect my Denon HDCD CD changer to sound better than my Topping E50. I'm thinking it's the coax output that's the problem.

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blackbeans 3 points 7 days ago

No need to have this for most setups unless you are an enthusiast. Any A-brand CD player built after ~1985 has oversampling and 16-bit DACs. Sure modern DACs are better, but the audible difference is rather insignificant until used in a setup with high end speakers or headphones.

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bridgeenjoyer 2 points 7 days ago

The JVC I just got has a 1 bit dac apparebtly. I can't really tell it apart from my Sony

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blackbeans 2 points 6 days ago

1 bit audio dacs use a different architecture (delta/sigma) which had some benefits in the late '80s and in the '90s (lower cost and very linear frequency response). They are fine if implemented well

The only dacs that suck are the cost optimized dacs in bottom of the barrel cd players and portables.

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bridgeenjoyer 1 point 6 days ago

Interesting

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ieightpi 6 points 7 days ago

I love that CDs are making a resurgence like vinyl did last decade. In the past couple of years, I've been buying more and more new albums on CD again. It's cheaper and (let's be real) sound better than vinyl. Still buy LPs periodically when they don't cost an arm and a leg or when they aren't pressed as a damn double LP. Who honestly wants to flip a 40 minute album 3 fucking times?

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autriyo 1 point 7 days ago

Or four times for a 51 min album... But I really wanted demon days for the cover art. Its very annoying to have to get up every 12-15 mins though and I'm super mad that they had to press all four sides.

edit: I'm too tired, you only need to flip it three times too. Technically only twice, but taking out the discs is more hassle than flipping them, so it def. Feels like four times.

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lemming741 1 point 6 days ago

I have 10 or 12 four-sided albums, but only a single three Sider

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ieightpi 1 point 7 days ago

Nah it's all good. I'm glad I'm not alone with the vinyl complaints

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nightwatch_admin 6 points 7 days ago

That’s perfect!

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daggermoon 4 points 7 days ago

Beautiful machine. I have a Sony from around the same time. Unfortunately, it doesn't work properly.

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johnwicksdog 2 points 6 days ago

Congrats. I scored a denon pma 360 for $40 from eBay before they exploded in popularity. I’ve explored replacing it with something more recent, but I just love the warm denon sound too much to let go of it.

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DickHertz 1 point 6 days ago

I need to find a cassette deck next. 🤣

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K1ame 2 points 7 days ago

That's a nice cd player! I have a Denon DRA-335R amp and it's just fantastic. Keep the old physical media stuff alive!

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ace_garp 2 points 7 days ago

Very nice pickup.